split-pdf
Split-PDF: Download, Split, and Deep-Read Academic Papers
CRITICAL RULE: Never read a full PDF. Never. Only read the 4-page split files, and only 3 splits at a time (~12 pages). Reading a full PDF will either crash the session with an unrecoverable "prompt too long" error — destroying all context — or produce shallow, hallucinated output. There are no exceptions.
When This Skill Is Invoked
The user wants you to read, review, or summarize an academic paper. The input is either:
- A file path to a local PDF (e.g.,
./articles/smith_2024.pdf) - A search query or paper title (e.g.,
"Gentzkow Shapiro Sinkinson 2014 competition newspapers")
Important: You cannot search for a paper you don't know exists. The user MUST provide either a file path or a specific search query. If the user invokes this skill without specifying what paper to read, ask them. Do not guess.
Prefer Paperpile when possible. If the paper is in Paperpile, call paperpile get-pdf-text(citekey=KEY) directly — you get the full structured text without any splitting. Only fall through to this skill's page-split workflow when the PDF is NOT in Paperpile (preprints, referee materials, ad-hoc reading, third-party shared PDFs).