Overview
pdf is an open-source design skill for Claude Code and compatible agents, published by anthropics. Its author describes it as: “Use this skill whenever the user wants to do anything with PDF files. This includes reading or extracting text/tables from PDFs, combining or merging multiple PDFs into one, splitting PDFs apart, rotating pages, addin…”. The project has 177k stars on GitHub and ships custom license terms, so review them before reuse. Add it to your setup with `/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills`.
What pdf does
This guide covers essential PDF processing operations using Python libraries and command-line tools. For advanced features, JavaScript libraries, and detailed examples, see REFERENCE.md. If you need to fill out a PDF form, read FORMS.md and follow its instructions.
What’s inside
The SKILL.md for pdf is organised into these sections:
- Overview
- Quick Start
- Python Libraries
- pypdf - Basic Operations
- pdfplumber - Text and Table Extraction
- reportlab - Create PDFs
- Command-Line Tools
- pdftotext (poppler-utils)
- qpdf
- pdftk (if available)
- Common Tasks
- Extract Text from Scanned PDFs
Installation
Add pdf to your agent with:
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skillsReview a skill’s source before installing it — skills can instruct your agent to run commands. This command comes from the skill’s public repository, which is the source of truth for setup steps. New to skills? Read how to install Claude Code skills.
Supported agents
- Claude Code — ships a claude code plugin marketplace
License
anthropics has not declared a standard open-source license for this repository (Custom terms). Confirm the terms with the author before reusing it.
Strengths
- Ships in anthropics/skills, an established project with 177,416 GitHub stars
- Works with Claude Code
- Actively maintained — repository updated in the last 30 days
- Its repository gained 12,054 GitHub stars over the last 52 days
Things to check
- No license declared — confirm terms with the author before reuse
Author
Topics
Alternatives to pdf
Similar skills from other repositories:
Frequently asked questions
- What does pdf do?
- Use this skill whenever the user wants to do anything with PDF files. This includes reading or extracting text/tables from PDFs, combining or merging multiple PDFs into one, splitting PDFs apart, rotating pages, adding watermarks, creating new PDFs, filling PDF forms, encrypting/decrypting PDFs, extracting images, and OCR on scanned PDFs to make them searchable. If the user mentions a .pdf file or asks to produce one, use this skill.
- How do I install pdf?
- Run /plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills in your agent, then reload your skills. Review the source at https://github.com/anthropics/skills before installing.
- Is pdf free to use?
- pdf is publicly available on GitHub, but anthropics has not declared a standard open-source license (Custom terms). Confirm the terms with the author before reusing it.
- Which agents does pdf work with?
- pdf lists Claude Code — named in its SKILL.md, its plugin marketplace or its repository topics. Skills use the portable SKILL.md format, so other agents that read that format may load it too.
- Where does pdf come from?
- pdf ships inside anthropics/skills, a repository that contains 21 catalogued skills in total. The repository's 177,416 GitHub stars apply to that whole collection, not to this skill on its own.
