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Skillspdf-converter

pdf-converter

Office & productivity

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Updated 10-16 08:53

About this skill

Document to Markdown

Convert PDF, images, Office docs, and more to clean Markdown using the MinerU Open API CLI. No API key needed for basic use.

Language Rule

Reply to the user in the SAME language they use. This is non-negotiable.

Core Workflow

Extraction is often just the first step. The typical flow is:

  1. Extract — Use mineru-open-api to convert the document to Markdown
  2. Read & Process — Help the user with what they actually need

MinerU outputs raw Markdown — it doesn't interpret or restructure the content. If the user asks to "extract the tables", "summarize the paper", or "find the key findings", you need to read the output and do that work yourself. MinerU handles the OCR and layout; you handle the understanding.

Use -o to save to a file when the user wants persistent output (conversion, batch processing). Skip -o and read stdout directly when the content is consumed immediately (summarization, Q&A).

For example:

  • "Help me convert this PDF to markdown" → use -o to save to file, done
  • "Extract the tables from this paper" → use -o to save, then read the file and pull out the tables
  • "What does this paper talk about" → stdout is fine, read the output directly and summarize
  • "Organize the references in the PDF" → stdout or -o, then parse the references section

Two Extraction Modes

flash-extract — Fast, no auth

Best for quick reads. No API key, no setup.

mineru-open-api flash-extract report.pdf                               # to stdout (for immediate consumption)
mineru-open-api flash-extract report.pdf -o ./output/                  # save to file
mineru-open-api flash-extract report.pdf -o ./output/ --pages 1-10     # page range
mineru-open-api flash-extract report.pdf -o ./output/ --language en    # language hint
mineru-open-api flash-extract https://example.com/paper.pdf            # URL input

Supports: PDF, images (PNG, JPG, WebP...), DOCX, PPTX, Excel (XLS, XLSX) Limits: 10 MB / 20 pages per document Output: Markdown only — images, tables, and formulas may become placeholders

Use flash-extract as the default unless the user needs more.

extract — Precision, auth required

Use when the user needs full-fidelity output: preserved images, accurate tables, LaTeX formulas, or non-Markdown formats. Requires a token via mineru-open-api auth.

mineru-open-api extract report.pdf                              # to stdout
mineru-open-api extract report.pdf -o ./out/                    # save with all assets
mineru-open-api extract report.pdf -o ./out/ -f md,docx         # multiple output formats
mineru-open-api extract report.pdf -o ./out/ --ocr          # force OCR for scanned docs
mineru-open-api extract *.pdf -o ./results/                 # batch processing
mineru-open-api extract --list files.txt -o ./results/      # batch from file list

Supports: PDF, images, DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, HTML Limits: 200 MB / 600 pages per document Output formats: md, json, html, latex, docx (comma-separated with -f) Features: formula recognition (on by default), table recognition (on by default), OCR toggle, batch mode, model selection (vlm, pipeline, html)

If the user hasn't authenticated yet, guide them to run mineru-open-api auth first.

When to Use Which

Situation Mode
"What does this PDF say?" flash-extract
Quick summary or content scan flash-extract
Need images/tables/formulas preserved extract
Document > 10 MB or > 20 pages extract
Batch converting multiple files extract
Need DOCX/LaTeX/HTML output extract
Scanned document needs OCR extract with --ocr

Language Support

Default is ch (Chinese + English). Use --language to specify others. Common codes:

Language Code Language Code
Chinese + English ch Japanese japan
English en Korean korean
French fr Chinese Traditional chinese_cht
German de Spanish es
Russian ru Arabic ar
Portuguese pt Hindi hi
Italian it Vietnamese vi
Thai th Turkish tr

80+ languages supported in total — use the PaddleOCR language code for any language not listed above.

Data Flow

Both commands send the document to MinerU's API (mineru.net) for processing. This is a stateless API call with no persistent storage. MinerU is open-source by OpenDataLab (Shanghai AI Lab): https://github.com/opendatalab/MinerU

Troubleshooting

  • Debug API requests: Add -v flag to see HTTP request/response details (e.g., mineru-open-api flash-extract report.pdf -v)
  • CLI not found: Install via npm i -g mineru-open-api, uv tool install mineru-open-api, or download from https://mineru.net/ecosystem?tab=cli
  • Auth error on extract: Run mineru-open-api auth to set up your token
  • Timeout on large files: Increase with --timeout 600 (seconds)
  • Wrong language output: Set --language explicitly (e.g., --language en for English docs)