Skip to content

Nature Paper Reader

Builds source-grounded Chinese-English paper readers with aligned text, figures, tables and equations

Stars
51,827
Licence
Apache-2.0
Files
15 files

What it does

Once installed, the agent works through a scientific paper in a structured way: it translates the text into Chinese and English side by side, keeps figures, tables and equations tied to their source location, and builds a recurring-term glossary. It can also answer follow-up questions about a paper with citations back to the source, or translate just an excerpt you specify instead of producing a full reader. The skill includes a checker script that validates equation rendering and traceability in the output bundle.

Great for

  • Students or researchers who want a bilingual Chinese-English reading of a paper
  • Readers who need source-linked answers to specific questions about a paper
  • Translators who want consistent terminology across a document

Skip it if

  • Quick summaries only, since the skill deliberately avoids summary mode and produces full readers (time-consuming for short needs)
  • Sharing full translations of copyrighted papers publicly, because reproducing large portions of a publisher's article may raise copyright concerns
  • Scanned or image-only papers without OCR support, since the skill's accuracy depends on extractable source material

Try asking

  • “Make a bilingual Chinese-English reader of this paper PDF with figures and equations aligned”
  • “Translate the Methods section of this article into Chinese, side by side with the English”
  • “What does Figure 3 show, and where in the paper is that claim supported?”
  • “Build a recurring-term glossary for this paper's key concepts”
Step-by-step guide: how to use Nature Paper ReaderInstall, first run, examples, tips and FAQs

Install in 3 steps

  1. 1

    Download the skill

    The ZIP contains the 15 original files, the Apache-2.0 licence and an attribution note.

    nature-reader.zip
  2. 2

    Add it to your agent

    Claude Code (all projects)

    mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && unzip nature-reader.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/

    Claude Code / Agent SDK (this project only)

    mkdir -p .claude/skills && unzip nature-reader.zip -d .claude/skills/

    Claude apps (web/desktop): Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill, and choose the ZIP.

  3. 3

    Ask for the task

    No special command needed — the agent reads the skill's description and loads it when your request matches. Try one of the prompts above.

Get better results

  • Provide the full PDF rather than a link when possible, so figures and equations can be extracted from the original layout
  • Ask for a specific excerpt or question to get faster, focused output instead of a full reader
  • Check translation_notes.md for flagged missing pages or low-confidence figure crops before relying on the output

What's inside

  • agents/openai.yaml
  • evals/evals.json
  • manifest.yaml
  • README_EN.md
  • README.md
  • references/article-anatomy.md
  • references/equation-handling.md
  • references/figure-extraction.md
  • references/grounding-rules.md
  • references/output-spec.md
  • scripts/validate_reader_math.py
  • SKILL.md
  • static/core/output-contract.md
  • static/core/principles.md
  • static/core/workflow.md

Redistributed unmodified from Yuan1z0825/nature-skills under the Apache-2.0 licence. The assessment was drafted with AI from the skill's files on 2026-10-29. Skills can instruct your agent to run code — read SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.