Paper Digest

Given an arXiv ID or URL, fetch the paper, spawn sub-agents to read its key citations, and write an executive summary under.

Security Scan

The skill's requested actions (fetch arXiv HTML, choose up to 5 citations, spawn sub-agents to fetch those citations, and write markdown summaries into a workspace) match its name and description and do not request unrelated credentials or installs.

Purpose & Capability

Name/description (fetch a paper, read key citations, produce an executive summary) align with the instructions: web.fetch of arXiv pages, citation extraction, spawning sub-agents to fetch citation pages, and writing markdown summaries. The skill does not request unrelated binaries, credentials, or config paths.

Instruction Scope

Runtime instructions are specific and limited to fetching arXiv pages, extracting up to five citations, and writing summaries. The SKILL.md explicitly restricts citation selection and mandates citation-resolution behavior. The instructions do access and write files under ~/.openclaw/workspace/, which is consistent with producing persistent summaries for the stated purpose.

Install Mechanism

No install spec or code files are present (instruction-only skill), so nothing is written to disk by an installer and no external code is fetched beyond runtime web requests to arXiv.org.

Credentials

The skill declares no required environment variables, credentials, or config paths. The actions described (HTTP fetches to arXiv and reading/writing workspace files) are proportionate to the stated task.

Persistence & Privilege

The skill writes persistent files into ~/.openclaw/workspace/papers/ and ~/.openclaw/workspace/digest/, and spawns sub-agents that will perform similar writes. It does not request always:true or system-wide config changes, but users should be aware it will create and reuse files in that workspace.

Assessment

This skill is internally coherent with its stated purpose, but consider these practical points before installing: (1) It will make outbound HTTP requests to arxiv.org and create files under ~/.openclaw/workspace/ — inspect that directory after use and ensure you are comfortable with those disk writes. (2) It spawns sub-agents (the platform default allows autonomous invocation) which will also fetch pages and write summaries; if you prefer tighter control, run the skill only interactively (user-invocable) or disable autonomous skill invocation in your agent settings. (3) The skill does not request credentials or access other system files, but verify your agent platform does not grant broader filesystem or network privileges that you haven't intended. (4) If you are concerned about data leakage or want auditable runs, run it in a sandboxed account/environment or review produced markdown files before further sharing. Overall there are no mismatches or suspicious requirements detected.

Input

• arxiv_id: bare ID like 2305.11206 or full https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.11206 (Normalise: strip the URL prefix, extract bare ID.)

Step 1 — Fetch the main paper

Try HTML first: web.fetch https://arxiv.org/html/<arxiv_id>

• If HTTP 200 → use this as paper_text.
• If Falis: add v1 at the end, and try again: web.fetch https://arxiv.org/html/<arxiv_id>v1
• else if all fails skip and ABORT!

If the paper_text is retrieved then write the summary to ~/.openclaw/workspace/papers/<arxiv-id>.md.

Step 2 — Extract citations

Note: DO NOT DO THIS STEP INSIDE sub-agents

Within the main agent and from paper_text, identify at most 5 citations the paper most directly builds on. Prioritize:

• Papers that are explicitly extended or improved upon
• Papers used as the primary baseline for comparison
• Papers that provide the core architecture this work adopts
• Papers referred to repeatedly (not just mentioned once) or that provide essential context

For each citation, extract either the arXiv ID or the title. Then resolve to an arXiv URL:

• If an arXiv ID is in the reference → https://arxiv.org/html/<id>
• Otherwise search https://arxiv.org/search/?query=<title>&searchtype=all and take the first match.

Step 3 — Spawn sub-agents for citations

Note: Ensure that the sub-agent related task is precise and concise so the sub-agent does not have to re-read the previously read SKILLs and files.

For each resolved citation:

• Check if the file for citation exists: ~/.openclaw/workspace/papers/<arxiv-id>.md, if it does then skip and consider the sub-agent concluded.
• If the previous step fails then spawn a sub-agent with this EXACT instruction in VERBATIM:
  • Fetch https://arxiv.org/html/<citation_id> (or add v1 at the end, and try again: web.fetch https://arxiv.org/html/<arxiv_id>v1). If unavailable, SKIP. If retrieved then Write the summary to ~/.openclaw/workspace/papers/<arxiv-id>.md.

Step 4 — Write the executive summary

Check the citation summaries within ~/.openclaw/workspace/papers/ then utilize the main paper we are summarising with citation summaries and write a single markdown document in flowing prose (no bullet lists) to ~/.openclaw/workspace/digest/report_<arxiv-id>. Use this structure:

# <Title>

<What problem this solves and why it matters. Context and related references summary>

<What prior work missed and how this paper addresses that gap. Cite inline as [Author et al., YEAR](<arxiv_link>).

<Core method in plain terms>

<Headline result. How it differs from previous work.

<One limitation and one future direction>

<Detailed Ablations, benchmarks if present in this paper or cited references>

Rules

• Every citation must be a markdown link: [Author et al., YEAR](<arxiv_or_url>)
• No bullet lists in the output — prose only.
• If a section is absent from the paper (e.g., no ablations), skip it silently.
• Do not fabricate results, metrics, or author claims.
• Citation resolution retry: If a citation URL cannot be resolved after one retry, write the citation as plain text without a link: [Author et al., YEAR].