markitdown

name	markitdown
description	CLI for converting files to Markdown using Microsoft's markitdown. Use when converting PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, HTML, images, audio, or other file formats to Markdown for text analysis or LLM processing. Triggered by requests involving file-to-markdown conversion, document text extraction, or preparing files for LLM input. Use when this capability is needed.
metadata	{"author":"fprochazka"}

markitdown

Command-line tool for converting various file formats to Markdown. Built by Microsoft for LLM and text analysis pipelines.

Basic Usage

markitdown document.pdf                    # Convert, output to stdout
markitdown document.pdf -o output.md       # Convert, write to file
cat document.pdf | markitdown              # Convert from stdin
markitdown document.pdf > output.md        # Redirect stdout to file
markitdown < document.pdf                  # Redirect stdin

Supported Formats

Converted without any extras: HTML, CSV, JSON, XML, plain text, ZIP (iterates contents), EPub, Jupyter notebooks (.ipynb), RSS feeds, Wikipedia URLs, Bing SERP results.

With extras installed: PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, XLS, Outlook MSG, images (EXIF metadata + optional LLM captioning), audio (EXIF metadata + optional transcription), YouTube URLs (transcript extraction).

Options

markitdown -v                              # Show version
markitdown -o FILE                         # Write output to file instead of stdout
markitdown -x .pdf                         # Hint file extension (useful with stdin)
markitdown -m application/pdf              # Hint MIME type
markitdown -c UTF-8                        # Hint charset
markitdown --keep-data-uris                # Keep base64-encoded data URIs in output (truncated by default)

Azure Document Intelligence

For higher-quality extraction using cloud OCR:

markitdown -d -e "https://your-endpoint.cognitiveservices.azure.com" document.pdf

Plugins

Third-party plugins extend format support via the markitdown.plugin entry point:

markitdown --list-plugins                  # List installed plugins
markitdown -p document.xyz                 # Enable plugins for conversion

Common Patterns

Convert a file and pipe to another tool

markitdown report.pdf | wc -w                       # Word count
markitdown report.pdf | head -50                     # Preview first 50 lines

Batch convert multiple files

for f in *.pdf; do markitdown "$f" -o "${f%.pdf}.md"; done

Convert from URL (via curl)

curl -sL "https://example.com/doc.pdf" | markitdown -x .pdf

Convert and process with stdin extension hint

When piping content, provide an extension hint so markitdown can select the right converter:

cat unknown_file | markitdown -x .docx

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