PDF Processor

Source: https://github.com/aipoch/medical-research-skills

When to Use

• You need to merge multiple PDFs into a single document offline.
• You need to split a PDF into per-page files for review, annotation, or distribution.
• You need to extract a specific page range (e.g., 1-3,5) into a new PDF.
• You need to extract selectable text from a PDF into a .txt file without using any cloud API.
• You need to extract tables from PDFs into CSV files locally.

Key Features

• Merge PDFs: Combine multiple input PDFs into one output PDF.
• Split PDFs: Export each page as an individual PDF.
• Extract Pages: Create a new PDF from selected pages using a page-range expression.
• Extract Text: Export extracted text to a plain text file.
• Extract Tables: Export detected tables to CSV files (may produce empty CSVs on pages without tables).
• Create PDF: Generate a simple PDF from a text file.
• Local-only execution: No network access, no external APIs, no credentials.

Dependencies

• Python: 3.9+

Install Python dependencies:

pip install -r scripts/requirements.txt

Example Usage

More examples may be available in references/examples.md.

Merge PDFs

python scripts/pdf_tool.py \
  --operation merge \
  --inputs "a.pdf" "b.pdf" \
  --output "out.pdf"

Split a PDF into single-page PDFs

python scripts/pdf_tool.py \
  --operation split \
  --inputs "input.pdf" \
  --output "out_dir"

Extract specific pages into a new PDF

python scripts/pdf_tool.py \
  --operation extract-pages \
  --inputs "input.pdf" \
  --pages "1-3,5" \
  --output "extracted.pdf"

Extract text to a .txt file

python scripts/pdf_tool.py \
  --operation extract-text \
  --inputs "input.pdf" \
  --output "output.txt"

Extract tables to CSV files

python scripts/pdf_tool.py \
  --operation extract-tables \
  --inputs "input.pdf" \
  --output "tables_out_dir"

Create a PDF from a text file

python scripts/pdf_tool.py \
  --operation create \
  --inputs "input.txt" \
  --output "created.pdf"

Implementation Details

• Execution model: Local CLI tool/script (scripts/pdf_tool.py) that reads from provided input paths and writes only to the specified output path.
• Supported operations:
  • merge: Concatenates PDFs in the order provided via --inputs.
  • split: Writes one PDF per page (output is typically a directory path).
  • extract-pages: Uses --pages to select pages and writes a new PDF.
  • extract-text: Extracts selectable text; pages with no extractable text may yield empty lines.
  • extract-tables: Attempts table detection/extraction; pages without tables may produce empty CSV outputs.
  • create: Produces a simple PDF from a text input.
• Page range format: --pages "1-3,5" where page numbering starts at 1.
• Failure handling:
  • Invalid or out-of-range pages in --pages are ignored.
  • Text extraction preserves structure minimally; no OCR is performed.
  • Table extraction quality depends on the PDF's structure; complex layouts may not reconstruct well.
• Security constraints:
  • No network calls.
  • No external services.
  • Reads only specified input files and writes only to the specified output location.
• Success criteria:
  • Output file(s) exist at the specified location.
  • Page counts and ordering match the requested operation.
  • No writes occur outside the specified output path.

When Not to Use

• Do not use this skill when the required source data, identifiers, files, or credentials are missing.
• Do not use this skill when the user asks for fabricated results, unsupported claims, or out-of-scope conclusions.
• Do not use this skill when a simpler direct answer is more appropriate than the documented workflow.

Required Inputs

• A clearly specified task goal aligned with the documented scope.
• All required files, identifiers, parameters, or environment variables before execution.
• Any domain constraints, formatting requirements, and expected output destination if applicable.