// Convert binary documents (PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, HTML, EPUB, images) to clean LLM-friendly Markdown using Microsoft's `markitdown` Python tool. Use when a user attaches a binary file and you need to read its contents.
| name | markdown-converter |
| description | Convert binary documents (PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, HTML, EPUB, images) to clean LLM-friendly Markdown using Microsoft's `markitdown` Python tool. Use when a user attaches a binary file and you need to read its contents. |
markitdown is installed via pip3 install markitdown and is on PATH. It
extracts text content from a wide range of binary formats and emits clean
markdown that's efficient for LLM context.
PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, HTML, EPUB, images (with OCR), CSV, JSON, audio transcripts, ZIP archives.
# Convert a single file to markdown on stdout
markitdown /workspace/$(basename "$PWD")/input.pdf
# Save to a markdown file
markitdown /workspace/$(basename "$PWD")/input.docx > /workspace/$(basename "$PWD")/input.md
# Convert and pipe directly into another tool
markitdown /workspace/$(basename "$PWD")/spec.xlsx | head -200
Files attached by users are downloaded to the agent workspace by the gateway. Once you have a workspace path:
# 1. Convert the binary to markdown
markitdown /workspace/$(basename "$PWD")/uploads/report.pdf > /tmp/report.md
# 2. Read the markdown into your context
cat /tmp/report.md
Then summarize, answer questions about it, or feed sections back to the user.
| Flag | Effect |
|---|---|
--use-docintel <ENDPOINT> | Use Azure Doc Intelligence (requires API key) for OCR-heavy PDFs |
-o <file> | Write to file instead of stdout |
officecli or
pandic-office instead.pdf
skill.officecli view <file> html.Create, analyze, proofread, and modify Office documents (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx) using the officecli CLI tool. Use when the user wants to create, inspect, check formatting, find issues, add charts, or modify Office documents.
Use this skill when producing a polished, Commonly-branded deliverable (.docx brief / memo, .xlsx data matrix, .pptx deck) and you do not have specific brand guidance from the user. Trigger on: 'write me a brief', 'one-pager', 'memo', 'data sheet', 'status matrix', 'short deck', 'summary deck', 'closing slide', 'final deliverable'. Routes to `officecli merge` with one of three pre-built starter templates that already carry the Commonly palette, fonts, and structure — so you populate content with one merge call instead of 30 individual `officecli set` commands. DO NOT use for fundraising decks (use `officecli-pitch-deck`), academic papers (use `officecli-academic-paper`), or financial models (use `officecli-financial-model`).
Interact with GitHub (issues, PRs, repos, releases) using the `gh` CLI. Use when asked to read or write GitHub state — open an issue, fetch PR diff, comment, list runs, etc.
Convert Markdown to PDF (or DOCX/EPUB/HTML) using the `pandoc` CLI. Use when asked to produce a PDF report, brief, summary, or any document where the input is Markdown and the output should be a polished, paginated file.
Manipulate PDF files — extract text, count pages, render thumbnails, merge or split documents. Use for PDF-specific operations that don't fit `markdown-converter` (general read) or `pandic-office` (write from markdown).
Manage long-running shell sessions with tmux — start a detached session, run a long task, reattach later, capture output. Use when a task takes longer than a single tool call (build, test, log tail).