TeXRA

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Polish a draft ​

Rewrite a LaTeX paper for clarity. Keeps math, citations, and structure intact. Outputs a reviewable diff.

What polish does ​

  • Reads your input .tex file (and any context files you attach).
  • Produces a revised draft that follows your instruction.
  • Runs a built-in critique pass that rereads its own output and revises it.

Polish is a workflow agent: it writes to disk and produces a diff. It does not chat, compile LaTeX, or verify citations.

When to use it ​

Use polish when the content is in place and the prose needs work.

  • Tighten loose paragraphs before submission.
  • Fix repetition, hedging, generic phrasing.
  • Improve flow between sentences and sections.

Don't use polish to add content, change math, or restructure sections. For those, use the Orchestrator or the research agent.

Run it from the CLI ​

sh
texra run polish \
  --input intro.tex \
  --instruction "Tighten prose. Preserve all math and citations."

Each round writes its output into the run's task storage, using the input filename as the document name:

.texra/runs/<run-id>/r0/intro.tex   # Round 0 — first revision
.texra/runs/<run-id>/r1/intro.tex   # Round 1 — critique-and-revise pass

To write the final revision next to your input instead:

sh
texra run polish --input intro.tex --output intro.polished.tex

Run it in VS Code ​

  1. Open intro.tex.
  2. Click the TeXRA icon in the activity bar.
  3. In the Input section, click Add files and pick intro.tex from the file picker.
  4. Pick polish as the agent. Pick a model.
  5. Type the instruction. Press Execute.
  6. When the run completes, open the diff from the Progress Board.

Same run, same history, same output files — whichever surface you used.

Reviewing the output ​

CLI — diff the rounds against your input:

sh
diff -u intro.tex .texra/runs/<run-id>/r0/intro.tex
diff -u .texra/runs/<run-id>/r0/intro.tex .texra/runs/<run-id>/r1/intro.tex

VS Code — the Progress Board shows side-by-side diffs and lets you accept the output back into the workspace.

For a compiled PDF comparison (additions in blue, deletions in red), use the LaTeXdiff feature in the TeXRA panel. See LaTeX Diff.

How the critique pass works ​

After Round 0 produces a revision, polish re-prompts itself to check for common failure modes:

  • Edits that weakened the original.
  • Mathematical content that went missing.
  • Notation used before being defined.
  • Generic filler ("provides crucial insights into…").
  • Changes outside the scope of your instruction.

The result is written to r1/. Use Round 0 alone for fast iteration. Use Round 1 when the draft is close to final.

Limits ​

  • Operates on one revision per input file. For multi-file projects, list each file with --input or use the Orchestrator.
  • No tool access — polish cannot compile, search citations, or run code.
  • No new sections, equations, or references — polish only rewrites what is already there.

See also ​