md-to-pdf

name	md-to-pdf
description	Convert any markdown file to a clean PDF. Use when asked to make a PDF from a .md file, export a document, or convert markdown to PDF.

When the user asks to convert a markdown file to PDF, follow these steps exactly:

Step 1 — Confirm the input file

Ask the user for the path to the .md file if not already provided. Confirm the output PDF path (default: same folder, same name, .pdf extension).

Step 2 — Convert markdown to styled HTML

Run this command (replace INPUT and OUTPUT paths):

pandoc "INPUT.md" \
  -o "OUTPUT.html" \
  --standalone \
  --metadata title="Document" \
  --css=/dev/stdin <<'EOF'
body { font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; max-width: 800px; margin: 40px auto; padding: 0 40px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.7; color: #1a1a1a; }
h1 { font-size: 26px; font-weight: 700; margin-bottom: 4px; }
h2 { font-size: 16px; font-weight: 700; margin-top: 32px; border-bottom: 1px solid #e0e0e0; padding-bottom: 6px; }
strong { font-weight: 600; }
table { width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; margin: 16px 0; font-size: 12px; }
th { background: #f5f5f5; padding: 8px; text-align: left; border: 1px solid #ddd; }
td { padding: 8px; border: 1px solid #ddd; }
hr { border: none; border-top: 1px solid #e0e0e0; margin: 24px 0; }
ul, ol { padding-left: 20px; }
li { margin-bottom: 6px; }
EOF

Step 3 — Print HTML to PDF using Chrome

"/Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome" \
  --headless \
  --disable-gpu \
  --no-sandbox \
  --print-to-pdf="OUTPUT.pdf" \
  --print-to-pdf-no-header \
  --no-pdf-header-footer \
  "file://OUTPUT.html"

Note: encode spaces in the file path as %20 in the file:// URL.

Step 4 — Clean up and confirm

Delete the intermediate HTML file:

rm "OUTPUT.html"

Tell the user the PDF is ready and give them the full path.

Requirements

• pandoc must be installed (which pandoc to check)
• Google Chrome must be at /Applications/Google Chrome.app/ (standard Mac install)
• Works on macOS only in this configuration

Error handling

• If pandoc is not found: tell the user to run brew install pandoc
• If Chrome is not at the expected path: check with ls /Applications/ | grep -i chrome and adjust the path
• If the PDF is 0 bytes: the file:// URL likely has unencoded spaces — encode them as %20