Agent skill

PDF Reader

Read and extract content from PDF files — text, tables, metadata, and images.

Install PDF Reader

skills CLI

$ npx skills add espennilsen/pi --skill pdf-reader -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install espennilsen/pi pdf-reader --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/espennilsen/pi.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/pdf-reader .claude/skills/pdf-reader && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Paste into Claude Code

Install the "pdf-reader" agent skill from https://github.com/espennilsen/pi/tree/main/skills/pdf-reader into .claude/skills/pdf-reader/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "pdf-reader", then confirm the skill loads.

Claude Code copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

$skill-installer

$skill-installer install https://github.com/espennilsen/pi/tree/main/skills/pdf-reader

Type this inside Codex. $skill-installer <name> installs a curated skill from openai/skills. The installer writes to $CODEX_HOME/skills (default ~/.codex/skills). Restart Codex if the skill does not show up.

skills CLI

$ npx skills add espennilsen/pi --skill pdf-reader -a codex

Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.codex/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install espennilsen/pi pdf-reader --agent codex

Project scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/espennilsen/pi.git skills-src && mkdir -p .agents/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/pdf-reader .agents/skills/pdf-reader && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.agents/skills/ instead of .agents/skills for a personal install.

Codex skills documentation · loads skills from .agents/skills/

Paste into Codex

Install the "pdf-reader" agent skill from https://github.com/espennilsen/pi/tree/main/skills/pdf-reader into .agents/skills/pdf-reader/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "pdf-reader", then confirm the skill loads.

Codex copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

skills CLI

$ npx skills add espennilsen/pi --skill pdf-reader -a cursor

Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.cursor/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install espennilsen/pi pdf-reader --agent cursor

Project scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/espennilsen/pi.git skills-src && mkdir -p .cursor/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/pdf-reader .cursor/skills/pdf-reader && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.cursor/skills/ instead of .cursor/skills for a personal install.

Cursor skills documentation · loads skills from .cursor/skills/, .agents/skills/, .claude/skills/, .codex/skills/

Paste into Cursor

Install the "pdf-reader" agent skill from https://github.com/espennilsen/pi/tree/main/skills/pdf-reader into .cursor/skills/pdf-reader/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "pdf-reader", then confirm the skill loads.

Cursor copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

gemini skills install

$ gemini skills install https://github.com/espennilsen/pi.git --path skills/pdf-reader

--scope user (default) or --scope workspace; --path is the subfolder of the repo that holds the skill; --consent skips the security confirmation prompt.

skills CLI

$ npx skills add espennilsen/pi --skill pdf-reader -a gemini-cli

Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.gemini/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install espennilsen/pi pdf-reader --agent gemini-cli

Project scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/espennilsen/pi.git skills-src && mkdir -p .gemini/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/pdf-reader .gemini/skills/pdf-reader && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.gemini/skills/ instead of .gemini/skills for a personal install, then run /skills reload.

Gemini CLI skills documentation · loads skills from .gemini/skills/, .agents/skills/

Paste into Gemini CLI

Install the "pdf-reader" agent skill from https://github.com/espennilsen/pi/tree/main/skills/pdf-reader into .gemini/skills/pdf-reader/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "pdf-reader", then confirm the skill loads.

Gemini CLI copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install espennilsen/pi pdf-reader

Installs for Copilot at project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Preview a skill first with gh skill preview. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

skills CLI

$ npx skills add espennilsen/pi --skill pdf-reader -a github-copilot

Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.copilot/skills/.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/espennilsen/pi.git skills-src && mkdir -p .github/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/pdf-reader .github/skills/pdf-reader && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.copilot/skills/ instead of .github/skills for a personal install. Commit .github/skills so cloud agent and code review can use it.

GitHub Copilot skills documentation · loads skills from .github/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/

Paste into GitHub Copilot

Install the "pdf-reader" agent skill from https://github.com/espennilsen/pi/tree/main/skills/pdf-reader into .github/skills/pdf-reader/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "pdf-reader", then confirm the skill loads.

GitHub Copilot copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

skills CLI

$ npx skills add espennilsen/pi --skill pdf-reader -a opencode

OpenCode documents no install command of its own. Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.config/opencode/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install espennilsen/pi pdf-reader --agent opencode

Project scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/espennilsen/pi.git skills-src && mkdir -p .opencode/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/pdf-reader .opencode/skills/pdf-reader && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.config/opencode/skills/ instead of .opencode/skills for a personal install.

OpenCode skills documentation · loads skills from .opencode/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/

Paste into OpenCode

Install the "pdf-reader" agent skill from https://github.com/espennilsen/pi/tree/main/skills/pdf-reader into .opencode/skills/pdf-reader/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "pdf-reader", then confirm the skill loads.

OpenCode copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

Facts

Skill name: pdf-reader
GitHub stars: 122
Token cost: ~1.6k tokens
SKILL.md length: 499 words
Files: 2 (incl. scripts)
Skills in repo: 36
Repo updated: Sep 21, 2026
First seen: Oct 7, 2026
Licence: MIT

At a glance

Read and extract content from PDF files — text, tables, metadata, and images.

Works in 5 steps: Get the PDF → Choose Extraction Method → Handle Large PDFs → …
Asked to read a PDF
SKILL.md covers Quick Reference, Workflow, Decision Tree and Tips
Runs Python scripts from its folder; calls pdftotext, python3 and curl

What it does

PDF Reader is an agent skill from espennilsen/pi. Read and extract content from PDF files — text, tables, metadata, and images. Use when asked to read a PDF, extract text from a PDF, summarize a PDF, analyze a PDF document, get tables from a PDF, or check PDF metadata. Also triggers on "open this PDF", "what does this PDF say", "parse PDF", "PDF to text", or when a .pdf file path or URL is provided.

Its SKILL.md is about 1.6k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 2 other files, including scripts (for example `scripts/extract.py`).

It sits in Documents & Office, covering PDF and Document parsing. It works with Python and pypdf. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

Asked to read a PDF
Extract text from a PDF
Summarize a PDF
Analyze a PDF document

Example prompts

“open this PDF”
“what does this PDF say”
“parse PDF”
“/pdf-reader”

Requirements

Python 3

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

Get the PDF
Choose Extraction Method
Handle Large PDFs
Handle Scanned PDFs (OCR)
Handle Other Edge Cases

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 79d019b. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

Tool permissions
Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.
From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.
Runs code
Ships 1 file in scripts/ (Python), which the agent can run.
Shell commands in SKILL.md call:
- pdftotext
- python3
- curl
- tesseract
- brew
From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.
Network
No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use curl, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.
From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.
Credentials
Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.
From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

PDF Reader loads about 1.6k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 91 tokens; SKILL.md has 499 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it: ~91
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches: ~1.6k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); the scripts in this folder are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from espennilsen/pi at commit 79d019b, republished under its MIT licence (© espennilsen). 499 words, ~1,575 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/pdf-reader/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 1 other file; get the full folder from GitHub.

name: pdf-reader
description: Read and extract content from PDF files — text, tables, metadata, and images. Use when asked to read a PDF, extract text from a PDF, summarize a PDF, analyze a PDF document, get tables from a PDF, or check PDF metadata. Also triggers on "open this PDF", "what does this PDF say", "parse PDF", "PDF to text", or when a .pdf file path or URL is provided.

PDF Reader

Extract content from PDF files using pdftotext (Poppler) for text and pdfplumber (Python) for tables and structured extraction.

Quick Reference

Task	Tool	Command
Full text	pdftotext	`pdftotext file.pdf -`
Text with layout	pdftotext	`pdftotext -layout file.pdf -`
Specific pages	pdftotext	`pdftotext -f 3 -l 5 file.pdf -`
Tables	pdfplumber	`python3 scripts/extract.py tables file.pdf`
Metadata	pdfinfo	`pdfinfo file.pdf`
Page count	pdfinfo	`pdfinfo file.pdf \| grep Pages`
Images	pdfimages	`pdfimages -list file.pdf`
Fonts	pdffonts	`pdffonts file.pdf`
OCR (scanned PDF)	tesseract	`python3 scripts/extract.py ocr file.pdf`
Smart text + OCR	extract.py	`python3 scripts/extract.py text file.pdf`
Quick survey	extract.py	`python3 scripts/extract.py scan file.pdf`

Workflow

Step 1: Get the PDF

If the user provides a URL, download it first:

bash

curl -sL "URL" -o /tmp/document.pdf

Verify it's a valid PDF:

bash

file /tmp/document.pdf  # should say "PDF document"
pdfinfo /tmp/document.pdf  # metadata + page count

Step 2: Choose Extraction Method

Plain text (most cases):

bash

pdftotext file.pdf -

This pipes output to stdout. For large PDFs, use page ranges:

bash

pdftotext -f 1 -l 10 file.pdf -    # pages 1-10

Layout-preserving text (columns, formatted docs):

bash

pdftotext -layout file.pdf -

Use -layout when the PDF has multi-column layouts, tables rendered as text, or precise spacing that matters.

Tables (structured data):

bash

python3 scripts/extract.py tables file.pdf

Or inline with pdfplumber:

python

import pdfplumber

pdf = pdfplumber.open("file.pdf")
for i, page in enumerate(pdf.pages):
    tables = page.extract_tables()
    for table in tables:
        print(f"\n--- Table on page {i+1} ---")
        for row in table:
            print(" | ".join(str(cell or "") for cell in row))
pdf.close()

Metadata only:

bash

pdfinfo file.pdf

Returns: title, author, creator, producer, page count, page size, dates.

Step 3: Handle Large PDFs

For PDFs over ~50 pages, don't dump everything at once:

Get page count: pdfinfo file.pdf | grep Pages
Extract in chunks: pdftotext -f 1 -l 20 file.pdf -
Process chunk, then continue: pdftotext -f 21 -l 40 file.pdf -

For targeted extraction (searching for specific content):

bash

# Extract all text, grep for relevant sections
pdftotext file.pdf - | grep -n -i "keyword"

# Then extract the specific page range
pdftotext -f PAGE -l PAGE file.pdf -

Step 4: Handle Scanned PDFs (OCR)

If pdftotext returns empty or garbled output, the PDF is likely scanned.

Detection:

bash

python3 scripts/extract.py scan file.pdf   # reports scanned pages
pdffonts file.pdf                           # empty = image-based

Smart extraction (auto-fallback):

text mode automatically detects scanned pages and OCRs them:

bash

python3 scripts/extract.py text file.pdf

Pages with selectable text extract normally. Pages without selectable text fall back to OCR via Tesseract. No manual detection needed.

Force OCR on all pages:

bash

python3 scripts/extract.py ocr file.pdf
python3 scripts/extract.py ocr file.pdf --pages 1-5
python3 scripts/extract.py ocr file.pdf --dpi 400        # higher quality
python3 scripts/extract.py ocr file.pdf --lang eng+nor   # multi-language

OCR options:

--dpi 300 — resolution for page-to-image conversion (default: 300, higher = slower but better)
--lang eng — Tesseract language pack (default: eng). Use + for multiple: eng+nor+deu
--pages 1-5 — limit to specific pages (recommended for large PDFs)

Available language packs:

bash

tesseract --list-langs

Install additional languages via Homebrew:

bash

brew install tesseract-lang    # all languages

Show full SKILL.md (173 more words)Show less

Step 5: Handle Other Edge Cases

Mixed PDFs (some pages scanned, some not):

Just use text mode — it handles mixed PDFs automatically:

bash

python3 scripts/extract.py text file.pdf

Selectable pages extract instantly, scanned pages get OCR'd. The output is tagged so you know which pages used OCR.

Password-protected PDFs:

bash

pdftotext -upw "password" file.pdf -   # user password
pdftotext -opw "password" file.pdf -   # owner password

Encoding issues (garbled output):

bash

pdftotext -enc UTF-8 file.pdf -

Extract images:

bash

pdfimages -png file.pdf /tmp/images/img   # extracts as PNG
pdfimages -list file.pdf                  # list images without extracting

Decision Tree

Is it a URL? → curl -sL "URL" -o /tmp/doc.pdf
            ↓
Run: python3 scripts/extract.py scan file.pdf
            ↓
All pages have selectable text?
  YES → pdftotext file.pdf -           (fast, simple)
  NO  → python3 scripts/extract.py text file.pdf  (auto OCR fallback)
            ↓
Need tables?
  YES → python3 scripts/extract.py tables file.pdf

Tips

Start with scan on unknown PDFs — it reports pages, tables, scanned detection, and a preview
pdftotext is fastest for normal PDFs — try it first
Use -layout for multi-column documents (academic papers, reports)
pdfplumber is better for tables — it understands cell boundaries
text mode auto-detects scanned pages and OCRs only those — preferred over raw pdftotext for unknown PDFs
ocr mode is for forcing OCR on everything (useful when text extraction gives garbled output despite appearing selectable)
Higher --dpi gives better OCR accuracy but is slower (300 is a good default, 400+ for small text)
For PDFs from URLs, always download to /tmp/ first — don't pipe curl to tools
Large PDF text output may exceed context limits — use --pages to extract in ranges

Files

SKILL.md and 1 other file (scripts) in skills/pdf-reader of espennilsen/pi.

SKILL.md
scripts/extract.py

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 79d019b

Compare with similar skills

PDF Reader next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

PDF Reader compared with similar skills
Skill	Stars	Used in	Tokens	Auto-check	Licence	Repo updated
PDF Reader this skillespennilsen/pi	122	—	~1.6k	Automated safety check: Pass	MIT	15 days ago
PDF ToolkitXiaomiMiMo/MiMo-Code	14k	—	~1.7k	Automated safety check: Pass	Apache-2.0	4 days ago
PDF Generation, Forms and Extractionpipeshub-ai/pipeshub-ai	3.8k	—	~2.9k	Automated safety check: Pass	Apache-2.0	today
PDF Explorexuzhougeng/wisp-science	1k	—	~1.2k	Automated safety check: Pass	Apache-2.0	today
PDF Processinganthropics/skills	180k	48 repos	~2k	Automated safety check: Pass	Proprietary	2 days ago
PDF Processing with PythonHKUDS/DeepTutor	41k	—	~2.7k	Automated safety check: Pass	Apache-2.0	3 days ago

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Questions about PDF Reader

What does PDF Reader do?

Read and extract content from PDF files — text, tables, metadata, and images. PDF Reader is an agent skill from espennilsen/pi. Read and extract content from PDF files — text, tables, metadata, and images.

When should I use PDF Reader?

PDF Reader fits situations like: asked to read a PDF; extract text from a PDF; summarize a PDF; analyze a PDF document.

How do I install PDF Reader in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add espennilsen/pi --skill pdf-reader -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/pdf-reader in espennilsen/pi) into .claude/skills/pdf-reader in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install PDF Reader in Codex?

Run `npx skills add espennilsen/pi --skill pdf-reader -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/pdf-reader in espennilsen/pi) into .agents/skills/pdf-reader in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use PDF Reader in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add espennilsen/pi --skill pdf-reader -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/pdf-reader, .gemini/skills/pdf-reader, .github/skills/pdf-reader and .opencode/skills/pdf-reader in your project.

What does PDF Reader need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, PDF Reader needs Python for the scripts in its folder and the command-line tools its instructions call (pdftotext, python3, curl, tesseract and brew). Our summary lists: Python 3.

Does PDF Reader access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Its commands use curl, which can reach the network depending on how they are called. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is PDF Reader safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. The check reads SKILL.md only: the scripts in the folder are not scanned, so read them before running anything.

What licence does PDF Reader use?

PDF Reader is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does PDF Reader use?

About 1.6k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 6.3k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to PDF Reader?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with PDF Reader: PDF Toolkit (XiaomiMiMo/MiMo-Code, 14k stars), PDF Generation, Forms and Extraction (pipeshub-ai/pipeshub-ai, 3.8k stars), PDF Explore (xuzhougeng/wisp-science, 1k stars) and PDF Processing (anthropics/skills, 180k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains PDF Reader?

espennilsen (a GitHub user) maintains it in espennilsen/pi, which has 122 GitHub stars. The repository holds 36 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on September 21, 2026.

Source: espennilsen/pi on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.

Install PDF Reader

Facts

At a glance

What it does

When your agent uses it

Example prompts

Requirements

Workflow steps

What it can do on your machine

Tool permissions

Runs code

Network

Credentials

Context cost

Safety

SKILL.md

PDF Reader

Quick Reference

Workflow

Step 1: Get the PDF

Step 2: Choose Extraction Method

Step 3: Handle Large PDFs

Step 4: Handle Scanned PDFs (OCR)

Step 5: Handle Other Edge Cases

Decision Tree

Tips

Files

Compare with similar skills

Similar skills

More from espennilsen/pi

Related

Questions about PDF Reader