Document to Markdown Conversion

Convert documents to Markdown using the markitdown-for-ai Docker image. No local Python install needed — runs entirely in Docker.

Prerequisites

⚠️ This skill requires Docker or Podman to be installed and available on your system. Ensure either Docker Desktop or Podman is running before using this skill.

Quick Commands

This skill uses Docker by default. If Docker is not available, it will automatically try Podman instead.

From stdin (pipe):

# Try Docker first
docker run --rm -i ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest < file.pdf

# If Docker is not available, use Podman:
podman run --rm -i ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest < file.pdf

From a local file (mount current directory):

# Try Docker first
docker run --rm -v "$(pwd):/data" -w /data ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest file.docx

# If Docker is not available, use Podman:
podman run --rm -v "$(pwd):/data" -w /data ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest file.docx

Save output to a file:

# Try Docker first
docker run --rm -i ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest < input.pptx > output.md

# If Docker is not available, use Podman:
podman run --rm -i ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest < input.pptx > output.md

Pipe from cat:

# Try Docker first
cat file.xlsx | docker run --rm -i ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest

# If Docker is not available, use Podman:
cat file.xlsx | podman run --rm -i ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest

Supported Formats

Pull the Image (first time)

docker pull ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest

Agent Workflow

When a user gives you a document file to read or analyze:

1. Check if Docker is available — if not, try Podman (the skill automatically falls back)
2. Run the conversion command above
3. Capture stdout as the Markdown content
4. Read and reason over the Markdown directly — no temp files needed

Example — user says "summarize this PDF":

# Capture markdown into a shell variable or pipe directly to next step
docker run --rm -i ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest < report.pdf

# If Docker fails, try Podman:
podman run --rm -i ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest < report.pdf

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill whenever you need to extract or process content from documents. Here are common scenarios:

Document Conversion & Extraction

• Reading DOCX files: "Read this Word document", "extract text from docx"

  docker run --rm -v "$(pwd):/data" -w /data ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest document.docx

  # Or with Podman if Docker is not available:
  podman run --rm -v "$(pwd):/data" -w /data ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest document.docx

• Reading PDF files: "Convert PDF to markdown", "extract PDF content"

  docker run --rm -i ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest < report.pdf

  # Or with Podman:
  podman run --rm -i ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest < report.pdf

• Processing PowerPoint: "Extract slides from pptx", "convert presentation"

  docker run --rm -v "$(pwd):/data" -w /data ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest slides.pptx

  # Or with Podman:
  podman run --rm -v "$(pwd):/data" -w /data ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest slides.pptx

• Extracting Excel data: "Read spreadsheet", "convert xlsx to markdown"

  docker run --rm -i ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest < data.xlsx

  # Or with Podman:
  podman run --rm -i ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest < data.xlsx

• Scraping HTML: "Convert web page to markdown", "extract article content"

  docker run --rm -v "$(pwd):/data" -w /data ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest page.html

  # Or with Podman:
  podman run --rm -v "$(pwd):/data" -w /data ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest page.html

AI & Automation Use Cases

• Summarizing documents: "Summarize this PDF/report/document" — first convert to markdown, then use the extracted content for summarization

  content=$(docker run --rm -i ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest < document.pdf)

  # If Docker fails, try Podman:
  content=$(podman run --rm -i ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest < document.pdf)

  # Then feed $content to your summarization prompt

• Analyzing contracts/agreements: "Extract key terms from this PDF", "read the contract"

  docker run --rm -i ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest < contract.pdf

  # Or with Podman:
  podman run --rm -i ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest < contract.pdf

• Processing uploaded files: When users upload documents for analysis — convert first, then reason over the markdown

• Batch document processing: Convert multiple files in a loop for indexing or analysis

  for f in *.pdf; do
    docker run --rm -i ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest < "$f" > "${f%.pdf}.md"
    # Also try with Podman if needed:
    # podman run --rm -i ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest < "$f" > "${f%.pdf}.md"
  done

• RAG/embedding pipelines: "Prepare documents for vector storage" — convert documents to markdown for chunking and embedding

  docker run --rm -i ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest < document.pdf | text-embeddings-cli embed

  # Or with Podman:
  podman run --rm -i ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest < document.pdf | text-embeddings-cli embed

Examples

Common Mistakes

Docker vs Podman

This skill supports both Docker and Podman. Choose based on your environment:

When to use Docker

• Development workstation - Docker Desktop on macOS/Windows
• Production servers - Linux systems with Docker Engine
• Most use cases - Full feature parity, easier setup

When to use Podman

• Rootless containers - Better security and isolation
• Linux servers without Docker - No daemon required
• Cloud Native environments - Works with Kubernetes and container orchestration
• Security compliance - Runs without root privileges

Choosing the right command

The examples above provide both Docker and Podman commands. The skill recommends trying Docker first — if it fails with "command not found" or other execution errors, simply use the Podman command instead.

Both Docker and Podman share the same image (ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest), so the commands are identical except for docker vs podman.

Verifying which is available

Check what container runtime is installed:

# Check for Docker
docker --version

# Check for Podman
podman --version

If Docker is not available, Podman can be used as a direct drop-in replacement.

Pulling the image (one-time setup)

Since Docker and Podman share the same registry, the pull command is identical:

docker pull ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest
podman pull ghcr.io/opentechil/markitdown-for-ai:latest

Pull once with your preferred runtime, and both will have access to the image locally.