Doc Extract Skill for Claude
Extract plain text from a document file - PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, RTF, or plain text/markdown/HTML. Use when a binary document needs to be turned into text, for example a contract PDF or an EHR DocumentReference attachment. Other skills (fhir) invoke scripts/extract.ts directly; the contracts MCP server bundles its own copy (servers/documents/src/extract.mjs) so its bundle stays self-contained — port fixes to both.
Install
one command, takes just this skill from the repositorynpx skills add https://github.com/anthropics/healthcare --skill doc-extractWhat comes with it
16 465 bytes besides the instructionWhat it tells the agent to use
found in the instruction textThe instruction itself
5 sections, as written by the authordoc-extract
Shared document-to-text extraction. One script, no state: reads an input file, prints JSON to stdout, writes nothing to disk (PHI-safe — no caches, no temp files; callers own any caching).
Setup (once)
cd <this skill dir> && bun install
This pulls liteparse (the lit bin, used for PDF/DOCX/XLSX/PPTX, OCR included) and rtf-to-text (RTF). Without it, PDFs still work via a pdftotext -layout fallback if poppler is installed; other binary formats require liteparse.
Use
bun <this skill dir>/scripts/extract.ts <input-file> [--content-type <mime>]
Output on stdout:
{ "text": "...", "method": "liteparse | pdftotext | rtf-to-text | passthrough", "pages": 12 }
textis page-anchored for paged formats:=== [page N] ===markers between pages.pagesis present when page markers exist.methodis the extractor that actually produced the text.- Format is taken from the file extension; pass
--content-type(e.g.application/pdf) when the file has no useful extension, as with downloaded EHR attachments. Note liteparse refuses extension-less files, so those PDFs go through thepdftotextfallback. - Errors print
{"error": "..."}to stderr and exit 1.
Table caveat
Tables with multiple value columns (option A vs option B, in-tier vs out-of-tier) can interleave columns line-by-line in the extracted text: fragments of adjacent cells alternate, and a cell's text can even land mid-sentence inside a neighboring column. Values usually survive, but which column a value belongs to can become ambiguous. When an answer comes from one column of a multi-column table and the document has no redundant restatement of the value elsewhere, verify it by reading the original page directly before treating it as ground truth. The extracted text's === [page N] === anchor tells you which page: pass it to the Read tool's pages parameter (e.g. pages: "37") to render just that page to vision instead of the whole document.
For other skills
Import the functions instead of shelling out when you're already in bun TS:
import { extract, resolveLit } from "../doc-extract/scripts/extract";
const lit = resolveLit([myRoot]); // also checks myRoot/node_modules/.bin/lit
const text = extract(lit, "/path/to/file.pdf"); // string | null
The contracts skill consumes it this way (its ingest caching stays on the contracts side).
Other skills for the same job
different authors, same section of the catalogue
Presentation creation, editing, and analysis. When Claude needs to work with presentations (.pptx files) for: (1) Creating new presentations, (2) Modifying or editing content, (3) Working with layouts, (4) Adding comments or speaker notes, or any other presentation tasks
Use this skill whenever the user wants to create, read, edit, or manipulate Word documents (.docx files). Triggers include: any mention of 'Word doc', 'word document', '.docx', or requests to produce professional documents with formatting like tables of contents, headings, page numbers, or letterheads. Also use when extracting or reorganizing content from .docx files, inserting or replacing images in documents, performing find-and-replace in Word files, working with tracked changes or comments, or converting content into a polished Word document. If the user asks for a 'report', 'memo', 'letter', 'template', or similar deliverable as a Word or .docx file, use this skill. Do NOT use for PDFs, spreadsheets, Google Docs, or general coding tasks unrelated to document generation.
Create and edit Obsidian Flavored Markdown with wikilinks, embeds, callouts, properties, and other Obsidian-specific syntax. Use when working with .md files in Obsidian, or when the user mentions wikilinks, callouts, frontmatter, tags, embeds, or Obsidian notes.
Create and edit Obsidian Bases (.base files) with views, filters, formulas, and summaries. Use when working with .base files, creating database-like views of notes, or when the user mentions Bases, table views, card views, filters, or formulas in Obsidian.
| Obsidian 智能笔记助手。当用户提到 obsidian、日记、笔记、知识库、capture、review 时激活。 【激活后必须执行】： 1. 先完整阅读本 SKILL.md 文件 2. 理解 AI 写入三条硬规矩（00_Inbox/AI/、追加式、白名单字段） 3. 按 STEP 0 → STEP 1 → ... 顺序执行 4. 不要跳过任何步骤，不要自作主张 【禁止行为】：
| 将代码项目转换为 Obsidian 知识库。当用户提到 obsidian、项目文档、知识库、分析项目、转换项目 时激活。 【激活后必须执行】： 1. 先完整阅读本 SKILL.md 文件 2. 理解 AI 写入规则（默认到 00_Inbox/AI/、追加式、统一 Schema） 4. 用户确认后才开始 STEP 1 项目扫描 5. 严格按 STEP 0 → 1 → 2 → 3 → 4 顺序执行 【禁止行为】：
Publish Markdown articles to X (Twitter) Articles editor with proper formatting. Use when user wants to publish a Markdown file/URL to X Articles, or mentions "publish to X", "post article to Twitter", "X article", or wants help with X Premium article publishing. Handles cover image upload and converts Markdown to rich text automatically.
Use this skill any time a .pptx file is involved in any way — as input, output, or both. This includes: creating slide decks, pitch decks, or presentations; reading, parsing, or extracting text from any .pptx file (even if the extracted content will be used elsewhere, like in an email or summary); editing, modifying, or updating existing presentations; combining or splitting slide files; working with templates, layouts, speaker notes, or comments. Trigger whenever the user mentions \"deck,\" \"slides,\" \"presentation,\" or references a .pptx filename, regardless of what they plan to do with the content afterward. If a .pptx file needs to be opened, created, or touched, use this skill.
How to use it
Take anthropics/doc-extract from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal
use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.
The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the
same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.