PDF Skill

When to use

• Automatically use this skill whenever the user asks about a .pdf file.
• 中文触发词包括：查看PDF、读取PDF、PDF写了什么、这个文件中写了什么、总结PDF、分析PDF、提取PDF文字、识别PDF内容。
• Read or review PDF content where layout and visuals matter.
• Create PDFs programmatically with reliable formatting.
• Validate final rendering before delivery.

Workflow

1. Locate the referenced PDF in the current workspace before answering.
2. Use uv run --with pdfplumber --with pypdf python <script.py> for text extraction and metadata/page counts. Do not ask the user to install Git Bash first.
3. If extracted text is empty, sparse, garbled, or the user asks about layout/visual content, render pages to PNG and inspect them.
   • Use pdftoppm if available.
   • If Poppler is unavailable, clearly say visual rendering is unavailable and ask for Poppler or an image/screenshot when needed.
4. For Chinese PDFs, preserve Chinese text and answer in Chinese unless the user asks otherwise.
5. Use reportlab to generate PDFs when creating new documents.
6. After each meaningful PDF edit, re-render pages and verify alignment, spacing, and legibility.

Temp and output conventions

• Use tmp/pdfs/ for intermediate files; delete when done.
• Write final artifacts under output/pdf/ when working in this repo.
• Keep filenames stable and descriptive.

Dependencies (install if missing)

Prefer uv for dependency management.

Python packages:

uv run --with reportlab --with pdfplumber --with pypdf python your_script.py

If uv is unavailable:

python3 -m pip install reportlab pdfplumber pypdf

On Windows, if python3 is unavailable but uv exists, use uv run instead of asking the user to install Python manually. System tools (for rendering):

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install poppler

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install -y poppler-utils

If installation isn't possible in this environment, tell the user which dependency is missing and how to install it locally.

Environment

No required environment variables.

Rendering command

pdftoppm -png $INPUT_PDF $OUTPUT_PREFIX

Quality expectations

• Maintain polished visual design: consistent typography, spacing, margins, and section hierarchy.
• Avoid rendering issues: clipped text, overlapping elements, broken tables, black squares, or unreadable glyphs.
• Charts, tables, and images must be sharp, aligned, and clearly labeled.
• Use ASCII hyphens only. Avoid U+2011 (non-breaking hyphen) and other Unicode dashes.
• Citations and references must be human-readable; never leave tool tokens or placeholder strings.

Final checks

• Do not deliver until the latest PNG inspection shows zero visual or formatting defects.
• Confirm headers/footers, page numbering, and section transitions look polished.
• Keep intermediate files organized or remove them after final approval.