PDF

Use this skill for any task where a PDF is the primary input or output.

Workflow

1. Identify the PDF operation: read, extract, OCR, split, merge, rotate, watermark, redact, fill forms, encrypt/decrypt, or create.
2. Preserve originals. Write outputs with explicit names.
3. Use the most reliable available tool:
   • pdftotext, pdfinfo, qpdf, or mutool through bash when installed (the built-in read tool does not extract text from a PDF)
   • Python libraries such as pypdf, pdfplumber, PyMuPDF, or reportlab when available
   • OCR tools only for scanned pages
4. For extraction, report page coverage and note when layout, tables, or OCR quality may affect accuracy.
5. For generated or modified PDFs, verify page count, text extraction where possible, and file size. For redaction, confirm removed text is not extractable from the output.

Ask before installing dependencies or running OCR over large documents. Do not represent a visually scanned PDF as fully accurate text unless OCR quality has been checked.