PyMuPDF PDF

Overview

Parse PDFs locally using PyMuPDF for fast, lightweight extraction into Markdown by default, with optional JSON and image/table outputs in a per-document directory.

Prereqs / when to read references

If you hit import errors (PyMuPDF not installed) or Nix libstdc++ issues, read: - references/pymupdf-notes.md

Quick start (single PDF)

# Run from the skill directory
./scripts/pymupdf_parse.py /path/to/file.pdf \
  --format md \
  --outroot ./pymupdf-output

Options

• --format md|json|both (default: md)
• --images to extract images
• --tables to extract a simple line-based table JSON (quick/rough)
• --outroot DIR to change output root
• --lang adds a language hint into JSON output metadata

Output conventions

• Create ./pymupdf-output/<pdf-basename>/ by default.
• Markdown output: output.md
• JSON output: output.json (includes lang)
• Images: images/ subdir
• Tables: tables.json (rough line-based)

Notes

• PyMuPDF is fast but less robust on complex PDFs.
• For more robust parsing, use a heavy-duty OCR parser (e.g., MinerU) if installed.