AGENTS-COLLECTION add-pdf-reader

Add PDF reading to NanoClaw agents. Extracts text from PDFs via pdftotext CLI. Handles WhatsApp attachments, URLs, and local files.

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/mk-knight23/AGENTS-COLLECTION

Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/mk-knight23/AGENTS-COLLECTION "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/SKILLS/NANOCLAW/ADD-PDF-READER" ~/.claude/skills/mk-knight23-agents-collection-add-pdf-reader && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: SKILLS/NANOCLAW/ADD-PDF-READER/SKILL.md

source content

Add PDF Reader

Adds PDF reading capability to all container agents using poppler-utils (pdftotext/pdfinfo). PDFs sent as WhatsApp attachments are auto-downloaded to the group workspace.

Phase 1: Pre-flight

Check if already applied

Read

.nanoclaw/state.yaml

. If

add-pdf-reader

is in

applied_skills

, skip to Phase 3 (Verify).

Phase 2: Apply Code Changes

Initialize skills system (if needed)

.nanoclaw/

directory doesn't exist:

npx tsx scripts/apply-skill.ts --init

Apply the skill

npx tsx scripts/apply-skill.ts .claude/skills/add-pdf-reader

This deterministically:

Adds
```
container/skills/pdf-reader/SKILL.md
```
(agent-facing documentation)
Adds
```
container/skills/pdf-reader/pdf-reader
```
(CLI script)
Three-way merges
```
poppler-utils
```
+ COPY into
```
container/Dockerfile
```
Three-way merges PDF attachment download into
```
src/channels/whatsapp.ts
```
Three-way merges PDF tests into
```
src/channels/whatsapp.test.ts
```
Records application in
```
.nanoclaw/state.yaml
```

If merge conflicts occur, read the intent files:

```
modify/container/Dockerfile.intent.md
```

modify/src/channels/whatsapp.ts.intent.md

modify/src/channels/whatsapp.test.ts.intent.md

Validate

npm test
npm run build

Rebuild container

./container/build.sh

Restart service

launchctl kickstart -k gui/$(id -u)/com.nanoclaw  # macOS
# Linux: systemctl --user restart nanoclaw

Phase 3: Verify

Test PDF extraction

Send a PDF file in any registered WhatsApp chat. The agent should:

Download the PDF to
```
attachments/
```
Respond acknowledging the PDF
Be able to extract text when asked

Test URL fetching

Ask the agent to read a PDF from a URL. It should use

pdf-reader fetch <url>

Check logs if needed

tail -f logs/nanoclaw.log | grep -i pdf

Look for:

```
Downloaded PDF attachment
```
— successful download
```
Failed to download PDF attachment
```
— media download issue

Troubleshooting

Agent says pdf-reader command not found

Container needs rebuilding. Run

./container/build.sh

and restart the service.

PDF text extraction is empty

The PDF may be scanned (image-based). pdftotext only handles text-based PDFs. Consider using the agent-browser to open the PDF visually instead.

WhatsApp PDF not detected

Verify the message has

documentMessage

with

mimetype: application/pdf

. Some file-sharing apps send PDFs as generic files without the correct mimetype.