Convert files and office documents to Markdown. Supports PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, images (with OCR), audio (with transcription), HTML, CSV, JSON, XML, ZIP, YouTube URLs, EPubs and more.
npx skills add https://github.com/foryourhealth111-pixel/Vibe-Skills --skill markitdown
MarkItDown is a Python tool developed by Microsoft for converting various file formats to Markdown. It's particularly useful for converting documents into LLM-friendly text format, as Markdown is token-efficient and well-understood by modern language models.
Key Benefits:
When creating documents with this skill, always consider adding scientific diagrams and schematics to enhance visual communication.
If your document does not already contain schematics or diagrams:
For new documents: Scientific schematics should be generated by default to visually represent key concepts, workflows, architectures, or relationships described in the text.
How to generate schematics:
python scripts/generate_schematic.py "your diagram description" -o figures/output.png
The AI will automatically:
When to add schematics:
For detailed guidance on creating schematics, refer to the scientific-schematics skill documentation.
| Format | Description | Notes |
|--------|-------------|-------|
| PDF | Portable Document Format | Full text extraction |
| DOCX | Microsoft Word | Tables, formatting preserved |
| PPTX | PowerPoint | Slides with notes |
| XLSX | Excel spreadsheets | Tables and data |
| Images | JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP | EXIF metadata + OCR |
| Audio | WAV, MP3 | Metadata + transcription |
| HTML | Web pages | Clean conversion |
| CSV | Comma-separated values | Table format |
| JSON | JSON data | Structured representation |
| XML | XML documents | Structured format |
| ZIP | Archive files | Iterates contents |
| EPUB | E-books | Full text extraction |
| YouTube | Video URLs | Fetch transcriptions |
# Install with all features
pip install 'markitdown[all]'
# Or from source
git clone https://github.com/microsoft/markitdown.git
cd markitdown
pip install -e 'packages/markitdown[all]'
# Basic conversion
markitdown document.pdf > output.md
# Specify output file
markitdown document.pdf -o output.md
# Pipe content
cat document.pdf | markitdown > output.md
# Enable plugins
markitdown --list-plugins # List available plugins
markitdown --use-plugins document.pdf -o output.md
from markitdown import MarkItDown
# Basic usage
md = MarkItDown()
result = md.convert("document.pdf")
print(result.text_content)
# Convert from stream
with open("document.pdf", "rb") as f:
result = md.convert_stream(f, file_extension=".pdf")
print(result.text_content)
Use LLMs via OpenRouter to generate detailed image descriptions (for PPTX and image files):
from markitdown import MarkItDown
from openai import OpenAI
# Initialize OpenRouter client (OpenAI-compatible API)
client = OpenAI(
api_key="your-openrouter-api-key",
base_url="https://openrouter.ai/api/v1"
)
md = MarkItDown(
llm_client=client,
llm_model="anthropic/claude-opus-4.5", # recommended for scientific vision
llm_prompt="Describe this image in detail for scientific documentation"
)
result = md.convert("presentation.pptx")
print(result.text_content)
For enhanced PDF conversion with Microsoft Document Intelligence:
# Command line
markitdown document.pdf -o output.md -d -e "<document_intelligence_endpoint>"
# Python API
from markitdown import MarkItDown
md = MarkItDown(docintel_endpoint="<document_intelligence_endpoint>")
result = md.convert("complex_document.pdf")
print(result.text_content)
MarkItDown supports 3rd-party plugins for extending functionality:
# List installed plugins
markitdown --list-plugins
# Enable plugins
markitdown --use-plugins file.pdf -o output.md
Find plugins on GitHub with hashtag: #markitdown-plugin
Control which file formats you support:
# Install specific formats
pip install 'markitdown[pdf, docx, pptx]'
# All available options:
# [all] - All optional dependencies
# [pptx] - PowerPoint files
# [docx] - Word documents
# [xlsx] - Excel spreadsheets
# [xls] - Older Excel files
# [pdf] - PDF documents
# [outlook] - Outlook messages
# [az-doc-intel] - Azure Document Intelligence
# [audio-transcription] - WAV and MP3 transcription
# [youtube-transcription] - YouTube video transcription
from markitdown import MarkItDown
md = MarkItDown()
# Convert PDF paper
result = md.convert("research_paper.pdf")
with open("paper.md", "w") as f:
f.write(result.text_content)
from markitdown import MarkItDown
md = MarkItDown()
result = md.convert("data.xlsx")
# Result will be in Markdown table format
print(result.text_content)
from markitdown import MarkItDown
import os
from pathlib import Path
md = MarkItDown()
# Process all PDFs in a directory
pdf_dir = Path("papers/")
output_dir = Path("markdown_output/")
output_dir.mkdir(exist_ok=True)
for pdf_file in pdf_dir.glob("*.pdf"):
result = md.convert(str(pdf_file))
output_file = output_dir / f"{pdf_file.stem}.md"
output_file.write_text(result.text_content)
print(f"Converted: {pdf_file.name}")
from markitdown import MarkItDown
from openai import OpenAI
# Use OpenRouter for access to multiple AI models
client = OpenAI(
api_key="your-openrouter-api-key",
base_url="https://openrouter.ai/api/v1"
)
md = MarkItDown(
llm_client=client,
llm_model="anthropic/claude-opus-4.5", # recommended for presentations
llm_prompt="Describe this slide image in detail, focusing on key visual elements and data"
)
result = md.convert("presentation.pptx")
with open("presentation.md", "w") as f:
f.write(result.text_content)
from markitdown import MarkItDown
from pathlib import Path
md = MarkItDown()
# Files to convert
files = [
"document.pdf",
"spreadsheet.xlsx",
"presentation.pptx",
"notes.docx"
]
for file in files:
try:
result = md.convert(file)
output = Path(file).stem + ".md"
with open(output, "w") as f:
f.write(result.text_content)
print(f"✓ Converted {file}")
except Exception as e:
print(f"✗ Error converting {file}: {e}")
from markitdown import MarkItDown
md = MarkItDown()
# Convert YouTube video to transcript
result = md.convert("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID")
print(result.text_content)
# Build image
docker build -t markitdown:latest .
# Run conversion
docker run --rm -i markitdown:latest < ~/document.pdf > output.md
MarkItDown()from markitdown import MarkItDown
md = MarkItDown()
try:
result = md.convert("document.pdf")
print(result.text_content)
except FileNotFoundError:
print("File not found")
except Exception as e:
print(f"Conversion error: {e}")
from markitdown import MarkItDown
md = MarkItDown()
# For large files, use streaming
with open("large_file.pdf", "rb") as f:
result = md.convert_stream(f, file_extension=".pdf")
# Process in chunks or save directly
with open("output.md", "w") as out:
out.write(result.text_content)
Markdown output is already token-efficient, but you can:
from markitdown import MarkItDown
import re
md = MarkItDown()
result = md.convert("document.pdf")
# Clean up extra whitespace
clean_text = re.sub(r'\n{3,}', '\n\n', result.text_content)
clean_text = clean_text.strip()
print(clean_text)
from markitdown import MarkItDown
from pathlib import Path
md = MarkItDown()
# Convert all papers in literature folder
papers_dir = Path("literature/pdfs")
output_dir = Path("literature/markdown")
output_dir.mkdir(exist_ok=True)
for paper in papers_dir.glob("*.pdf"):
result = md.convert(str(paper))
# Save with metadata
output_file = output_dir / f"{paper.stem}.md"
content = f"# {paper.stem}\n\n"
content += f"**Source**: {paper.name}\n\n"
content += "---\n\n"
content += result.text_content
output_file.write_text(content)
# For AI-enhanced conversion with figures
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
api_key="your-openrouter-api-key",
base_url="https://openrouter.ai/api/v1"
)
md_ai = MarkItDown(
llm_client=client,
llm_model="anthropic/claude-opus-4.5",
llm_prompt="Describe scientific figures with technical precision"
)
from markitdown import MarkItDown
import re
md = MarkItDown()
result = md.convert("data_tables.xlsx")
# Markdown tables can be parsed or used directly
print(result.text_content)
pip install 'markitdown[pdf]' # For PDF support
with open("file.pdf", "rb") as f: # Note the "rb"
result = md.convert_stream(f, file_extension=".pdf")
# macOS
brew install tesseract
# Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install tesseract-ocr
references/api_reference.md for complete API documentationreferences/file_formats.md for format-specific detailsscripts/batch_convert.py for automation examplesscripts/convert_with_ai.py for AI-enhanced conversionspackages/markitdown-sample-pluginComprehensive document creation, editing, and analysis with support for tracked changes, comments, formatting preservation, and text extraction. When Claude needs to work with professional documents (.docx files) for: (1) Creating new documents, (2) Modifying or editing content, (3) Working with tracked changes, (4) Adding comments, or any other document tasks
Comprehensive PDF manipulation toolkit for extracting text and tables, creating new PDFs, merging/splitting documents, and handling forms. When Claude needs to fill in a PDF form or programmatically process, generate, or analyze PDF documents at scale.
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
Create beautiful visual art in .png and .pdf documents using design philosophy. You should use this skill when the user asks to create a poster, piece of art, design, or other static piece. Create original visual designs, never copying existing artists' work to avoid copyright violations.
Use this skill whenever the user wants to do anything with PDF files. This includes reading or extracting text/tables from PDFs, combining or merging multiple PDFs into one, splitting PDFs apart, rotating pages, adding watermarks, creating new PDFs, filling PDF forms, encrypting/decrypting PDFs, extracting images, and OCR on scanned PDFs to make them searchable. If the user mentions a .pdf file or asks to produce one, use this skill.
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.
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.
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.
Take foryourhealth111-pixel/markitdown 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.
The instructions reference pip, brew, apt, docker.
Without those the skill loads but fails at the first command.