pdf-explore
Use this skill when the user has attached a PDF, paper, report, or other document and the answer needs content from more than one place in it: summarize the methods or any other section, compare sections, find where a topic is discussed, read a value or label off a figure or chart, or find/list/extract every instance of something across the whole document (datasets, benchmarks, citations, figures, table rows, accession numbers — including appendices). Skip it only for a single lookup of 1–4 pages quoted in your very next response — `read_file(pages=[...])` attaches pages as images that are dro
npx skills add BioTender-max/awesome-bio-agent-skills --skill pdf-explore --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# PDF Explore — navigate a PDF too big to embed A 50-page PDF via `read_file` is ~200K tokens in context, and pages loaded with `read_file(pages=[...])` are dropped from context after one turn — so multi-section synthesis turns into re-reading the same pages over and over. And when the answer is "every page" (list all the datasets / citations / figures / benchmarks mentioned anywhere in this document), reading the whole thing page-by-page is the expensive way to get it. This skill parses the PDF once in the Python kernel and runs one cheap haiku call per page, **in parallel**, so you load only what matters — or sweep every page without ever putting the pages in your own context. ## Which helper | | when | returns | |---|---|---| | **`read_file(pages=[...])`** (no skill) | a single lookup of 1–4 pages you will quote in your *very next* response | pages as vision blocks — **dropped from context after one turn** | | **`pdf_pages(path, pages=[...], mode="text")`** | you need several pages/sections *at the same time* — summaries, comparisons, anything where the answer draws on more than one range | `[{page, text}, ...]` — write to a file then `read_file`; stays in context like any tool
- Which helper
- Recipe — pull the sections you need as persistent text (synthesis)
- Recipe — navigate by outline (try this first)
- Recipe — find the pages relevant to a query
- Recipe — read a figure in detail
- Recipe — map every page
- Recipe — structured extraction
- When NOT to use this skill
- Mode (scanned PDFs)
- Cost & budget
- Caching
What does the pdf-explore skill do?
Use this skill when the user has attached a PDF, paper, report, or other document and the answer needs content from more than one place in it: summarize the methods or any other section, compare sections, find where a topic is discussed, read a value or label off a figure or chart, or find/list/extract every instance of something across the whole document (datasets, benchmarks, citations, figures, table rows, accession numbers — including appendices). Skip it only for a single lookup of 1–4 pages quoted in your very next response — `read_file(pages=[...])` attaches pages as images that are dro
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add BioTender-max/awesome-bio-agent-skills --skill pdf-explore --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From BioTender-max/awesome-bio-agent-skills, a repository with 135 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.