File to Markdown — Skill

Overview

Convert files into clean, structured, AI-ready Markdown using the markdown.new API powered by Cloudflare Workers AI toMarkdown().

Supports 20+ formats including documents, spreadsheets, images, and structured data.

No authentication required (500 requests/day per IP).

---

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill whenever you need to:

• Extract text from files for LLM processing
• Convert PDFs or Office files into Markdown
• Normalize data into structured text
• Process uploaded user files
• Scrape webpage content into Markdown
• Convert images into AI-generated descriptions + content

Common AI workflows:

• RAG ingestion pipelines
• Knowledge base creation
• Document summarization
• Dataset extraction
• Spreadsheet analysis
• OCR-like extraction from images

---

Supported Formats

Documents

• .pdf
• .docx
• .odt

Spreadsheets

• .xlsx
• .xls
• .xlsm
• .xlsb
• .et
• .ods
• .numbers

Images

• .jpg
• .jpeg
• .png
• .webp
• .svg

Text & Structured Data

• .txt
• .md
• .csv
• .json
• .xml
• .html
• .htm

Notes:

• Image conversion uses AI object detection + summarization.
• HTML URL conversion uses a web page pipeline.
• Uploaded HTML uses Workers AI conversion.

---

API Base URL

https://markdown.new

---

Endpoints

1️⃣ Convert Remote File (Simple GET)

Returns plain Markdown text.

GET /:file-url

Example:

curl -s "https://markdown.new/https://example.com/report.pdf"

---

2️⃣ Convert Remote File (JSON Response)

Returns metadata + Markdown.

GET /:file-url?format=json

Example:

curl -s "https://markdown.new/https://example.com/report.pdf?format=json"

---

3️⃣ Convert Remote File via POST

Use when you want structured JSON response.

POST /
Content-Type: application/json

Body:

{
  "url": "https://example.com/report.pdf"
}

Example:

curl -s https://markdown.new/ \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com/report.pdf"}'

---

4️⃣ Upload Local File

Use when file is not publicly accessible.

POST /convert
multipart/form-data

Example:

curl -s https://markdown.new/convert \
  -F "file=@document.pdf"

---

Response Formats

URL Conversion Response

{
  "success": true,
  "url": "https://example.com/report.pdf",
  "title": "Quarterly Report",
  "content": "# Quarterly Report\n\n...",
  "method": "Workers AI (file)",
  "duration_ms": 1200,
  "tokens": 850
}

---

Upload Conversion Response

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "title": "Q4 Report",
    "content": "# Q4 Report\n\n...",
    "filename": "report.xlsx",
    "file_type": ".xlsx",
    "tokens": 1250,
    "processing_time_ms": 320
  }
}

---

Best Practices for AI Agents

Prefer GET for Simple Workflows

Use:

GET /:url

When:

• You only need Markdown text
• Speed is important
• No metadata required

---

Prefer POST for Structured Pipelines

Use POST when:

• Metadata is needed
• Token counts are required
• Monitoring or logging is implemented
• Building automation workflows

---

File Upload Strategy

Use /convert only if:

• File is local
• File is private
• File requires authentication to access

Otherwise always prefer URL conversion.

---

Error Handling Strategy

Agents should:

1. Check "success": true
2. Retry once if network failure
3. Validate content length > 0
4. Fallback to alternate extraction if needed

---

Rate Limits

• 500 requests/day per IP without API key
• No signup required

Agents should:

• Cache results when possible
• Avoid duplicate conversions

---

Integration Examples

JavaScript (Node.js)

const res = await fetch("https://markdown.new/", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    url: "https://example.com/file.pdf"
  })
});

const data = await res.json();
console.log(data.content);

---

Python

import requests

res = requests.post(
    "https://markdown.new/",
    json={"url": "https://example.com/file.pdf"}
)

data = res.json()
print(data["content"])

---

Agent Decision Tree

If user provides:

Input Type	Action
Public file URL	Use GET or POST
Local file	Use POST /convert
Image	Convert then summarize
Spreadsheet	Convert then analyze
Webpage	Convert URL HTML

---

Output Expectations

The Markdown should be:

• Clean
• Structured
• AI-friendly
• Minimal noise
• Ready for LLM ingestion

---

Limitations

• Complex PDF layouts may lose formatting
• Large spreadsheets may be truncated
• Images rely on AI interpretation accuracy
• Token limits may apply

---

Summary

This skill provides a universal file-to-Markdown conversion layer for AI systems with:

• No authentication
• Simple HTTP interface
• Multi-format support
• Structured output
• Fast processing

Ideal for document ingestion, RAG pipelines, and automation agents.

---