Convert Word (.doc/.docx/.docm), PowerPoint (.ppt/.pps/.pot/.pptx/.pptm/.ppsx/.ppsm), Excel (.xls/.xlsx/.xlsm/.xlsb), OpenDocument (.odt/.ods/.odp), RTF, EPUB, CSV, and PDF documents to clean GitHub-Flavored Markdown locally with the Any Doc CLI (npx -y @firecrawl/anydoc@0.2.4): headings, GFM tables, slide structure, and footnotes in one pass. Use when a task needs the contents of an office document, spreadsheet, presentation, ebook, or PDF you cannot read directly. Do not use for generating, editing, or validating documents (use documents), for ebook packaging (use epub). For scanned or image-only PDFs, use hosted OCR only when the user explicitly authorizes whole-document upload; otherwise route to local OCR tooling.
Convert Word (.doc/.docx/.docm), PowerPoint (.ppt/.pps/.pot/.pptx/.pptm/.ppsx/.ppsm), Excel (.xls/.xlsx/.xlsm/.xlsb), OpenDocument (.odt/.ods/.odp), RTF, EPUB, CSV, and PDF documents to clean GitHub-Flavored Markdown locally with the Any Doc CLI (npx -y @firecrawl/anydoc@0.2.4): headings, GFM tables, slide structure, and footnotes in one pass. Use when a task needs the contents of an office document, spreadsheet, presentation, ebook, or PDF you cannot read directly. Do not use for generating, editing, or validating documents (use documents), for ebook packaging (use epub). For scanned or image-only PDFs, use hosted OCR only when the user explicitly authorizes whole-document upload; otherwise route to local OCR tooling.
license
MIT
compatibility
Node.js >= 20 and npx. The pinned CLI is @firecrawl/anydoc@0.2.4; the native binary ships via npm optionalDependencies (no install step, no postinstall, no compilation). Local conversion needs no service or API key. Hosted OCR sends the whole PDF to Firecrawl Parse and may use FIRECRAWL_API_KEY. The first npx run downloads the package once (network required); later runs use the npm cache.
Any Doc — office documents to GitHub-Flavored Markdown
The anydoc skill converts office documents, spreadsheets, presentations,
ebooks, CSV, and text-based PDFs into GitHub-Flavored Markdown using the pinned
Any Doc CLI (@firecrawl/anydoc v0.2.4). One shared document model and one GFM
serializer produce the same logical output across formats. Local conversion runs
without a service, API key, or file upload; hosted OCR is a separate explicit route.
Overview
Load this skill when a task needs the contents of a document the agent cannot
read directly: a Word report to summarize, a spreadsheet to turn into a table,
a slide deck to extract, a CSV to analyze, or an ebook or PDF to quote from.
The skill ships a small Python helper (scripts/anydoc) that wraps the pinned
CLI and adds input pre-validation, friendly error hints, batch conversion, and
--dry-run/--json output. Every recipe in references/workflows.md
also shows the raw npx invocation, so the skill works with or without the
helper.
Load the matching row in Reference Routing before choosing a command.
A conversion result
Choose stdout, -o, or batch; run it; then follow Verification.
Hard boundary: local anydoc conversion reads existing supported documents to Markdown without uploading them. Hosted OCR is opt-in only: it sends the whole OCR-required PDF to the configured Parse service. AnyDoc does not create, edit, validate, package, decrypt, or scrape documents.
When to use
Convert a document to markdown — Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OpenDocument,
RTF, EPUB, CSV, or text-based PDF.
Feed documents to an LLM — one-pass conversion to clean markdown for
summarization, extraction, or retrieval ingestion.
Batch a folder — convert a directory of mixed office files for a vault
or knowledge base.
Read a document from stdin — pipe bytes into anydoc -.
Format coverage (summary)
anydoc covers 8 format families / 21 extensions through 12 canonical
parsers. The canonical formats are doc, docx, odt, pdf, ppt, pptx, rtf, epub, xlsx, ods, odp, csv; extension aliases map through them (.docm→docx,
.xls→xlsx, .pptm→pptx, and so on).
Family
Extensions
Expected GFM output
Decision cue
Word
.doc.docx.docm
#–###### headings, GFM tables, [^n] footnotes
Use when content extraction is enough; use documents when rendered layout matters.
PowerPoint
.ppt.pps.pot.pptx.pptm.ppsx.ppsm
slide titles as plain paragraphs, bullet lists, speaker notes as > blockquotes, GFM tables (PPTX/ODP; legacy .ppt flattens tables to text lines)
Need table fidelity? Prefer PPTX or ODP; legacy .ppt preserves cell text but not table structure.
Excel
.xls.xlsx.xlsm.xlsb
## <sheet name> heading + one GFM table per worksheet; number formats dropped (raw cell values)
Need displayed percentages, currency, or number formats? Prefer ODS; XLS/XLSX output is raw values.
OpenDocument
.odt.ods.odp
same document/slide shapes as DOCX/PPTX; ODS keeps formatted display values
Prefer ODS when spreadsheet display formatting is part of the meaning.
Use to read an existing EPUB; use epub to author or package one.
CSV
.csv
one GFM table; label-like first row promoted to header; delimiter sniffing; UTF-16 with BOM
Use for delimited tabular content; inspect delimiter and encoding when output looks wrong.
PDF
.pdf
headings + inline emphasis, but a lower-fidelity pipeline: tables flatten to text, footnotes and links degrade. Text-based PDFs stay local; scanned/image-only PDFs require explicit hosted OCR or another OCR tool
Use local mode by default; hosted mode uploads the whole PDF and has no page selection.
See references/formats.md for the full per-format
expectations and fidelity caveats, and references/errors.md
for the exact failure messages (including the no-OCR error).
Command Map
Commands are shown relative to the repository root. <file> is any document
path (for example anydoc/fixtures/fixture-handmade-outline.docx); - reads
the document from stdin.
Need
Command
Choose it when
Convert one file to small markdown on stdout
anydoc/scripts/anydoc convert <file>
The caller needs immediate content and does not need a saved artifact.
Convert one file to a markdown file
anydoc/scripts/anydoc convert <file> -o out.md
The output is large, must be reviewed later, or should be preserved as an artifact.
If the user explicitly authorizes sending the complete PDF to Firecrawl Parse,
use the wrapper acknowledgement and a trusted FIRECRAWL_API_KEY environment
variable when needed:
The wrapper never places the key on the command line. Hosted OCR has no page
selection, and a hosted failure is not permission to silently switch endpoints.
Notes:
scripts/anydoc is an executable Python 3 script (shebang #!/usr/bin/env python3); python3 anydoc/scripts/anydoc ... is equivalent when the
executable bit is unavailable.
The raw npx -y @firecrawl/anydoc@0.2.4 rows are the ground truth for
conversion behavior; the wrapper delegates to exactly that command.
Always pin @0.2.4 for reproducible conversions. -y answers npx's
"Ok to proceed?" prompt non-interactively — the CLI itself never prompts.
Both forms share the same contract: one document per invocation, exit code
0 success / 1 conversion or IO failure / 2 usage error, diagnostics as
exactly one anydoc: <message> line on stderr, and no prompts.
Hosted OCR is supported by the 0.2.4 library and CLI, but the wrapper requires
both --ocr hosted and --allow-hosted-upload so an upload cannot be selected
implicitly. The hosted route sends the complete PDF to Firecrawl Parse because
page selection is unavailable. Do not place API keys on the command line.
Reference Routing
Load only the row that answers the immediate question; the command examples and verification contract remain in this file.
Complete success, expected-failure, and fidelity-boundary reports to imitate after following Verification.
When not to use
Use this routing table before reaching for a conversion command:
User's request
Reach for
Why
Generate, edit, inspect rendered layout, or validate a PDF/Word/Excel/PowerPoint artifact
documents skill
anydoc extracts existing document contents to Markdown; it does not author, preserve rendered layout, or validate artifacts.
Package or author an EPUB
epub skill
anydoc reads an existing EPUB to Markdown but never writes or validates an EPUB container.
OCR a scanned or image-only PDF
Local OCR tooling, or AnyDoc hosted OCR after explicit authorization
Local mode reports the OCR-required error without uploading; hosted mode sends the whole PDF to Firecrawl Parse.
Scrape HTML or other web content
A web-scraping skill
HTML is not a supported anydoc input.
Transcribe binary media such as images, video, or audio
A media or transcription tool
Embedded images become alt text; anydoc cannot transcribe media.
Preserve pagination, fonts, templates, or rendered layout
A document/layout tool
The only output contract is GitHub-Flavored Markdown.
Convert a password-protected file
An unencrypted copy from the document owner
anydoc has no password or decryption option.
Verification
Report evidence, not just success. For every attempted conversion, return the input, exact command or wrapper path, observed exit code, output destination (stdout or file), structural markers checked, and any documented caveat or next route.
Compact report shape:
Input: <path or stdin source>
Command: <exact wrapper or pinned CLI path>
Exit: <observed code>
Output: <stdout or destination file>
Checks: <markers or fidelity facts observed>
Caveat/route: <documented limitation or next action>
Common stop conditions
Condition
Do not
Next
Scanned or image-only PDF / OCR-required error
Retry unchanged or upload implicitly
Use local OCR, or explicitly authorize and run --ocr hosted --allow-hosted-upload; page selection is unavailable.
Encrypted or password-protected document
Guess a password or retry unchanged
Request an unencrypted copy or owner-authorized re-export.
Inspect the output shape and source fidelity before reporting completion.
Confirm a conversion before reporting it as done:
Check the exit code.0 means the CLI produced markdown. 1 means the
document could not be read or converted — read the single anydoc: <message>
stderr line and match it against references/errors.md.
2 means the command itself was a usage error (bad flag, missing input,
invalid --format).
Check the output shape. The markdown must contain the structural markers
your format actually produces:
Word / ODT / RTF / text-based PDF: #/## headings. For PDF, do not
expect GFM tables or [^1]: footnote definitions — that pipeline
flattens them.
Spreadsheets (xlsx/xls/ods) and CSV: |-delimited GFM tables. xlsx/xls
show raw cell values (0.155, 1234.5); ODS shows formatted display
values (15.5%, $1,234.50).
Presentations (pptx/odp): slide titles as plain paragraphs, >
blockquote speaker notes, GFM tables. Legacy .ppt flattens tables to
bare text lines.
EPUB: # chapter headings and internal anchor links.
Write large outputs to a file with -o.-o out.md keeps stdout silent
and gives a reviewable file instead of streaming the whole document into
context.
Verify tables survived. If the source had tables and the output has no
| rows, consult the format caveats — PDF and legacy .ppt flatten tables
by design, not by error.
Stop when the conversion exits 0 and the structural markers match the
source format. Do not re-run or retry on a documented failure mode (encrypted,
malformed, scanned/image-only, unsupported) without changing the input; report
the documented message and route as references/errors.md
instructs.
