Automated summary

Search and extract content from PDF files without loading entire documents into context.

Strengths

Fast searching with pdfgrep, supporting case-insensitive and regex patterns.
Page-range extraction with pdftotext to minimize context usage.
Ability to preserve layout for tables and structured text.

Limitations

Does not work with scanned (image-based) PDFs.
Requires prior installation of pdfgrep and poppler-utils.
Context lines are limited to a few before/after the match.

When to use it

When you need to quickly locate and extract specific content from a large PDF without reading the entire file.

When not to use it

When the PDF is image-based or requires precise layout extraction (use OCR or dedicated tools instead).

Security analysis

Safe

Quality score95/100

The skill uses read-only commands (pdfgrep, pdftotext) to search and extract text from PDFs. No destructive, exfiltrating, or obfuscated actions are instructed.

No concerns found

How this analysis is made

Examples

Search for a term in a PDF

Search for 'authentication' in the manual.pdf file and show me the page numbers and a few lines of context around each match.

Extract pages from a PDF as text

Extract pages 10 to 15 from large-report.pdf and output the text.

Get page count of a PDF

Tell me how many pages are in the document guide.pdf.

name: pdf-tools description: Search and extract content from PDF files. Use when searching PDFs, finding text in documents, or extracting specific pages without reading the entire file. allowed-tools: Bash, Read, Glob

PDF Tools

Name: PDF Tools
Author: Skills Guide Bot

Search and extract content from PDFs without loading entire files into context.

Installation

# macOS
brew install pdfgrep poppler

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install pdfgrep poppler-utils

Quick Reference

| Task | Command | |------|---------| | Search | pdfgrep "term" file.pdf | | Search with page numbers | pdfgrep -n "term" file.pdf | | Search with context | pdfgrep -n -C 2 "term" file.pdf | | Get page count | pdfinfo file.pdf \| grep Pages | | Extract pages 5-10 | pdftotext -f 5 -l 10 file.pdf - |

Core Workflow

Step 1: Search - Find where content lives

pdfgrep -n "authentication" large-manual.pdf
# Output: 42: User authentication requires...
#         45: Authentication tokens expire...

Step 2: Extract - Get just those pages

pdftotext -f 41 -l 46 large-manual.pdf -

Search Commands

# Basic search
pdfgrep "search term" document.pdf

# Case-insensitive
pdfgrep -i "search term" document.pdf

# With page numbers
pdfgrep -n "search term" document.pdf

# With context (2 lines before/after)
pdfgrep -n -C 2 "search term" document.pdf

# Count occurrences
pdfgrep -c "search term" document.pdf

# Search all PDFs in directory
pdfgrep -r "term" /path/to/pdfs/

Extract Commands

# Extract specific page range
pdftotext -f 10 -l 15 document.pdf -

# Extract single page
pdftotext -f 42 -l 42 document.pdf -

# Preserve layout (for tables)
pdftotext -layout -f 10 -l 10 document.pdf -

# Extract and limit output
pdftotext -f 10 -l 15 document.pdf - | head -50

Metadata

# Get page count
pdfinfo document.pdf | grep Pages

# Full metadata
pdfinfo document.pdf

Troubleshooting

Empty output from pdftotext: PDF is image-based (scanned). These tools work with text-based PDFs only.

pdfgrep missing matches: Try case-insensitive (-i). Check if PDF has selectable text.

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/pdf-tools-mm5t8ar5/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/pdf-tools-mm5t8ar5' && curl --fail --show-error --location 'https://skills-guides.com/api/skills/pdf-tools-mm5t8ar5/download' --output '.skill-downloads/pdf-tools-mm5t8ar5/SKILL.md.part' && mv '.skill-downloads/pdf-tools-mm5t8ar5/SKILL.md.part' '.skill-downloads/pdf-tools-mm5t8ar5/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, Glob

Original excerpt: Installation

# macOS
brew install pdfgrep poppler

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install pdfgrep poppler-utils

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/pdf-tools-mm5t8ar5/SKILL.md' && test -s '.skill-downloads/pdf-tools-mm5t8ar5/SKILL.md' && mkdir -p '.claude/skills' && test ! -e '.claude/skills/pdf-tools' && cp -R '.skill-downloads/pdf-tools-mm5t8ar5' '.claude/skills/pdf-tools'

Cursor

test -f '.skill-downloads/pdf-tools-mm5t8ar5/SKILL.md' && test -s '.skill-downloads/pdf-tools-mm5t8ar5/SKILL.md' && mkdir -p '.cursor/skills' && test ! -e '.cursor/skills/pdf-tools' && cp -R '.skill-downloads/pdf-tools-mm5t8ar5' '.cursor/skills/pdf-tools'

Codex

test -f '.skill-downloads/pdf-tools-mm5t8ar5/SKILL.md' && test -s '.skill-downloads/pdf-tools-mm5t8ar5/SKILL.md' && mkdir -p '.agents/skills' && test ! -e '.agents/skills/pdf-tools' && cp -R '.skill-downloads/pdf-tools-mm5t8ar5' '.agents/skills/pdf-tools'

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/pdf-tools-mm5t8ar5'

openskills read 'pdf-tools-mm5t8ar5'

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/pdf-tools-mm5t8ar5/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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Skills Guide Bot