Set Up Academic Workflow in Claude Code (2026)

The claude-code-my-workflow repository provides 28 skills and 14 agents specifically designed for academic work: LaTeX writing, R statistical analysis, citation management, and paper drafting. Here is how to set it up.

Prerequisites

  • Claude Code installed
  • LaTeX distribution installed (TeX Live or MacTeX)
  • R installed (if using statistical analysis features)
  • Git installed

Step 1: Clone the Workflow Repository

git clone https://github.com/pedrohcgs/claude-code-my-workflow.git ~/academic-workflow

Step 2: Copy the CLAUDE.md Configuration

The repository includes a CLAUDE.md tuned for academic work:

cp ~/academic-workflow/CLAUDE.md /path/to/your/academic-project/CLAUDE.md

This CLAUDE.md configures Claude for academic conventions:

  • LaTeX formatting standards
  • Citation format handling (BibTeX, natbib)
  • Statistical analysis patterns
  • Paper structure conventions (abstract, sections, references)

Step 3: Install the Skills

Copy the skill files to your project’s Claude configuration:

mkdir -p /path/to/your/academic-project/.claude/commands
cp ~/academic-workflow/commands/* /path/to/your/academic-project/.claude/commands/

The 28 skills cover academic-specific tasks:

  • LaTeX document structuring
  • BibTeX citation management
  • R code generation and analysis
  • Table and figure generation
  • Proof editing and style checking
  • Abstract writing assistance

Step 4: Install the Agents

The 14 agents provide specialized academic personas:

# Agent configurations are typically in the CLAUDE.md or separate config files
# Review available agents
cat ~/academic-workflow/agents/README.md

Key agents include:

  • Reviewer — Critiques paper drafts like a journal reviewer
  • Statistician — Helps with R analysis and interpretation
  • Editor — Focuses on clarity, grammar, and academic tone
  • Formatter — Handles LaTeX formatting and compilation

Step 5: Test the Setup

Start Claude Code in your academic project:

cd /path/to/your/academic-project
claude

Test with an academic task:

Help me write a methods section for a difference-in-differences analysis using panel data with staggered treatment adoption

Claude should respond with LaTeX-formatted content, appropriate statistical terminology, and citation suggestions.

Verification Checklist

  • CLAUDE.md with academic configuration is in your project root
  • Skills are accessible as slash commands
  • Claude generates LaTeX output when asked for academic writing
  • Claude suggests appropriate R code for statistical analysis
  • Claude handles BibTeX references correctly

Common Academic Tasks This Workflow Handles

Here are specific tasks the 28 skills and 14 agents enable:

Literature review assistance: Give Claude a set of papers (BibTeX entries) and ask it to summarize findings, identify gaps, and suggest how your research addresses those gaps. The reviewer agent structures this as a proper literature review section.

Statistical analysis: Describe your research design and data structure. The statistician agent generates R code for your analysis, including diagnostic tests, robustness checks, and publication-quality tables using modelsummary.

LaTeX table generation: Describe the data and the table you want. Claude generates LaTeX table code using booktabs formatting that matches journal standards. Handles multi-column layouts, significance stars, and notes.

Proof editing: Paste a draft section and use the editor agent. It checks for passive voice overuse, unclear antecedents, jargon density, and paragraph flow. Suggests revisions in tracked-changes style.

Response to reviewers: Paste reviewer comments and your current manuscript. Claude drafts point-by-point responses using academic conventions (thanking the reviewer, explaining changes, providing justification for disagreements).

Customizing for Your Field

The default configuration is tuned for economics and social sciences (the maintainer’s field). Adjust for other disciplines:

For natural sciences: Add rules about significant figures, SI units, and experimental methods sections. Adjust citation style from author-year to numbered references if your journals require it.

For humanities: Add rules about argumentation structure, primary source citation, and footnote formatting. Configure Chicago Manual of Style instead of APA.

For computer science: Add rules about algorithm pseudocode, complexity analysis notation, and ACM/IEEE formatting. The default LaTeX packages may need adjustment for conference proceedings formats.

Troubleshooting

LaTeX output does not compile: Verify your LaTeX distribution is complete. Run pdflatex --version to confirm installation. Claude generates standard LaTeX that should compile with any recent distribution. If specific packages are missing, install them with tlmgr install package-name.

R code errors: Ensure required R packages are installed. Common ones: tidyverse, fixest, modelsummary. Claude’s suggested code assumes standard packages. Run install.packages(c("tidyverse", "fixest", "modelsummary")) to install them all.

Citation format wrong: Specify your target journal’s citation style in your CLAUDE.md. Add a line like “Use APA 7th edition citation format” or “Use Chicago Manual of Style.” Also specify whether you use BibTeX or BibLaTeX.

Academic tone is off: The academic CLAUDE.md configures formal tone, but you can refine it. Add specific instructions like “Write in third person, avoid contractions, use hedging language for empirical claims.”

Overleaf integration: If you use Overleaf, sync your local project with the Overleaf git remote. Claude edits local files, you push to Overleaf for compilation and collaboration.

Next Steps

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See Also

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