File to Markdown Converter

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.