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/<venue>-<year>.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is missing or a year out of date.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/<venue>-<year>.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/<family>.yml
```
for family-level defaults.
```
CONTACT_EMAIL
```
env var (used in the polite fetch User-Agent; the script prompts if unset).

Process

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.
Fetch the CFP page. Run:
```
python3 scripts/fetch_cfp.py "<cfp-url>"
```
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.
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.
Extract every schema field following 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.
Normalize the template invocation, submission system, rebuttal format, and camera-ready rail using 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.
Emit the YAML to
```
venues/conferences/<venue>-<year>.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).
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).
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 <cfp_url> on <date>. 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:

yaml

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/<venue>-<year>.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 — field-by-field extraction rules, cue phrases, and the trap list.
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).

parse-cfp

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content