@r1z4x/tezgah 1.0.0

package/skills/ai-research/20-ml-paper-writing/academic-plotting/references/diagram-generation.md

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+<!-- vendored from orchestra-research/AI-research-SKILLs@773a52944ba4747a18bd4ae9ade53fff041adcbc 20-ml-paper-writing/academic-plotting/references/diagram-generation.md; MIT (c) Orchestra Research -->
+# AI-Powered Diagram Generation Guide
+
+Complete prompt engineering reference for generating distinctive, publication-quality diagrams.
+
+## Why Prompts Matter More Than Anything
+
+The same Gemini model produces wildly different results depending on prompt quality:
+- **Generic prompt** → boring corporate flowchart with random colors
+- **Style-specific prompt** → distinctive, memorable figure with consistent visual identity
+
+The style block at the top of your prompt is the single most important factor.
+
+## Model Selection
+
+| Model | Best For | Notes |
+|-------|----------|-------|
+| `gemini-3-pro-image-preview` | All technical diagrams | Best text rendering, highest structural fidelity |
+| DALL-E 3 | Conceptual illustrations | Better aesthetics, worse at precise text placement |
+
+## Prompt Architecture (6 Sections)
+
+### Section 1: Framing (5-10 lines)
+
+Set the tone and context. This shapes the model's entire approach.
+
+**For Sketch/简笔画 style**:
+```
+Create a warm, hand-drawn-style technical diagram for a NeurIPS machine learning
+paper. The diagram should feel like a carefully drawn whiteboard sketch —
+approachable and clear, with personality in the line work, but still precise
+enough for a top venue. Think: the kind of diagram a brilliant researcher would
+draw during a coffee chat to explain their system.
+```
+
+**For Modern Minimal style**:
+```
+Create an ultra-clean, modern technical architecture diagram for an ICML paper.
+The diagram should feel like a premium design system — confident, spacious, and
+authoritative. Think: Apple's developer documentation meets a Nature paper.
+Every element earns its space. No visual noise.
+```
+
+**For Illustrated Technical style**:
+```
+Create a richly illustrated technical diagram for an ICLR paper. Each component
+should have a small, meaningful line-art icon that helps the reader instantly
+understand its purpose. The diagram should be self-explanatory — a reader should
+grasp the system architecture just by looking at the figure, before reading the
+caption. Think: the best technical documentation you've ever seen.
+```
+
+### Section 2: Visual Style (20-40 lines)
+
+This is the MOST important section. Copy the full style block from SKILL.md and expand with more detail. Be extremely specific about visual characteristics.
+
+**Key principle**: Describe the *feeling* and *materiality*, not just the geometry.
+
+Good: "Lines should wobble gently like drawn with a thick felt-tip marker on smooth paper"
+Bad: "Lines should be slightly irregular"
+
+Good: "Fill colors are soft watercolor-like washes — imagine diluted ink bleeding into damp paper"
+Bad: "Use light colors"
+
+Good: "Components float on the background with barely-there shadows (1px offset, 6px blur, 3% opacity)"
+Bad: "Add subtle shadows"
+
+### Section 3: Color Palette (10-15 lines)
+
+Always specify exact hex codes. Never leave color to the model's discretion.
+
+**"Ocean Dusk" palette** (professional, calming):
+```
+COLOR PALETTE (use EXACTLY these colors, no substitutions):
+- Primary components: Deep Teal #264653
+- Secondary components: Teal #2A9D8F
+- Accent / highlights: Gold #E9C46A
+- Warm connections: Sandy Orange #F4A261
+- Alert / error paths: Burnt Coral #E76F51
+- Backgrounds: Warm off-white #FAFAF7
+- Text primary: Nearly black #1A1A2E
+- Text secondary: Warm gray #6B7280
+- Borders (if any): Soft gray #E5E7EB
+```
+
+**"Ink & Wash" palette** (for 简笔画):
+```
+COLOR PALETTE — INK AND WASH:
+- All outlines and text: Charcoal ink #2C2C2C
+- Wash fill 1: Diluted blue #D6E4F0 (like watercolor blue, very soft)
+- Wash fill 2: Warm wheat #F5DEB3 (like tea-stained paper)
+- Wash fill 3: Soft sage #D4E6D4 (like pale green ink wash)
+- Wash fill 4: Faint lavender #E6DFF0 (like diluted purple ink)
+- Background: Warm paper #FAFAF7 (NOT pure white — should feel like quality drawing paper)
+- Accent marks: Terracotta #C0725E (used sparingly for emphasis)
+```
+
+**"Nord" palette** (for modern minimal):
+```
+COLOR PALETTE — NORD:
+- Primary: Polar Night #2E3440
+- Section fills: Snow Storm #ECEFF4, #E5E9F0, #D8DEE9
+- Accent Blue: Frost #5E81AC
+- Accent Green: Aurora #A3BE8C
+- Accent Yellow: Aurora #EBCB8B
+- Accent Red: Aurora #BF616A
+- Text: Polar Night #2E3440
+- Subtle text: #4C566A
+```
+
+### Section 4: Layout Description (50-150 lines)
+
+**Be exhaustively specific.** This is where most prompts fail — they're too vague.
+
+Rules for writing layout descriptions:
+1. **Name every box** with exact text content
+2. **Specify spatial relationships** explicitly ("Box A is to the LEFT of Box B")
+3. **Include subtitles/descriptions** for each component
+4. **Describe grouping** ("These 3 boxes are inside a section labeled X")
+5. **Specify dimensions** relatively ("roughly 2:1 width-to-height ratio")
+
+**Example (Sketch/简笔画 style)**:
+```
+LAYOUT — THREE-STAGE PIPELINE (left to right):
+
+The diagram flows LEFT to RIGHT across three main stages, with a feedback loop
+curving back from right to left at the bottom.
+
+STAGE 1 — "Observe" (left third of diagram):
+- Draw a rounded blob (not a rectangle!) with soft blue wash fill (#D6E4F0)
+- Inside the blob: hand-drawn icon of an EYE (simple line drawing, 3 curved lines)
+- Below the icon: "Observe" in bold charcoal
+- Below that: "Gather signals from environment" in smaller text
+- A small stack of paper sheets icon to the lower-right of the blob,
+  labeled "Raw Data" with a tiny arrow pointing into the blob
+
+STAGE 2 — "Hypothesize" (middle third):
+- Draw a rounded blob with warm wheat wash fill (#F5DEB3)
+- Inside: hand-drawn LIGHTBULB icon (simple: circle + filament lines + base)
+- Below: "Hypothesize" in bold
+- Below: "Form testable predictions" in smaller text
+- Two small thought-bubble circles trailing from the blob upward,
+  suggesting the thinking process
+
+STAGE 3 — "Verify" (right third):
+- Draw a rounded blob with sage wash fill (#D4E6D4)
+- Inside: hand-drawn CHECKMARK icon (a satisfying thick check)
+- Below: "Verify" in bold
+- Below: "Test against evidence" in smaller text
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP:
+- A long curved dashed arrow from "Verify" back to "Observe",
+  curving BELOW the three stages
+- Label on the arrow: "refine & iterate" in italic
+- The arrow should feel like a casual hand-drawn curve, not a geometric arc
+```
+
+### Section 5: Connections (30-80 lines)
+
+Describe every arrow individually. Arrows carry the semantic meaning of diagrams.
+
+**Per-arrow specification template**:
+```
+ARROW [N]: [Source] → [Target]
+- Style: [solid / dashed / dotted]
+- Color: [hex code]
+- Weight: [thin 1px / medium 2px / thick 3px]
+- Routing: [straight / curves UP / curves DOWN / bezier around X]
+- Label: "[text]" in [italic / bold], positioned [above / below / alongside]
+- Arrowhead: [filled triangle / open chevron / circle dot]
+```
+
+**Style-specific arrow conventions**:
+
+| Style | Arrow Character |
+|-------|----------------|
+| Sketch/简笔画 | Hand-drawn curves, open arrowheads, labels in casual handwriting |
+| Modern Minimal | Thin gray (#6B7280) straight lines, small filled dot at source, clean chevron at target |
+| Illustrated | Colored bezier curves matching source, medium weight, label badges |
+| Classic Academic | Solid colored lines matching source section, filled triangle heads |
+
+### Section 6: Constraints (10-15 lines)
+
+Adapt constraints to the chosen style:
+
+**For Sketch/简笔画**:
+```
+CONSTRAINTS:
+- Lines should look HAND-DRAWN but still legible — wobbly, not chaotic
+- NO clip art, NO stock icons, NO photorealistic elements
+- NO emoji — icons must be simple LINE DRAWINGS in charcoal
+- NO figure numbers, NO captions, NO watermarks
+- Background is warm off-white #FAFAF7, NOT pure white
+- Overall composition should feel warm and inviting, like a sketchbook page
+- Every text label spelled EXACTLY as specified
+- Publication quality — this is for NeurIPS, not a napkin sketch
+```
+
+**For Modern Minimal**:
+```
+CONSTRAINTS:
+- ZERO decoration — no icons, no illustrations, no ornaments
+- NO visible borders on component boxes — they float using subtle shadow only
+- NO thick colored lines — all connections are thin gray
+- NO gradients, NO patterns, NO textures
+- Whitespace is a design element — at least 24px between all elements
+- NO figure numbers, NO captions, NO watermarks
+- Background pure white #FFFFFF
+- Every text label spelled EXACTLY as specified
+```
+
+## Complete Prompt Examples
+
+### Example 1: Agent System (Sketch/简笔画 Style)
+
+```
+Create a warm, hand-drawn-style technical diagram for a NeurIPS paper showing
+an autonomous research agent system. The diagram should feel like a carefully
+drawn whiteboard sketch — approachable yet precise.
+
+VISUAL STYLE — HAND-DRAWN SKETCH:
+- Slightly irregular, hand-drawn line quality — lines wobble gently, not perfectly straight
+- Rounded, soft shapes with visible pen strokes (like drawn with a thick felt-tip marker)
+- Warm off-white background (#FAFAF7)
+- Fill colors are soft watercolor washes: blue #D6E4F0, wheat #F5DEB3, sage #D4E6D4
+- Borders are charcoal #2C2C2C, 2-3px, slightly uneven
+- Arrows hand-drawn with natural curves, open arrowheads
+- Small doodle-style line-art icons inside each component (NOT emoji, NOT clip art)
+- Text in rounded sans-serif, warm and readable
+
+COLOR PALETTE — INK AND WASH:
+- Outlines/text: Charcoal #2C2C2C
+- Planner fill: Blue wash #D6E4F0
+- Executor fill: Wheat wash #F5DEB3
+- Verifier fill: Sage wash #D4E6D4
+- Background: Warm paper #FAFAF7
+- Failure/retry: Terracotta #C0725E
+
+LAYOUT — TRIANGULAR ARRANGEMENT:
+Three rounded blob shapes arranged in a triangle:
+
+TOP CENTER — "Planner" blob:
+- Blue wash fill (#D6E4F0)
+- Line-art icon: a small COMPASS or MAP (simple 2D line drawing)
+- Bold label: "Planner"
+- Subtitle: "Decomposes research questions"
+
+BOTTOM LEFT — "Executor" blob:
+- Wheat wash fill (#F5DEB3)
+- Line-art icon: a small GEAR or WRENCH
+- Bold label: "Executor"
+- Subtitle: "Runs experiments & tools"
+
+BOTTOM RIGHT — "Verifier" blob:
+- Sage wash fill (#D4E6D4)
+- Line-art icon: a small MAGNIFYING GLASS
+- Bold label: "Verifier"
+- Subtitle: "Checks results & evidence"
+
+ARROWS:
+1. Planner → Executor: curved arrow going DOWN-LEFT, charcoal, solid
+   Label: "task plan" (italic, small)
+2. Executor → Verifier: curved arrow going RIGHT, charcoal, solid
+   Label: "raw results" (italic, small)
+3. Verifier → Planner: curved arrow going UP-LEFT, terracotta #C0725E, DASHED
+   Label: "needs revision" (italic, small)
+   This is the feedback/retry path — dashed to show it's conditional
+
+CENTER of triangle: small text "Shared Memory" with a tiny notebook icon
+
+CONSTRAINTS:
+- Hand-drawn feel but still publication quality for NeurIPS
+- NO clip art, NO stock icons — only simple line drawings
+- NO figure numbers, NO captions
+- Warm off-white background, NOT pure white
+- Every label spelled EXACTLY as written
+```
+
+### Example 2: Training Pipeline (Modern Minimal Style)
+
+```
+Create an ultra-clean, modern technical architecture diagram for an ICML paper.
+Confident, spacious, authoritative. Think: Apple developer docs meets Nature paper.
+
+VISUAL STYLE — MODERN MINIMAL:
+- Ultra-clean geometric shapes with crisp edges
+- Bold color blocks as section fills using desaturated tones
+- Component boxes: 12px rounded corners, NO visible border, float on section
+  background with subtle shadow (1px, 4px blur, rgba(0,0,0,0.06))
+- ONE accent color per section, used on section header only
+- Arrows: thin 1.5px, dark gray #6B7280, small filled circle at source,
+  clean open chevron at target
+- Typography: system sans-serif, titles 600 weight, body 400 weight
+- Labels INSIDE boxes, generous whitespace (24px+ between elements)
+
+COLOR PALETTE — NORD:
+- Deep text: #2E3440
+- Section 1 fill: #EEF1F6 (blue tint), accent: #5E81AC
+- Section 2 fill: #EDF3ED (green tint), accent: #A3BE8C
+- Section 3 fill: #F5F2EA (yellow tint), accent: #EBCB8B
+- Box fill: White #FFFFFF
+- Arrows: #6B7280
+
+LAYOUT — THREE HORIZONTAL SECTIONS:
+Three wide horizontal bands, stacked vertically with 16px gaps.
+Each section is a full-width rounded rectangle (8px corners).
+
+[SECTION 1 — "Data" — blue tint background #EEF1F6]
+- Small section header top-left: "DATA" in #5E81AC, small caps, letter-spaced
+- Three white floating boxes in a row:
+  Box: "Corpus" / "1.2T tokens"
+  Box: "Filter" / "Quality + dedup"
+  Box: "Tokenize" / "BPE 32K"
+
+[SECTION 2 — "Train" — green tint background #EDF3ED]
+- Header: "TRAIN" in #A3BE8C
+- Three white floating boxes:
+  Box: "Model" / "7B · 32 layers"
+  Box: "Optimize" / "AdamW · cosine"
+  Box: "Checkpoint" / "Every 1K steps"
+
+[SECTION 3 — "Evaluate" — yellow tint background #F5F2EA]
+- Header: "EVALUATE" in #EBCB8B
+- Three white floating boxes:
+  Box: "Benchmark" / "MMLU · HumanEval"
+  Box: "Analyze" / "Scaling curves"
+  Box: "Report" / "Camera-ready"
+
+ARROWS:
+1. "Tokenize" → "Model": thin gray #6B7280, vertical, label "feeds"
+2. "Checkpoint" → "Benchmark": thin gray, vertical, label "evaluate"
+3. "Analyze" → "Report": thin gray, horizontal, label "publish"
+
+CONSTRAINTS:
+- ZERO decoration — no icons, no illustrations
+- NO visible box borders — shadow only
+- Generous whitespace between all elements
+- NO figure numbers, NO captions, NO watermarks
+- Background: pure white #FFFFFF
+- All labels EXACTLY as written
+- Publication quality for ICML 2026
+```
+
+## Multi-Attempt Evaluation Rubric
+
+Rate each attempt on these 5 dimensions (1-5 scale):
+
+| Dimension | What to Check | Weight |
+|-----------|---------------|--------|
+| **Style fidelity** | Does it match the requested visual style? (e.g., hand-drawn feel, clean minimal) | 30% |
+| **Text accuracy** | All labels spelled correctly, no phantom text? | 25% |
+| **Layout fidelity** | Spatial arrangement matches prompt? | 20% |
+| **Color accuracy** | Colors match hex codes? Consistent? | 15% |
+| **Connection accuracy** | All arrows present, correct routing and labels? | 10% |
+
+**If style fidelity fails**: Strengthen the style block with more sensory descriptions. Add "The overall aesthetic should resemble [specific reference]."
+
+**If text fails**: Add `CRITICAL: The word "[exact word]" must appear EXACTLY. Do not abbreviate, do not change capitalization.`
+
+**If layout fails**: Add explicit coordinates or grid references. "Box A is at position (left: 10%, top: 20%)."
+
+## TikZ Alternative (for LaTeX-native diagrams)
+
+Use when the diagram is simple enough for deterministic output:
+
+```latex
+\begin{tikzpicture}[
+    box/.style={draw=#1, fill=#1!8, rounded corners=6pt, minimum width=2.8cm,
+                minimum height=1cm, font=\small\sffamily, line width=0.8pt},
+    lbl/.style={font=\scriptsize\sffamily\itshape, text=#1},
+    arr/.style={-{Stealth[length=5pt]}, line width=0.8pt, color=#1},
+]
+    \node[box=teal]   (plan) at (0,0)    {Planner};
+    \node[box=orange]  (exec) at (4,0)    {Executor};
+    \node[box=olive]   (veri) at (8,0)    {Verifier};
+
+    \draw[arr=gray]  (plan) -- (exec) node[midway, above, lbl=gray] {task plan};
+    \draw[arr=gray]  (exec) -- (veri) node[midway, above, lbl=gray] {results};
+    \draw[arr=red!60, dashed] (veri) to[bend right=30]
+        node[midway, below, lbl=red!60] {revise} (plan);
+\end{tikzpicture}
+```
+
+## Mermaid for Quick Prototyping
+
+Sketch the logical flow before investing in Gemini generation:
+
+```mermaid
+graph LR
+    A[Observe] --> B[Hypothesize]
+    B --> C[Verify]
+    C -.->|refine| A
+```
+
+Validate the structure is correct, then write the full Gemini prompt.

package/skills/ai-research/20-ml-paper-writing/academic-plotting/references/style-guide.md

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+<!-- vendored from orchestra-research/AI-research-SKILLs@773a52944ba4747a18bd4ae9ade53fff041adcbc 20-ml-paper-writing/academic-plotting/references/style-guide.md; MIT (c) Orchestra Research -->
+# Publication Style Guide for ML Paper Figures
+
+Standards for figure styling across major ML/AI conferences.
+
+## Universal Rules
+
+1. **Vector format preferred** — Export PDF for LaTeX, PNG only for AI-generated diagrams
+2. **300 DPI minimum** for raster images
+3. **Colorblind-safe palettes** — Never rely on color alone; add markers, patterns, or labels
+4. **Consistent style** — All figures in a paper must share fonts, colors, and styling
+5. **Self-contained** — Every figure must be understandable without reading the caption first
+6. **No decorative elements** — No shadows, 3D effects, gradients, or clip art
+
+## Venue-Specific Figure Dimensions
+
+### NeurIPS
+
+| Layout | Width | Notes |
+|--------|-------|-------|
+| Single column | 5.5 in | NeurIPS is single-column |
+| Half width | 2.65 in | Side-by-side within column |
+| Max height | 9 in | Full page |
+
+Template: `\usepackage[final]{neurips_2025}`
+
+### ICML
+
+| Layout | Width | Notes |
+|--------|-------|-------|
+| Single column | 3.25 in | ICML is two-column |
+| Full width | 6.75 in | `\begin{figure*}` |
+| Max height | 9.25 in | Full page |
+
+Template: `\usepackage{icml2026}`
+
+### ICLR
+
+| Layout | Width | Notes |
+|--------|-------|-------|
+| Single column | 5.5 in | ICLR is single-column |
+| Max height | 9 in | Full page |
+
+Template: `\usepackage{iclr2026_conference}`
+
+### ACL / EMNLP
+
+| Layout | Width | Notes |
+|--------|-------|-------|
+| Single column | 3.3 in | ACL is two-column |
+| Full width | 6.8 in | `\begin{figure*}` |
+
+Template: `\usepackage[hyperref]{acl2025}`
+
+### AAAI
+
+| Layout | Width | Notes |
+|--------|-------|-------|
+| Single column | 3.3 in | AAAI is two-column |
+| Full width | 7.0 in | `\begin{figure*}` |
+
+## Color Palettes
+
+### Recommended Colorblind-Safe Palette
+
+This palette is distinguishable under all forms of color vision deficiency:
+
+```python
+# "deep" variant — high contrast, good for lines and bars
+PALETTE_DEEP = [
+    "#4C72B0",  # blue
+    "#DD8452",  # orange
+    "#55A868",  # green
+    "#C44E52",  # red
+    "#8172B3",  # purple
+    "#937860",  # brown
+    "#DA8BC3",  # pink
+    "#8C8C8C",  # gray
+]
+```
+
+### Two-Color Schemes (ours vs. baseline)
+
+```python
+# High contrast pair
+OURS = "#C44E52"     # red — stands out
+BASELINE = "#8C8C8C" # gray — recedes
+
+# Alternative pair
+OURS = "#4C72B0"     # blue
+BASELINE = "#DD8452"  # orange
+```
+
+### Gradient Schemes (for heatmaps / continuous data)
+
+| Use Case | Colormap | Code |
+|----------|----------|------|
+| Single variable (0 to max) | Blues | `cmap="Blues"` |
+| Diverging (negative to positive) | RdBu_r | `cmap="RdBu_r"` |
+| Perceptually uniform | viridis | `cmap="viridis"` |
+| Correlation matrix | coolwarm | `cmap="coolwarm"` |
+| Attention weights | YlOrRd | `cmap="YlOrRd"` |
+
+### Colors to Avoid
+
+- **Pure red + pure green** — indistinguishable for ~8% of males
+- **Rainbow/jet colormap** — perceptually non-uniform, misleading
+- **Light yellow on white** — insufficient contrast
+- **Neon/saturated colors** — look unprofessional in academic papers
+
+## Typography
+
+### Font Matching LaTeX Documents
+
+| Conference | Document Font | Figure Font Setting |
+|-----------|---------------|-------------------|
+| NeurIPS | Times | `font.family: serif`, `font.serif: Times New Roman` |
+| ICML | Times | Same as NeurIPS |
+| ICLR | Times | Same as NeurIPS |
+| ACL | Times | Same as NeurIPS |
+| AAAI | Times | Same as NeurIPS |
+
+### Font Size Guidelines
+
+| Element | Size | Rationale |
+|---------|------|-----------|
+| Axis labels | 10-11pt | Must be readable at print size |
+| Tick labels | 8-9pt | Smaller but legible |
+| Legend text | 8-9pt | Compact but readable |
+| Title (if any) | 11-12pt | Usually omitted (caption serves as title) |
+| Annotations | 7-8pt | Smallest readable size |
+
+**Rule**: No text in figures smaller than 7pt at final print size.
+
+### Math Typesetting
+
+```python
+# For inline math
+ax.set_xlabel(r"Number of parameters $N$")
+
+# For display math
+ax.set_ylabel(r"Loss $\mathcal{L}(\theta)$")
+
+# Greek letters
+ax.set_xlabel(r"Learning rate $\alpha$")
+
+# Subscripts/superscripts
+ax.set_ylabel(r"$R^2$ score")
+```
+
+## Layout Conventions
+
+### Legend Placement
+
+Priority order:
+1. **Inside the plot** (upper-left or upper-right) if space allows
+2. **Below the plot** with `bbox_to_anchor=(0.5, -0.15), loc="upper center", ncol=N`
+3. **To the right** with `bbox_to_anchor=(1.05, 1), loc="upper left"` (takes extra width)
+
+```python
+# Clean legend (no frame, no extra spacing)
+ax.legend(frameon=False, loc="upper left", handlelength=1.5)
+
+# External legend below
+ax.legend(frameon=False, bbox_to_anchor=(0.5, -0.15),
+          loc="upper center", ncol=4)
+```
+
+### Grid Lines
+
+```python
+# Subtle grid (recommended)
+ax.grid(True, alpha=0.3, linestyle="--", linewidth=0.5)
+
+# Major grid only (for log-scale plots)
+ax.grid(True, which="major", alpha=0.3, linestyle="--")
+ax.grid(True, which="minor", alpha=0.1, linestyle=":")
+```
+
+### Axis Styling
+
+```python
+# Remove top and right spines (clean look)
+ax.spines["top"].set_visible(False)
+ax.spines["right"].set_visible(False)
+
+# Reduce tick padding
+ax.tick_params(axis="both", which="major", pad=3)
+```
+
+### Multi-Panel Labels
+
+```python
+# Standard (a), (b), (c) labels
+for i, ax in enumerate(axes.flat):
+    ax.set_title(f"({chr(97 + i)})", loc="left", fontweight="bold", fontsize=11)
+
+# Or as text annotation
+ax.text(-0.1, 1.05, "(a)", transform=ax.transAxes,
+        fontsize=12, fontweight="bold", va="top")
+```
+
+## Diagram Style Standards
+
+For AI-generated architecture/system diagrams:
+
+### Professional Diagram Palette
+
+```
+Section accents:  Blue #4A90D9, Teal #5BA58B, Amber #D4A252, Slate #7B8794
+Failure/error:    Red #D94A4A (dashed lines)
+Section fill:     #F7F7F5 (very pale warm gray)
+Box borders:      #DDDDDD
+Box fill:         #FFFFFF
+Primary text:     #333333
+Secondary text:   #666666
+Background:       #FFFFFF
+```
+
+### Layout Patterns for Diagrams
+
+| Pattern | When to Use | Description |
+|---------|-------------|-------------|
+| Horizontal bands | Layered architectures | Sections stacked vertically, boxes horizontal |
+| Left-to-right flow | Sequential pipelines | Input → Processing → Output |
+| Hub-and-spoke | Central component | Central node with radiating connections |
+| Grid | Matrix of components | Regular arrangement for comparison |
+| Tree | Hierarchical decisions | Top-down branching structure |
+
+### Arrow Conventions
+
+| Arrow Type | Style | Usage |
+|-----------|-------|-------|
+| Data flow | Solid, colored by source | Normal information passing |
+| Control flow | Solid, gray | Orchestration signals |
+| Error/failure | Dashed, red | Failure paths, refutation |
+| Optional | Dotted, gray | Conditional paths |
+| Bidirectional | Double-headed | Mutual dependencies |
+
+## LaTeX Integration
+
+### Basic Figure Inclusion
+
+```latex
+\begin{figure}[t]
+  \centering
+  \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{figures/fig_name.pdf}
+  \caption{Clear description of what the figure shows. Best viewed in color.}
+  \label{fig:name}
+\end{figure}
+```
+
+### Full-Width Figure (two-column venues)
+
+```latex
+\begin{figure*}[t]
+  \centering
+  \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figures/fig_overview.pdf}
+  \caption{System overview showing the three main components.}
+  \label{fig:overview}
+\end{figure*}
+```
+
+### Side-by-Side Subfigures
+
+```latex
+\begin{figure}[t]
+  \centering
+  \begin{subfigure}[b]{0.48\linewidth}
+    \centering
+    \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{figures/fig_a.pdf}
+    \caption{Training loss}
+    \label{fig:a}
+  \end{subfigure}
+  \hfill
+  \begin{subfigure}[b]{0.48\linewidth}
+    \centering
+    \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{figures/fig_b.pdf}
+    \caption{Evaluation accuracy}
+    \label{fig:b}
+  \end{subfigure}
+  \caption{Training dynamics. (a) Loss decreases steadily. (b) Accuracy plateaus after 50K steps.}
+  \label{fig:training}
+\end{figure}
+```
+
+### Caption Best Practices
+
+- **First sentence**: What the figure shows (standalone understanding)
+- **Key takeaway**: What the reader should notice
+- **Color note**: "Best viewed in color" if color carries meaning
+- **No "Figure X shows..."** — the figure number is already there
+
+Good: "Training loss across model sizes. Larger models converge faster and to lower final loss."
+Bad: "Figure 3 shows the training loss for different model sizes."
+
+## Accessibility Checklist
+
+- [ ] Figures readable in grayscale (print-friendly)
+- [ ] No text smaller than 7pt at final print size
+- [ ] Colorblind-safe palette used
+- [ ] Different line styles/markers in addition to colors
+- [ ] High contrast between data and background
+- [ ] Axis labels present and readable
+- [ ] Legend clear and non-overlapping