convert-pdf

name	convert-pdf
description	Convert PDF to clean markdown. Auto-detects backend: pdftotext (fast, text-heavy) or docling (complex tables, multi-column, OCR). Use when converting PDFs to markdown for analysis or summarization. Triggers: "convert pdf", "pdf to markdown", "pdf file", "pdf to text", ".pdf".
argument-hint	<pdf-file> [→ output.md] [--docling] [--complex] [--ocr]
allowed-tools	["Bash","Read","Write","Skill"]
model	haiku
context	main
user-invocable	true

Convert PDF → Markdown

1. Parse & Validate

Extract from arguments:

Arg	Required	Default
$1 input PDF	✅	—
→ path output	No	./converted/{kebab-basename}.md
--docling	No	Force docling
--complex	No	Force docling
--ocr	No	Force docling + OCR

Validate: file exists, ends .pdf, is readable. Create ./converted/ if missing.

2. Select Backend

# If --docling, --complex, or --ocr → skip to docling path
# Otherwise, probe with pdftotext:
CHARS=$(pdftotext -layout -l 3 "$INPUT" - | wc -c)
# CHARS < 100 → scanned PDF → docling path
# CHARS >= 100 → pdftotext path

3a. pdftotext Path (default — 90% of files)

pdftotext -layout "$INPUT" "${OUTPUT%.md}.txt"

Post-process the .txt → .md using Write tool:

• Split on \f → --- page separators
• ALL CAPS lines > 20 chars → ## Header
• Collapse 3+ blank lines → 2
• Prepend YAML frontmatter: source, pages, backend: pdftotext
• Write final .md, delete intermediate .txt

3b. docling Path (complex/OCR)

First: toolsmith:install-dependency docling if not available.

# Find .venv by scanning upward from CWD
source "$(find_venv)/bin/activate"
docling --to md --output ./converted/ "$INPUT"

If --ocr flag: docling --to md --ocr --ocr-engine easyocr --output ./converted/ "$INPUT"

⚠️ Docling rules — violations create 0-byte files:

✅ Correct	❌ Wrong
--to md	--to markdown
--output DIR	-o DIR
Writes to filesystem	NEVER > redirect or | tee

4. Verify & Report

[ -s "$OUTPUT" ] || { echo "❌ Output empty"; exit 1; }
wc -c "$OUTPUT"

Report: ✅ Converted {file} → {output} ({size}, {backend})

See reference.md for backend comparison, advanced docling options, and troubleshooting.