PaddleOCR Text Recognition Skill
When to Use This Skill
Trigger keywords (routing): Bilingual trigger terms (Chinese and English) are listed in the YAML description above—use that field for discovery and routing.
Use this skill for:
- Extract text from images (screenshots, photos, scans)
- Extract text from PDFs or document images when the goal is line/box-level text, not recovering table grids, formulas, or full reading-order layout
- Extract text from URLs or local files that point to images/PDFs
Do not use for:
- Plain text files, code files, or markdown documents that can be read directly as text
- Documents with tables, formulas, charts, or complex layouts — use Document Parsing instead
- Tasks that do not involve image-to-text conversion
Installation
Scripts declare their dependencies inline (PEP 723). No separate install step is needed — uv resolves dependencies automatically:
uv run scripts/ocr_caller.py --help
How to Use This Skill
Working directory: All uv run scripts/... commands below should be run from this skill's root directory (the directory containing this SKILL.md file).
Basic Workflow
Identify the input source:
- User provides URL: Use the
--file-url parameter
- User provides local file path: Use the
--file-path parameter
Execute OCR:
uv run scripts/ocr_caller.py --file-url "URL provided by user" --pretty
Or for local files:
uv run scripts/ocr_caller.py --file-path "file path" --pretty
Performance note: Parsing time scales with document complexity. Single-page images typically complete in 1-3 seconds; large PDFs (50+ pages) may take several minutes. Allow adequate time before assuming a timeout.
Default behavior: save raw JSON to a temp file:
- If
--output is omitted, the script saves automatically under the system temp directory
- Default path pattern:
<system-temp>/paddleocr/text-recognition/results/result_<timestamp>_<id>.json
- If
--output is provided, it overrides the default temp-file destination
- If
--stdout is provided, JSON is printed to stdout and no file is saved
- In save mode, the script prints the absolute saved path on stderr:
Result saved to: /absolute/path/...
- In default/custom save mode, read and parse the saved JSON file before responding
- Use
--stdout only when you explicitly want to skip file persistence
Parse JSON response:
- In default/custom save mode, load JSON from the saved file path shown by the script
- Check the
ok field: true means success, false means error
- Extract text:
text field contains all recognized text
- If
--stdout is used, parse the stdout JSON directly
- Handle errors: If
ok is false, display error.message
Present results to user:
- Display extracted text in a readable format
- If the text is empty, the image may contain no text
- In save mode, always tell the user the saved file path and that full raw JSON is available there
What to Do After Extraction
Common next steps once you have the recognized text:
- Save to file: Write the
text field to a .txt or .md file
- Search the content: Search the saved output file for keywords
- Feed to another pipeline: The
text field is clean plain text, ready for downstream processing
- Poor results: See "Tips for Better Results" below before retrying
Complete Output Display
Always display the COMPLETE recognized text to the user. The user typically needs the full content for downstream use — truncation silently loses data they may not notice is missing.
- Display the entire
text field, no matter how long
- Do not use phrases like "Here's a summary" or "The text begins with..."
- Do not truncate with "..." unless the text truly exceeds reasonable display limits (>10,000 chars)
Example - Correct:
User: "Extract the text from this image"
Agent: I've extracted the text from the image. Here's the complete content:
[Display the entire text here]
Example - Incorrect:
User: "Extract the text from this image"
Agent: I found some text in the image. Here's a preview:
"The quick brown fox..." (truncated)
Understanding the Output
The script returns a JSON envelope with ok, text, result, and error fields. Use text for the recognized content; result contains the raw API response for debugging.
For the full schema and field-level details, see references/output_schema.md.
Raw result location (default): the temp-file path printed by the script on stderr
Alternative: paddleocr CLI
This mirror keeps the bundled scripts/ocr_caller.py as the default path. The upstream PaddleOCR project (since PR #18090, 2026-06-03) also ships an official CLI that calls the same API directly. If the paddleocr package is installed, you can use it as a drop-in alternative — no uv run or local scripts required.
Install (one-time):
pip install "paddleocr>=3.7.0"
Environment: the CLI only needs PADDLEOCR_ACCESS_TOKEN. It resolves the API endpoint internally, so PADDLEOCR_OCR_API_URL is not required when using the CLI (the URL is still required by the script).
Basic OCR:
## From URL
paddleocr api --model_type ocr --file_url "https://example.com/image.png"
## From local file
paddleocr api --model_type ocr --file_path "./document.pdf"
Common options:
## Specific model
paddleocr api --model_type ocr --model PP-OCRv5 --file_path "./report.pdf"
## Disable preprocessing (faster, for flat/well-oriented images)
paddleocr api --model_type ocr --file_path "./document.pdf" \
--use_doc_unwarping False --use_doc_orientation_classify False
## Page ranges
paddleocr api --model_type ocr --file_path "./large.pdf" --page_ranges "1-5,10,15-20"
## Save result to file
paddleocr api --model_type ocr --file_url "https://..." --output result.json
CLI output format — different from the script envelope:
{
"jobId": "job-xxx",
"pages": [
{
"prunedResult": {
"rec_texts": ["Line 1", "Line 2"],
"rec_scores": [0.98, 0.95]
},
"ocrImageUrl": "https://..."
}
]
}
The CLI prints {jobId, pages:[...]} to stdout. It does not wrap the response in the script's {ok, text, result, error} envelope, does not auto-save to a temp file, and does not concatenate text for you. If you switch paths, update your parsing logic accordingly.
Scripts vs CLI — at a glance:
|
Scripts (default) |
paddleocr CLI (alternative) |
| Install |
uv resolves PEP 723 inline deps |
pip install "paddleocr>=3.7.0" |
| Required env |
PADDLEOCR_OCR_API_URL + PADDLEOCR_ACCESS_TOKEN |
PADDLEOCR_ACCESS_TOKEN only |
| Entry |
uv run scripts/ocr_caller.py ... |
paddleocr api --model_type ocr ... |
| Output |
{ok, text, result, error} envelope, auto-saved to temp file |
{jobId, pages:[...]} to stdout |
| Result location |
Path printed on stderr (or --output/--stdout) |
stdout (or --output) |
| Best for |
Skills runtimes, offline-friendly, no extra install |
Already have paddleocr installed, want the upstream-canonical flow |
Run paddleocr api --help for the full option list.
Usage Examples
Example 1: URL OCR
uv run scripts/ocr_caller.py --file-url "https://example.com/invoice.jpg" --pretty
Example 2: Local File OCR
uv run scripts/ocr_caller.py --file-path "./document.pdf" --pretty
Example 3: OCR With Explicit File Type
uv run scripts/ocr_caller.py --file-url "https://example.com/input" --file-type 1 --pretty
--file-type 0: PDF--file-type 1: image- If omitted, the type is auto-detected from the file extension. For local files, a recognized extension (
.pdf, .png, .jpg, .jpeg, .bmp, .tiff, .tif, .webp) is required; otherwise pass --file-type explicitly. For URLs with unrecognized extensions, the service attempts inference.
Example 4: Print JSON Without Saving
uv run scripts/ocr_caller.py --file-url "https://example.com/input" --stdout --pretty
First-Time Configuration
When API is not configured, the script outputs:
{
"ok": false,
"text": "",
"result": null,
"error": {
"code": "CONFIG_ERROR",
"message": "PADDLEOCR_OCR_API_URL not configured. Get your API at: https://paddleocr.com"
}
}
Configuration workflow:
Show the exact error message to the user.
Guide the user to obtain credentials: Visit the PaddleOCR website, click API, select the PP-OCRv5 model, select the language, then copy the API_URL and Token. They map to these environment variables:
PADDLEOCR_OCR_API_URL — full endpoint URL ending with /ocrPADDLEOCR_ACCESS_TOKEN — 40-character alphanumeric string
Optionally configure PADDLEOCR_OCR_TIMEOUT for request timeout. Recommend using the host application's standard configuration method rather than pasting credentials in chat.
Apply credentials — one of:
- User configured via the host UI: ask the user to confirm, then retry.
- User pastes credentials in chat: warn that they may be stored in conversation history, help the user persist them using the host's standard configuration method, then retry.
Error Handling
All errors return JSON with ok: false. Show the error message and stop — do not fall back to your own vision capabilities. Identify the issue from error.code and error.message:
Authentication failed (403) — error.message contains "Authentication failed"
- Token is invalid, reconfigure with correct credentials
Quota exceeded (429) — error.message contains "API rate limit exceeded"
- Daily API quota exhausted, inform user to wait or upgrade
Unsupported format — error.message contains "Unsupported file format"
- File format not supported, convert to PDF/PNG/JPG
No text detected:
text field is empty- Image may be blank, corrupted, or contain no text
Tips for Better Results
If recognition quality is poor:
- Low resolution: Provide a higher resolution image (≥300 DPI works well for most printed text)
- Noisy background: A cleaner scan or screenshot typically yields better results than a phone photo
- Check confidence: The raw JSON (
result.result.ocrResults[n].prunedResult.rec_scores) shows per-line confidence scores — low values identify uncertain regions worth reviewing
Reference Documentation
references/output_schema.md — Full output schema, field descriptions, and command examples
Note: Model version, capabilities, and supported file formats are determined by your API endpoint (PADDLEOCR_OCR_API_URL) and its official API documentation.
Testing the Skill
To verify the skill is working properly:
uv run scripts/smoke_test.py
uv run scripts/smoke_test.py --skip-api-test
uv run scripts/smoke_test.py --test-url "https://..."
The first form tests configuration and API connectivity. --skip-api-test checks configuration only. --test-url overrides the default sample image URL.