PDF is Anthropic's proprietary agent skill for reading, creating and editing PDF files, from pulling out tables to filling forms and OCR; its license limits it to Claude and Anthropic's own products.
Install PDF
In Claude Code, add Anthropic's skills marketplace
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skillsThen install the document-skills plugin, which holds the Word, PDF, PowerPoint and Excel skills
/plugin install document-skills@anthropic-agent-skillsIn Claude.ai, Anthropic says its example skills are already available on paid plans: switch them on under Customize > Skills.
Or paste this into your coding agent: Install the agent skill pdf from github.com/anthropics/skills.
A skill can include scripts that run on your computer, so read its source first.
What PDF does
The PDF skill teaches Claude to work with PDF files using Python libraries such as pypdf and command-line tools. It covers reading text and tables, merging and splitting files, rotating pages, adding watermarks, creating new PDFs, encrypting and decrypting, extracting images, and running OCR on scanned pages so they become searchable.
Filling in forms has its own guide in the PDF skill and bundled scripts: they check whether a form has fillable fields, read the fields and where they sit on the page, fill them in, and turn pages into images to validate the result.
PDF is one of Anthropic's four document skills, next to Word, PowerPoint and Excel. Unlike most skills in Anthropic's repository it is not open source: the license allows use only within Anthropic's own services and forbids copying, changing or redistributing it. That is why this page lists only Anthropic's install routes.
When to use PDF
- You need the text or tables out of a PDF, such as an invoice or a report.
- You want to merge several PDFs into one, or split one into parts.
- You have a PDF form to fill in from data you already have.
- You have scanned pages and want them searchable.
When to pick something else
- You work in Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI or another agent that is not Anthropic's: the pdf license bars copying the skill there.
- You want an editable Word document: Anthropic's DOCX skill handles .docx files.
Which agents PDF works in
Anthropic documents PDF for Claude Code, Claude.ai, Claude API.
PDF license
PDF is published under Proprietary: use only within Anthropic's services, no copying or redistribution. The LICENSE.txt in the pdf folder (read 2026-10-01) puts use under your agreement with Anthropic and forbids extracting the files from Anthropic's services, keeping copies outside them, copying them, making derivative works and redistributing them. Anthropic's README calls its four document skills source-available, not open source. You may read the files on GitHub, but you may not copy them into Codex, Cursor or any other agent, or publish a changed version.
Questions people ask
Can I use Anthropic's pdf skill in Codex, Cursor or ChatGPT?
No. Its LICENSE.txt (read 2026-10-01) forbids keeping copies outside Anthropic's services, copying and redistribution, so it is meant for Claude.ai, Claude Code through Anthropic's plugin, and the Claude API. The open skills CLI does list it, but installing it into another agent copies the files, which the license forbids.
Can the pdf skill make scanned PDFs searchable?
Yes. It runs OCR on scanned pages so their text can be searched and extracted, next to text and table extraction, merging, splitting, rotating, watermarking, encryption and form filling with bundled scripts.
Related skills for documents and office files
- Obsidian Markdown: obsidian-markdown is Steph Ango's agent skill for writing Obsidian Flavored Markdown: notes with properties, wikilinks, embeds, callouts and block references that render correctly in an Obsidian vault.
- PDF (OpenAI): pdf is OpenAI's open-source agent skill for making and reviewing PDF files: the agent builds them with Python libraries, renders each page to an image and checks the layout before delivering.
- DOCX: DOCX is Anthropic's proprietary agent skill for creating, reading and editing Word files, including tracked changes, comments and tables of contents; its license limits it to Claude and Anthropic's own products.
- PPTX: PPTX is Anthropic's proprietary agent skill for building PowerPoint decks from scratch or from your template and checking every slide for overflow; its license limits it to Claude and Anthropic's products.
More from Anthropic
- Academy Guide: Academy Guide is Anthropic's agent skill that ends Claude's answers about using Claude with one or two matching Claude Academy courses or tutorials, and only when the match is strong.
- Algorithmic Art: Algorithmic Art is Anthropic's open-source agent skill for generative art: the agent writes a short art philosophy, then builds an interactive p5.js piece with seeds and parameter sliders.
- Brand Guidelines: Brand Guidelines is Anthropic's open-source agent skill that holds Anthropic's own brand colors and fonts, so an agent can give a document, slide deck or web artifact the Anthropic look.
- Canvas Design: Canvas Design is Anthropic's open-source agent skill for static visual work: the agent writes a design philosophy, then makes a poster or art piece as a finished PNG or PDF file.