Claude pdf skill: read, fill, merge and create PDFs
Anthropic’s skill for nearly any PDF task, from extracting tables to filling forms and running OCR.
- Type
- Skill
- Publisher
- Anthropic
- Category
- Documents
- Works in
- Claude apps, Claude API, Claude Code (via plugin)
The Claude pdf skill’s SKILL.md description tells Claude to use it whenever a task involves PDF files: reading or extracting text and tables, merging and splitting files, rotating pages, adding watermarks, creating new PDFs, filling forms, encrypting and decrypting, extracting images and running OCR on scanned PDFs to make them searchable. If you mention a .pdf file or ask Claude to produce one, the skill applies.
In the Claude apps it is one of the built-in document skills: with Code execution and file creation on, Claude uses it automatically when a request involves a PDF, with no setup (Use skills in Claude). In the Claude API it is a pre-built skill with the skill_id pdf, used with the code execution tool (Agent Skills overview). The skill’s instructions work with Python libraries such as pypdf and pdfplumber, with a separate guide for filling forms. Anthropic publishes its source as a reference under a proprietary license: source-available, not open source.
- What it does
- Extracts text and tables from PDFs, fills forms, merges, splits, watermarks and creates PDFs, and runs OCR on scans.
- How to install
- Claude apps: built in. Turn on Code execution and file creation, then upload or ask for a PDF.
Claude API: pre-built skill_id pdf, used with the code execution tool.
Claude Code:
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills
/plugin install document-skills@anthropic-agent-skills - Source
- github.com
- Last checked
Questions
Can Claude read and extract tables from a PDF?
Can Claude fill in a PDF form?
Do I need to install the pdf skill?
See also
Sources
Sources: names, descriptions and install commands come from Anthropic’s skills repository (github.com/anthropics/skills), its official plugin marketplace (github.com/anthropics/claude-plugins-official) and the Claude docs linked on each listing. Promptline is not affiliated with Anthropic.