docs-pdf

name	docs-pdf
description	Parse PDF documents into repository-friendly markdown and text artifacts. Use when users need to extract text, tables, or structure from PDF files.

PDF Document Parsing

Parse PDF documents into markdown, text, and structured JSON using multi-method extraction.

Usage

Run the parsing script directly:

./scripts/parse_pdf.py <path_to_file.pdf> <output_dir>

Example:

./scripts/parse_pdf.py ~/documents/manual.pdf ./parsed/

The script uses 4 extraction methods:

• pypdf - Basic text extraction with page markers
• pdfminer - Detailed layout preservation
• pdfplumber - Table extraction and structure
• markitdown - Microsoft's markdown converter

Output Structure

output_dir/
├── file.pdf/
│   ├── parsing_summary.json
│   ├── pypdf/
│   │   └── content.md
│   ├── pdfminer/
│   │   └── content.txt
│   ├── pdfplumber/
│   │   ├── content.md
│   │   └── tables.json
│   └── markitdown/
│       └── content.md

Script Features

• Handles text-heavy and table-heavy PDFs
• Preserves layout information where possible
• Extracts tables as structured JSON
• Provides multiple format options (md, txt, json)
• Continues on errors (one method failure doesn't stop others)

Method Selection

• markitdown - Best for AI understanding (continuous markdown, no page breaks)
• pdfplumber - Best for documents with complex tables
• pypdf - Fast fallback for simple text extraction
• pdfminer - Best when layout preservation is critical