chat-with-pdf▌
claude-office-skills/skills · updated Apr 8, 2026
Have intelligent conversations about PDF documents - ask questions, get summaries, and extract specific information.
Chat with PDF
Have intelligent conversations about PDF documents - ask questions, get summaries, and extract specific information.
Overview
This skill enables you to:
- Ask questions about PDF content
- Get summaries at various detail levels
- Extract specific data points
- Compare information across multiple PDFs
- Find relevant sections quickly
How to Use
Basic Interaction
- Share or upload the PDF document
- Ask your question or request
- Get contextual answers with citations
Question Types
Factual Questions
"What is the contract value mentioned in this document?"
"Who are the parties involved in this agreement?"
"What are the key dates mentioned?"
Summarization
"Summarize this document in 3 bullet points"
"Give me an executive summary"
"What are the main topics covered?"
Extraction
"Extract all names and titles mentioned"
"List all financial figures in the document"
"Find all action items or deliverables"
Analysis
"What are the risks mentioned in this contract?"
"Are there any ambiguous terms?"
"What obligations does Party A have?"
Output Formats
Q&A Format
**Question**: [Your question]
**Answer**: [Direct answer to your question]
**Source**: Page [X], Section [Y]
> "[Relevant quote from document]"
**Confidence**: [High/Medium/Low]
Summary Format
## Document Summary
**Type**: [Contract/Report/Manual/etc.]
**Pages**: [X]
**Date**: [If mentioned]
### Key Points
1. [Main point 1]
2. [Main point 2]
3. [Main point 3]
### Important Details
- [Detail 1]
- [Detail 2]
Extraction Format
## Extracted Information
### [Category 1]
| Item | Value | Location |
|------|-------|----------|
| [Item 1] | [Value] | Page X |
| [Item 2] | [Value] | Page Y |
### [Category 2]
...
Best Practices
For Better Answers
- Be specific: "What is the termination clause?" vs "Tell me about the contract"
- Reference sections: "What does Section 5.2 say about liability?"
- Ask follow-ups: Build on previous answers for deeper understanding
For Better Extraction
- Specify format: "Extract as a table" or "List as bullet points"
- Name the fields: "Extract: name, date, amount, description"
- Set criteria: "Only extract amounts over $10,000"
For Better Summaries
- Specify length: "Summarize in 100 words" or "3 bullet points"
- Focus area: "Summarize the financial terms only"
- Audience: "Summarize for a legal team" vs "for executives"
Example Workflows
Contract Review
1. "What type of contract is this?"
2. "Who are the parties and what are their roles?"
3. "What are the key obligations for each party?"
4. "What is the term and renewal process?"
5. "What are the termination conditions?"
6. "Are there any unusual or concerning clauses?"
Research Paper Analysis
1. "What is the main thesis or hypothesis?"
2. "What methodology was used?"
3. "What are the key findings?"
4. "What are the limitations mentioned?"
5. "What future research do they suggest?"
Financial Report
1. "What is the total revenue reported?"
2. "How does this compare to last year?"
3. "What are the main expense categories?"
4. "What guidance is given for next quarter?"
5. "Extract all financial metrics into a table"
Multi-Document Support
When working with multiple PDFs:
"Compare the terms in Contract A vs Contract B"
"Which document mentions [topic]?"
"Create a summary table comparing key points across all documents"
Comparison Output
## Document Comparison
| Aspect | Document A | Document B |
|--------|------------|------------|
| Term Length | 2 years | 3 years |
| Value | $50,000 | $75,000 |
| Termination | 30 days notice | 60 days notice |
### Key Differences
1. [Difference 1]
2. [Difference 2]
### Similarities
1. [Similarity 1]
2. [Similarity 2]
Handling Challenges
Scanned PDFs (Image-based)
- OCR will be applied automatically
- Quality depends on scan quality
- May have recognition errors
Complex Layouts
- Tables may need reformatting
- Multi-column text is processed left-to-right
- Footnotes processed separately
Long Documents
- Ask about specific sections for accuracy
- Request page-by-page summaries for overview
- Use targeted questions over broad ones
Limitations
- Cannot execute code embedded in PDFs
- Password-protected PDFs need password
- Very large PDFs (500+ pages) may need chunking
- Handwritten content recognition is limited
- Cannot guarantee 100% accuracy on scanned documents
- Charts and images are described, not analyzed numerically
Privacy Note
Document contents are processed according to the AI provider's privacy policy. For sensitive documents, consider:
- Using on-premise solutions
- Redacting sensitive information first
- Checking data retention policies
Ratings
4.6★★★★★59 reviews- ★★★★★Isabella Chawla· Dec 28, 2024
Useful defaults in chat-with-pdf — fewer surprises than typical one-off scripts, and it plays nicely with `npx skills` flows.
- ★★★★★Noor Johnson· Dec 16, 2024
Registry listing for chat-with-pdf matched our evaluation — installs cleanly and behaves as described in the markdown.
- ★★★★★Min Verma· Dec 12, 2024
chat-with-pdf has been reliable in day-to-day use. Documentation quality is above average for community skills.
- ★★★★★Pratham Ware· Dec 8, 2024
Keeps context tight: chat-with-pdf is the kind of skill you can hand to a new teammate without a long onboarding doc.
- ★★★★★Charlotte Perez· Nov 19, 2024
Registry listing for chat-with-pdf matched our evaluation — installs cleanly and behaves as described in the markdown.
- ★★★★★Noor Farah· Nov 7, 2024
Useful defaults in chat-with-pdf — fewer surprises than typical one-off scripts, and it plays nicely with `npx skills` flows.
- ★★★★★Min Thomas· Nov 3, 2024
chat-with-pdf fits our agent workflows well — practical, well scoped, and easy to wire into existing repos.
- ★★★★★Min Taylor· Oct 26, 2024
I recommend chat-with-pdf for anyone iterating fast on agent tooling; clear intent and a small, reviewable surface area.
- ★★★★★Xiao Taylor· Oct 22, 2024
We added chat-with-pdf from the explainx registry; install was straightforward and the SKILL.md answered most questions upfront.
- ★★★★★Alexander Ramirez· Oct 10, 2024
chat-with-pdf reduced setup friction for our internal harness; good balance of opinion and flexibility.
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