Agent skill

PDF Library Guide

by FareedKhan-dev in FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch

Picks the right Python library for PDF jobs, with examples for text and table extraction, merging, splitting and page extraction, plus OCR and memory fixes.

MITAuto-check passedDocuments & Office

Install PDF Library Guide

skills CLI

$ npx skills add FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch --skill pdf -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch pdf --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/FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/pdf .claude/skills/pdf && 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" agent skill from https://github.com/FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch/tree/main/skills/pdf into .claude/skills/pdf/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "pdf", 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/FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch/tree/main/skills/pdf

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 FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch --skill pdf -a codex

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

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch pdf --agent codex

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

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch.git skills-src && mkdir -p .agents/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/pdf .agents/skills/pdf && 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" agent skill from https://github.com/FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch/tree/main/skills/pdf into .agents/skills/pdf/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "pdf", 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 FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch --skill pdf -a cursor

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

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch pdf --agent cursor

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

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch.git skills-src && mkdir -p .cursor/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/pdf .cursor/skills/pdf && 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" agent skill from https://github.com/FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch/tree/main/skills/pdf into .cursor/skills/pdf/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "pdf", 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/FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch.git --path skills/pdf

--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 FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch --skill pdf -a gemini-cli

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

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch pdf --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/FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch.git skills-src && mkdir -p .gemini/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/pdf .gemini/skills/pdf && 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" agent skill from https://github.com/FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch/tree/main/skills/pdf into .gemini/skills/pdf/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "pdf", 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 FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch pdf

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 FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch --skill pdf -a github-copilot

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

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch.git skills-src && mkdir -p .github/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/pdf .github/skills/pdf && 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" agent skill from https://github.com/FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch/tree/main/skills/pdf into .github/skills/pdf/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "pdf", 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 FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch --skill pdf -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 FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch pdf --agent opencode

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

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch.git skills-src && mkdir -p .opencode/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/pdf .opencode/skills/pdf && 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" agent skill from https://github.com/FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch/tree/main/skills/pdf into .opencode/skills/pdf/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "pdf", 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
GitHub stars: 298
Token cost: ~785 tokens
SKILL.md length: 109 words
Files: 1
Skills in repo: 3
Repo updated: Apr 5, 2026
First seen: Oct 7, 2026
Licence: MIT

At a glance

Picks the right Python library for PDF jobs, with examples for text and table extraction, merging, splitting and page extraction, plus OCR and memory fixes.

Extracting text or tables from a PDF report
SKILL.md covers When to use this skill, Library decision tree, Install and Extract text — pdfplumber, plus 5 more sections
Calls pip
Merging several PDFs into one file or splitting one apart

What it does

A short working guide for PDF tasks: extracting text or tables, merging, splitting, filling forms, adding watermarks or annotations, converting and searching. A decision tree maps each need to a library, with pdfplumber for text and tables from normal PDFs and pypdf for merging, splitting and page extraction, and code examples show each operation.

A troubleshooting section covers garbled or empty text from scanned files, which calls for OCR with pytesseract and pdf2image, tables that extract badly and can be tuned through pdfplumber table settings, and very large PDFs, which should be processed one page at a time. Installation is a pip install of pdfplumber and pypdf, with the OCR packages added when needed.

When your agent uses it

Extracting text or tables from a PDF report
Merging several PDFs into one file or splitting one apart
Reading a scanned PDF that needs OCR

Example prompts

“Extract the tables from ./reports/annual.pdf into CSV files.”
“Merge cover.pdf, body.pdf and appendix.pdf into one document.”
“This scanned contract returns empty text. OCR it and list its clauses.”

Requirements

Python with pdfplumber and pypdf
pytesseract and pdf2image for scanned PDFs

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit fb9709e. 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
Shell commands in SKILL.md call:
- pip
From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.
Network
No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use pip, 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 Library Guide loads about 785 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 41 tokens; SKILL.md has 109 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it: ~41
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches: ~785

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); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch at commit fb9709e, republished under its MIT licence (© FareedKhan-dev). 109 words, ~785 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/pdf/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).

name: pdf
description: Use when working with PDF files — reading, extracting text or tables, merging, splitting, or filling forms. Provides correct library choices and common patterns.

PDF Skill

When to use this skill

Load when the user asks you to:

Extract text or tables from a PDF
Merge or split PDF files
Fill in a PDF form
Add watermarks or annotations
Convert PDF to another format
Search for content inside a PDF

Library decision tree

Need to extract text from a normal (not scanned) PDF?
    → pdfplumber  (best text + table extraction)

Need to manipulate pages (merge, split, rotate)?
    → pypdf  (formerly PyPDF2)

Need to fill form fields?
    → pypdf  with writer.update_page_form_field_values()

PDF is scanned (images of pages, no selectable text)?
    → pytesseract + pdf2image  (OCR pipeline)

Need to create a PDF from scratch?
    → reportlab  or  fpdf2

Install

bash

pip install pdfplumber pypdf
# For OCR:
pip install pytesseract pdf2image
# Also requires: tesseract-ocr (system package) and poppler-utils

Extract text — pdfplumber

python

import pdfplumber

with pdfplumber.open("document.pdf") as pdf:
    for page in pdf.pages:
        text = page.extract_text()
        if text:
            print(text)

Extract tables — pdfplumber

python

import pdfplumber

with pdfplumber.open("document.pdf") as pdf:
    for page in pdf.pages:
        tables = page.extract_tables()
        for table in tables:
            for row in table:
                print(row)

Merge PDFs — pypdf

python

from pypdf import PdfWriter

writer = PdfWriter()
for filename in ["part1.pdf", "part2.pdf", "part3.pdf"]:
    writer.append(filename)
with open("merged.pdf", "wb") as f:
    writer.write(f)

Split PDF — pypdf

python

from pypdf import PdfReader, PdfWriter

reader = PdfReader("document.pdf")
for i, page in enumerate(reader.pages):
    writer = PdfWriter()
    writer.add_page(page)
    with open(f"page_{i+1}.pdf", "wb") as f:
        writer.write(f)

Extract specific pages — pypdf

python

from pypdf import PdfReader, PdfWriter

reader = PdfReader("document.pdf")
writer = PdfWriter()
for page_num in [0, 2, 4]:          # 0-indexed
    writer.add_page(reader.pages[page_num])
with open("selected.pdf", "wb") as f:
    writer.write(f)

Common issues

Text comes back garbled or empty The PDF may use a non-standard encoding or be scanned. Try OCR:

python

# pip install pdf2image pytesseract
from pdf2image import convert_from_path
import pytesseract

images = convert_from_path("scanned.pdf")
for img in images:
    print(pytesseract.image_to_string(img))

Tables not extracting correctly Try adjusting the extraction strategy:

python

page.extract_table(table_settings={"vertical_strategy": "lines",
                                    "horizontal_strategy": "lines"})

Large PDF crashes memory Process page by page, don't load entire PDF into memory:

python

with pdfplumber.open("large.pdf") as pdf:
    for page in pdf.pages:
        process(page.extract_text())   # one page at a time

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/pdf of FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit fb9709e

Compare with similar skills

PDF Library Guide 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 Library Guide compared with similar skills
Skill	Stars	Used in	Tokens	Auto-check	Licence	Repo updated
PDF Library Guide this skillFareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch	298	—	~785	Automated safety check: Pass	MIT	6 mo ago
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	today
PDF ToolkitTokenRhythm/opensquilla	7.1k	—	~1.9k	Automated safety check: Pass	Apache-2.0	3 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

Similar skills

PDF Processing
anthropics/skills
Official
Handles everyday PDF jobs in Python and on the command line: extract text and tables, merge, split, rotate, watermark, fill forms, encrypt and OCR.
180k GitHub starsUsed in 48 repos~2k tokens
Documents & OfficeAuto-check passed
PDF Processing with Python
HKUDS/DeepTutor
Reads, extracts from, creates, merges, splits, watermarks, encrypts and fills PDF files with pdfplumber, pypdf and reportlab inside a Python sandbox.
41k GitHub stars~2.7k tokensUpdated today
Documents & OfficeAuto-check passed
PDF Toolkit
TokenRhythm/opensquilla
Deterministic PDF operations through bundled scripts: extract text and tables, merge files or page ranges, split by range, fill form fields and build PDFs from data.
7.1k GitHub stars~1.9k tokensUpdated 3 days ago
Documents & OfficeAuto-check passed
PDF Toolkit
XiaomiMiMo/MiMo-Code
Reads, transforms, composes and fills PDFs with Python scripts for extraction, merging, watermarking, encryption, OCR and form filling.
14k GitHub stars~1.7k tokensUpdated 4 days ago
Documents & OfficeAuto-check passed
PDF Generation, Forms and Extraction
pipeshub-ai/pipeshub-ai
Picks the right library for generating a new PDF, filling an existing PDF form, or extracting text and tables, defaulting to Node where possible.
3.8k GitHub stars~2.9k tokensUpdated today
Documents & OfficeAuto-check passed
PDF Processing Guide
agentscope-ai/QwenPaw
Handles PDF tasks with Python libraries and command-line tools: extract text and tables, merge, split, rotate, create, fill forms and more.
35k GitHub stars~1.8k tokensUpdated today
Documents & OfficeAuto-check passed

Questions about PDF Library Guide

What does PDF Library Guide do?

Picks the right Python library for PDF jobs, with examples for text and table extraction, merging, splitting and page extraction, plus OCR and memory fixes. A short working guide for PDF tasks: extracting text or tables, merging, splitting, filling forms, adding watermarks or annotations, converting and searching. A decision tree maps each need to a library, with pdfplumber for text and tables from normal PDFs and pypdf for merging, splitting and page extraction, and code examples show each operation.

When should I use PDF Library Guide?

PDF Library Guide fits situations like: extracting text or tables from a PDF report; merging several PDFs into one file or splitting one apart; reading a scanned PDF that needs OCR.

How do I install PDF Library Guide in Claude Code?

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

How do I install PDF Library Guide in Codex?

Run `npx skills add FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch --skill pdf -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/pdf in FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch) into .agents/skills/pdf in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use PDF Library Guide 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 FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch --skill pdf -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, .gemini/skills/pdf, .github/skills/pdf and .opencode/skills/pdf in your project.

What does PDF Library Guide need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, PDF Library Guide needs the command-line tools its instructions call (pip). Our summary lists: Python with pdfplumber and pypdf; pytesseract and pdf2image for scanned PDFs.

Does PDF Library Guide access the network?

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

Is PDF Library Guide 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. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does PDF Library Guide use?

PDF Library Guide 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 Library Guide use?

About 785 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 3.1k 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 Library Guide?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with PDF Library Guide: PDF Processing (anthropics/skills, 180k stars), PDF Processing with Python (HKUDS/DeepTutor, 41k stars), PDF Toolkit (TokenRhythm/opensquilla, 7.1k stars) and PDF Toolkit (XiaomiMiMo/MiMo-Code, 14k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains PDF Library Guide?

FareedKhan-dev (a GitHub user) maintains it in FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch, which has 298 GitHub stars. The repository holds 3 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on April 5, 2026.

Source: FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.

PDF Library Guide

Install PDF Library Guide

Facts

At a glance

What it does

When your agent uses it

Example prompts

Requirements

What it can do on your machine

Tool permissions

Runs code

Network

Credentials

Context cost

Safety

SKILL.md

PDF Skill

When to use this skill

Library decision tree

Install

Extract text — pdfplumber

Extract tables — pdfplumber

Merge PDFs — pypdf

Split PDF — pypdf

Extract specific pages — pypdf

Common issues

Files

Compare with similar skills

Similar skills

PDF Processing

PDF Processing with Python

PDF Toolkit

PDF Toolkit

PDF Generation, Forms and Extraction

PDF Processing Guide

More from FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch

Agent Harness Builder

Structured Code Review

Questions about PDF Library Guide

Install PDF Library Guide

Facts

At a glance

What it does

When your agent uses it

Example prompts

Requirements

What it can do on your machine

Tool permissions

Runs code

Network

Credentials

Context cost

Safety

SKILL.md

PDF Skill

When to use this skill

Library decision tree

Install

Extract text — pdfplumber

Extract tables — pdfplumber

Merge PDFs — pypdf

Split PDF — pypdf

Extract specific pages — pypdf

Common issues

Files

Compare with similar skills

Similar skills

More from FareedKhan-dev/claude-code-from-scratch

Related

Questions about PDF Library Guide