kramme-docs-to-markdown

name	kramme:docs:to-markdown
description	Convert documents and files to Markdown using markitdown. Use when converting PDF, Word (.docx), PowerPoint (.pptx), Excel (.xlsx, .xls), HTML, CSV, JSON, XML, images (with EXIF/OCR), audio (with transcription), video via Azure Content Understanding, ZIP archives, YouTube URLs, or EPubs to Markdown format for LLM processing or text analysis.
disable-model-invocation	false
user-invocable	true

Markdown Converter

Convert files to Markdown with markitdown, run on demand via uvx — no manual install of markitdown.

Requires uv (which provides uvx). If you hit uvx: command not found, install uv (https://docs.astral.sh/uv/getting-started/installation/), or fall back to pipx run 'markitdown[all]' or pip install 'markitdown[all]' and call markitdown directly.

Always pass the [all] extras. PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, audio transcription, YouTube, Azure Document Intelligence, and Azure Content Understanding support ship as optional dependencies; bare uvx markitdown omits them and fails on those formats with a missing-dependency error. Use the uvx --from 'markitdown[all]' markitdown … form shown below. For selective installs, Azure Content Understanding is the [az-content-understanding] extra.

Basic Usage

# Convert to stdout
uvx --from 'markitdown[all]' markitdown input.pdf

# Save to file
uvx --from 'markitdown[all]' markitdown input.pdf -o output.md
uvx --from 'markitdown[all]' markitdown input.docx > output.md

# From stdin (add -x to hint the file type)
cat input.pdf | uvx --from 'markitdown[all]' markitdown -x .pdf > output.md

Before passing -o (or redirecting to a file), check whether the output path exists; if it does, confirm with the user or choose a new name before writing.

Supported Formats

• Documents: PDF, Word (.docx), PowerPoint (.pptx), Excel (.xlsx, .xls)
• Web/Data: HTML, CSV, JSON, XML
• Media: Images (EXIF + OCR), Audio (EXIF + transcription), Video (via Azure Content Understanding)
• Other: ZIP (iterates contents), YouTube URLs, EPub

Options

-o OUTPUT          # Output file (overwrites without confirmation)
-x EXTENSION       # Hint file extension (for stdin)
-m MIME_TYPE       # Hint MIME type
-c CHARSET         # Hint charset (e.g., UTF-8)
-d, --use-docintel # Use Azure Document Intelligence
-e, --endpoint ENDPOINT
                   # Document Intelligence endpoint
--use-cu, --use-content-understanding
                   # Use Azure Content Understanding instead of offline conversion
--cu-endpoint ENDPOINT
                   # Content Understanding endpoint
--cu-analyzer ID   # Optional Content Understanding analyzer ID
--cu-file-types TYPES
                   # Comma-separated CU-routed file types, e.g. pdf,jpeg,mp4
-p, --use-plugins  # Enable 3rd-party plugins
--list-plugins     # Show installed plugins
--keep-data-uris   # Keep data URIs in output

Azure Document Intelligence (-d / -e) and Azure Content Understanding (--use-cu / --cu-endpoint) are mutually exclusive cloud extraction paths. Use Document Intelligence for improved document layout extraction; use Content Understanding when you need multimodal extraction, custom analyzers, or structured fields in YAML front matter. Content Understanding calls are billable Azure API calls; use --cu-file-types to restrict which formats route through CU.

Examples

# Convert Word document
uvx --from 'markitdown[all]' markitdown report.docx -o report.md

# Convert Excel spreadsheet
uvx --from 'markitdown[all]' markitdown data.xlsx > data.md

# Convert PowerPoint presentation
uvx --from 'markitdown[all]' markitdown slides.pptx -o slides.md

# Use Azure Document Intelligence for better PDF extraction
uvx --from 'markitdown[all]' markitdown scan.pdf -d -e "https://your-resource.cognitiveservices.azure.com/"

# Use Azure Content Understanding for multimodal or structured extraction
uvx --from 'markitdown[all]' markitdown report.pdf --use-cu --cu-endpoint "https://your-resource.cognitiveservices.azure.com/"

# Use a custom Content Understanding analyzer only for PDFs
uvx --from 'markitdown[all]' markitdown invoice.pdf --use-cu --cu-endpoint "https://your-resource.cognitiveservices.azure.com/" --cu-analyzer "invoice-analyzer" --cu-file-types pdf

Security

markitdown reads files and fetches URLs (YouTube, HTML, remote URIs) with the current process's privileges — like open() or requests.get(). Don't point it at untrusted files or URLs in shared or hosted contexts without validating them first (restrict file paths, URI schemes, and network destinations). See markitdown's Security Considerations.

Notes

• Output preserves document structure: headings, tables, lists, links
• -o overwrites the target file silently; check whether the output path exists first, and if it does, confirm with the user or choose a new name before passing -o
• First run caches dependencies; subsequent runs are faster
• On a missing-dependency error for a format, confirm the [all] extras are present (or install just the per-format extra, e.g. 'markitdown[pdf]' or 'markitdown[az-content-understanding]'); for complex PDFs with poor extraction, use -d with Azure Document Intelligence or --use-cu with Azure Content Understanding
• When piping via stdin, prefer -x (and optionally -m/-c) for better detection