How do I install the Vision Extract skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add jmagly-ai-writing-guide/vision-extract in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Vision Extract safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. Capability flags: docs only. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Vision Extract?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Vision Extract free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Vision Extract?

jmagly (@jmagly-ai-writing-guide) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Vision Extract by jmagly-ai-writing-guide

Name: Vision Extract
Rating: 4.2 (5 reviews)
Author: jmagly

Vision Extract

Transcribe scanned page images into per-page + combined Markdown source text for induction, via a provider-neutral vision adapter (codex CLI or a generic command template for Claude/any vision tool). Resumable, with retry + `# Page N` validation + extraction-status markers; optionally rasterizes a PDF to page PNGs first. Runs via `aiwg corpus vision-extract`.

jmagly Updated Sep 10, 2026

File contents

Scanned-Page Vision Extraction

Transcribe a directory of scanned page PNGs into Markdown source text — the acquisition step for inducting scanned books / pages. Provider-neutral: the vision call is a pluggable adapter, not hardcoded to one CLI.

How to run

# Pages already exist at .aiwg/research/sources/images/<slug>/pages/
aiwg corpus vision-extract --slug tufte-1983-visual-display --provider codex

# Rasterize a PDF to page PNGs first (poppler pdftoppm), then transcribe
aiwg corpus vision-extract --slug my-book --rasterize sources/pdfs/my-book.pdf --dpi 200 --provider codex

# Provider-neutral: any vision CLI via a command template
aiwg corpus vision-extract --slug my-book \
  --provider command \
  --command 'claude -p "$(cat {prompt_file})" --image {image} > {out}'

# Resume (skips pages already marked complete); --force re-does them
aiwg corpus vision-extract --slug my-book --start 20 --end 40
aiwg corpus vision-extract --slug my-book --force

Outputs to .aiwg/research/sources/text/<slug>-vision/: per-page pages/page-NNN.md, combined <slug>-vision.vision.md + stripped .txt, run.log.

Adapters (provider-neutral)

`--provider`	Vision call
`codex` (default)	`codex exec --sandbox read-only --image … --output-last-message` (set `AIWG_CODEX_BIN`/`--model` as needed)
`command`	a shell template (`--command` or `AIWG_VISION_COMMAND`) with `{image}` / `{prompt_file}` / `{out}` placeholders — wire any vision CLI (Claude, a custom script). The command writes the transcription to `{out}` (or stdout).

Both require a vision-capable model to be reachable; needs-infrastructure.

Contract preserved from the source script

Strict transcription prompt: reading order, [?] / [unreadable] markers, figure/chart text markers, no summarizing; must start exactly # Page N.
Validation: output is accepted only if it starts with # Page N; otherwise retried (--retries) then written with an  marker.
Resumable: pages with  are skipped unless --force.
Combine: all per-page files concatenated into the combined Markdown + a comment-stripped .txt.

PDF → page images

--rasterize <pdf> renders the PDF to page-NNN.png via poppler pdftoppm (macOS: brew install poppler; Debian/Ubuntu: apt install poppler-utils) at --dpi (default 200), into the slug's images dir. Omit it when page PNGs already exist (the script's original input contract).

Triggers

"transcribe scanned pages / book"
"vision OCR a PDF"
"extract text from page images"

Notes

TS-native: src/artifacts/corpus-tools/vision-extract.ts — port of section9 codex_vision_extract_pages.sh, generalized off the hardcoded codex CLI.
Sits alongside research-acquire / research-acquisition-agent (PDF/metadata) and the media-transcript tooling (audio/video) as the scanned-page acquisition path.

---name: vision-extractdescription: Transcribe scanned page images into per-page + combined Markdown source text for induction, via a provider-neutral vision adapter (codex CLI or a generic command template for Claude/any vision tool). Resumable, with retry + `# Page N` validation + extraction-status markers; optionally rasterizes a PDF to page PNGs first. Runs via `aiwg corpus vision-extract`.---# Scanned-Page Vision ExtractionTranscribe a directory of scanned page PNGs into Markdown source text — theacquisition step for inducting scanned books / pages. Provider-neutral: thevision call is a pluggable adapter, not hardcoded to one CLI.## How to run```bash# Pages already exist at .aiwg/research/sources/images/<slug>/pages/aiwg corpus vision-extract --slug tufte-1983-visual-display --provider codex# Rasterize a PDF to page PNGs first (poppler pdftoppm), then transcribeaiwg corpus vision-extract --slug my-book --rasterize sources/pdfs/my-book.pdf --dpi 200 --provider codex# Provider-neutral: any vision CLI via a command templateaiwg corpus vision-extract --slug my-book \ --provider command \ --command 'claude -p "$(cat {prompt_file})" --image {image} > {out}'# Resume (skips pages already marked complete); --force re-does themaiwg corpus vision-extract --slug my-book --start 20 --end 40aiwg corpus vision-extract --slug my-book --force```Outputs to `.aiwg/research/sources/text/<slug>-vision/`: per-page`pages/page-NNN.md`, combined `<slug>-vision.vision.md` + stripped `.txt`, `run.log`.## Adapters (provider-neutral)| `--provider` | Vision call ||---|---|| `codex` (default) | `codex exec --sandbox read-only --image … --output-last-message` (set `AIWG_CODEX_BIN`/`--model` as needed) || `command` | a shell template (`--command` or `AIWG_VISION_COMMAND`) with `{image}` / `{prompt_file}` / `{out}` placeholders — wire any vision CLI (Claude, a custom script). The command writes the transcription to `{out}` (or stdout). |Both require a vision-capable model to be reachable; `needs-infrastructure`.## Contract preserved from the source script- **Strict transcription prompt**: reading order, `[?]` / `[unreadable]` markers, figure/chart text markers, no summarizing; must start exactly `# Page N`.- **Validation**: output is accepted only if it starts with `# Page N`; otherwise retried (`--retries`) then written with an `` marker.- **Resumable**: pages with `` are skipped unless `--force`.- **Combine**: all per-page files concatenated into the combined Markdown + a comment-stripped `.txt`.## PDF → page images`--rasterize <pdf>` renders the PDF to `page-NNN.png` via poppler `pdftoppm`(macOS: `brew install poppler`; Debian/Ubuntu: `apt install poppler-utils`) at`--dpi` (default 200), into the slug's images dir. Omit it when page PNGs alreadyexist (the script's original input contract).## Triggers- "transcribe scanned pages / book"- "vision OCR a PDF"- "extract text from page images"## Notes- TS-native: `src/artifacts/corpus-tools/vision-extract.ts` — port of section9 `codex_vision_extract_pages.sh`, generalized off the hardcoded `codex` CLI.- Sits alongside `research-acquire` / `research-acquisition-agent` (PDF/metadata) and the media-transcript tooling (audio/video) as the scanned-page acquisition path.

Frequently asked questions