Convert Pdf

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 → 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.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: digital-stoic-org
• Source: digital-stoic-org/agent-skills
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.