nature-polishing skill for Claude: polish papers in Nature style

Makes your agent polish, translate or tighten academic manuscript text in a Nature style without changing facts. For researchers writing papers.

Installs: 18K; on skills.sh
Stars: 51.7K; on GitHub
Files: 32; besides SKILL.md
Updated: Nov 2026; last repo commit

nature-polishing makes your agent rewrite academic text so it reads like a Nature-family paper while keeping your facts, terms and evidence limits. It detects the paper type, section, language and target journal, says what it detected in one line, then loads only the matching guidance files. It also handles LaTeX layout problems such as stranded headings and oversized figures.

It loads for polishing, academic translation and shortening requests, in English or Chinese. It needs the separate nature-shared skill from the same repo, because it reads shared files from there. If you are drafting new sections or rebuilding an argument, the SKILL.md points you to nature-writing instead.

Good for

Researchers turning Chinese paragraphs into submission-ready English
Authors tightening an abstract, introduction, results or discussion
Anyone fixing LaTeX figure and page layout in a manuscript
Authors targeting Nature, Nature Communications or Nature Machine Intelligence

Install nature-polishing

Claude Code

Copy this prompt.

Install the nature-polishing skill in Claude Code. Run this command:

npx skills add Yuan1z0825/nature-skills --global --agent claude-code \
  --skill nature-polishing --skill nature-shared --yes --copy

Then check that it loaded and tell me how to use it.

2
Paste it into Claude Code. It shows the change and asks before running it.

Requires Node.js 18 or newer.

The README's Claude Code section describes a manual git clone plus a subagent or slash-command wrapper instead. The skills CLI route above is the one the README documents for choosing skills one by one. To install every skill for every agent, the README gives npx skills add Yuan1z0825/nature-skills --all.

From the project README. Source.

What's in the skill

When it loads

Polish, translate, or tighten existing academic prose while preserving facts, terminology, and evidence boundaries. Use for 论文润色、学术翻译、正文精简, or manuscript LaTeX layout fixes. Use nature-writing when the main task is drafting new sections or rebuilding the manuscript argument.

Sections in SKILL.md

Routing protocol
1. Load the manifest and the core layer
2. Detect the axis values for this request
3. Load the matching fragments
4. Polish using the loaded material
5. Reach for references only when needed

Key facts

Author: Yuan1z0825
License: Apache-2.0
Installs on skills.sh: 18,035 (Nov 2, 2026)
GitHub stars: 51,696 for the whole repo (Nov 2, 2026)
Last commit: Nov 1, 2026
Files: 33 files including SKILL.md; the nature-shared skill it needs is a separate folder
Also install: nature-shared (same repo); polishing reads files from it
Journals covered: Nature, Nature Communications, Nature Machine Intelligence, generic
Languages: English, and Chinese-to-English
Skill version: 6.6.0 (manifest.yaml)

What it includes

Read manifest.yaml and the always-load files
Reads the manifest, then the shared reader-workflow, paper-type, ethics and terminology files plus its own stance, failure-mode and output-format files.
Read · Load manifest and core files
Paper type, section, language, journal
Paper type defaults to research and journal to generic. It states what it detected in one line so you can correct it, and asks only if the section is unclear and matters.
Detect four settings
Read only the files that match those settings
Does not read every fragment. Loads the one for your paper type, section, journal and language.
Read · Load matching fragments
Paper type, section, journal, language, ethics
Applies the loaded guidance in that order and flags a paragraph it cannot fix without inventing content.
Try: “Translate this Chinese Results paragraph into Nature-style English, keeping it conservative.”
Polish in priority order
Compress Results and decide main text versus SI
For Results or full-text compression it classifies each result and keeps the shortest sufficient evidence chain.
Read · Main-text discipline
Intro, results, discussion and abstract patterns
Loads shared Nature-style guidance for the introduction, results and discussion, and abstract. The SKILL.md says it is corpus-derived, not official policy.
Read · Nature-style corpus guidance
Check terms, numbers and claims across a manuscript
Uses a shared guide, and the shared package bundles a Python script, check_consistency.py, for mechanical checks on manuscript text files.
Runs code · Consistency sweep
Fix placement, not wording
Skips the prose settings and loads references/latex-layout.md. The SKILL.md says to compile and look at rendered pages before and after.
Runs code · LaTeX layout fixes

From the official docs

Permissions

Low risk

What it can do

Read your data
Create and change things
Delete things
Read-only mode

Watch out for

It rewrites your manuscript text
Keep a copy of the original and read the change notes and risk flags before using any rewrite in a submission. github.com
Shared package includes a Python script
nature-shared bundles check_consistency.py, which the consistency sweep guide runs on manuscript text files. Check the command before approving it. github.com
Layout fixes make the agent compile LaTeX
The layout guide tells the agent to render pages and read the compile log, and it may edit your .tex files. Work in a copy or a git branch. github.com

Technical details

Sign-in and keys	No credentials are described for this skill.

Questions

What does nature-polishing do?

It rewrites, translates or tightens academic text in a Nature-style voice while keeping your facts, terminology and evidence boundaries. It can also fix LaTeX layout problems.

How do I install it in Claude Code or Codex?

Use the install box above. It installs nature-shared too, because the README says to select it when installing nature-polishing alone. The skills CLI route is the one the README documents for picking skills one by one.

Does it work in the Claude app?

The README does not document a Claude app upload. The skill reads files from a sibling folder, so uploading only nature-polishing would leave those files out.

Does it need an API key?

Neither SKILL.md nor the manifest lists one. The README says the skills CLI manages skill files only, and that optional Python, R, browser and MCP dependencies need separate setup.

Is it safe to install?

It is mostly guidance text. The shared package bundles one Python script for consistency checks, and the layout guide has the agent compile your LaTeX. It rewrites your text, so keep the original and read the change notes before pasting results into a submission.

How is it different from nature-writing?

nature-polishing improves text you already have. The SKILL.md says to use nature-writing when the main task is drafting new sections or rebuilding the manuscript argument.

Does it invent results or citations?

The nature-polishing README says it does not add results, mechanisms, statistical significance or citations you did not provide, and that it flags facts or citation intent that need your confirmation.

Information

updated Nov 2, 2026

Repository: yuan1z0825/nature-skills
Folder: skills/nature-polishing

yuan1z0825/nature-skills skills.sh

Sources

Docs, issue trackers and discussions this page is built from.

Show all 6

nature-skills README (English) · github.com
nature-polishing SKILL.md · github.com
nature-polishing manifest.yaml · github.com
nature-shared SKILL.md · github.com
nature-shared consistency-sweep.md · github.com
nature-polishing README · github.com