| name | markitdown |
| description | Convert files and Office documents into clean Markdown when you need LLM-friendly, token-efficient text (e.g., for summarization, search, RAG ingestion, or dataset preparation). |
| license | MIT |
| author | AIPOCH |
Source: https://github.com/aipoch/medical-research-skills
When to Use
- Converting research papers or reports (PDF/DOCX/EPUB/HTML) into Markdown for LLM summarization, Q&A, or RAG indexing.
- Extracting tables and structured content from spreadsheets (XLSX/CSV) into Markdown for analysis or documentation.
- Turning slide decks (PPTX) into Markdown notes, including speaker notes and (optionally) AI-generated image descriptions.
- Processing images or scanned documents with OCR to obtain searchable, editable Markdown text.
- Transcribing audio (WAV/MP3) or pulling YouTube transcripts into Markdown for meeting notes, content analysis, or knowledge bases.
Key Features
- Converts many formats to structured Markdown (PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, images, audio, HTML, CSV, JSON, XML, ZIP, EPUB, YouTube URLs, etc.).
- Produces token-efficient output suitable for LLM pipelines (summarization, chunking, embedding).
- OCR support for images/scans (when OCR dependencies are installed).
- Audio transcription support (when transcription dependencies are installed).
- Optional AI-enhanced image/slide descriptions via an OpenAI-compatible client (e.g., OpenRouter).
- Plugin system to extend format support and custom behaviors.
- Stream-based conversion API for large files.
Dependencies
- Python:
>=3.9 (recommended)
- Package:
markitdown[all] (installs all optional format handlers)
Optional system dependencies (feature-dependent):
- Tesseract OCR:
tesseract-ocr (for image/scanned-text OCR)
Optional external services (feature-dependent):
- Azure Document Intelligence endpoint (for enhanced PDF extraction)
- OpenAI-compatible LLM endpoint (e.g., OpenRouter) for AI image descriptions
Example Usage
Install
pip install 'markitdown[all]'
CLI: Convert a PDF to Markdown
markitdown document.pdf -o output.md
Python: Convert multiple formats (PDF/XLSX/PPTX/DOCX) and save outputs
from pathlib import Path
from markitdown import MarkItDown
md = MarkItDown()
files = [
"document.pdf",
"spreadsheet.xlsx",
"presentation.pptx",
"notes.docx",
]
for path in files:
result = md.convert(path)
out = Path(path).with_suffix(".md")
out.write_text(result.text_content, encoding="utf-8")
print(f"Converted {path} -> {out}")
Python: Stream conversion (useful for large files)
from markitdown import MarkItDown
md = MarkItDown()
with open("large_file.pdf", "rb") as f:
result = md.convert_stream(f, file_extension=".pdf")
with open("large_file.md", "w", encoding="utf-8") as out:
out.write(result.text_content)
Python: AI-enhanced image/slide descriptions (OpenAI-compatible, e.g., OpenRouter)
from markitdown import MarkItDown
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
api_key="YOUR_OPENROUTER_API_KEY",
base_url="https://openrouter.ai/api/v1",
)
md = MarkItDown(
llm_client=client,
llm_model="anthropic/claude-opus-4.5",
llm_prompt="Describe this image in detail for scientific documentation.",
)
result = md.convert("presentation.pptx")
print(result.text_content)
Implementation Details
