mmkkkkzz PDF Inspector
Use Firecrawl's local detect-pdf and pdf2md commands. Preserve the source PDF and create derived files only when the user requests output artifacts.
Check Availability
Verify both commands before working:
command -v detect-pdf
command -v pdf2md
If either is missing, load an existing Rust environment and install the released CLI:
if ! command -v cargo >/dev/null 2>&1 && [ -f "$HOME/.cargo/env" ]; then
source "$HOME/.cargo/env"
fi
command -v cargo
cargo install pdf-inspector
If cargo is still unavailable, install Rust from https://rustup.rs/, load $HOME/.cargo/env, and retry. Do not use an unverified third-party binary.
Do not use --help or --version as availability checks; released versions may treat those flags as input filenames.
Choose The Operation
- Classify a PDF and identify OCR pages:
detect-pdf "input.pdf" --json - Include table and column analysis:
detect-pdf "input.pdf" --analyze --json - Convert the whole document to Markdown:
pdf2md "input.pdf" "output.md" - Reduce token-heavy dot leaders and similar padding: add
--compact - Preserve page boundaries as
<!-- Page N -->: add--pages - Convert selected 1-indexed pages: add
--select-pages "1,3,5-10" - Emit result metadata and Markdown as JSON:
pdf2md "input.pdf" --json - Emit positioned text items with font and coordinate metadata:
pdf2md "input.pdf" --items-json - Print only Markdown to stdout for a pipeline:
pdf2md "input.pdf" --raw
Put an output filename immediately after the input filename. Put flags after the output filename:
pdf2md "input.pdf" "output.md" --compact --pages --select-pages "1-5"
Use quoted paths. Prefer an explicit output file over shell redirection when the user wants a durable artifact.
Workflow
- Resolve the PDF path and confirm it exists.
- Run
detect-pdf "input.pdf" --jsonbefore extraction when OCR suitability is unknown. - Inspect
pdf_type,confidence,pages_needing_ocr, andocr_reasons_by_page. Add--analyzewhen tables, columns, or complex layout matter. - Run
pdf2mdonly for locally extractable content. Use--compactby default when the output is primarily for an LLM; use--pageswhen page traceability matters. - Verify the command exit status and the output file. Check that expected text exists without dumping a large or sensitive document into the conversation.
- Report the output path, selected pages or options, classification, OCR gaps, and any encoding or layout warnings.
Interpretation And Limits
Treat text_based as directly extractable and scanned or image_based as requiring an OCR tool. Treat mixed as partial extraction: explicitly report pages_needing_ocr rather than implying the entire document was converted.
pdf-inspector does not perform OCR. If ocr_recommended is true, pages need OCR, or has_encoding_issues is true, preserve the partial result and explain the limitation. Do not silently replace missing text with guesses.
The CLI runs locally and does not require uploading the PDF. Do not send confidential PDFs to external services unless the user explicitly authorizes that separate action.
For encrypted PDFs, use --password only when the user supplies the password. Avoid echoing or logging it, and note that the CLI accepts it as a process argument.