pdf-extract-ordered-fallback

pdf-extract-ordered-fallback is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from HKUDS/OpenSpace. It costs 36 tokens per session (2,419 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

An ordered process for downloading PDFs and extracting their text with several tools, ending with a manual fallback.

In plain words
What is it for?
It helps obtain text from PDFs available online, including documents that standard reading tools cannot handle.
Why use it?
PDF downloads can be redirected, corrupted, or inaccessible, while extraction tools can fail in different ways. The sequence tells you what to try next.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one. Also seen: positional $N argument.

Good fit It helps obtain text from PDFs available online, including documents that standard reading tools cannot handle.

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Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/hkuds/openspace/pdf-download-extract-fallback-enhanced
About the project

OpenSpace is a skill-management layer for AI agents that stores, retrieves, evaluates, shares, and improves reusable workflows. It is intended for people using multiple coding agents who want skills to be reused and refined based on task outcomes. The catalogue provides 200 skills for use with OpenSpace and the agents it supports.

HKUDS/OpenSpace · 7,552 stars · on GitHub

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add HKUDS/OpenSpace --skill pdf-download-extract-fallback-enhanced
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/HKUDS/OpenSpace

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for pdf-extract-ordered-fallback

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/hkuds/openspace/pdf-download-extract-fallback-enhanced/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/hkuds/openspace/pdf-download-extract-fallback-enhanced)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/hkuds/openspace/pdf-download-extract-fallback-enhanced"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/hkuds/openspace/pdf-download-extract-fallback-enhanced/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for pdf-extract-ordered-fallback

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/hkuds/openspace/pdf-download-extract-fallback-enhanced"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/hkuds/openspace/pdf-download-extract-fallback-enhanced.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 36 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,419 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 1 finding. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe. Third-party audits
  • NVIDIA SkillSpector pass 7 Sept 2026
How audits are shown
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00036 $0.02419
Opus 5 $0.00018 $0.01210
Sonnet 5 $0.00007 $0.00484
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00242

Measured 6d ago against content hash f399b17c4ff3, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

pdf-extract-ordered-fallback scanned grade A with 1 finding against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 6d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Makes network callslowCapability

Not a fault in itself. Listed so you know the mod talks to something, and to what.

Many PDF hosting sites use JavaScript-based redirects or block automated requests. Use curl with a realistic browser user-agent:
benchmarks/gdpval/skills/pdf-download-extract-fallback-enhanced/SKILL.md · 270 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 270 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

PDF Download and Extract with Ordered Fallback

This skill provides a robust workflow for acquiring PDF documents from web sources and extracting their text content, with a clearly ordered sequence of tool invocations to maximize success rate.

Overview

When working with PDFs from web sources, encounters with JavaScript redirects, corrupted files, missing tools, or inaccessible content are common. This workflow ensures maximum success rate through a严格 ordered fallback sequence that prioritizes shell-based tools over Python sandbox execution.

Ordered Tool Chain Summary

Step Tool Method Priority
0 read_file Direct PDF text extraction First attempt
1 run_shell pdftotext command Primary fallback (if Step 0 returns binary/fails)
2 execute_code_sandbox PyMuPDF Python library Secondary fallback (if Step 1 fails)
3 Domain knowledge Manual content generation Last resort

Key principle: Always try shell tools (run_shell) before Python sandbox (execute_code_sandbox) when both are viable options. Shell execution is more reliable in constrained environments.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 0: Initial Extraction Attempt with read_file Tool

First, attempt to extract PDF text using the read_file tool. This is the simplest approach and handles many PDFs correctly:

read_file filetype="pdf" file_path="path/to/document.pdf"

Expected outcomes:

  • Success: Returns extracted text content - proceed to use this directly
  • Binary/Image data returned: The tool failed to extract text; file content is raw binary or image data
    • Immediate action: Proceed to Step 1 (run_shell with pdftotext)
  • Error returned: Tool failed entirely; proceed to Step 1 (run_shell with pdftotext)

Critical: If read_file returns binary data (PNG/JPEG headers, raw PDF bytes), do NOT attempt to parse it manually. Immediately switch to shell-based pdftotext.

Step 1: Download PDF with Browser User-Agent

Read the full file on GitHub · 270 lines

Files

What ships with it

1 file beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 6d ago First seen · 270 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A f399b17c4ff3

Subscribe to this mod's changes

pdf-extract-ordered-fallback is a skill published in the GitHub repository HKUDS/OpenSpace (7,552 stars, last pushed 28d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 36 tokens to every session and 2,419 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 1 finding (makes network calls). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-09-03.

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