research-review

Obtains multi-round critical reviews of research from an external LLM via llm-chat MCP.

75|7|Updated May 2, 2026
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/zjunlp/Mechanist --skill research-review-zjunlp
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: research-review
Source: https://github.com/zjunlp/Mechanist/tree/main/skills/research-review
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/zjunlp/Mechanist --skill research-review-zjunlp

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

What problem does it solve? Getting rigorous, unbiased feedback on research ideas, papers, and experimental results is hard without access to senior reviewers. This Skill connects your project to an external LLM reviewer through the llm-chat MCP server, delivering NeurIPS/ICML-level critical reviews with iterative dialogue until claims, narrative, and experiment plans converge. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Multi-Round External Review: Sends comprehensive research context to an external LLM reviewer and iterates through rounds of criticism, rebuttal, and refinement. - Strict Reviewer Configuration: Resolves LLM_MODEL, LLM_BASE_URL, and LLM_API_KEY from project .mcp.json, user settings, or shell environment with a hard-fail rule when unconfigured. - Actionable Deliverables: Produces mock conference reviews, minimal experiment packages, claims matrices, paper outlines, and a self-contained review document saved to the project. - Use Case: Before submitting a mechanistic interpretability paper, run this Skill to get a brutal mock review, identify missing experiments, and generate a results-to-claims matrix for each possible experimental outcome. ## Quick Start Ask the assistant to review my research using the research-review skill with the topic of my current project.

Frequently Asked Questions about research-review

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
How do I get an external LLM review of my research paper?

Configure the llm-chat MCP server with LLM_MODEL, LLM_BASE_URL, and LLM_API_KEY, then invoke the research-review skill. It compiles your project context, sends it to the external reviewer, and iterates through rounds of criticism and rebuttal.

How to configure the reviewer model for llm-chat MCP?

Set mcpServers.llm-chat.env.LLM_MODEL, LLM_BASE_URL, and LLM_API_KEY in your project .mcp.json or ~/.claude/settings.json, or export them as shell environment variables. The skill checks these three sources in priority order and aborts if none is found.

Why does the research review fail with reviewer model not configured?

The skill hard-fails when LLM_MODEL is empty after checking project .mcp.json, user settings.json, and shell environment. Add the llm-chat env fields to one of these locations; it never guesses a default model or reads model names from project files.

Can the external reviewer remember previous review rounds?

No, llm-chat is stateless, so every call is a fresh conversation. The skill handles this by embedding a verbatim summary of prior criticisms, responses, and open questions inside each follow-up prompt.

What outputs does a research review session produce?

The skill saves a self-contained review document with round-by-round summaries, final consensus on claims and narrative, a results-to-claims matrix, a prioritized TODO list with compute estimates, and optionally a paper outline.