thesis-figure-skill MCP — Use Cases, Install & Live Demo

Why use it

Key features

Paragraph-to-figure: infers the right diagram type from your text
LaTeX/TikZ output — drop into your paper directly
Handles flow diagrams, architectures, plots, schematics
Python helpers for data-driven figures (pgfplots)
English + 中文 prompts

Live Demo

What it looks like in practice

thesis-figure-skill.replay ▶ ready

0/0

Install

Pick your client

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json · Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "thesis-figure-skill": {
      "command": "git",
      "args": [
        "clone",
        "https://github.com/0xE1337/thesis-figure-skill",
        "~/.claude/skills/thesis-figure-skill"
      ],
      "_inferred": true
    }
  }
}

Open Claude Desktop → Settings → Developer → Edit Config. Restart after saving.

~/.cursor/mcp.json · .cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "thesis-figure-skill": {
      "command": "git",
      "args": [
        "clone",
        "https://github.com/0xE1337/thesis-figure-skill",
        "~/.claude/skills/thesis-figure-skill"
      ],
      "_inferred": true
    }
  }
}

Cursor uses the same mcpServers schema as Claude Desktop. Project config wins over global.

VS Code → Cline → MCP Servers → Edit

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "thesis-figure-skill": {
      "command": "git",
      "args": [
        "clone",
        "https://github.com/0xE1337/thesis-figure-skill",
        "~/.claude/skills/thesis-figure-skill"
      ],
      "_inferred": true
    }
  }
}

Click the MCP Servers icon in the Cline sidebar, then "Edit Configuration".

~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "thesis-figure-skill": {
      "command": "git",
      "args": [
        "clone",
        "https://github.com/0xE1337/thesis-figure-skill",
        "~/.claude/skills/thesis-figure-skill"
      ],
      "_inferred": true
    }
  }
}

Same shape as Claude Desktop. Restart Windsurf to pick up changes.

~/.continue/config.json

{
  "mcpServers": [
    {
      "name": "thesis-figure-skill",
      "command": "git",
      "args": [
        "clone",
        "https://github.com/0xE1337/thesis-figure-skill",
        "~/.claude/skills/thesis-figure-skill"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Continue uses an array of server objects rather than a map.

~/.config/zed/settings.json

{
  "context_servers": {
    "thesis-figure-skill": {
      "command": {
        "path": "git",
        "args": [
          "clone",
          "https://github.com/0xE1337/thesis-figure-skill",
          "~/.claude/skills/thesis-figure-skill"
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

Add to context_servers. Zed hot-reloads on save.

claude mcp add thesis-figure-skill -- git clone https://github.com/0xE1337/thesis-figure-skill ~/.claude/skills/thesis-figure-skill

One-liner. Verify with claude mcp list. Remove with claude mcp remove.

Use Cases

Real-world ways to use thesis-figure-skill

How to generate a figure for a specific paragraph of your paper

👤 Grad students and researchers writing papers or theses ⏱ ~15 min intermediate

When to use: You wrote the paragraph, but the reviewer would really appreciate a figure here.

Prerequisites

LaTeX toolchain (TeX Live or MiKTeX) with tikz, pgfplots — brew install --cask mactex / apt install texlive-full
Skill cloned — git clone https://github.com/0xE1337/thesis-figure-skill ~/.claude/skills/thesis-figure-skill

Flow

Paste the paragraph

Paragraph: <text about system architecture>. Generate a TikZ figure that illustrates the architecture.✓ Copied

→ Diagram type picked + TikZ code
Compile and preview

Save the code to fig.tex and compile — show me the PDF path.✓ Copied

→ PDF produced
Iterate

Shrink the node widths and make the arrows straight, not curved.✓ Copied

→ Revised TikZ, compiles cleanly

Outcome: A usable publication-quality figure in under 10 minutes.

Pitfalls

Overly decorated figures that scream 'AI made this' — Ask for minimal, academic-conservative style
Figure size fights the paper's column width — Specify target width (e.g., 0.9\linewidth) up front

Combine with: filesystem

Turn a CSV into a pgfplots chart for your paper

👤 Researchers with experimental results ⏱ ~25 min intermediate

When to use: You have results in CSV and want paper-quality plots, not matplotlib screenshots.

Flow

Feed the CSV

Here's results.csv. Make a pgfplots line chart comparing methods A/B/C on x=batch_size, y=accuracy.✓ Copied

→ pgfplots code + legend
Tweak

Add error bars (std dev from results_std.csv) and log-scale the x-axis.✓ Copied

→ Updated code with error bars

Outcome: A publication-grade plot that scales cleanly.

Pitfalls

Too many colors / markers — Ask for a grayscale- and colorblind-safe palette

Combine with: csv-data-summarizer-claude-skill

Combinations

Pair with other MCPs for X10 leverage

thesis-figure-skill + csv-data-summarizer-claude-skill

Profile the CSV first, then generate plots that reflect its actual shape

Summarize results.csv, then produce pgfplots charts that visualize the findings.✓ Copied

thesis-figure-skill + filesystem

Save figures alongside your paper source

Place every generated figure in paper/figures/.✓ Copied

Tools

What this MCP exposes

Tool	Inputs	When to call
diagram-type-inference	paragraph / concept	Start
tikz-authoring	figure spec	Architectural / schematic diagrams
pgfplots-authoring	CSV + axes spec	Data-driven plots
iterate	previous figure + change request	Revisions

Cost & Limits

What this costs to run

API quota: none
Tokens per call: ~2–8k per figure
Monetary: free
Tip: Get one figure right first (style/size), then clone the pattern for siblings

Security

Permissions, secrets, blast radius

Credential storage: none

Data egress: none — everything is local TeX

Troubleshooting

Common errors and fixes

pdflatex errors on pgfplots

Update pgfplots and ensure \usepackage{pgfplots}\pgfplotsset{compat=1.18} or similar.

Verify: kpsewhich pgfplots.sty

TikZ nodes overlap

Ask for named positioning using node distance and relative placements

Figure too big for column

Set scale= or wrap in resizebox{\linewidth}{!}{...}

Alternatives

thesis-figure-skill vs others

Alternative	When to use it instead	Tradeoff
mermaid-skill	Diagrams for the web / Markdown, not papers	Different output medium
excalidraw-skill	You want hand-drawn whiteboard style	Not publication-quality

More

Resources

📖 Read the official README on GitHub

🐙 Browse open issues

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