Create PDF Test Fixtures

VerifiedCaution

Generate complete PDF test fixtures combining ReportLab tables and AI-generated images to test extractors. Orchestrates create-table and create-image skills.

Sby Skills Guide Bot
TestingIntermediate
3/8/2026
Claude CodeCodex
#pdf-generation#test-fixtures#reportlab#extractor-testing#image-generation

Recommended for

Automated summary

Generates complete PDF test fixtures by combining ReportLab tables with AI-generated images, designed to exercise and expose PDF extractor bugs.

Strengths

  • Orchestrates the sibling create-table and create-image skills for modular, reusable fixtures
  • Ships an extractor-bugs preset targeting concrete edge cases such as empty sections, false tables and malformed titles
  • Includes a verify command to check table detection after generation
  • Accepts a JSON spec to describe custom sections, tables and figures

Limitations

  • Depends on sibling skills and cached images that must exist in the repository tree
  • Requires a Python environment with uv plus reportlab, pymupdf, typer and pillow
  • Only two documented presets, which limits the range of ready-made fixtures
When to use it

Use it when you need to quickly produce a reproducible test PDF to validate or debug a table and image extraction pipeline.

When not to use it

Avoid it when you need a polished production PDF or when the create-table and create-image skills are not available in your environment.

Security analysis

Caution
Quality score86/100

No destructive, exfiltrating, or obfuscated commands are present. The skill uses Bash for legitimate local PDF fixture generation, but it does execute repository-provided scripts, so trust in the source is required.

Findings
  • •Executes local scripts via Bash (`uv run generate.py` and `./run.sh`) and writes output files; safety depends on the trusted repository and sibling skill contents.
How this analysis is made

Examples

Reproduce extractor bugs
Create a PDF test fixture that reproduces the known extractor bugs, including empty sections and false table detections, and save it as test.pdf.
Simple fixture with verification
Generate a simple PDF test fixture with one table and some text, then verify that the table is detected correctly.
Custom JSON spec fixture
Build a PDF fixture from a JSON spec with a requirements section containing a two-column ID/Name table and an architecture diagram figure.

name: create-pdf-fixture description: > Create complete PDF test fixtures combining ReportLab tables and AI-generated images. Orchestrates create-table and create-image skills. Creates PDFs designed to test/expose extractor bugs. allowed-tools: Bash, Read, Write triggers:

  • create pdf fixture
  • create test pdf
  • generate pdf fixture
  • make test pdf
  • pdf for testing
  • extractor test fixture
  • bug reproduction pdf metadata: short-description: "Create PDF test fixtures (tables + images)"

create-pdf-fixture

Generate complete PDF test fixtures that combine:

  • Proper ReportLab tables via create-table (detectable by Marker/Camelot)
  • AI-generated images via create-image (diagrams, decorative elements)
  • Text content with various formatting challenges

Why This Exists

Creating test PDFs that properly exercise extractors requires:

  1. Tables built with ReportLab (not raw drawing commands)
  2. Images that test VLM classification (decorative vs data)
  3. Edge cases: empty sections, malformed titles, nested structures

This skill orchestrates sibling skills for modular, reusable fixtures.

Quick Start

cd .pi/skills/create-pdf-fixture

# Generate the extractor bug reproduction fixture
uv run generate.py extractor-bugs --output test.pdf

# Generate a simple fixture
uv run generate.py simple --output simple_test.pdf

# List available presets
uv run generate.py list-presets

# Verify table detection
uv run generate.py verify test.pdf

Presets

| Preset | Description | Tests | |--------|-------------|-------| | extractor-bugs | Reproduces known extractor issues | Empty sections, false tables, malformed titles | | simple | Basic PDF with table and text | Basic extraction |

Sibling Skills Used

| Skill | Purpose | |-------|---------| | create-table | Creates ReportLab tables (Marker-detectable) | | create-image | AI-generated images with caching |

Cached images from create-image/cached_images/:

  • decorative.png - Cover illustration
  • flowchart.png - Process diagram
  • network_arch.png - Architecture diagram

Legacy Usage (Still Supported)

# Via wrapper (uses extractor project)
./run.sh --example --name test_fixture
./run.sh --spec content_spec.json --name my_fixture

JSON Spec Format (Legacy)

{
  "style": "standard",
  "sections": [
    {
      "title": "1. Requirements",
      "level": 1,
      "content": [
        {"type": "text", "text": "This document describes requirements."},
        {"type": "table", "columns": ["ID", "Name"], "rows": [["1", "Alice"]]},
        {"type": "figure", "description": "Architecture diagram"}
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Output

  • extractor_bugs_fixture.pdf - Cached in cached_fixtures/
  • Custom output via --output flag

Dependencies

dependencies = [
    "pymupdf>=1.23.0",
    "reportlab>=4.0.0",
    "typer>=0.9.0",
    "pillow>=10.0.0",
]

From the file to a first result

The download contains exactly the content displayed on this page. This copy may differ from the latest version in the source repository.

View the source and supporting files

This download contains SKILL.md only. Any scripts, references, templates and dependencies are not included. Get the required files from the source, preserving their directory structure, before continuing.

1. Download the file

Download SKILL.md

From the root of a test project, save the file as .skill-downloads/create-pdf-test-fixtures-mmh8qqxs/SKILL.md, or use the command below. This folder is for inspecting the skill before installation.

Command for macOS/Linux or WSL: requires a POSIX shell and curl. On Windows without WSL, use the download button and create the folder manually.

mkdir -p '.skill-downloads/create-pdf-test-fixtures-mmh8qqxs' && curl --fail --show-error --location 'https://skills-guides.com/api/skills/create-pdf-test-fixtures-mmh8qqxs/download' --output '.skill-downloads/create-pdf-test-fixtures-mmh8qqxs/SKILL.md.part' && mv '.skill-downloads/create-pdf-test-fixtures-mmh8qqxs/SKILL.md.part' '.skill-downloads/create-pdf-test-fixtures-mmh8qqxs/SKILL.md'

2. Check prerequisites

Read SKILL.md before using it. If it references scripts or external services, inspect them and prepare the required access in your test environment.

Tools declared by the author (check availability in your agent): Bash, Read, Write

Original excerpt: Dependencies
dependencies = [
    "pymupdf>=1.23.0",
    "reportlab>=4.0.0",
    "typer>=0.9.0",
    "pillow>=10.0.0",
]

The platforms on this page are catalog indications. The paths below follow tool documentation; they do not prove this skill has been run in those tools. No minimum tool version is confirmed for this listing.

3. Load the skill

After inspection, copy the complete folder into your project using one of the commands below, then open a new tool session. The command stops if a folder with the same name already exists: compare the files before replacing it.

Claude Code
test -f '.skill-downloads/create-pdf-test-fixtures-mmh8qqxs/SKILL.md' && test -s '.skill-downloads/create-pdf-test-fixtures-mmh8qqxs/SKILL.md' && mkdir -p '.claude/skills' && test ! -e '.claude/skills/create-pdf-fixture' && cp -R '.skill-downloads/create-pdf-test-fixtures-mmh8qqxs' '.claude/skills/create-pdf-fixture'

Codex
test -f '.skill-downloads/create-pdf-test-fixtures-mmh8qqxs/SKILL.md' && test -s '.skill-downloads/create-pdf-test-fixtures-mmh8qqxs/SKILL.md' && mkdir -p '.agents/skills' && test ! -e '.agents/skills/create-pdf-fixture' && cp -R '.skill-downloads/create-pdf-test-fixtures-mmh8qqxs' '.agents/skills/create-pdf-fixture'

OpenSkills

OpenSkills must already be installed. The local install/read procedure is checked with OpenSkills 1.5.0, which requires Node.js ≥ 20.6.0. Catalog slugs are not resolved automatically.

Official OpenSkills installation
openskills install './.skill-downloads/create-pdf-test-fixtures-mmh8qqxs'

openskills read 'create-pdf-test-fixtures-mmh8qqxs'

Reading should display the installed file content and its base directory. It does not run the skill or install its dependencies.

For an agent that reads AGENTS.md, then sync the index. This command changes AGENTS.md: review the diff before using it.

openskills sync

Manual method or another tool: attach SKILL.md to a conversation, or open it in an agent that can read files. Include any required supporting resources. No universal folder is recognized by every tool.

4. Try a first task

Use a short, synthetic input: an API endpoint, a small document or an interface brief. In a new conversation, attach the file or give the agent its path, then adapt this request:

Read .skill-downloads/create-pdf-test-fixtures-mmh8qqxs/SKILL.md and apply its instructions to this example: [describe a test input]. Identify any missing files, dependencies or access. Produce the result requested by the skill without inventing data or running unreviewed scripts.

Expected result: output matching the skill instructions, or a precise list of missing prerequisites. A read confirmation alone does not validate a first use. If an external resource is unavailable, that path remains untested.

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