The PDF skill is the first one we install in every new Claude Code workspace. It does one thing and does it well: turn a Markdown file into a PDF that doesn’t look like Word vomited on it. That’s enough to remove a 4-6 hour weekly task from a solo founder’s plate.
What this skill does
Given a Markdown file and a YAML manifest, the skill produces a styled, printable PDF. Specifically:
- A cover page (title, subtitle, author, date, brand color block).
- A table of contents (auto-generated from H2/H3 headings).
- Page numbers in the footer.
- Headers / footers per page.
- Configurable fonts, colors, margins.
- Embedded images.
- Code blocks with syntax highlighting.
- Three ready-made themes: Stratechery, Linear, Whitepaper.
- Optional watermark for “draft” PDFs.
It wraps Puppeteer — the headless browser that renders the PDF — behind a clean interface. You don’t write Puppeteer; you write Markdown and a manifest, and ask Claude to run the skill.
Install in 30 seconds
# Install the Claude CLI if you don't have it
curl -fsSL https://claude.com/install.sh | bash
# Install the skill
claude skills install pdf
# Verify
claude skills list | grep pdfSource: github.com/anthropic/agent-skills/tree/main/pdf. The skill is MIT-licensed and Anthropic-maintained.
Real use cases for $500K founders
Use case 1 — Lead magnet (the biggest unlock)
This is the use case we run weekly at 500k.io. The $500K AI Stack PDF is generated by:
- A Markdown file (our editorial copy).
- A YAML manifest (brand colors, fonts, the 500k.io cover template).
claude run pdf [file] [manifest].
Output: a 30-page styled PDF in ~90 seconds. Pre-skill, this took us 4-6 hours of fiddling in Canva or Figma every time we updated.
The compounding win: the PDF regenerates automatically nightly. The Stack page scrapes pricing from each tool we list, and overnight regeneration means the PDF is always fresh. The reader downloading it Monday morning sees yesterday’s pricing, not last quarter’s.
Use case 2 — Customer interview pack
If you do customer interviews (and at $500K, you do), the PDF skill is the cleanest way to turn a Fathom transcript into a one-page brief that an investor or advisor can read in 90 seconds.
Workflow:
- Paste transcript into a Markdown file.
- Ask Claude to summarize using the
customer-researchskill. - Run the PDF skill on the summary with a “research-brief” manifest.
- Send to advisor.
We used this pattern across 47 founder interviews for the case study above. Each pack: 5-7 pages, generated in 30 seconds.
Use case 3 — Monthly report for a single client / advisor / spouse
The simplest pattern. You write a Markdown brief once a month — what shipped, what didn’t, why. The skill turns it into a PDF that looks intentional. The recipient feels respected.
We’ve seen four of the case-study founders use this exact pattern with a single advisor. It’s not the report’s content that drives the relationship; it’s the consistency of receiving a clean PDF every month for 18 months.
Inside the skill (manifest excerpt)
# manifest.yaml
title: "The $500K AI Stack"
subtitle: "47 tools founders use to hit $500K ARR"
author: "Maxime Le Morillon"
date: "2026-05-01"
theme: "stratechery" # or "linear", "whitepaper"
brand:
primary: "#00C66B"
background: "#FFFFFF"
text: "#0A0A0A"
fonts:
sans: "Inter"
serif: "Source Serif 4"
mono: "JetBrains Mono"
cover:
layout: "split" # "split", "centered", "full-bleed"
image: "./cover-illustration.png"
toc: true
page_numbers: true
header:
text: "500k.io"
align: "left"
footer:
text: "© 2026 Maxime Le Morillon"
align: "center"
margins:
top: "0.75in"
bottom: "0.75in"
left: "0.85in"
right: "0.85in"That manifest, plus a 30-page Markdown source, plus claude run pdf source.md manifest.yaml, produces our actual lead magnet PDF.
Compatible with
- ✅ Claude Code (primary)
- ✅ Claude.ai (run via
/skillsinterface) - ✅ Cowork (skills sync via account)
- ⚠️ MCP — not natively, but a community wrapper exists for MCP-only environments
Limitations
Three things to know:
- Not a typesetting tool. Don’t expect LaTeX-grade math layout, or magazine-grade two-column flow. The skill targets clean editorial PDFs, not academic papers or design-rich content.
- Renders Latin scripts well. Non-Latin scripts (CJK, Arabic, Devanagari) work but font fallbacks may be ugly. If your audience is multilingual, test early.
- No interactive PDFs. Forms, video embeds, hyperlinked TOCs work; clickable interactive elements (like a real fillable form) don’t.
For 80% of founder use cases, none of these matter. For the 20% where they do, the skill isn’t the right tool.
Related skills
excel— turns CSVs / dataframes into styled spreadsheets with charts.pptx— turns Markdown slide decks into PowerPoint.image-prompt— generates Replicate-friendly prompts for cover art.customer-research— pairs with the PDF skill for interview packs.
Bottom line
If you ship any kind of PDF — lead magnet, customer report, case study, internal brief — install this skill today. The first time you use it, you’ll save 4 hours. After that, you’ll wonder how you ran the business without it.
FAQ
What does the PDF skill actually do?
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Takes a Markdown file + an optional YAML manifest (cover, fonts, colors, page numbers, table of contents) and outputs a styled, printable PDF. Wraps Puppeteer behind a clean Claude Code interface, with sensible defaults so you don't have to know Puppeteer.
Is it free?
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Yes. Source on GitHub: anthropic/agent-skills/pdf. Install: `claude skills install pdf`.
What kind of PDFs is it good for?
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Lead magnets (8-40 pages), case studies, internal reports, podcast brief packs. Not designed for academic typesetting (use LaTeX) or visually heavy magazines (use InDesign).
Can I customize the look?
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Yes — through the manifest. Three ready-made themes ship with it ("Stratechery", "Linear", "Whitepaper") and you can override fonts, colors, margins, and headers per page.
Will the PDF have my branding?
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Yes if you set it in the manifest. We ship the 500k.io brand kit as a sample manifest in the repo.