Agent-Skills.md

Agent Skills: PDF Reading

Read and navigate PDF documents using the local PDF server. Reference this when the user wants to open, read, search, or interact with any PDF file or academic paper.

UncategorizedID: modelcontextprotocol/ext-apps/pdf-reading

Repository

modelcontextprotocol/ext-apps
modelcontextprotocolLicense: NOASSERTION
1,921228

Install this agent skill to your local

pnpm dlx add-skill https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/ext-apps/tree/HEAD/examples/pdf-server/plugin/skills/pdf-reading

Skill Files

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examples/pdf-server/plugin/skills/pdf-reading/SKILL.md

Skill Metadata

Name
pdf-reading
Description
Read and navigate PDF documents using the local PDF server. Reference this when the user wants to open, read, search, or interact with any PDF file or academic paper.

PDF Reading

You have access to a local PDF server that provides interactive document viewing.

Available Tools

  • list_pdfs -- Show available PDFs. Call with no arguments.
  • display_pdf -- Open a PDF in the interactive viewer.
    • url (string): URL or local file path
    • page (number, optional): Starting page number

How to Use

When the user mentions a PDF, paper, or document:

  1. If they give a URL or path, call display_pdf directly
  2. If they say "open the paper" without specifying, call list_pdfs to show options
  3. After displaying, offer to summarize, extract data, answer questions

arXiv shortcuts:

  • arxiv.org/abs/2301.12345 is auto-converted to the PDF URL
  • Users can just say "open arxiv 2301.12345"

Supported remote sources: arXiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv, chemRxiv, Zenodo, OSF, HAL Science, SSRN

Best Practices

  • Always display the PDF before trying to analyze it
  • For multi-page documents, ask which section the user cares about
  • When comparing papers, display them one at a time and note key differences