pdfalive 0.8.0

A Python library and CLI tool that uses LLMs to enhance PDF files

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A Python library and CLI toolkit that brings PDF files alive with the power of LLMs.

Highlights

• 📑 Automatic TOC Generation — Generate clickable Table of Contents (PDF bookmarks) using LLM inference. Supports arbitrarily large documents with intelligent batching.
• 🔍 Smart OCR Detection — Automatically detects scanned PDFs and performs OCR via Tesseract when needed.
• 📝 Intelligent File Renaming — Batch rename files using natural language instructions with LLM-powered inference.
• 🤖 Multi-Provider LLM Support — Use any LLM provider via LangChain: OpenAI, Anthropic, local models via Ollama, and more.
• 🔄 Built-in Resilience — Automatic retry logic with exponential backoff for handling API rate limits.

Installation

Tesseract is required for OCR functionality. On macOS:

brew install tesseract

Install pdfalive via pip:

pip install pdfalive

Or run directly without installation using uvx:

uvx pdfalive generate-toc input.pdf output.pdf

Usage

Use --help on any command for detailed options:

pdfalive --help
pdfalive generate-toc --help

generate-toc

Generate a clickable Table of Contents using PDF bookmarks. The tool extracts font and text features from the PDF and uses an LLM to intelligently identify chapter and section headings.

pdfalive generate-toc input.pdf output.pdf

# Or modify the file in place
pdfalive generate-toc --inplace input.pdf

Choosing an LLM:

By default, pdfalive uses the latest OpenAI model. Use any LangChain-supported model:

# Use Claude
pdfalive generate-toc --model-identifier 'claude-sonnet-4-5' input.pdf output.pdf

# Use a local model via Ollama
pdfalive generate-toc --model-identifier 'ollama/llama3' input.pdf output.pdf

Set the appropriate API key for your provider (OPENAI_API_KEY, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, etc.).

Scanned PDFs:

OCR is enabled by default. Scanned documents without extractable text are automatically detected and processed:

# Default: OCR text layer discarded after TOC generation (preserves file size)
pdfalive generate-toc scanned.pdf output.pdf

# Include OCR text layer in output (makes PDF searchable)
pdfalive generate-toc --ocr-output scanned.pdf output.pdf

# Disable automatic OCR entirely
pdfalive generate-toc --no-ocr input.pdf output.pdf

Postprocessing:

For documents with a printed table of contents page, enable LLM postprocessing to refine results:

pdfalive generate-toc --postprocess input.pdf output.pdf

Postprocessing uses an additional LLM call to:

• Remove duplicate entries and fix typos
• Cross-reference against any printed TOC found in the document
• Add missing entries and correct page numbers

Other options:

Option	Description
--inplace	Modify the input file in place instead of creating a new output file
--force	Overwrite existing TOC if the PDF already has bookmarks
--ocr-language	Set OCR language (default: eng). Use Tesseract language codes
--request-delay	Delay between LLM calls for rate limiting (default: 2s)

extract-text

Extract text from scanned PDFs using OCR and save to a new PDF with an embedded text layer:

pdfalive extract-text input.pdf output.pdf

# Or modify the file in place
pdfalive extract-text --inplace input.pdf

This creates a searchable/selectable PDF without generating a TOC.

Options:

Option	Description
--inplace	Modify the input file in place instead of creating a new output file
--force	Force OCR even if document already has text
--ocr-language	Set OCR language (default: eng)
--ocr-dpi	DPI resolution for OCR processing (default: 300)

rename

Intelligently rename files using LLM inference. Analyzes filenames and applies renaming rules based on natural language instructions.

pdfalive rename -q "Add 'REVIEWED_' prefix" *.pdf

Custom naming formats:

Specify exact formatting including special characters — the LLM respects brackets, parentheses, dashes, and other formatting:

pdfalive rename -q "[Author Last Name] - Title (Year).pdf" paper1.pdf paper2.pdf

Reading paths from a file:

When dealing with many files or long filenames that exceed command-line limits, use the -f/--input-file option to read paths from a text file (one per line):

# Generate a list of files to rename
find /path/to/docs -name "*.pdf" > files.txt

# Rename using the file list
pdfalive rename -q "Standardize filenames" -f files.txt

The input file supports comments (lines starting with #) and blank lines are ignored.

Workflow:

1. The tool analyzes each filename and generates rename suggestions
2. A preview table shows original names, proposed names, confidence scores, and reasoning
3. Confirm or cancel the operation (unless -y is used)
4. Files are renamed in place

Automatic confirmation:

pdfalive rename -q "Add sequential numbering prefix" -y *.pdf

Options:

Option	Description
-f, --input-file	Read input file paths from a text file (one per line)
--model-identifier	Choose which LLM to use (default: gpt-5.2)
-y, --yes	Automatically apply renames without confirmation
--show-token-usage	Display token usage statistics (default: enabled)

Configuration

pdfalive supports TOML configuration files for setting default options. This is useful for frequently-used settings like the --query argument for rename.

Config file locations (searched in order):

1. pdfalive.toml or .pdfalive.toml in the current directory
2. pdfalive.toml or .pdfalive.toml in your home directory
3. ~/.config/pdfalive/pdfalive.toml

Example pdfalive.toml:

# Global settings (shared across commands)
[global]
model-identifier = "gpt-5.2"
show-token-usage = true

# Settings for generate-toc command
[generate-toc]
force = false
request-delay = 10.0
ocr = true
ocr-language = "eng"
ocr-dpi = 300
postprocess = false

# Settings for extract-text command
[extract-text]
ocr-language = "eng"
ocr-dpi = 300
force = false

# Settings for rename command
[rename]
query = "Rename to \"[Author Last Name] Book Title, Edition (Year).pdf\""
yes = false

Using a specific config file:

pdfalive --config /path/to/config.toml rename document.pdf

Override hierarchy:

1. Code defaults (lowest priority)
2. Config file values
3. CLI arguments (highest priority)

CLI arguments always override config file settings.

Development

We use uv to manage the project:

# Install dependencies
uv sync

# Install in editable mode
uv pip install -e .

Code quality tools:

Tool	Purpose
ruff	Formatting and linting
mypy	Static type checking
pytest	Unit testing
pre-commit	Git hooks for quality checks

# Run linting
uv run ruff check .
uv run ruff format .

# Run type checking
uv run mypy pdfalive

# Run tests
uv run pytest

License

pdfalive is distributed under the terms of the MIT License.