Installation
npx skills add oakoss/agent-skills --skill pdf-tools 44
Installs
PDF Tools
Full-lifecycle PDF engineering covering extraction, generation, modification, form filling, and security. Prioritizes JavaScript-first solutions (pdf-lib, unpdf, Puppeteer) with Python/CLI utilities for advanced scenarios.
When to use: Extracting structured data from PDFs, generating pixel-perfect PDFs from HTML/React, modifying existing PDFs, filling forms (fillable or non-fillable), or securing documents with encryption.
When NOT to use: Simple text file processing, image-only manipulation without PDF context, or tasks better handled by a word processor.
Quick Reference
| Task | Tool | Key Point |
|---|---|---|
| Generate PDF from HTML | Puppeteer / Playwright | page.pdf(); use networkidle0 (Puppeteer) or networkidle (Playwright) |
| Extract text (lightweight) | unpdf | Edge/serverless compatible |
| Extract tables (AI) | Vision model + Zod schema | Multi-column and merged cell support |
| Extract tables (non-AI) | pdfplumber (Python) | Precise cell boundary detection |
| Modify, merge, split | pdf-lib (or @pdfme/pdf-lib) |
Byte-level PDF manipulation in JS |
| Fill fillable forms | pdf-lib (or @pdfme/pdf-lib) |
Inspect AcroForm fields before writing |
| Fill non-fillable forms | Python annotation scripts | Visual analysis + bounding box annotations |
| Encrypt PDF | qpdf | AES-256: qpdf --encrypt user owner 256 -- |
| Repair corrupted PDF | qpdf | qpdf input.pdf --replace-input |
| Fast text extraction (CLI) | poppler-utils | pdftotext -layout input.pdf - |
| Merge thousands of files | pypdf (Python) | Lighter than headless browser |
| Batch queue processing | BullMQ + unpdf | Redis-backed with retry, concurrency, progress tracking |
| PDF/A archival compliance | ghostscript + verapdf | gs -dPDFA=2 for conversion; verapdf for validation |
| Tagged PDF (accessibility) | Puppeteer | tagged: true maps HTML semantics to PDF structure tags |
| Digital signatures | @signpdf/* | PKCS#7 signing with P12 certificates |
| PDF comparison | unpdf + diff / pixelmatch | Text diff or pixel-level visual diff between versions |
| Secure redaction | pymupdf (fitz) | apply_redactions() removes content bytes, not just visual overlay |
Common Mistakes
| Mistake | Correct Pattern |
|---|---|
| Using canvas drawing commands for PDF generation | Use Puppeteer/Playwright with HTML/CSS templates |
| Running Puppeteer in edge/serverless environments | Use unpdf for edge; Puppeteer requires full Node.js |
| Extracting complex layouts with basic text parsers | Use AI-assisted OCR or pdfplumber for multi-column text |
| Storing unencrypted PDFs with PII in public storage | Apply AES-256 encryption via qpdf before storage |
Relying on window.print() for server-side generation |
Use headless browser APIs (page.pdf()) for deterministic output |
| Using pypdf for complex layout extraction | Use pdfplumber or AI OCR for multi-column or overlapping text |
| Skipping font embedding in containerized environments | Embed Google Fonts or WOFF2 files with Puppeteer |
| Writing to flattened PDF form fields | Inspect AcroForm fields with pdf-lib before writing |
Using unmaintained pdf-lib for encrypted PDFs |
Use @cantoo/pdf-lib fork which adds encrypted PDF support |
Delegation
- Inspect PDF structure and diagnose extraction issues: Use
Exploreagent to examine AcroForm fields, encoding, and metadata - Build end-to-end document processing pipelines: Use
Taskagent to implement extraction, transformation, and generation workflows - Design PDF architecture for a new system: Use
Planagent to select tools and plan extraction, generation, or modification strategies
References
- AI Extraction Patterns -- Vision-based table extraction, recursive summarization, multi-pass verification
- High-Fidelity Generation -- Puppeteer HTML-to-PDF, CSS print tips, React templates, browser pooling
- Legacy Utilities -- pdfplumber, pypdf, qpdf, poppler-utils for batch and forensic tasks
- Form Filling -- Fillable field extraction, non-fillable annotation workflow, validation scripts
- Batch Processing and Accessibility -- Queue-based batch processing, PDF/A compliance, tagged PDFs, digital signatures, comparison, redaction
Installs
Security Audit
View Source
oakoss/agent-skills
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How to use this skill
Install pdf-tools by running npx skills add oakoss/agent-skills --skill pdf-tools in your project directory. Run the install command above in your project directory. The skill file will be downloaded from GitHub and placed in your project.
No configuration needed. Your AI agent (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.) automatically detects installed skills and uses them as context when generating code.
The skill enhances your agent's understanding of pdf-tools, helping it follow established patterns, avoid common mistakes, and produce production-ready output.
What you get
Skills are plain-text instruction files — not executable code. They encode expert knowledge about frameworks, languages, or tools that your AI agent reads to improve its output. This means zero runtime overhead, no dependency conflicts, and full transparency: you can read and review every instruction before installing.
Compatibility
This skill works with any AI coding agent that supports the skills.sh format, including Claude Code (Anthropic), Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Aider, and other tools that read project-level context files. Skills are framework-agnostic at the transport level — the content inside determines which language or framework it applies to.
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