magnus919_agent-skills/anydoc/references/formats.md

Formats: what anydoc converts and what GFM you get

This reference documents every input format the pinned CLI (@firecrawl/anydoc v0.1.6) accepts, the GitHub-Flavored Markdown each one produces, and the fidelity caveats you must know before trusting the output. Every claim below was verified by running the real CLI against the committed fixtures in fixtures/ (see sources.md for provenance and the verification procedure).

Coverage: 8 families / 21 extensions / 12 parsers

Family	Extensions	Canonical parser
Word	.doc, .docx, .docm	doc (legacy OLE) / docx (.docm aliases to docx)
PowerPoint	.ppt, .pps, .pot, .pptx, .pptm, .ppsx, .ppsm	ppt (.pps, .pot alias to ppt) / pptx (.pptm, .ppsx, .ppsm alias to pptx)
Excel	.xls, .xlsx, .xlsm, .xlsb	xlsx (all four; calamine reads both OLE and ZIP)
OpenDocument	.odt, .ods, .odp	odt, ods, odp
Rich Text Format	.rtf	rtf
EPUB	.epub	epub
CSV	.csv	csv
PDF	.pdf	pdf

That is 8 families, 21 extensions, 12 canonical parsers: doc, docx, odt, pdf, ppt, pptx, rtf, epub, xlsx, ods, odp, csv. These 12 names are also the values accepted by --format; extension aliases resolve through the same mapping (verified: --format xls and --format docm are accepted).

Format detection reads the file bytes first (PDF header, RTF open group, OLE stream names, ZIP mimetype/content types). CSV has no content signature, so it falls back to the extension or to an explicit --format.

Shared output behavior

All document formats flow through one shared document model and one GFM serializer, so identical logical structure yields near-identical Markdown across formats. Behaviors you can rely on everywhere:

• Headings render as #–###### with anchors.
• Inline runs preserve bold, italic, strike, `code`, and lists (bullet, numbered, nested, roman).
• GFM tables with header rows; merged cells render as empty covered spans.
• Footnotes/endnotes: [^n] reference inline, with [^n]: ... definition lines at the end of the document.
• Markdown specials in source text are escaped (\*stars*, \| pipe).
• Embedded images render as their alt text only — raw image bytes never survive into Markdown.
• Bookmarks/anchor targets render as raw <a id="..."></a> markers.

Word (.doc, .docx, .docm)

Expected output: # title, ##/### section headings, inline emphasis, GFM tables, [^n] footnotes. DOCX, DOC, ODT, and RTF all share this document shape; the same fixture converted as .doc, .odt, and .rtf produced near-identical markdown.

Real conversion of fixtures/fixture-handmade-outline.docx:

## Style heading stays a heading

### Direct level overrides the style

Direct nine turns the style heading off

# Direct outline without a style

Child style nine stops inheritance

Headings come from Word styles and direct formatting; #–###### levels map onto heading levels. Real conversion of fixtures/text.doc shows the full document shape:

# Fixture Document

Plain paragraph with **bold**, *italic*, and ~~struck~~ runs.

## Table

|  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Wide head |  | End |
| Tall | B2 | C2 |
|  | B3 | C3 |

## Notes and special text

Music clef 𝄞 appears before this footnote[^1] reference.

[^1]: Footnote after an astral character.

Caveats:

• Merged cells in Word tables render as empty covered spans (the covered cells are blank, not repeated or filled).
• Nested tables flatten into a single cell (GFM cannot nest tables) — a known limitation of the library.
• Legacy .doc (OLE) converts through the same document serializer with the same shape; only the relative-link target rendering differs cosmetically between sources.
• Fillable-form controls (DOCX content controls) lose their field layer; labels and underline glyphs survive.

PowerPoint (.ppt, .pps, .pot, .pptx, .pptm, .ppsx, .ppsm)

Expected output: slide titles as plain paragraphs (never markdown headings), bullet lists, speaker notes as > blockquotes, and — for PPTX and ODP — slide tables as proper GFM tables. Legacy .ppt flattens tables to bare text lines (see caveat).

Real conversion of fixtures/pres.pptx:

Deck Title Slide

- Top level point

  - Nested detail

- Second point with emphasis

> Speaker note for the intro slide.

Numbers Slide

| Region | Total |
| --- | --- |
| North | 42 |

Grouped shapes below.

Caveat — legacy .ppt flattens tables to bare text lines. The same deck converted from fixtures/pres.ppt renders the Numbers Slide table as plain lines with no | table syntax:

Numbers Slide

Region

Total

North

42

If the presentation's tables matter, use PPTX or ODP and verify the | rows survived (see workflows.md, "Output verification").

Excel (.xls, .xlsx, .xlsm, .xlsb)

Expected output: each worksheet becomes a ## <sheet name> heading followed by a GFM table; the first row is used as the table header when it looks label-like.

Real conversion of fixtures/sheet.xlsx (first table):

## Values

| Kind | Value | Note |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Percent | 0.155 | fifteen and a half |
| Currency | 1234.5 | dollars |
| Thousands | 9876543 | grouped |
| Date | 2026-03-15 | ides of March |
| Duration | 26:30:15 | over a day |
| Tiny | 0.0000004 | four ten-millionths |
| Boolean | TRUE | yes |

Caveats:

• XLS/XLSX drop number formats (issue #27). Cells carry their raw values, not the formatted display values: Percent → 0.155 (not 15.5%), Currency → 1234.5 (not $1,234.50), thousands 9876543. A percentage reading as a raw fraction is wrong by 100x in meaning — warn consumers and sanity-check spreadsheets. Dates survive as ISO strings (2026-03-15).

• ODS is the contrast case: it keeps the formatted display values (15.5%, $1,234.50, 9,876,543) on the same logical content. If display values matter, prefer ODS or a CSV export.

• Merged cells render as empty covered spans within the populated range only. Real conversion of fixtures/handmade-merged.xlsx:

  |  |  |  |
  | --- | --- | --- |
  | Merged across |  | padded |
  | tall | b2 | 3.5 |
  |  | b3 |  |
  

• Hidden rows and columns are treated as visible and appear in the output (known limitation) — check for hidden template or calculation content before feeding output to an LLM.

OpenDocument (.odt, .ods, .odp)

• .odt: same document shape as DOCX/DOC/RTF — #/## headings, GFM tables, [^n] footnotes. Real conversion of fixtures/text.odt matches the text.doc output structure line-for-line (only relative-link targets differ in depth).

• .ods: same spreadsheet shape as XLSX (## Values + GFM table) but with formatted display values preserved — the Excel number-format caveat does not apply. Real conversion of fixtures/sheet.ods:

  ## Values
  
  | Kind | Value | Note |
  | --- | --- | --- |
  | Percent | 15.5% | fifteen and a half |
  | Currency | $1,234.50 | dollars |
  | Thousands | 9,876,543 | grouped |
  

• .odp: same slide serializer as PPTX — slide titles as plain paragraphs, speaker notes as blockquotes, and GFM tables kept (unlike legacy .ppt). Real conversion of fixtures/pres.odp:

  Deck Title Slide
  
  - Top level point
  
  - - Nested detail
  - Second point with emphasis
  
  > Speaker note for the intro slide.
  
  Numbers Slide
  
  | Region | Total |
  | --- | --- |
  | North | 42 |
  

  One cosmetic difference vs PPTX: a nested bullet renders as - - Nested detail on one line rather than as an indented sub-list. The table, blockquote notes, and paragraph titles are identical in shape to PPTX.

Rich Text Format (.rtf)

Expected output: the same document shape as DOCX/ODT (# Fixture Document, ## sections, GFM tables, [^n] footnote definitions). Real conversion of fixtures/text.rtf matches text.odt structure; the one notable difference is that relative link targets render with a file:/// absolute path, e.g. [a sibling file](file:///anydoc/tests/fixture-src/sibling.odt), instead of a relative path — a known cosmetic quirk.

EPUB (.epub)

Expected output: # chapter headings (plus the book metadata title), GFM tables, preserved inline emphasis/code, and internal anchor links resolved to fragments. Real conversion of fixtures/book.epub:

# Fixture Book

# Fixture Book

anydoc tests

<a id="epub-text-ch001-xhtml-chapter-one"></a>

# Chapter One

Opening paragraph with **bold**, *italic*, and `code` runs.

See [Chapter Two](#epub-text-ch002-xhtml-chapter-two) for the table, or jump straight to [the marked paragraph](#epub-text-ch002-xhtml-markpoint).

<a id="epub-text-ch002-xhtml-chapter-two"></a>

# Chapter Two

| Name | Qty |
| --- | --- |
| Bolts | 12 |
| Nuts | 30 |

Notes: the book title may appear twice (metadata title + injected title); internal links keep working as [text](#fragment) links; external links stay as normal markdown links.

CSV (.csv)

Expected output: the file renders as one GFM table. The first row is promoted to the header row when it looks like labels (≥ 2 columns, non-empty, non-numeric, distinct fields) — this behavior ships in 0.1.6. Quoted fields with embedded commas and newlines are preserved.

Real conversion of fixtures/fixture-handmade-quoted.csv:

| name | desc | qty |
| --- | --- | --- |
| padded | comma, inside | 3 |
| plain | multi line | 4 |

Also verified:

• Delimiter sniffing — a semicolon-delimited file with decimal commas splits on ; and keeps 1,5 intact (real output of fixtures/fixture-handmade-semicolon.csv):

  | a | b | c |
  | --- | --- | --- |
  | 1,5 | 2,5 | x |
  | 3,0 | y | z |
  

• UTF-16 (with BOM) decodes to correct Unicode (real output of fixtures/fixture-handmade-utf16.csv):

  | col1 | col2 |
  | --- | --- |
  | naïve | café |
  | Αθήνα | 数据 |
  

CSV has no content signature, so --format csv is required when reading CSV from stdin (see cli-reference.md).

PDF (.pdf) — the lower-fidelity pipeline

Text-based PDFs convert locally through a separate pipeline (pdf-inspector) that emits Markdown directly — PDF has no document model, so only Markdown output exists. Real conversion of fixtures/fixture-text.pdf:

# Fixture Document

Plain paragraph with **bold**, *italic*, and struck runs. **Style-bold paragraph with a** NotBold-styled span **inside.**

## Lists

1.First numbered
2.Second numbered
a)Alpha sub one
b)Alpha sub two
i.Roman sub sub
3.Third numbered Interrupting paragraph between lists.

## Table

Wide head End Tall B2 C2 B3 C3

Fidelity caveats (verified on the real output):

• No GFM tables. Table cell text flattens into a plain paragraph run (Wide head End Tall B2 C2 B3 C3) — there is no | table.
• No [^n] footnotes. Footnote markers degrade to inline superscript glyphs (¹) and the note bodies drop into the flow; there is no [^1]: definition block.
• Links are not emitted as markdown links. They degrade to <u>underlined text</u>.
• Numbered/bulleted list structure compresses (markers inline), and some Unicode degrades (e.g. emoji without ZWJ).

Scanned or image-only PDFs — no OCR

A PDF with no extractable text layer fails as unsupported with this exact message (exit code 1):

anydoc: unsupported input: PDF has no extractable text (Scanned, 1 pages): OCR is required

anydoc does not perform OCR — the library's stance is explicit, and there is no password, retry, or OCR option. When this message fires: report the exact error, state that OCR is required, and route the file to OCR tooling or the hosted Firecrawl Parse API. Do not retry the same file locally and do not claim anydoc can OCR it. See errors.md for the full routing guidance.

Formats anydoc does NOT support

• HTML/SingleFile (open feature request only) — not an input format.
• Images (.png, .jpg, ...) — no image-to-text conversion.
• Password-protected/encrypted documents — fail with anydoc: document is encrypted (see errors.md).
• Anything without a recognized signature and extension — fails as unsupported input: unrecognized file content and extension: <path>.

Output-shape invariants to remember

1. One serializer: the same logical structure yields near-identical Markdown across docx/odt/rtf — do not re-test each office format for the same feature.
2. Spreadsheets: expect ## <sheet name> + GFM tables; warn that xlsx/xls drop number formats (issue #27) while ODS keeps display values.
3. Legacy .ppt and all PDFs lose tabular structure — add a "verify the table survived" step or use PPTX/ODP and text PDFs.
4. Images never survive as bytes in Markdown — only alt text.