mistral-pdf-to-markdown

name	mistral-pdf-to-markdown
description	Convert PDFs to Markdown using Mistral OCR API with image extraction. Use when you need to extract structured text and images from PDFs, especially for scanned documents or documents with complex formatting. Outputs Markdown with embedded images.
user-invocable	true

Mistral PDF to Markdown Converter

Convert PDF documents to Markdown format using Mistral's OCR API. Automatically extracts text, formatting, and images.

When to Use

• Converting research papers or documents to Markdown
• Extracting text from scanned PDFs (OCR capability)
• Preserving document structure with headers and formatting
• Extracting embedded images from PDFs

Quick Start

Use the conversion script from this skill's directory:

# Convert entire PDF
uv run python <skill-dir>/scripts/convert_pdf_to_markdown.py input.pdf output.md

# Convert specific pages
uv run python <skill-dir>/scripts/convert_pdf_to_markdown.py input.pdf output.md --pages "1-5"
uv run python <skill-dir>/scripts/convert_pdf_to_markdown.py input.pdf output.md --pages "1,3,5"

Replace <skill-dir> with the directory that contains this SKILL.md.

Output Structure

Output/PDFConversions/
├── document.md          # Markdown with text and image references
└── images/
    ├── img-0.jpeg      # Extracted images
    ├── img-1.jpeg
    └── ...

Usage in Code

from pathlib import Path
import subprocess

# Run conversion script
result = subprocess.run([
    "uv", "run", "python",
    "<skill-dir>/scripts/convert_pdf_to_markdown.py",
    "input.pdf",
    "Output/PDFConversions/output.md",
    "--pages", "1-10"
], capture_output=True, text=True)

print(result.stdout)

Key Features

• Markdown formatting: Preserves headers, lists, and structure
• Image extraction: Saves images to images/ subfolder automatically
• Page selection: Extract specific pages or ranges
• Scanned PDF support: True OCR capability for image-based PDFs
• Relative paths: Image references use ![...](images/img-X.jpeg)

Requirements

The script requires:

• Mistral API key (see API Key Setup below)
• Python packages: mistralai, python-dotenv, pypdf

API Key Setup

The script checks these locations in order (first match wins):

1. Environment variable MISTRAL_API_KEY — recommended for personal use (e.g., add export MISTRAL_API_KEY=your-key to secrets.sh)
2. Shared config — .claude/agent-contract.yaml or ~/.config/agent-contract/config.yaml under paper-reader.mistral_api_key
3. Notes/.env — add MISTRAL_API_KEY=your-key. This file is gitignored but Dropbox-synced, making it convenient for teams sharing a project folder

Never commit API keys to git. Use environment variables or Dropbox-synced Notes/.env instead.

Common Use Cases

Convert Research Paper

uv run python <skill-dir>/scripts/convert_pdf_to_markdown.py \
  "Data/papers/research.pdf" \
  "Notes/Paper Markdown/research.md"

Extract Specific Sections

# Extract pages 10-20 (introduction and methods)
uv run python <skill-dir>/scripts/convert_pdf_to_markdown.py \
  "paper.pdf" \
  "Notes/Paper Markdown/intro_methods.md" \
  --pages "10-20"

Extract Figures Only

# Extract pages with figures
uv run python <skill-dir>/scripts/convert_pdf_to_markdown.py \
  "paper.pdf" \
  "Notes/Paper Markdown/figures.md" \
  --pages "25,27,30,35"

Error Handling

API Key Not Found:

Error: Mistral API key not found

→ See API Key Setup above for three ways to configure it

Page Out of Range:

Warning: Page 100 out of range, skipping

→ Check PDF page count and adjust page selection

API Rate Limit: → Wait a moment and retry, or reduce page count per request

Notes

• Images are saved as JPEG files in images/ subfolder
• Markdown image references are automatically updated to images/img-X.jpeg
• Large PDFs may take longer to process due to API limits
• For simple text extraction without OCR, consider using the pdf skill instead
• Scanned PDFs benefit most from this skill's OCR capability

See Also

• pdf skill - For local PDF manipulation without API calls
• references/reference.md - Additional details about the Mistral OCR API