pdf2md-api

name

pdf2md-api

description

Convert PDFs to markdown, plain text, or JSON via the pdf2md HTTP API. Use this skill whenever you need to convert a PDF from a URL, an arxiv paper, or an uploaded file to readable text using the remote pdf2md-service, rather than a local CLI tool. Triggers on "convert this PDF URL", "fetch arxiv paper as markdown", "pdf2md api", "upload PDF to convert", or any task that involves calling the pdf2md worker endpoint for PDF conversion. Also use when the user wants to read a remote PDF and the local `pdf2md` CLI is not available.

pdf2md API

Convert PDFs to markdown, plain text, or JSON via HTTP. Cloudflare Worker proxy -> Python backend.

Base URL: https://pdf2md-worker.pobomp.workers.dev

No authentication required.

GET Endpoints (all environments)

These endpoints work in any environment -- CLI agents, web chat apps, mobile apps. Just construct the URL and fetch it.

Convert arxiv paper

GET /arxiv/{paper_id}

Paper ID formats: 2301.12345, 2301.12345v2, hep-th/9901001

Extract the paper ID from arxiv URLs:

• https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.12345 -> 2301.12345
• https://arxiv.org/pdf/2301.12345 -> 2301.12345

Full URL to fetch:

https://pdf2md-worker.pobomp.workers.dev/arxiv/2603.15031

Convert PDF from URL

GET /url/{pdf-url}

The full PDF URL goes directly in the path (no encoding needed for simple URLs):

https://pdf2md-worker.pobomp.workers.dev/url/https://example.com/paper.pdf

Output format

All GET endpoints default to markdown. Append ?format= to change:

Value	Content-Type	Description
markdown	text/markdown	Default. Clean markdown with tables, headers, structure
text	text/plain	Plain text, tables as ASCII grids
json	application/json	Structured JSON with layout data

https://pdf2md-worker.pobomp.workers.dev/arxiv/2603.15031?format=text
https://pdf2md-worker.pobomp.workers.dev/arxiv/2603.15031?format=json

Health check

GET /health

Returns cache stats.

Usage by Environment

Web / Mobile Chat Apps (no shell access)

If you only have a built-in web fetch tool (e.g. web_reader, browser, fetch, url_fetch):

1. Construct the GET URL from the patterns above
2. Fetch it with whatever built-in tool your platform provides
3. The response is the converted content (markdown by default)

Example -- convert an arxiv paper:

Fetch: https://pdf2md-worker.pobomp.workers.dev/arxiv/2603.15031

Example -- convert a PDF URL:

Fetch: https://pdf2md-worker.pobomp.workers.dev/url/https://example.com/doc.pdf

No curl, no shell, no POST -- just GET the URL.

CLI Coding Agents (shell access)

With shell access you get more flexibility: pipe, save to files, upload local PDFs.

# Convert arxiv paper
curl -s "https://pdf2md-worker.pobomp.workers.dev/arxiv/2603.15031"

# Convert PDF from URL, save locally
curl -s "https://pdf2md-worker.pobomp.workers.dev/url/https://example.com/paper.pdf" > /tmp/converted.md

# Upload a local PDF file (CLI-only)
curl -s -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/pdf" \
  --data-binary @paper.pdf \
  "https://pdf2md-worker.pobomp.workers.dev/file"

Or use WebFetch / mcp__web_reader__webReader for the GET endpoints if available.

POST Endpoint (CLI-only)

Upload PDF file

POST /file
Content-Type: application/pdf
Body: raw PDF bytes

Max file size: 20MB (returns 413 if exceeded).

This endpoint requires sending a POST with binary body -- only usable from environments with shell access or HTTP client libraries. Not available in web/mobile chat apps.

Error Responses

All errors return JSON {"error": "<message>"}:

Status	Meaning
400	Bad request (invalid paper ID, missing params)
413	File too large
502	Backend unavailable