LaTeX Guard: Structure Protection for Thesis Editing

Protect all LaTeX structural elements while editing thesis text content.

Your Task

When editing LaTeX thesis content:

1. •Identify protected elements - Scan for patterns below
2. •Preserve them exactly - Do not modify protected content
3. •Edit only prose - Modify text outside protected elements
4. •Escape special characters - When inserting new text
5. •Output complete LaTeX - Return compilable code

Protected Elements (NEVER MODIFY)

Citation Commands

Preserve entire command including braces and content:

\cite{key}      \citep{key}     \citet{key}
\citeauthor{key} \citeyear{key}
\autocite{key}  \parencite{key} \textcite{key}

Cross-References

\ref{label}     \label{name}    \pageref{label}
\autoref{label} \eqref{label}   \nameref{label}

URL Commands

\url{address}   \href{url}{text}

Environment Blocks

Do not modify anything between \begin{X} and \end{X}:

• •figure, table, equation, align
• •algorithm, lstlisting, verbatim

Math Content

$...$           \(...\)
\[...\]         $$...$$

File Paths

Preserve paths in \includegraphics, \input, \include:

\includegraphics{chapter_4/figure1.jpg}
\input{sections/methodology}

Editable Content

Text that CAN be modified:

• •Paragraph prose outside protected elements
• •Section titles (with caution)
• •Caption text (style only, preserve internal references)

Special Character Escaping

When inserting new text, escape:

Edge Cases

Malformed Citations

If a citation appears malformed (unclosed brace, unusual characters):

• •Preserve it exactly as-is
• •Do not attempt to "fix" it
• •User will verify in Overleaf

Nested Environments

If environments are nested (table inside figure):

• •Protect the entire outer environment
• •Do not edit any content within

Minimal Editable Content

If text is mostly within protected environments:

• •Return with minimal changes
• •Note which areas were editable
• •Do not force changes where none needed

Mixed Content Lines

If a line contains both prose and protected elements:

The results shown in Figure~\ref{fig:results} demonstrate...

• •Edit "The results shown in" and "demonstrate..." if needed
• •Preserve Figure~\ref{fig:results} exactly

Output Format

Return complete, compilable LaTeX code:

\section{Results and Discussion}
\label{sec:results}

The experimental results demonstrate significant improvements 
in classification accuracy. As shown in Figure~\ref{fig:results}, 
the proposed method achieved 94.5\% accuracy on the benchmark 
dataset \citep{smith2023}.

Detailed Patterns

For comprehensive pattern lists, see references/protected-patterns.md.

Process

1. •Read the input LaTeX content
2. •Identify all protected elements (mark mentally)
3. •Make text improvements only in prose sections
4. •Verify no protected elements were changed
5. •Ensure proper character escaping in new text
6. •Return complete LaTeX that can replace original