pdf

name	pdf
description	Use when tasks involve reading, creating, or reviewing PDF files where rendering and layout matter; prefer visual checks by rendering pages (Poppler) and use Python tools such as `reportlab`, `pdfplumber`, and `pypdf` for generation and extraction.

PDF Skill

When to use

• Read or review PDF content where layout and visuals matter.
• Create PDFs programmatically with reliable formatting.
• Validate final rendering before delivery.

Workflow

1. Prefer visual review: render PDF pages to PNGs and inspect them.
   • Use pdftoppm if available.
   • If unavailable, install Poppler or ask the user to review the output locally.
2. Use reportlab to generate PDFs when creating new documents.
3. Use pdfplumber (or pypdf) for text extraction and quick checks; do not rely on it for layout fidelity.
4. After each meaningful update, re-render pages and verify alignment, spacing, and legibility.

Temp and output conventions

• Use tmp/pdfs/ for intermediate files; delete when done.
• Write final artifacts under output/pdf/ when working in this repo.
• Keep filenames stable and descriptive.

Dependencies (install if missing)

Prefer uv for dependency management.

Python packages:

uv pip install reportlab pdfplumber pypdf

If uv is unavailable:

python3 -m pip install reportlab pdfplumber pypdf

System tools (for rendering):

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install poppler

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install -y poppler-utils