Add PDF Reader

Add PDF Reader

Adds PDF reading capability to all container agents using poppler-utils (pdftotext/pdfinfo). PDFs sent as WhatsApp attachments are auto-downloaded to the group workspace.

Phase 1: Pre-flight

Check if already applied

Read .nanoclaw/state.yaml. If add-pdf-reader is in applied_skills, skip to Phase 3 (Verify).

Phase 2: Apply Code Changes

Initialize skills system (if needed)

If .nanoclaw/ directory doesn't exist:

npx tsx scripts/apply-skill.ts --init

Apply the skill

npx tsx scripts/apply-skill.ts .claude/skills/add-pdf-reader

This deterministically:

• Adds container/skills/pdf-reader/SKILL.md (agent-facing documentation)
• Adds container/skills/pdf-reader/pdf-reader (CLI script)
• Three-way merges poppler-utils + COPY into container/Dockerfile
• Three-way merges PDF attachment download into src/channels/whatsapp.ts
• Three-way merges PDF tests into src/channels/whatsapp.test.ts
• Records application in .nanoclaw/state.yaml

If merge conflicts occur, read the intent files:

• modify/container/Dockerfile.intent.md
• modify/src/channels/whatsapp.ts.intent.md
• modify/src/channels/whatsapp.test.ts.intent.md

Validate

npm test
npm run build

Rebuild container

./container/build.sh

Restart service

launchctl kickstart -k gui/$(id -u)/com.nanoclaw  # macOS
# Linux: systemctl --user restart nanoclaw

Phase 3: Verify

Test PDF extraction

Send a PDF file in any registered WhatsApp chat. The agent should:

1. Download the PDF to attachments/
2. Respond acknowledging the PDF
3. Be able to extract text when asked

Test URL fetching

Ask the agent to read a PDF from a URL. It should use pdf-reader fetch <url>.

Check logs if needed

tail -f logs/nanoclaw.log | grep -i pdf

Look for:

• Downloaded PDF attachment — successful download
• Failed to download PDF attachment — media download issue

Troubleshooting

Agent says pdf-reader command not found

Container needs rebuilding. Run ./container/build.sh and restart the service.

PDF text extraction is empty

The PDF may be scanned (image-based). pdftotext only handles text-based PDFs. Consider using the agent-browser to open the PDF visually instead.

WhatsApp PDF not detected

Verify the message has documentMessage with mimetype: application/pdf. Some file-sharing apps send PDFs as generic files without the correct mimetype.