Agent skill · creative production · anthropics
view-pdf
Interactive PDF viewer. Use when the user wants to open, show, or view a PDF and collaborate on it visually — annotate, highlight, stamp, fill form fields, place signature/initials, or review markup together. Not for summarization or text extraction (use native Read instead).
Why this skill is useful
Provides specific commands and workflows for interactive PDF annotation that the AI wouldn't reliably generate on its own.
What it needs
About 4k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-08-07. 23,345 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
PDF Viewer — Interactive Document Workflows You have access to a local PDF server that renders documents in a live viewer and lets you annotate, fill forms, and place signatures with real-time visual feedback. When to use this skill Use the PDF viewer when the user wants interactivity: "Show me this contract" / "Open this paper" "Highlight the key terms and let me review" "Help me fill out this form" "Sign this on page 3" / "Add my initials to each page" "Stamp this CONFIDENTIAL" / "Mark this as approved" "Walk me through this document and annotate the important parts" Do NOT use the viewer for pure ingestion: "Summarize this PDF" → use the native Read tool directly "What does page 5 say?" → use Read "Extract the table from section 3" → use Read The viewer's value is showing the user the document and collaborating on markup — not streaming text back to you. Tools listpdfs List available local PDFs and allowed local directories. No arguments. displaypdf Open a PDF in the interactive viewer. Call once per document. url — local file path or HTTPS URL page — initial page (optional, default 1) elicitforminputs — if true, prompts the user to fill form fields before displaying (use for interactive form-filling) Returns a viewUUID — pass this to every interact call. Calling displaypdf again creates a separate viewer; interact calls with the new UUID won't reach the one the user is looking at. Also returns formFields (name, type, page, bounding box) if the PDF has fillable fields — use these coordinates for signature placement. interact All follow-up actions after displaypdf. Pass viewUUID plus one or more commands. Batch multiple commands in one call via the commands array — they run sequentially. End batches with getscreenshot to verify changes visually. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills anthropics/view-pdf