| name | processing-pdfs |
| description | Processes PDF files. Extracts text and tables, fills forms, merges and splits documents, batch-processes files, converts to images, and generates PDFs programmatically. Use when working with .pdf files. Do NOT use for Word documents, spreadsheets, or presentations. |
| user-invocable | false |
| allowed-tools | Bash, Read, Write, Edit, Glob |
| argument-hint | <file.pdf | task> |
PDF Processing
Essential PDF operations using Python libraries and CLI tools.
Decision Matrix
Quick Start
from pypdf import PdfReader
reader = PdfReader("document.pdf")
print(f"Pages: {len(reader.pages)}")
text = "".join(page.extract_text() for page in reader.pages)
Workflow
- Identify task — text extraction? table? creation? form? Pick row from matrix above.
- Load reference — recipes.md covers 90% of tasks; advanced.md for OCR / encrypt; FORMS.md for forms.
- Implement — copy-adapt recipe; verify output.
- Validate — open in a viewer or grep extracted text.
Library Selection
| Library | Use for |
|---|
| pypdf | Merge, split, metadata, encryption, rotation |
| pdfplumber | Text extraction with layout, tables |
| reportlab | Generate PDFs programmatically |
| pdf2image + pytesseract | OCR scanned documents |
| qpdf / pdftk (CLI) | Batch ops, no Python needed |
