Pandoc CLI

Pandoc

Universal document converter. Convert between Markdown, HTML, PDF, DOCX, LaTeX, EPUB, and 40+ formats.

• Official site: https://pandoc.org
• Docs: https://pandoc.org/MANUAL.html

Common Commands

Markdown Conversions

pandoc input.md -o output.html                        # Markdown to HTML
pandoc input.md -o output.pdf                         # Markdown to PDF (requires LaTeX)
pandoc input.md -o output.docx                        # Markdown to Word
pandoc input.md -o output.epub                        # Markdown to EPUB
pandoc input.md -s -o output.html                     # Standalone HTML (full page)

HTML Conversions

pandoc input.html -o output.md                        # HTML to Markdown
pandoc input.html -o output.pdf                       # HTML to PDF
pandoc input.html -t gfm -o output.md                 # HTML to GitHub Flavored Markdown

Word/Office

pandoc input.docx -o output.md                        # DOCX to Markdown
pandoc input.docx -o output.html                      # DOCX to HTML
pandoc input.md --reference-doc=template.docx -o output.docx  # Use Word template

LaTeX

pandoc input.tex -o output.html                       # LaTeX to HTML
pandoc input.md -o output.tex                         # Markdown to LaTeX
pandoc input.md --pdf-engine=xelatex -o output.pdf    # PDF with XeLaTeX

Options

pandoc input.md -s --toc -o output.html               # Table of contents
pandoc input.md -s --css=style.css -o output.html     # Custom CSS
pandoc input.md --template=my-template -o output.html # Custom template
pandoc input.md -V geometry:margin=1in -o output.pdf  # PDF margins
pandoc input.md --highlight-style=tango -o output.html # Code highlighting
pandoc input.md --metadata title="My Doc" -o output.html

Multiple Inputs

pandoc ch1.md ch2.md ch3.md -o book.pdf               # Concatenate files
pandoc ch1.md ch2.md ch3.md --toc -o book.epub         # Book with TOC

Format Detection

pandoc --list-input-formats                            # List input formats
pandoc --list-output-formats                           # List output formats

Agent Best Practices

• Pandoc infers format from file extension - use -f and -t to be explicit
• Use -s (standalone) for complete documents, not fragments
• PDF output requires LaTeX (install with brew install --cask mactex-no-gui)
• Use --toc for automatic table of contents generation
• Use --template for consistent formatting across documents
• Pipe stdin/stdout: echo "# Hello" | pandoc -f markdown -t html
• Use --wrap=none to prevent line wrapping in output

Example Workflows

Convert project docs to HTML site

for f in docs/*.md; do
  pandoc "$f" -s --css=style.css -o "${f%.md}.html"
done

Generate PDF report from Markdown

pandoc report.md -s --toc -V geometry:margin=1in -o report.pdf