PDF.co

All-in-one PDF processing API. Convert, extract, merge, split, compress PDFs and more. Supports OCR for scanned documents.

Official docs: https://docs.pdf.co/

When to Use

Use this skill when you need to:

Extract text from PDF files (with OCR support)
Convert PDF to CSV, JSON, or other formats
Merge multiple PDFs into one
Split PDF into multiple files
Compress PDF to reduce file size
Convert HTML/URL to PDF
Parse invoices and documents with AI

Prerequisites

Create an account at https://pdf.co/
Get your API key from https://app.pdf.co/

Set environment variable:

bash

export PDFCO_API_KEY="your-email@example.com_your-api-key"

Important: When using
$VAR
in a command that pipes to another command, wrap the command containing
$VAR
in
bash -c '...'
. Due to a Claude Code bug, environment variables are silently cleared when pipes are used directly.
bash
bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.example.com" -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY"'

How to Use

1. PDF to Text

Extract text from PDF with OCR support:

Write to

/tmp/request.json

json

{
  "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-to-text/sample.pdf",
  "inline": true
}

bash

bash -c 'curl --location --request POST "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/convert/to/text" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/request.json'

With specific pages (1-indexed):

Write to

/tmp/request.json

json

{
  "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-to-text/sample.pdf",
  "pages": "1-3",
  "inline": true
}

bash

bash -c 'curl --location --request POST "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/convert/to/text" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/request.json'

2. PDF to CSV

Convert PDF tables to CSV:

Write to

/tmp/request.json

json

{
  "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-to-csv/sample.pdf",
  "inline": true
}

bash

bash -c 'curl --location --request POST "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/convert/to/csv" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/request.json'

3. Merge PDFs

Combine multiple PDFs into one:

Write to

/tmp/request.json

json

{
  "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-merge/sample1.pdf,https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-merge/sample2.pdf",
  "name": "merged.pdf"
}

bash

bash -c 'curl --location --request POST "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/merge" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/request.json'

4. Split PDF

Split PDF by page ranges:

Write to

/tmp/request.json

json

{
  "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-split/sample.pdf",
  "pages": "1-2,3-"
}

bash

bash -c 'curl --location --request POST "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/split" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/request.json'

5. Compress PDF

Reduce PDF file size:

Write to

/tmp/request.json

json

{
  "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-optimize/sample.pdf",
  "name": "compressed.pdf"
}

bash

bash -c 'curl --location --request POST "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/optimize" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/request.json'

6. HTML to PDF

Convert HTML or URL to PDF:

Write to

/tmp/request.json

json

{
  "html": "<h1>Hello World</h1><p>This is a test.</p>",
  "name": "output.pdf"
}

bash

bash -c 'curl --location --request POST "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/convert/from/html" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/request.json'

From URL:

Write to

/tmp/request.json

json

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "name": "webpage.pdf"
}

bash

bash -c 'curl --location --request POST "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/convert/from/url" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/request.json'

7. AI Invoice Parser

Extract structured data from invoices:

Write to

/tmp/request.json

json

{
  "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ai-invoice-parser/sample-invoice.pdf",
  "inline": true
}

bash

bash -c 'curl --location --request POST "https://api.pdf.co/v1/ai-invoice-parser" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/request.json'

8. Upload Local File

Upload a local file first, then use the returned URL:

Step 1: Get presigned upload URL

bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.pdf.co/v1/file/upload/get-presigned-url?name=myfile.pdf&contenttype=application/pdf" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}"' | jq -r '.presignedUrl, .url'

Copy the presigned URL and file URL from the response.

Step 2: Upload file

Replace

<presigned-url>

with the URL from Step 1:

bash

curl -X PUT "<presigned-url>" --header "Content-Type: application/pdf" --data-binary @/path/to/your/file.pdf

Step 3: Use file URL in subsequent API calls

Replace

<file-url>

with the file URL from Step 1:

Write to

/tmp/request.json

json

{
  "url": "<file-url>",
  "inline": true
}

bash

bash -c 'curl --location --request POST "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/convert/to/text" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/request.json'

9. Async Mode (Large Files)

For large files, use async mode to avoid timeouts:

Step 1: Start async job

Write to

/tmp/request.json

json

{
  "url": "https://example.com/large-file.pdf",
  "async": true
}

bash

bash -c 'curl -s --location --request POST "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/convert/to/text" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/request.json' | jq -r '.jobId'

Copy the job ID from the response.

Step 2: Check job status

Replace

<job-id>

with the job ID from Step 1:

Write to

/tmp/request.json

json

{
  "jobid": "<job-id>"
}

bash

bash -c 'curl --location --request POST "https://api.pdf.co/v1/job/check" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/request.json'

Common Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
`url`	string	URL to source file (required)
`inline`	boolean	Return result in response body
`async`	boolean	Run as background job
`pages`	string	Page range, 1-indexed (e.g., "1-3", "1,3,5", "2-")
`name`	string	Output filename
`password`	string	PDF password if protected
`expiration`	integer	Output link expiration in minutes (default: 60)

Response Format

json

{
  "url": "https://pdf-temp-files.s3.amazonaws.com/.../result.pdf",
  "pageCount": 5,
  "error": false,
  "status": 200,
  "name": "result.pdf",
  "credits": 10,
  "remainingCredits": 9990
}

With

inline: true

, the response includes

body

field with extracted content.

API Endpoints

Endpoint	Description
`/pdf/convert/to/text`	PDF to text (OCR supported)
`/pdf/convert/to/csv`	PDF to CSV
`/pdf/convert/to/json`	PDF to JSON
`/pdf/merge`	Merge multiple PDFs
`/pdf/split`	Split PDF by pages
`/pdf/optimize`	Compress PDF
`/pdf/convert/from/html`	HTML to PDF
`/pdf/convert/from/url`	URL to PDF
`/ai-invoice-parser`	AI-powered invoice parsing
`/document-parser`	Template-based document parsing
`/file/upload/get-presigned-url`	Get upload URL
`/job/check`	Check async job status

Guidelines

File Sources: Use direct URLs or upload files first via presigned URL
Large Files: Use
```
async: true
```
for files over 40 pages or 10MB
OCR: Automatically enabled for scanned PDFs (set
```
lang
```
for non-English)
Rate Limits: Check your plan at https://pdf.co/pricing
Output Expiration: Download results within expiration time (default 60 min)
Credits: Each operation costs credits; check
```
remainingCredits
```
in response

pdfco

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

PDF.co

When to Use

Prerequisites

How to Use

1. PDF to Text

2. PDF to CSV

3. Merge PDFs

4. Split PDF

5. Compress PDF

6. HTML to PDF

7. AI Invoice Parser

8. Upload Local File

9. Async Mode (Large Files)

Common Parameters

Response Format

API Endpoints

Guidelines