document

The document worker converts office documents on the machine. A .docx or a .pptx is a ZIP of XML: reading one with a file-reading function returns compressed noise and spends the context on it, so every office document goes through document::* instead. Conversion is local, needs no credential, and sends nothing anywhere.

One serializer sits behind every format, so a .doc from 2003 and a .pptx from yesterday come out with the same heading, table and list conventions. That sameness is the point: a conversation handling a mixed bag of attachments reads one shape, not fourteen.

The one thing markdown cannot carry is the pictures. An embedded image renders as its alt text, which is right for prose and wrong for a deck of diagrams — a deck whose content is images converts to a page of titles and reads as an empty document. document::to-markdown reports how many images it dropped, and document::extract-assets returns their bytes for a model that can see them.

This worker is called on demand. It registers no harness hook and injects nothing into any prompt, so a conversation that never touches a document never pays for it. Reach for it when one appears.

When to Use

• A conversation names or hands over a .docx, .doc, .pptx, .ppt, .xlsx, .xls, .odt, .ods, .odp, .rtf, .epub or .csv: call document::to-markdown. Never read one with a file-reading function.
• A file whose type is unclear, or a batch to route: document::detect first. It reads the signature in the first bytes and answers in microseconds.
• The markdown came back thin and asset_count is above zero: the content is pictures. Call document::extract-assets and hand the images to a model that can see them.
• A PDF: prefer pdf::classify and pdf::to-markdown when the pdf worker is installed — it reports which pages are scans and need OCR. This worker converts text-based PDFs too, as a fallback.
• A document that came back with no text, or one classified as a scan: say so and offer document::ocr rather than running it unasked. It costs money per page. When you do run it, pass the pages that pdf::classify named.

Boundaries

• document::ocr is the only function here that spends money, and the only one that needs other workers: browser to render a PDF's pages, and a vision model through llm-router. Both are optional installs; a call that needs one it cannot reach says which. Rendering a PDF needs path, not bytes_base64.
• Nothing here writes documents. Conversion is one-way, to markdown.
• Responses are capped. truncated: true with a much larger total_chars means you hold a fragment and must not answer from it. max_chars: 0 lifts the cap and belongs in a pipeline moving a document to storage, not in a call whose result lands in the conversation.
• document::extract-assets is capped twice: how many assets come back, and how large one may be before its bytes are left out. Anything left out is still listed with its media type and size — an empty list means the document genuinely holds nothing.
• A CSV carries no signature, so it is recognised only by its file name. Inline bytes need file_name for it; every other format is read from the content.
• detected_from: "extension" on anything other than a CSV means the content matched nothing known and only the name suggested the format. Treat the result with more suspicion than a content detection.
• An encrypted document cannot be opened here at all. There is no password parameter; ask for an unlocked copy.

Functions

• document::detect — what this file is, from its bytes: the format, the family (prose, spreadsheet, presentation, book, PDF), how it was recognised, and whether it can be converted. Microseconds, and no conversion.
• document::to-markdown — the document as markdown, with headings, lists, links, tables, footnotes and speaker notes preserved. Reports the count of embedded images it could not carry.
• document::extract-assets — the embedded images and objects as base64, filtered by media type, capped per response and per asset.
• document::ocr — transcribe a document that holds no readable text: a scanned PDF, a photographed page, a deck built out of pictures. Renders the pages and reads them with a vision model.