markitdown

MarkItDown - File to Markdown Converter

Convert file to Markdown: $ARGUMENTS

Prerequisites

markitdown CLI must be installed. If not found, install it:

# Preferred (fastest, no conflicts)
uv tool install 'markitdown[all]'

# Alternatives
pipx install 'markitdown[all]'
pip install --user 'markitdown[all]'

Supported Formats

Format	Extensions	Notes
PDF	.pdf	Text extraction with layout preservation
Word	.docx	Headings, tables, lists preserved
PowerPoint	.pptx	Slide-by-slide with headers
Excel	.xlsx, .xls	Sheet-by-sheet tables
HTML	.html, .htm	Full structure conversion
CSV	.csv	Converted to Markdown tables
JSON	.json	Formatted output
XML	.xml	Formatted output
Images	.jpg, .png, .gif, .webp	EXIF metadata extraction
Audio	.mp3, .wav	Transcription (requires ffmpeg)
Email	.msg	Outlook message extraction
eBook	.epub	Full text extraction
Archives	.zip	Lists contents, converts supported files inside
URLs	http://...	Fetches and converts web pages

Workflow

Step 1: Parse Arguments

Parse $ARGUMENTS to identify:

• Target: file path, glob pattern, directory, or URL
• Output option: -o output.md to save, or print to stdout
• Batch mode: if target is a directory or glob pattern

If no arguments given, ask the user what file they want to convert.

Step 2: Validate Target

# Check if file exists
ls -la "$TARGET"

# Check markitdown is available
markitdown --version

If markitdown is not installed, install it with:

uv tool install 'markitdown[all]'

Step 3: Convert

Single file:

markitdown "$FILE_PATH"

Save to file:

markitdown "$FILE_PATH" -o "$OUTPUT_PATH"

From URL:

markitdown "$URL"

Batch convert (directory):

for f in "$DIR"/*.{pdf,docx,pptx,xlsx,html,csv}; do
    [ -f "$f" ] && markitdown "$f" -o "${f%.*}.md"
done

From stdin with extension hint:

cat "$FILE" | markitdown -x .html

Step 4: Present Results

• For short output (< 200 lines): display directly in the conversation
• For long output: save to a .md file and report the path
• For batch conversions: report summary of converted files

Step 5: Post-Processing (Optional)

If the user asks, you can:

1. Summarize: Read the converted markdown and provide a summary
2. Extract specific info: Parse the markdown for tables, headings, key data
3. Clean up: Remove artifacts, fix formatting issues
4. Translate: The markdown is now clean text that can be translated
5. Split: Break large documents into sections

Examples

/markitdown report.pdf
/markitdown slides.pptx -o slides.md
/markitdown data.xlsx
/markitdown https://example.com/page.html
/markitdown ./documents/              # batch convert all supported files
/markitdown *.pdf                     # convert all PDFs in current directory

Error Handling

Error	Fix
markitdown: command not found	Run: uv tool install 'markitdown[all]'
No such file or directory	Check the file path with ls
Audio transcription fails	Install ffmpeg: brew install ffmpeg (macOS) or apt install ffmpeg (Linux)
PDF extraction is empty	The PDF may be image-only; suggest using OCR tools
Encoding issues	Try: markitdown -c UTF-8 "$FILE"