Document skills (docx, pdf, pptx, xlsx) 🧩 Skill Free

What it does

These are the four skills Anthropic uses behind Claude's ability to create and edit office files: docx for Word, pdf for PDF, pptx for PowerPoint and xlsx for Excel. Each skill tells the agent which libraries and command-line tools to use for each task, lists common mistakes, and requires a check of the output before the file is handed over.

What is inside

• docx: creates documents with the docx npm library. It edits existing files by unpacking the XML, and reads them with pandoc. It supports tracked changes (redlining) and comments, and renders pages to images for a visual check.
• pdf: uses pypdf, pdfplumber and reportlab to merge, split, rotate, extract text and tables, and create PDFs. It also covers form filling and OCR.
• pptx: builds decks with pptxgenjs and edits templates at the XML level. It includes design guidance and a required QA pass.
• xlsx: uses openpyxl and pandas, and recalculates formulas through LibreOffice so that computed values are correct.

Each skill ships helper scripts.

Works with

In Claude Code they install together as the document-skills plugin from the Anthropic marketplace. Claude.ai paid plans already include them, and they are available through the Claude API. The files use the standard SKILL.md format, but read the licence below before you use them outside Anthropic's products.

How to install

/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills
/plugin install document-skills@anthropic-agent-skills

Maintenance and safety

They are actively maintained. The licence is proprietary (source-available). Use is governed by your agreement with Anthropic, and the terms restrict copying the materials outside Anthropic's services, making derivative works and redistributing them. Anthropic shares them as a reference for complex skills. The skills run scripts and need local tools: Node for docx and pptx, Python libraries, pandoc, LibreOffice and Poppler, depending on the format.

Who should use it

Claude Code users who produce reports, contracts, decks or spreadsheets from their projects. They are also a good reference for anyone designing a complex skill of their own.