Claude Thesis Writer

A Claude Code plugin for plan-driven doctoral thesis writing with Zotero-sourced citations and IEEE-style LaTeX output.

What It Does

Provides a structured skill chain for thesis writing:

document-planner → writer → figure-generator → formatter → reviewer
       ↕                                                       ↕
 zotero-research                                         zotero-research

All citations come from your Zotero library. All writing follows collaboratively approved plans. Output is publication-ready LaTeX.

Prerequisites

• Claude Code (or compatible IDE with Claude Code plugin support)
• Zotero with a populated library for your research area
• deep-zotero MCP server configured in Claude Code (provides search_papers, search_topic, search_tables, search_figures, search_boolean, get_passage_context, get_index_stats, and more)
• LaTeX distribution (TeX Live, MiKTeX, or similar) for compilation
• Python 3.10+ with matplotlib (for figure generation)

Installation

1. Add the plugin marketplace in Claude Code:

   /plugin marketplace add https://github.com/ccam80/thesis-writer

2. Install the plugin:

   /plugin install claude-thesis-writer

3. Restart Claude Code when prompted.

4. Initialise in your thesis project:

   /thesis-writer:init

This creates a CLAUDE.md with thesis writing instructions and makes all skills available.

Skills

Core Workflow

| Skill | Role | |-------|------| | zotero-research | Spawnable research agent — topic search, claim support, citation verification | | document-planner | Multi-scope interactive planning (thesis, chapter, section, subsection) with verified references and figure stubs | | writer | LaTeX prose from plans (conversational, checks wording with user) | | figure-generator | Generates matplotlib plots and schematics from figure placeholders | | formatter | LaTeX formatting checker (packages, placement, units, cross-refs) | | reviewer | Plan compliance and reference verification |

Support

| Skill | Role | |-------|------| | peer-review | Academic review methodology | | markitdown | File conversion (PDF → Markdown) | | latex-posters | Conference poster creation |

Quick Start

> I need to plan my background chapter on HRV physiology

[document-planner runs: searches Zotero, proposes structure, iterates with you]

> Approved. Now let's do detailed planning for section 2.

[document-planner runs: paragraph-level planning with verified references]

> Plan looks good, write it up.

[writer runs: produces LaTeX prose from the approved plan]
[figure-generator runs: creates plots from placeholders]
[formatter runs: checks LaTeX compliance]
[reviewer runs: verifies plan coverage and citation accuracy]

Key Principles

• Collaborative: You are the domain expert. The agent organises your knowledge, never invents content.
• Plan-driven: All writing follows approved plan.md files with explicit authority hierarchy.
• Zotero-first: Every citation comes from your Zotero library. No external API searches.
• IEEE style: Concise technical prose, numeric citations, equations with defined variables.

License

MIT