# CLI Pandoc > Covers effective use of Pandoc for converting between document formats including Markdown, HTML, DOCX, PDF, EPUB, LaTeX, and dozens more. Activates when the user wants to convert documents, generate PDFs from Markdown, create slide decks, manage citations, or batch-convert between wiki/documentation formats. - Skill: `ryankolean/cli-pandoc` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add ryankolean/cli-pandoc` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/ryankolean/cli-pandoc/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Web & Frontend - Author: ryankolean (https://skillmd.com/u/ryankolean) - Updated: 2026-09-21 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/ryankolean/cli-pandoc --- # Pandoc — Universal Document Converter **Repo:** https://github.com/jgm/pandoc Convert between Markdown, HTML, DOCX, PDF, EPUB, LaTeX, reStructuredText, and 40+ other formats. The definitive tool for document format conversion. ## When to Activate **Manual triggers:** - "Convert Markdown to PDF/DOCX/HTML" - "Generate a PDF from my notes" - "Create slides from Markdown" - "Convert between document formats" - "Add a table of contents to this doc" **Auto-detect triggers:** - User has a `.md` file and needs a different format for sharing - User is writing documentation and needs it in multiple output formats - User mentions citations, bibliographies, or academic writing - User wants to convert wiki/Confluence/Notion exports to another format ## Key Commands ### Basic Conversion ```bash pandoc input.md -o output.pdf # Markdown to PDF (via LaTeX) pandoc input.md -o output.docx # Markdown to Word pandoc input.md -o output.html # Markdown to HTML pandoc input.html -o output.md # HTML to Markdown pandoc input.docx -o output.md # Word to Markdown (extract content) pandoc input.md -o output.epub # Markdown to EPUB pandoc input.md -o output.tex # Markdown to LaTeX source ``` ### Specify Formats Explicitly (-f / -t) ```bash pandoc -f markdown -t html input.md -o output.html pandoc -f docx -t markdown input.docx -o output.md pandoc -f rst -t markdown input.rst -o output.md pandoc -f mediawiki -t markdown input.wiki -o output.md pandoc -f org -t markdown input.org -o output.md ``` ### List All Supported Formats ```bash pandoc --list-input-formats # All formats Pandoc can read pandoc --list-output-formats # All formats Pandoc can write ``` ## HTML Output ```bash # Standalone HTML (includes tags) pandoc input.md -o output.html --standalone # With custom CSS pandoc input.md -o output.html --standalone --css=style.css # Embed CSS inline pandoc input.md -o output.html --standalone \ --variable=css:"body { font-family: sans-serif; max-width: 800px; margin: auto; }" # Self-contained HTML (embeds images, CSS, JS) pandoc input.md -o output.html --standalone --self-contained ``` ## PDF Output PDF generation requires a PDF engine. Pandoc supports several: ```bash # Via LaTeX (best quality, requires TeX Live or MacTeX) pandoc input.md -o output.pdf --pdf-engine=pdflatex pandoc input.md -o output.pdf --pdf-engine=xelatex # Unicode/font support pandoc input.md -o output.pdf --pdf-engine=lualatex # Via wkhtmltopdf (HTML-based, no LaTeX needed) pandoc input.md -o output.pdf --pdf-engine=wkhtmltopdf # Via weasyprint (CSS-based) pandoc input.md -o output.pdf --pdf-engine=weasyprint ``` ### PDF Page and Margin Settings ```bash pandoc input.md -o output.pdf \ -V geometry:margin=1in \ -V geometry:papersize=letter \ -V fontsize=12pt \ -V mainfont="Georgia" ``` ## DOCX Output ```bash # Basic Word output pandoc input.md -o output.docx # Apply a reference document for styles pandoc input.md -o output.docx --reference-doc=template.docx # Generate a default reference doc to customize pandoc --print-default-data-file reference.docx > template.docx ``` ## Table of Contents ```bash pandoc input.md -o output.pdf --toc # Add TOC pandoc input.md -o output.pdf --toc --toc-depth=2 # TOC up to H2 pandoc input.md -o output.html --toc --standalone # TOC in HTML pandoc input.md -o output.docx --toc # TOC in Word ``` ## Metadata ### Command-line Metadata ```bash pandoc input.md -o output.pdf \ --metadata title="My Document" \ --metadata author="Jane Smith" \ --metadata date="2024-03-28" ``` ### YAML Metadata Block (in Markdown file) ```markdown --- title: "My Document" author: "Jane Smith" date: "2024-03-28" abstract: "This document covers..." lang: "en" --- # Introduction ... ``` ### Metadata File ```bash # Store metadata separately pandoc input.md --metadata-file=meta.yaml -o output.pdf ``` ## Templates ### Use a Custom Template ```bash pandoc input.md -o output.pdf --template=mytemplate.tex pandoc input.md -o output.html --template=mytemplate.html ``` ### Print Default Template (to customize) ```bash pandoc --print-default-template=latex > template.tex pandoc --print-default-template=html5 > template.html ``` ### Template Variables ```bash pandoc input.md -o output.pdf \ --variable=documentclass:article \ --variable=classoption:twocolumn \ --variable=fontfamily:palatino ``` ## Slide Decks ### reveal.js (HTML slides) ```bash pandoc input.md -o slides.html -t revealjs --standalone pandoc input.md -o slides.html -t revealjs \ --variable=theme:moon \ --variable=transition:slide \ --standalone # Self-contained (embed reveal.js) pandoc input.md -o slides.html -t revealjs --self-contained ``` ### Beamer (PDF slides via LaTeX) ```bash pandoc input.md -o slides.pdf -t beamer pandoc input.md -o slides.pdf -t beamer \ --variable=theme:metropolis \ --variable=colortheme:crane ``` ### Slide Structure in Markdown ```markdown # Section Title (becomes a section divider) ## Slide Title Content for this slide. - Bullet one - Bullet two ## Next Slide --- (Horizontal rule creates a new slide without a title) ``` ## Citations and Bibliographies ```bash # Add citations (BibTeX, CSL JSON, etc.) pandoc input.md -o output.pdf \ --bibliography=references.bib \ --csl=apa.csl \ --citeproc # Popular CSL styles (download from https://github.com/citation-style-language/styles) # chicago-author-date.csl, ieee.csl, nature.csl, apa.csl # Inline citation syntax in Markdown # [@smith2024] — author-date # [-@smith2024] — suppress author # [@smith2024, p. 42] — page number ``` ## Lua Filters Filters let you transform the document AST programmatically. ```bash pandoc input.md -o output.html --lua-filter=my-filter.lua ``` ### Example Lua Filter (make all links open in new tab) ```lua -- newwindow.lua function Link(el) el.attributes.target = "_blank" return el end ``` ```bash pandoc input.md -o output.html --lua-filter=newwindow.lua --standalone ``` ## Advanced Patterns ### Batch Conversion with fd ```bash # Convert all Markdown files in a project to HTML fd -e md | while read f; do pandoc "$f" -o "${f%.md}.html" --standalone done # Markdown to PDF for all files in docs/ fd -e md . docs/ | while read f; do pandoc "$f" -o "pdf/$(basename ${f%.md}).pdf" --pdf-engine=xelatex done ``` ### Concatenate Multiple Files ```bash # Single PDF from multiple Markdown files (ordered) pandoc chapter1.md chapter2.md chapter3.md -o book.pdf --toc # Combine all Markdown files in a directory cat *.md | pandoc -f markdown -o combined.pdf ``` ### Include Files (Markdown Extension) ```markdown !include chapter1.md !include chapter2.md ``` ```bash pandoc --lua-filter=include-files.lua input.md -o output.pdf # (requires https://github.com/pandoc/lua-filters/tree/master/include-files) ``` ### Convert Confluence / MediaWiki ```bash # Confluence storage format to Markdown pandoc -f html -t markdown confluence-export.html -o output.md # MediaWiki to Markdown pandoc -f mediawiki -t gfm input.wiki -o output.md # GitHub-flavored Markdown # Org-mode to Markdown pandoc -f org -t markdown input.org -o output.md ``` ### Professional PDF with Custom LaTeX Template ```bash # Minimal LaTeX template variables for clean PDFs pandoc input.md -o output.pdf \ --pdf-engine=xelatex \ -V geometry:margin=1in \ -V fontsize=11pt \ -V mainfont="Palatino" \ -V monofont="JetBrains Mono" \ -V colorlinks=true \ -V linkcolor=blue \ --highlight-style=tango \ --toc ``` ### HTML to Clean Markdown (web scraping aid) ```bash # Fetch a web page and convert to Markdown curl -s https://example.com/article | pandoc -f html -t markdown -o article.md # Remove extra blank lines pandoc -f html -t markdown --wrap=none input.html -o output.md ``` ## Supported Formats Reference | Direction | Formats | |---|---| | Read (input) | Markdown (CommonMark, GFM, MMD, Pandoc), HTML, DOCX, ODT, LaTeX, EPUB, RST, Org, MediaWiki, Textile, JATS, OPML, CSV | | Write (output) | All of above + PDF, reveal.js, Beamer, DokuWiki, Jira, ICML (InDesign), Jupyter, man page, PowerPoint (PPTX) | ## Markdown Flavor Options ```bash pandoc -f commonmark # CommonMark spec pandoc -f gfm # GitHub-Flavored Markdown pandoc -f markdown # Pandoc's extended Markdown (default, most features) pandoc -f markdown-smart # Disable smart punctuation ``` ## Chaining with Other Skills - **cli-imagemagick:** Use ImageMagick to resize or optimize images before embedding them in Pandoc documents; convert PDF output pages to PNG with ImageMagick - **fd:** Use `fd -e md` to find all Markdown files in a project, then pipe into a batch Pandoc conversion loop - **cli-fzf (fzf):** Use `fd -e md | fzf` to interactively select a document before running `pandoc` on it - **jq/yq:** Use `yq` to manipulate YAML metadata blocks before passing documents to Pandoc; use `jq` to work with Pandoc's JSON AST format (`pandoc -t json`)