liteparse

Generated source view for the actual executable engineering/liteparse skill. The durable routing article is Cloud, Data, and Service Skills. Source: skills/engineering/liteparse/SKILL.md

Runtime Source

Bundled Resources

These files are part of the executable skill folder and must be preserved with the skill source.

Description

Use when a task involves a document file (PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, or image) and the agent needs to read it, answer questions about contents, or extract text, tables, or specific values. Provides fast, local, model-free extraction via the lit CLI with low-cost search patterns.

Skill Source

---
name: liteparse
description: Use when a task involves a document file (PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, or image) and the agent needs to read it, answer questions about contents, or extract text, tables, or specific values. Provides fast, local, model-free extraction via the `lit` CLI with low-cost search patterns.
compatibility: Requires Node 18+ and `@llamaindex/liteparse` (`npm i -g @llamaindex/liteparse`, verify `lit --version`). Office files need LibreOffice; images need ImageMagick; the bundled BM25 helper needs `uv`.
license: MIT
origin: external
source_slug: run-llama/llamaparse-agent-skills/liteparse
source_repo: https://github.com/run-llama/llamaparse-agent-skills
source_version: liteparse-1.0.1
metadata:
  author: LlamaIndex
  upstream_version: "1.0.1"
  upstream_commit: a8d8b34ad6a815ba3257f921c5eccc9ca95e429f
---

# Effective LiteParse

Extract text from documents locally with the `lit` CLI. This skill is about using LiteParse cheaply:
each `lit parse` call re-runs extraction, and every dumped line stays in context on later turns.

## Golden Rule

Parse once to a file, then search that file.

```bash
lit parse "/abs/path/doc.pdf" --format text --no-ocr -o /tmp/doc.txt && wc -l /tmp/doc.txt
```

Use `--no-ocr` for born-digital PDFs. Drop it only for scanned PDFs or images.

## Search Discipline

Get context in the same command instead of grepping and then doing a second read:

```bash
grep -n -i -C4 "total assets" /tmp/doc.txt | head -40
```

Batch independent lookups into one command:

```bash
for q in "carbon intensity" "scope 1" "total revenue"; do
  echo "=== $q ==="
  grep -n -i -C3 "$q" /tmp/doc.txt | head -25
done
```

Keep output bounded with `head`. Aim to resolve a question in three search commands or fewer. If
two targeted greps do not find the answer, switch to the bundled BM25 helper instead of trying one
keyword variant per turn.

## Ranked Search

Use the helper when keywords are uncertain:

```bash
./skills/engineering/liteparse/scripts/search.py /tmp/doc.txt \
  -q "materiality assessment priority topics" \
  -k 8 \
  -e 5
```

`-k` is the number of matches. `-e` is the number of context lines before and after each match.

## Born-Digital Vs Scanned

- Born-digital PDFs usually have a text layer. Use `--no-ocr`.
- Scanned PDFs and images need OCR. If digits look wrong, inspect the page visually rather than
  trusting OCR blindly.

## Visual Page Reads

Only screenshot when text search cannot answer the question: dense tables, figures, charts, or bad
OCR. Render one page at modest DPI.

```bash
lit screenshot "/abs/path/doc.pdf" --target-pages "13" --dpi 150 -o /tmp/shots/
```

Do not start at 300 DPI, and do not re-render the same page unless the first image is illegible.

## Many Questions About One Document

Keep `/tmp/doc.txt` and reuse it across questions. Do not reparse the same document for each
question.

## Setup

PDFs work out of the box. If `lit` is missing:

```bash
npm i -g @llamaindex/liteparse
```

Office documents require LibreOffice. Images require ImageMagick. Both are converted into PDF before
LiteParse extraction.

---

Timeline

• 2026-07-15 | Generated a browseable source page from the actual executable skill file. Source: skills/engineering/liteparse/SKILL.md