Adonis0123Adonis0123/hermes-kit/skills/convert-documents-to-markdown/SKILL.md

convert-documents-to-markdown

Skill1 starsChanged 50 days agoMITView on GitHub

Convert Word/PPT/Excel/PDF to Markdown via read_file.

7 other projects use a version of this.

Adopted by

Most recently taken up by

styrir/skillstheir own version, first seen Nov 8, 2026
MMACABRE/SKILLStheir own version, first seen Nov 8, 2026
cormacc/dotagentstheir own version, first seen Nov 4, 2026
BrainInBox/brain-in-a-boxtheir own version, first seen Nov 1, 2026
birdmanmandbir/skillstheir own version, first seen Oct 9, 2026
firecrawl/anydoctheir own version, first seen Oct 8, 2026

Other versions7 projects use a version of this.
Word for word · 0
None found.
Edited · 0
None found.
Wrote their own version · 7
firecrawl/anydoc★ 23ksame name
BrainInBox/brain-in-a-box★ 16same name
birdmanmandbir/skills★ 1same name
cormacc/dotagents★ 1same name
MMACABRE/SKILLS★ 1same name
zz-zhi54/skills★ 1same name
styrir/skills★ 0same name
How matches are found. Word for word: the exact same text. Edited: shares passages with this file (“99% same” means 99% of its five-word phrases also appear here; 10% or more counts). Their own version: similar meaning, or, weakest, the same name. We can’t tell which project had it first. Projects are counted among the 200 most-starred candidates, and mentions are links to the repository we found, up to 50 per site, so both counts are a floor.
In this repository12 other files it gives its agents.
- AGENTS.mdAGENTS.md
- CLAUDE.mdCLAUDE.md
- llms.txtllms.txt
- ai-hotspot-digestSkill
- cursor-cliSkill
- desktop-browser-chromeSkill
- feishu-chat-style-reviewSkill
- feishu-ui-feedbackSkill
- figma-copy-proofreadSkill
- hermes-daily-reviewSkill
- hermes-upstream-checkSkill
- writing-with-cursorSkill

The file

We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent

4 rules. 0 are common, 1 is distinctive, and 3 are very specific to this project.

0
Common
Most of the 7 edited versions we read keep these.
1
Distinctive
This author's own choices. Worth a look.
3
Very specific
Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.

Common
Distinctive
Very specific

Very specific:
Do not use for scanned/image-only PDFs → ocr-and-documents (or pdftoppm + vision_analyze)
line 27
Distinctive:
Stop here if the text is usable.
line 34
Very specific:
Do not npx skills add firecrawl/anydoc -g — installer can overwrite Hermes category dirs (see references/anydoc-read-file.md).
line 65
Very specific:
Do not shell npx on every document.
line 66

“Common” is measured: kept by at least 6 in 10 of the 7 edited versions of this file we could read. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.

Keep what fits and drop the rest. Your version, ready for your agents.

Files

SKILL.md

Convert documents to Markdown

Hermes already converts most office files inside read_file (lazy firecrawl-anydoc). This skill is the routing, not a second converter.

Use when a task needs the contents of .doc .docx .ppt .pptx .xls .xlsx .odt .ods .odp .rtf .epub .csv .pdf that cannot be read as plain text.

Upstream CLI skill (do not npx skills add it here): https://github.com/firecrawl/anydoc/tree/main/skills/convert-documents-to-markdown

Pin / routing / quality notes: references/anydoc-read-file.md.

When to Use

User (or a task) needs an office document, spreadsheet, presentation, ebook, or PDF
read_file returned a binary-file guard, empty math, or raw percents that look wrong
Do not use for scanned/image-only PDFs → ocr-and-documents (or pdftoppm + vision_analyze)

Procedure

Local file, normal read — read_file the path. It auto-extracts Markdown for:
- stdlib: .ipynb .docx .xlsx
- anydoc (lazy firecrawl-anydoc==0.2.3): .pdf .doc .ppt .xls .pptx + variants, .odt .ods .odp .rtf .epub Stop here if the text is usable.
stdlib gap — .docx formulas and .xlsx number formats (15.5% / $1,234.50) stay on the stdlib path even with anydoc installed. Re-convert with the venv library, not npx:
```
"$HERMES_HOME/hermes-agent/.venv/bin/python" -c 'import anydoc,sys; print(anydoc.to_markdown(sys.argv[1]))' -- "/path/to/file.docx"
```
Large output: write a .md next to the source and read_file slices of it.

CSV — Hermes read_file does not extract .csv. Same Python one-liner, or pass format when the extension is missing:

"$HERMES_HOME/hermes-agent/.venv/bin/python" -c 'import anydoc,sys; print(anydoc.to_markdown_bytes(open(sys.argv[1],"rb").read(),"csv"))' -- "/path/to/file.csv"

URL — web_extract the PDF/Office URL first. Fall back to download + step 1.
Scanned / empty PDF — anydoc raises UnsupportedError: … OCR is required. Load ocr-and-documents. Do not retry anydoc.

npx -y @firecrawl/anydoc is a last resort (no venv, or need to prove CLI==Python). Prefer the already-installed 0.2.3 wheel.

Failures

Symptom	Meaning	Next
binary-file guard on `.pdf`/`.pptx`	anydoc not loaded in this process	`/restart` after pin bump; then `read_file` again
“The roots are for any a.”	stdlib `.docx` ate OMML	step 2
`0.155` instead of `15.5%`	stdlib `.xlsx`	step 2 on `.xlsx`, or `read_file` a `.xls`
`EncryptedError`	password-protected	stop; ask for an unlocked copy
`MalformedError`	truncated/corrupt	stop; file is unusable
`UnsupportedError` + Scanned	no text layer	`ocr-and-documents`

Pitfalls

Do not npx skills add firecrawl/anydoc -g — installer can overwrite Hermes category dirs (see references/anydoc-read-file.md).
Do not shell npx on every document; the Python binding is the same converter and is already in the Hermes venv.
Cap 50 MB (read_file). Bigger files: convert to a .md on disk, then paginate.
Pin lives in tools/lazy_deps.py (tool.doc_extract). Changing it needs a gateway /restart.

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