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

list_pdfs

List available local PDFs and allowed local directories. No arguments.

display_pdf

Open a PDF in the interactive viewer. Call once per document.

• url — local file path or HTTPS URL
• page — initial page (optional, default 1)
• elicit_form_inputs — 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 display_pdf 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 display_pdf. Pass viewUUID plus one or more commands. Batch multiple commands in one call via the commands array — they run sequentially. End batches with get_screenshot to verify changes visually.

Annotation actions:

• add_annotations — add markup (see types below)
• update_annotations — modify existing (id + type required)
• remove_annotations — delete by id array
• highlight_text — auto-find text by query and highlight it (preferred over manual rects for text markup)

Navigation actions:

• navigate (page), search (query), find (query, silent), search_navigate (matchIndex), zoom (scale 0.5–3.0)

Extraction actions:

• get_text — extract text from page ranges (max 20 pages). Use for reading content to decide what to annotate, NOT for summarization.
• get_screenshot — capture a page as an image (verify your annotations)

Form action:

• fill_form — fill named fields: fields: [{name, value}, ...]

Annotation Types

All annotations need id (unique string), type, page (1-indexed). Coordinates are PDF points (1/72 inch), origin top-left, Y increases downward. US Letter is 612×792pt.

Image annotations accept a local file path or HTTPS URL (no data: URIs). Dimensions auto-detected if omitted. Users can also drag & drop images directly onto the viewer.

Interactive Workflows

Collaborative annotation (AI-driven)

1. display_pdf to open the document

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