Attachments – the Python funnel for LLM context

Turn any file into model-ready text ＋ images, in one line

Most users will not have to learn anything more than: Attachments("path/to/file.pdf")

🎬 Demo

TL;DR

pip install attachments

from attachments import Attachments
ctx = Attachments("https://github.com/MaximeRivest/attachments/raw/main/src/attachments/data/sample.pdf",
                   "https://github.com/MaximeRivest/attachments/raw/refs/heads/main/src/attachments/data/sample_multipage.pptx")
llm_ready_text   = str(ctx)       # all extracted text, already "prompt-engineered"
llm_ready_images = ctx.images     # list[str] – base64 PNGs

Attachments aims to be the community funnel from file → text + base64 images for LLMs.
Stop re-writing that plumbing in every project – contribute your loader / modifier / presenter / refiner / adapter plugin instead!

Quick-start ⚡

pip install attachments

Try it now with sample files

from attachments import Attachments
from attachments.data import get_sample_path

# Option 1: Use included sample files (works offline)
pdf_path = get_sample_path("sample.pdf")
txt_path = get_sample_path("sample.txt")
ctx = Attachments(pdf_path, txt_path)

print(str(ctx))      # Pretty text view
print(len(ctx.images))  # Number of extracted images

# Try different file types
docx_path = get_sample_path("test_document.docx")
csv_path = get_sample_path("test.csv")
json_path = get_sample_path("sample.json")

ctx = Attachments(docx_path, csv_path, json_path)
print(f"Processed {len(ctx)} files: Word doc, CSV data, and JSON")

# Option 2: Use URLs (same API, works with any URL)
ctx = Attachments(
    "https://github.com/MaximeRivest/attachments/raw/main/src/attachments/data/sample.pdf",
    "https://github.com/MaximeRivest/attachments/raw/main/src/attachments/data/sample_multipage.pptx"
)

print(str(ctx))      # Pretty text view  
print(len(ctx.images))  # Number of extracted images

Advanced usage with DSL

from attachments import Attachments

a = Attachments(
    "https://github.com/MaximeRivest/attachments/raw/main/src/attachments/data/" \
    "sample_multipage.pptx[3-5]"
)
print(a)           # pretty text view
len(a.images)      # 👉 base64 PNG list

Send to OpenAI

pip install openai

from openai import OpenAI
from attachments import Attachments

pptx = Attachments("https://github.com/MaximeRivest/attachments/raw/main/src/attachments/data/sample_multipage.pptx[3-5]")

client = OpenAI()
resp = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="gpt-4.1-nano",
    messages=pptx.openai_chat("Analyse the following document:")
)
print(resp.choices[0].message.content)

or with the response API

from openai import OpenAI
from attachments import Attachments

pptx = Attachments("https://github.com/MaximeRivest/attachments/raw/main/src/attachments/data/sample_multipage.pptx[3-5]")

client = OpenAI()
resp = client.responses.create(
    input=pptx.openai_responses("Analyse the following document:"),
    model="gpt-4.1-nano"
)
print(resp.output[0].content[0].text)

Send to Anthropic / Claude

pip install anthropic

import anthropic
from attachments import Attachments

pptx = Attachments("https://github.com/MaximeRivest/attachments/raw/main/src/attachments/data/sample_multipage.pptx[3-5]")

msg = anthropic.Anthropic().messages.create(
    model="claude-3-5-haiku-20241022",
    max_tokens=8_192,
    messages=pptx.claude("Analyse the slides:")
)
print(msg.content)

DSPy Integration

We have a special dspy module that allows you to use Attachments with DSPy.

pip install dspy

from attachments.dspy import Attachments  # Automatic type registration!
import dspy

# Configure DSPy
dspy.configure(lm=dspy.LM('openai/gpt-4.1-nano'))

# Both approaches work seamlessly:

# 1. Class-based signatures (recommended)
class DocumentAnalyzer(dspy.Signature):
    """Analyze document content and extract insights."""
    document: Attachments = dspy.InputField()
    insights: str = dspy.OutputField()

# 2. String-based signatures (works automatically!)
analyzer = dspy.Signature("document: Attachments -> insights: str")

# Use with any file type
doc = Attachments("report.pdf")
result = dspy.ChainOfThought(DocumentAnalyzer)(document=doc)
print(result.insights)

Key Features:

• 🎯 Automatic Type Registration: Import from attachments.dspy and use Attachments in string signatures immediately
• 🔄 Seamless Serialization: Handles complex multimodal content automatically
• 🖼️ Image Support: Base64 images work perfectly with vision models
• 📝 Rich Text: Preserves formatting and structure
• 🧩 Full Compatibility: Works with all DSPy signatures and programs

Optional: CSS Selector Highlighting 🎯

For advanced web scraping with visual element highlighting in screenshots:

# Install Playwright for CSS selector highlighting
pip install playwright
playwright install chromium

# Or with uv
uv add playwright
uv run playwright install chromium

# Or install with browser extras
pip install attachments[browser]
playwright install chromium

What this enables:

• 🎯 Visual highlighting of selected elements with animations
• 📸 High-quality screenshots with JavaScript rendering
• 🎨 Professional styling with glowing borders and badges
• 🔍 Perfect for extracting specific page elements

# CSS selector highlighting examples
title = Attachments("https://example.com[select:h1]")  # Highlights H1 elements
content = Attachments("https://example.com[select:.content]")  # Highlights .content class
main = Attachments("https://example.com[select:#main]")  # Highlights #main ID

# Multiple elements with counters and different colors
multi = Attachments("https://example.com[select:h1, .important][viewport:1920x1080]")

Note: Without Playwright, CSS selectors still work for text extraction, but no visual highlighting screenshots are generated.

Optional: Microsoft Office Support 📄

For dedicated Microsoft Office format processing:

# Install just Office format support
pip install attachments[office]

# Or with uv
uv add attachments[office]

What this enables:

• 📊 PowerPoint (.pptx) slide extraction and processing
• 📝 Word (.docx) document text and formatting extraction
• 📈 Excel (.xlsx) spreadsheet data analysis
• 🎯 Lightweight installation for Office-only workflows

# Office format examples
presentation = Attachments("slides.pptx[1-5]")  # Extract specific slides
document = Attachments("report.docx")           # Word document processing
spreadsheet = Attachments("data.xlsx[summary:true]")  # Excel with summary

Note: Office formats are also included in the common and all dependency groups.

Advanced Pipeline Processing

For power users, use the full grammar system with composable pipelines:

from attachments import attach, load, modify, present, refine, adapt

# Custom processing pipeline
result = (attach("document.pdf[pages:1-5]") 
         | load.pdf_to_pdfplumber 
         | modify.pages 
         | present.markdown + present.images
         | refine.add_headers | refine.truncate
         | adapt.claude("Analyze this content"))

# Web scraping pipeline
title = (attach("https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llama[select:title]")
        | load.url_to_bs4 
        | modify.select 
        | present.text)

# Reusable processors
csv_analyzer = (load.csv_to_pandas 
               | modify.limit 
               | present.head + present.summary + present.metadata
               | refine.add_headers)

# Use as function
result = csv_analyzer("data.csv[limit:1000]")
analysis = result.claude("What patterns do you see?")

DSL cheatsheet 📝

🔒 Default Philosophy: All content preserved unless you explicitly request limits

Supported formats (out of the box)

• Docs: PDF, PowerPoint (.pptx), CSV, TXT, Markdown, HTML
• Images: PNG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, WEBP, HEIC/HEIF, …
• Web: URLs with BeautifulSoup parsing and CSS selection
• Archives: ZIP files → image collections with tiling
• Repositories: Git repos with smart ignore patterns
• Data: CSV with pandas, JSON

Advanced Examples 🧩

Multimodal Document Processing

# PDF with image tiling and analysis
result = Attachments("report.pdf[tile:2x3][resize_images:400]")
analysis = result.claude("Analyze both text and visual elements")

# Multiple file types in one context
ctx = Attachments("report.pdf", "data.csv", "chart.png")
comparison = ctx.openai("Compare insights across all documents")

Repository Analysis

# Codebase structure only
structure = Attachments("./my-project[mode:structure]")

# Full codebase analysis with smart filtering
codebase = Attachments("./my-project[ignore:standard]")
review = codebase.claude("Review this code for best practices")

# Custom ignore patterns
filtered = Attachments("./app[ignore:.env,*.log,node_modules]")

Web Scraping with CSS Selectors

# Extract specific content from web pages
title = Attachments("https://example.com[select:h1]")
paragraphs = Attachments("https://example.com[select:p]")

# Visual highlighting in screenshots with animations
highlighted = Attachments("https://example.com[select:h1][viewport:1920x1080]")
# Creates screenshot with animated highlighting of h1 elements

# Multiple element highlighting with counters
multi_select = Attachments("https://example.com[select:h1, .important][fullpage:true]")
# Shows "H1 (1/3)", "DIV (2/3)", etc. with different colors for multiple selections

# Pipeline approach for complex scraping
content = (attach("https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llama[select:p]")
          | load.url_to_bs4 
          | modify.select 
          | present.text
          | refine.truncate)

Image Processing Chains

# HEIC support with transformations
processed = Attachments("IMG_2160.HEIC[crop:100,100,400,300][rotate:90]")

# Batch image processing with tiling
collage = Attachments("photos.zip[tile:3x2][resize_images:800]")
description = collage.claude("Describe this image collage")

Data Analysis Workflows

# Rich data presentation
data_summary = Attachments("sales_data.csv[limit:1000][summary:true]")

# Pipeline for complex data processing
result = (attach("data.csv[limit:500]")
         | load.csv_to_pandas 
         | modify.limit
         | present.head + present.summary + present.metadata
         | refine.add_headers
         | adapt.claude("What trends do you see?"))

Extending 🧩

# my_ocr_presenter.py
from attachments.core import Attachment, presenter

@presenter
def ocr_text(att: Attachment, pil_image: 'PIL.Image.Image') -> Attachment:
    """Extract text from images using OCR."""
    try:
        import pytesseract
        
        # Extract text using OCR
        extracted_text = pytesseract.image_to_string(pil_image)
        
        # Add OCR text to attachment
        att.text += f"\n## OCR Extracted Text\n\n{extracted_text}\n"
        
        # Add metadata
        att.metadata['ocr_extracted'] = True
        att.metadata['ocr_text_length'] = len(extracted_text)
        
        return att
        
    except ImportError:
        att.text += "\n## OCR Not Available\n\nInstall pytesseract: pip install pytesseract\n"
        return att

How it works:

1. Save the file anywhere in your project
2. Import it before using attachments: import my_ocr_presenter
3. Use automatically: Attachments("scanned_document.png") will now include OCR text

Other extension points:

• @loader - Add support for new file formats
• @modifier - Add new transformations (crop, rotate, etc.)
• @presenter - Add new content extraction methods
• @refiner - Add post-processing steps
• @adapter - Add new API format outputs

API reference (essentials)

Grammar System (Advanced)

Operators: | (sequential), + (additive)

Roadmap

• Documentation: Architecture, Grammar, How to extend, examples (at least 1 per pipeline), DSL, API reference
• Test coverage: 100% for pipelines, 100% for DSL.
• More pipelines: Google Suite, Google Drive, Email(!?), Youtube url, X link, ChatGPT url, Slack url (?), data (parquet, duckdb, arrow, sqlite), etc.
• More adapters: Bedrock, Azure, Openrouter, Ollama (?), Litellm, Langchain, vllm(?), sglang(?), cossette, claudette, etc.
• Add .audio and .video: and corresponding pipelines.

Join us – file an issue or open a PR! 🚀

Star History

Installation

# Stable release (recommended for most users)
pip install attachments

# Alpha testing (latest features, may have bugs)
pip install attachments==0.13.0a1
# or
pip install --pre attachments

🧪 Alpha Testing

We're actively developing new features! If you want to test the latest capabilities:

Install alpha version:

pip install attachments==0.13.0a1

What's new in alpha:

• 🔍 Enhanced DSL cheatsheet with types, defaults, and allowable values
• 📊 Automatic DSL command discovery and documentation
• 🚀 Improved logging and verbosity system
• 🛠️ Better error messages and suggestions

Feedback welcome: GitHub Issues