# PDF Reading

> Extract text, tables, and structured information from PDF documents using pdfplumber, PyPDF2, or pdftotext command-line tools. Use when this capability is needed.

- Skill: `tomevault-io/pdf-reading` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add tomevault-io/pdf-reading`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/tomevault-io/pdf-reading/raw
- Safety review: pending (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector PASS)
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Docs & Writing
- Author: tomevault-io (https://skillmd.com/u/tomevault-io)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/tomevault-io/pdf-reading

---


# PDF Reading Skill

This skill helps agents extract information from PDF documents.

## Tools Available

The environment has these PDF tools pre-installed:
- `pdfplumber` - Python library for precise text/table extraction
- `PyPDF2` - Python library for PDF manipulation
- `pdftotext` - Command-line tool from poppler-utils

## Quick Extraction

### Command Line (Fast)

```bash
# Extract all text from a PDF
pdftotext /root/artifacts/paper.pdf -

# Extract specific pages
pdftotext -f 1 -l 3 /root/artifacts/paper.pdf -

# Extract to a file
pdftotext /root/artifacts/paper.pdf /tmp/paper.txt
```

### Python (More Control)

```python
import pdfplumber
from pathlib import Path

def extract_pdf_text(pdf_path: str) -> str:
    """Extract all text from a PDF file."""
    text_parts = []
    with pdfplumber.open(pdf_path) as pdf:
        for page in pdf.pages:
            text = page.extract_text()
            if text:
                text_parts.append(text)
    return "\n\n".join(text_parts)

# Usage
text = extract_pdf_text("/root/artifacts/paper.pdf")
print(text)
```

## Extracting Specific Information

### Find Commands in Text

```python
import re

def find_commands(text: str) -> list:
    """Extract shell commands from text."""
    # Look for common command patterns
    patterns = [
        r'docker run[^\n]+',
        r'\$[^\n]+',
        r'--package=[^\s]+\s+--version=[^\s]+',
    ]
    commands = []
    for pattern in patterns:
        commands.extend(re.findall(pattern, text))
    return commands

text = extract_pdf_text("/root/artifacts/paper.pdf")
commands = find_commands(text)
```

### Extract Tables

```python
import pdfplumber

def extract_tables(pdf_path: str) -> list:
    """Extract all tables from a PDF."""
    tables = []
    with pdfplumber.open(pdf_path) as pdf:
        for i, page in enumerate(pdf.pages):
            page_tables = page.extract_tables()
            for table in page_tables:
                tables.append({
                    "page": i + 1,
                    "data": table
                })
    return tables
```

### Find Package Information

```python
import re

def find_package_info(text: str) -> list:
    """Find npm package references (name@version)."""
    # Match patterns like node-rsync@1.0.3
    pattern = r'([a-z0-9-]+)@(\d+\.\d+\.\d+)'
    matches = re.findall(pattern, text.lower())
    return [{"name": m[0], "version": m[1]} for m in matches]
```

## Tips

1. **Check available PDFs first**:
   ```bash
   ls -la /root/artifacts/
   ```

2. **Preview before full extraction**:
   ```bash
   pdftotext /root/artifacts/paper.pdf - | head -100
   ```

3. **Handle multi-column layouts**: pdfplumber handles them better than pdftotext

4. **For structured data**: Look for JSON blocks in the text:
   ```python
   import json
   import re

   json_blocks = re.findall(r'\{[^{}]*\}', text)
   for block in json_blocks:
       try:
           data = json.loads(block)
           print(data)
       except json.JSONDecodeError:
           pass
   ```

---
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<!-- tomevault:4.0:skill_md:2026-04-11 -->