Pdf — Workflow

Overview

How the pdf skill works, step by step.

Source Workflow

Codex skill workflow.

Step-by-step Workflow

PDF Skill

When to use

  • Read or review PDF content where layout and visuals matter.
  • Create PDFs programmatically with reliable formatting.
  • Validate final rendering before delivery.

Workflow

  1. Prefer visual review: render PDF pages to PNGs and inspect them.
    • Use pdftoppm if available.
    • If unavailable, install Poppler or ask the user to review the output locally.
  2. Use reportlab to generate PDFs when creating new documents.
  3. Use pdfplumber (or pypdf) for text extraction and quick checks; do not rely on it for layout fidelity.
  4. After each meaningful update, re-render pages and verify alignment, spacing, and legibility.

Temp and output conventions

  • Use tmp/pdfs/ for intermediate files; delete when done.
  • Write final artifacts under output/pdf/ when working in this repo.
  • Keep filenames stable and descriptive.

Dependencies (install if missing)

Prefer uv for dependency management.

Python packages:

uv pip install reportlab pdfplumber pypdf

If uv is unavailable:

python3 -m pip install reportlab pdfplumber pypdf

System tools (for rendering):

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install poppler

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install -y poppler-utils

If installation isn't possible in this environment, tell the user which dependency is missing and how to install it locally.

Environment

No required environment variables.

Rendering command

pdftoppm -png $INPUT_PDF $OUTPUT_PREFIX

Quality expectations

  • Maintain polished visual design: consistent typography, spacing, margins, and section hierarchy.
  • Avoid rendering issues: clipped text, overlapping elements, broken tables, black squares, or unreadable glyphs.
  • Charts, tables, and images must be sharp, aligned, and clearly labeled.
  • Use ASCII hyphens only. Avoid U+2011 (non-breaking hyphen) and other Unicode dashes.
  • Citations and references must be human-readable; never leave tool tokens or placeholder strings.

Final checks

  • Do not deliver until the latest PNG inspection shows zero visual or formatting defects.
  • Confirm headers/footers, page numbering, and section transitions look polished.
  • Keep intermediate files organized or remove them after final approval.

Execution Logic

The skill executes when its trigger fires (slash command, natural-language match, or direct invocation). It reads its references, applies its rules, and produces the documented outputs.

Edge Cases

See the source skill's references/ and scripts/ folders for edge-case handling.

Failure Handling

A skill failure surfaces as a tool error or a partial output; never a silent skip. Re-run with --verbose (where applicable) for diagnostics.

Integration Notes

  • Claude — invoked via the Skill tool with skill: "pdf".
  • Codex — referenced from AGENTS.md if mirrored.
  • Antigravity — referenced from the workspace agent rules if mirrored.
  • HQ Project — listed on the landing page Skills section + post-login sidebar.
  • MD Project (md.sgnk.ai) — file rendered from Skills/Pdf/workflow.md.
  • Obsidian — file rendered with frontmatter + tags.

Usage Examples

Invoke via slash command or natural language matching the skill description.

Source: (none)