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NanoClaw can extract text from PDF files sent as attachments, shared via URL, or stored locally. The agent can then read, summarize, or answer questions about the document content.
The PDF reader skill is currently WhatsApp-only. It lives on the nanoclaw-whatsapp fork.

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How it works

The skill uses poppler-utils (pdftotext and pdfinfo) for text extraction. It handles three input sources:
SourceHow it works
WhatsApp attachmentAuto-downloaded by the WhatsApp channel, then extracted
URLDownloaded via curl, then extracted
Local fileExtracted directly from the container filesystem
The extracted text is added to the agent’s context as a tool result, so Claude can reason about the full document content.

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Prerequisites

  • WhatsApp channel installed (/add-whatsapp)
  • poppler-utils (installed inside the container by the skill)

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Installation

# On your nanoclaw-whatsapp fork
git fetch whatsapp skill/pdf-reader
git merge whatsapp/skill/pdf-reader
Or via Claude Code: 
/add-pdf-reader
The skill adds a CLI tool at container/skills/pdf-reader/ that runs inside the agent container. After merging, rebuild the container: 
./container/build.sh

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Usage examples

Send a PDF to a WhatsApp group, then ask: 
@Andy summarize this document
@Andy what are the key findings in this PDF?
@Andy extract the table from page 3
Last modified on March 19, 2026