Parse Cfp

Parse CFP

Turn a live Call for Papers into the machine-readable venue profile that the rest of this repo runs on. Output is a venues/conferences/-.yml file conforming to venues/schema.yml, plus a human-readable requirements card. Downstream consumers: preflight-check, tailor-to-venue, write-rebuttal, prepare-camera-ready, select-venue.

When to use

• The user pastes a CFP, author-guidelines, or submission-instructions URL.
• "What are the requirements / deadlines / page limits for VENUE YEAR?"
• A profile in venues/conferences/ is missing or a year out of date.

Inputs

• A CFP URL. If the user only names a venue, check

venues/conferences/-.yml for a cfp_url first; an older year's profile usually links the venue website where the new CFP lives.

• venues/schema.yml — read it before writing the profile; it defines every

field and the mandatory verified: provenance block.

• The matching venues/families/.yml for family-level defaults.
• CONTACT_EMAIL env var (used in the polite fetch User-Agent; the script

prompts if unset).

Process

1. Scope one venue + one year. Read venues/schema.yml. If a profile for

this venue-year already exists, treat it as hints to re-verify, never as ground truth.

1. Fetch the CFP page. Run:

`` python3 scripts/fetch_cfp.py "" ``

The script fetches ONE page per invocation, rate-limits to 1 request/second per host, backs off exponentially on HTTP 429, caches under .cache/ (gitignored) for 24h, and prints readable text with link targets as [url]. It exits nonzero with a clear message on failure. Then fetch the handful of follow-up pages you actually need — per-track submission pages, the deadlines page, the camera-ready/author-kit page — one invocation each, never a site crawl.

• Exit code 3 = non-HTML content (a PDF CFP, a JSON API response); the

body is saved under .cache/ — read that file directly.

• "very little text extracted" warning = JavaScript-rendered page; ask the

user to paste the page text and mark the profile needs-verification. Never fill gaps from memory.

1. Verify the year. Confirm the page heading and dates match the requested

year before extracting — stale CFPs survive at near-identical URLs. Wrong year: tell the user and locate the current page.

1. Extract every schema field following

[references/extraction-guide.md](references/extraction-guide.md). The non-negotiables:

• Numbers (page limits, char limits, dates) only from fetched text; missing

fact = null + an explanatory note. Never infer, never recall.

• Page limits must capture what is EXCLUDED (references? appendix?

checklist?) with the CFP's sentence quoted verbatim in the track notes.

• Deadlines: record the stated timezone — AoE is common, not universal

(SIGSPATIAL uses Pacific Time). Abstract registration is a separate, earlier deadline at most venues.

• llm_policy and dual_submission: verbatim quotes, never paraphrased.

1. Normalize the template invocation, submission system, rebuttal format,

and camera-ready rail using [references/templates-and-systems.md](references/templates-and-systems.md). Derive \documentclass options from the family table (add review,anonymous only for double/triple-blind venues) and comment when an invocation is family-derived rather than printed in the CFP.

1. Emit the YAML to venues/conferences/-.yml:

• id equals the filename stem; family references an existing family file.
• Fill the mandatory verified: block — today's date, every URL fetched

(with a comment on which facts each supplied), and an honest confidence: (verified-live only if all critical facts came off live pages today).

1. Validate. Run python3 tools/validate_venues.py from the repo root

(needs PyYAML; if unavailable, check the file manually against venues/schema.yml field by field).

1. Present the requirements card to the user: a short table of deadlines

(with timezone), per-track limits with their exclusions, blind level, template invocation, submission URL, rebuttal format, and LLM policy. End with the verification notice: "Profile extracted from on . Re-verify deadlines and page limits against the live CFP before submitting — CFPs change mid-cycle and a stale limit can cause a desk reject."

Worked mini-example

User pastes https://sigspatial2026.sigspatial.org/research-submission.html. After fetching, the Research-track section reads: "papers are limited to 10 pages (excluding references), with up to 2 additional pages after the references to be used for appendices", deadlines are stated as "11:59 PM Pacific Time", and the submission link points at easychair.org/conferences/?conf=acmsigspatial2026. That extracts to:

id: sigspatial-2026
deadlines:
  abstract: 2026-05-29
  paper: 2026-06-05
  timezone: PT          # CFP says "Pacific Time", NOT AoE — recorded verbatim
tracks:
  - name: Research
    page_limit: 10
    page_limit_excludes: [references, appendix]
    notes: >
      CFP verbatim: "papers are limited to 10 pages (excluding references),
      with up to 2 additional pages after the references ... for appendices."
review:
  blind: single         # CFP lists author names — single, not double
  submission_system: easychair
verified:
  date: 2026-06-21
  source_urls:
    - https://sigspatial2026.sigspatial.org/research-submission.html  # limits, deadlines, blind
  confidence: verified-live

Two traps this example surfaces and the guide handles: the timezone is Pacific, not the AoE default, and the page limit excludes both references AND the appendix — encoded explicitly so preflight-check can enforce it. The page heading is confirmed to say 2026 before any of this is extracted.

Output

• venues/conferences/-.yml — schema-conformant, year-versioned,

with provenance.

• An inline requirements-card summary with the re-verify warning.

Guardrails

• Never fabricate a deadline, limit, or policy. null + note beats a guess.
• Quote LLM-use and dual-submission policies verbatim; paraphrase can invert

compliance meaning.

• GET-only. Never log in to, register with, or submit to any submission system

on the user's behalf.

• Never fabricate citations. This skill emits venue metadata only; if a paper

reference is ever needed downstream, route it through verify-citations.

• One page per script invocation; no bulk crawling. The cache lives under

.cache/ and stays out of git — do not commit fetched CFP text to the repo.

• Always include the re-verify-against-live-CFP notice in the final answer.

Source verification (mandatory)

This skill originates venue facts, so source verification is mandatory without exception:

• The venue is the user's choice; build its rules on demand, never from memory or a prior year.
• Search the web for the live CFP / author-instructions page and read the primary source — never state a fact from a search snippet you didn't open, and never from a deadline aggregator without confirming on the official site.
• Double-check every desk-reject-class fact (deadline, page limit + exclusions, blind level, template, submission system) against a second source; if sources disagree, surface the conflict — do not pick silently.
• Record a clickable reference link and the date for every fact in the profile's verified.source_urls; set confidence to verified-live/corroborated only when sourced, else needs-verification. A fact with no link is emitted as unverified, never asserted.

Bundled files

• [references/extraction-guide.md](references/extraction-guide.md) —

field-by-field extraction rules, cue phrases, and the trap list.

• [references/templates-and-systems.md](references/templates-and-systems.md) —

template invocations by family, submission-system URL patterns, rebuttal taxonomy, camera-ready rails.

• scripts/fetch_cfp.py — polite single-page fetcher (run it; do not reimplement

fetching by hand).

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: ShaishavMaisuria
• Source: ShaishavMaisuria/research-paper-lifecycle-skills
• License: Apache-2.0
• Homepage: https://shaishavmaisuria.github.io/research-paper-lifecycle-skills/

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.