Format latex project

Format a LaTeX project

Three cosmetic-only transformations on a git-hosted LaTeX project, applied through the web-latex-mcp MCP tools. None of them may change the compiled PDF. The compile step is the guardrail — if the project compiled before and not after, you broke it.

1. Modularize sections — move each section out of the main file into its own file under sections/, leaving the main file as mostly a list of \input{...}.
2. Modularize floats — move each figure/table environment into its own file under figures/ or tables/, leaving a one-line \input{...} where the float was.
3. One sentence per line — within body paragraphs, put each sentence on its own source line so git diffs stay small and edits stay surgical.

Workflow

Run these in order. Stop and report if any step fails.

1. Pick the project. If the user didn't name one, call list_projects and ask which.
2. Sync & baseline. project_sync the project, then compile it. Record success and the log. If it does not compile cleanly to begin with, stop and tell the user — do not reformat a broken project (you won't be able to tell your changes apart from the pre-existing breakage).
3. Find the main file. Usually the .tex with \documentclass. list_files, then read_file it.
4. Apply the transformation(s) the user asked for (see rules below). Default to doing all three unless they asked for only some. Order them: split sections first, then pull the floats out of those section files, then reflow the remaining prose — each step then works on smaller files and the diffs stay legible.
5. Recompile. compile again. It must still succeed. Compare the log to the baseline — page count / overfull-box warnings should be essentially unchanged. If compilation breaks, fix it; if you can't, discard and report.
6. Review. Show the user the diff. Do not commit/push unless they ask — per CLAUDE.md, mutating the remote happens only on explicit request.

Do all edits inside one project so the per-project mutex serializes them; prefer edit_file for surgical changes and write_file when rewriting a whole file.

Rule: split into \input files

• Create one file per top-level \section (and standalone front/back matter like the abstract) under sections/, named after the section: sections/introduction.tex, sections/related-work.tex, sections/method.tex, etc. (kebab-case, ASCII).
• Each new file contains the section's content starting with its \section{...} line. Do not add \documentclass, preamble, or \begin{document} to section files.
• In the main file, replace the moved block with \input{sections/introduction} (no .tex extension). Keep the relative order identical.
• Leave the preamble where it is — everything before \begin{document} (documentclass, \usepackage, macros, title/author) stays in the main file. Only body sections move.
• Don't move \bibliography, \maketitle, \appendix, or similar one-line structural commands into section files; they stay in main between the \inputs.
• Move text verbatim — same characters, same order. The only change is the cut/paste plus the \input line. (Extracting floats and reflowing to one-sentence-per-line are the other rules; you may do all three, but keep the intents clear in the diff if the user wants separate commits.)

Rule: one file per figure and table

Every float lives in its own .tex file and is pulled in with \input. A section file should read as prose plus one-line \inputs, never as pages of tabular markup.

• Create figures/<name>.tex for each \begin{figure}/figure* block and tables/<name>.tex for each \begin{table}/table* block.
• Name the file after the label, minus the prefix: \label{fig:overview} → figures/overview.tex; \label{tab:sota_results} → tables/sota-results.tex (kebab-case, ASCII). If a float has no label, add one following the project's convention (fig:/tab: + descriptive name) and name the file after it — a float worth extracting is a float worth referencing.
• The file holds the whole environment, from \begin{figure} to \end{figure}, including its \caption and \label. Nothing else — no \section, no surrounding prose.
• Replace the block in the section (or main) file with \input{figures/overview} (no .tex extension), on its own line, in exactly the same position. Float placement is positional in LaTeX: moving the \input up or down moves the float in the PDF.
• Move the content verbatim, placement specifier ([t]) and all. This rule is a cut/paste; restyling captions or switching to booktabs is a separate, non-cosmetic change — do it only if the user asks.
• Nested floats (a subfigure inside a figure) stay together in the parent's file: one file per top-level float, not per image.
• Graphics files themselves (.pdf/.png under figures/) don't move. Keep \includegraphics paths byte-identical — they resolve from the main file's directory, not from the \inputed file's, so a working path stays working.
• Authoring new floats follows the same rule. When this project later gains a figure or table, write it in its own figures//tables/ file first and \input it — never paste a new float body inline into a section file.

Rule: one sentence per line

Reflow body prose so each sentence begins on a new source line. This changes only newline placement in plain text — it must not alter a single non-whitespace token.

Break only between sentences in ordinary paragraph text. A sentence ends at ., ?, or ! followed by a space and a capital/\/$. After the boundary, start a new line (no blank line — a blank line starts a new paragraph in LaTeX and would change output).

Never break inside, and never reflow:

• Math: inline $...$, \(...\), and display \[...\], equation, align, etc.
• Any \begin{env}...\end{env} block (tables, figures, itemize, lstlisting, verbatim). Leave its internal formatting alone; only reflow the prose paragraphs around it.
• Comment lines (starting with %) and the rest of a line after an inline %.
• The preamble (before \begin{document}).

Abbreviations are not sentence ends. Do not break after e.g., i.e., et al., cf., vs., Fig., Eq., Sec., Dr., Mr., a lone initial like A., or a period inside \autoref{}/numbers like 3.14. When unsure whether a period ends a sentence, leave the line unbroken — a missed break is harmless; a wrong one can hurt readability or, near a command, change spacing.

Keep existing blank lines between paragraphs. Trim trailing whitespace on the lines you touch.

After you finish

Report concisely: which files were created (sections, figures, tables), that it still compiles, and the page count before/after. Flag anything you had to add rather than move — notably labels invented for unlabelled floats. Point the user at the diff and ask whether to commit and push.