name: doc-reader description: Read any common document/data file — PDF, Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx/.xls), PowerPoint (.pptx), images (OCR), CSV/TSV, plain text, JSON/YAML/TOML, HTML/XML, and most source-code files. Use the read_document tool. category: tool

Universal Document Reader

Purpose

Return extracted text from any supported file in a single unified JSON envelope. The tool dispatches by file extension — you always call the same tool regardless of format.

Supported formats

Blocked (rejected at /upload): executables (.exe/.dll/.so/...) and archives (.zip/.tar/...). Ask the user to unpack archives locally first.

Usage

Always call the tool directly — do not run Python from bash.

read_document(file_path="uploads/paper.pdf")
read_document(file_path="uploads/annual_report.pdf", pages="1-10")
read_document(file_path="uploads/contract.docx")
read_document(file_path="uploads/sales.xlsx")
read_document(file_path="uploads/deck.pptx")
read_document(file_path="uploads/chart.png")     # image → OCR
read_document(file_path="uploads/config.yaml")
read_document(file_path="uploads/notes.md")

The pages parameter only applies to PDF; other formats ignore it.

Return envelope

All formats share this shape:

{
  "status": "ok",
  "file": "paper.pdf",
  "format": "pdf",
  "char_count": 52000,
  "truncated": true,
  "text": "..."
}

Format-specific extra fields:

Content longer than 15000 chars is truncated; for PDFs use the pages parameter to read slices.

Workflows

Paper / report summary

1. read_document(file_path="paper.pdf")  → full text
2. Extract abstract, methodology, conclusion → summarize

Contract review

1. read_document(file_path="contract.docx")  → paragraphs + tables
2. Flag key clauses (termination, liability, payment, IP)

Spreadsheet quick-look

1. read_document(file_path="sales.xlsx")  → all sheet previews
2. If user wants trade journal analysis specifically, pivot to
   `analyze_trade_journal` tool instead (see trade-journal skill).

Chart / screenshot / scanned PDF

1. read_document(file_path="scan.png")  → OCR text
2. If OCR returns empty, tell the user; don't fabricate.

Notes

• Encoding fallback order for text: utf-8 → utf-8-sig → gbk → gb2312 → big5 → latin-1.
• OCR uses RapidOCR; if the package is missing, image/scanned files return empty text with a note field — tell the user to install rapidocr-onnxruntime.
• Excel previews are limited to 100 rows per sheet to stay in budget. If the user needs full data (e.g. trade journals), call analyze_trade_journal instead.
• Source-code files are returned raw; do not re-format or re-indent.