read-source
When to Use
Use witan read to convert source documents into LLM-ready text. This is for source material — PDFs, Word docs, presentations, HTML pages, and Markdown files that contain data you need to extract.
- PDF → plain text
- Word (.doc, .docx) → markdown
- PowerPoint (.ppt, .pptx) → markdown
- HTML → markdown
- Markdown (.md) → outline support via
--outline
This is not for reading spreadsheet data (.xlsx, .xls) — use spreadsheet-specific tools for that.
Setup
Files are cached server-side by content hash so repeated operations skip re-upload. If WITAN_STATELESS=1 is set (or --stateless is passed), files are processed but not stored.
The CLI automatically applies per-attempt request timeouts and retries transient API failures (408, 429, 500, 502, 503, 504, plus timeout/network errors). Non-retryable 4xx responses fail immediately.
Quick Reference
More from witanlabs/witan-cli
xlsx-code-mode
Use this skill any time an Excel file (.xls, .xlsx, .xlsm) needs to be read, explored, understood, or modified. You cannot read excel files with cat, head, or normal file-reading tools — this is the only way to inspect them. Trigger when you or the user need to open, look at, or explore a workbook; find out what sheets it has or where specific data lives; read cells, rows, columns, or ranges; search for values, labels, or patterns; trace formula dependencies or understand how a cell is calculated; run what-if scenarios by changing inputs and reading recalculated outputs; or edit cells, rows, columns, and sheets. Trigger when the user references a spreadsheet file by name or path — even casually (e.g. 'check the xlsx', 'what's in report.xlsx') — and also when you need to inspect a workbook yourself as part of a larger task. The tool runs sandboxed JavaScript against the workbook server-side via `witan xlsx exec`.
27xlsx-verify
Verify Excel spreadsheets — render to check layout, calc to check formulas, lint to catch formula bugs. Use alongside your spreadsheet update tools.
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