pdf-to-markdown

name	pdf-to-markdown
description	[Document Processing] Convert PDF files to Markdown with support for native text PDFs and scanned documents (OCR). Cross-platform. Use when this capability is needed.

[IMPORTANT] Use TaskCreate to break ALL work into small tasks BEFORE starting — including tasks for each file read. This prevents context loss from long files. For simple tasks, AI MUST ATTENTION ask user whether to skip.

Quick Summary

Goal: Convert PDF files to well-formatted Markdown with auto-detection of native text vs scanned documents.

Workflow:

1. Auto-Detect — Determine if PDF has native text or needs OCR
2. Convert — Run scripts/convert.cjs with input path and optional mode/output flags
3. Output — Returns JSON with success status, page count, and output path

Key Rules:

• Use --mode auto (default) to let the tool decide native vs OCR
• OCR for scanned PDFs requires additional tesseract.js setup
• Complex multi-column layouts may not preserve structure perfectly

Be skeptical. Apply critical thinking, sequential thinking. Every claim needs traced proof, confidence percentages (Idea should be more than 80%).

pdf-to-markdown

Convert PDF files to Markdown format with automatic detection of native text vs scanned documents.

Installation Required

This skill requires npm dependencies. Run one of the following:

# Option 1: Install via ClaudeKit CLI (recommended)
ck init  # Runs install.sh which handles all skills

# Option 2: Manual installation
cd .claude/skills/pdf-to-markdown
npm install

Dependencies: @opendocsg/pdf2md (native PDFs), pdfjs-dist (PDF parsing)

Note: OCR for scanned PDFs requires additional setup (see OCR section).

Quick Start

# Basic conversion (auto-detect native vs scanned)
node .claude/skills/pdf-to-markdown/scripts/convert.cjs --input ./document.pdf

# Specify output path
node .claude/skills/pdf-to-markdown/scripts/convert.cjs -i ./doc.pdf -o ./output.md

# Force native mode (skip OCR detection)
node .claude/skills/pdf-to-markdown/scripts/convert.cjs -i ./doc.pdf --mode native

CLI Options

Option	Short	Description	Default
--input	-i	Input PDF file path	(required)
--output	-o	Output markdown file path	{input}.md
--mode	-m	Conversion mode: auto, native, ocr	auto
--help	-h	Show help message

Features

• Auto-Detection: Automatically determines if PDF has native text or requires OCR
• Native PDFs: Fast extraction using @opendocsg/pdf2md
• Tables: Basic table structure preservation
• Cross-Platform: Works on Windows, macOS, Linux
• No System Dependencies: Pure JavaScript implementation

Conversion Modes

Auto (Default)

Checks if PDF has extractable text on first page. Uses native extraction if text found, otherwise falls back to OCR warning.

Native

Fast direct text extraction. Best for PDFs with selectable text (not scanned images).

OCR (Scanned PDFs) - Coming Soon

For scanned documents. Currently not implemented - the skill will notify you if a PDF appears to be scanned.

Output

Returns JSON on success:

{
    "success": true,
    "input": "/path/to/input.pdf",
    "output": "/path/to/output.md",
    "stats": {
        "pages": 5,
        "mode": "native"
    }
}

Limitations

• Complex multi-column layouts may not preserve structure
• Scanned PDF OCR accuracy depends on image quality
• Mathematical formulas may not convert perfectly
• First-run OCR downloads language data (~15MB)

OCR Setup (Optional)

For scanned PDF support, install additional dependencies:

npm install tesseract.js pdfjs-dist canvas

Note: The canvas package may require build tools on some systems.

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Closing Reminders

• IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION break work into small todo tasks using TaskCreate BEFORE starting
• IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION search codebase for 3+ similar patterns before creating new code
• IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION cite file:line evidence for every claim (confidence >80% to act)
• IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION add a final review todo task to verify work quality

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