Quick Summary

Goal: Convert PDF to Markdown, or Markdown to PDF, through one entry point.

Summary: Select the required direction → probe its dependencies → install only if missing → convert → check JSON status and the output file. Native text extraction and PDF rendering are supported; scanned-PDF OCR is unavailable.

Workflow:

1. Pick a direction — --to markdown (PDF in, Markdown out) or --to pdf (Markdown in, PDF out)
2. Check that direction — probe its dependencies; each has its own package.json, so install only missing dependencies for the selected direction
3. Convert — run scripts/convert.cjs --to <direction> with the direction's own options
4. Output — the converter returns JSON with the success status and output path

Key Rules:

• --to is required. There is no default direction — converting the wrong way silently is worse than an error.
• Every other argument is passed straight to the chosen converter, so each direction keeps its own CLI.
• Dependencies are per direction: --to markdown never pulls in the PDF renderer, and vice versa.

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

Contents

• Quick Summary
• pdf-convert
• Directions
• Installation Required
• Quick Start
• CLI Options
• Features
• Conversion Modes (--to markdown)
• Default Styling (--to pdf)
• Output
• Limitations
• Troubleshooting
• Tests
• Closing Reminders

pdf-convert

Convert PDF files to Markdown (with automatic detection of native text vs scanned documents) and Markdown files to high-quality PDF (with code syntax highlighting and custom CSS).

Directions

Flag	Converts	Lives in	Dependencies
--to markdown	PDF → Markdown	to-markdown/	@opendocsg/pdf2md, pdfjs-dist
--to pdf	Markdown → PDF	to-pdf/	md-to-pdf, gray-matter

Installation Required

Use Node.js >=18 for PDF → Markdown; for Markdown → PDF, use the runtime range in to-pdf/package.json. From the project root, probe the selected consumer's dependencies with createRequire before installing:

node -e "const p=require('node:path'); const r=require('node:module').createRequire(p.resolve('.claude/skills/pdf-convert/to-markdown/package.json')); r.resolve('@opendocsg/pdf2md');"
node -e "const p=require('node:path'); const r=require('node:module').createRequire(p.resolve('.claude/skills/pdf-convert/to-pdf/package.json')); r.resolve('md-to-pdf'); r.resolve('gray-matter');"

Each direction installs separately. Run only the probe and setup for the direction you need; its manifest owns package versions. Install missing dependencies with:

# PDF -> Markdown
cd .claude/skills/pdf-convert/to-markdown
npm install

# Markdown -> PDF
cd .claude/skills/pdf-convert/to-pdf
npm install

ck init (which runs install.sh) handles every skill at once.

Note: --to pdf may download Chromium (~150MB) on first run unless system Chrome is detected. Scanned-PDF OCR is unimplemented. Installing optional OCR packages does not enable it.

Quick Start

# PDF -> Markdown (auto-detects native text vs scanned)
node .claude/skills/pdf-convert/scripts/convert.cjs --to markdown --input ./document.pdf

# PDF -> Markdown with an explicit output path and forced native mode
node .claude/skills/pdf-convert/scripts/convert.cjs --to markdown -i ./doc.pdf -o ./out.md --mode native

# Markdown -> PDF
node .claude/skills/pdf-convert/scripts/convert.cjs --to pdf --input ./README.md

# Markdown -> PDF with custom CSS
node .claude/skills/pdf-convert/scripts/convert.cjs --to pdf -i ./doc.md --css ./my-style.css

--to=markdown and --to markdown are equivalent. A missing or unknown --to prints the valid directions and exits 1.

CLI Options

Dispatcher

Option	Description	Default
--to	Conversion direction: markdown or pdf	(required)

--to markdown (PDF → Markdown)

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

--to pdf (Markdown → PDF)

Option	Short	Description	Default
--input	-i	Input markdown file path	(required)
--output	-o	Output PDF file path	{input}.pdf
--css	-c	Custom CSS file path	built-in
--no-highlight		Disable syntax highlighting	false
--help	-h	Show help message

Run scripts/convert.cjs --to <direction> --help to see a direction's full help.

Features

PDF → Markdown

• Auto-Detection: determines whether the PDF has native text or needs OCR
• Native PDFs: fast extraction via @opendocsg/pdf2md
• Tables: basic table structure preservation
• No System Dependencies: pure JavaScript

Markdown → PDF

• Syntax Highlighting: code blocks rendered with highlight.js
• Custom CSS: override the default stylesheet with your own
• System Chrome: uses installed Chrome/Chromium when available
• Frontmatter Support: YAML frontmatter supplies the title and metadata

Both directions work on Windows, macOS and Linux.

Conversion Modes (--to markdown)

Auto (default)

Checks whether the first page has extractable text. Uses native extraction if it does, otherwise reports that the document appears to be scanned.

Native

Fast direct text extraction. Best for PDFs with selectable text.

OCR (scanned PDFs) — unsupported

The converter returns a failure for OCR mode. Report the limitation for scanned documents; native mode is suitable only when the PDF contains selectable text.

Default Styling (--to pdf)

• Serif body font (Georgia), monospace code font (Consolas/Monaco)
• 2cm page margins
• Code block background highlighting
• Table borders with alternating row colors

Override any of it with --css.

Output

Both directions return JSON on success:

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

--to pdf returns pages instead of stats. On failure both return { "success": false, "error": "..." } and exit 1.

Limitations

• Complex multi-column layouts may not preserve structure
• Scanned PDFs cannot be transcribed by this converter
• Mathematical formulas may not convert perfectly
• Large documents converted to PDF may need more memory — consider splitting the input

Troubleshooting

Chrome not found (--to pdf): the converter downloads Chromium automatically. Set PUPPETEER_SKIP_DOWNLOAD=1 to prevent that.

Missing dependencies: the error output carries a hint with the exact cd … && npm install command for the direction you invoked.

Font issues: embed fonts via CSS @font-face with base64-encoded fonts for consistent rendering.

Tests

cd .claude/skills/pdf-convert && node tests/dispatcher.test.cjs   # routing and --to validation
cd .claude/skills/pdf-convert/to-markdown && node tests/run-tests.cjs
cd .claude/skills/pdf-convert/to-pdf && node tests/run-tests.cjs

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[IMPORTANT] Use TaskCreate to break ALL work into small tasks BEFORE starting. This prevents context loss from long files. Keep task depth proportional to the work.

Closing Reminders

IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION Goal: Convert PDF to Markdown, or Markdown to PDF, through one entry point — scripts/convert.cjs --to {markdown|pdf}.

MUST ATTENTION Route: select direction → probe dependencies → install only if missing → convert → verify JSON status and the output file. Report unsupported OCR; optional package installation cannot enable it.

IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION --to is required — never guess the direction for the user IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION each direction installs its own dependencies; the error hint names the exact directory 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

[TASK-PLANNING] Before acting, analyze task scope and systematically break it into small todo tasks and sub-tasks using TaskCreate.