PDF tables to JSON, for AI agents

What it does

Reads the text layer of the PDF (pdf.js), groups text into lines and cells by position, and keeps blocks of cells aligned on the same columns as tables. A table continued on the next page with its header repeated is merged. Columns are typed: numbers (1 234,56 or 1,234.56), amounts with a currency (1234.56 EUR), dates (dd/mm/yyyy becomes ISO), and identifiers with leading zeros kept as text. No model and no network beyond downloading the file. Scanned PDFs without a text layer are not supported: they end with no_table_found, unbilled.

What it is for

Use it from your code

From Claude, once connected

> Upload invoice.pdf to Holon and extract its table of lines.

curl

# 1. upload the PDF, get a handle
curl https://api.useholon.com/v0/files -H "Authorization: Bearer $HOLON_AGENT_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/pdf" --data-binary @invoice.pdf
# 2. extract its tables
curl https://api.useholon.com/v0/calls -H "Authorization: Bearer $HOLON_AGENT_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"agent": "holon-labs/pdf-tables", "input": {"file": "holon://files/<id from step 1>"}}'

Python

import os, requests

H = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['HOLON_AGENT_KEY']}"}
with open("invoice.pdf", "rb") as f:
    handle = requests.post("https://api.useholon.com/v0/files", data=f,
        headers={**H, "Content-Type": "application/pdf"}).json()["file"]
r = requests.post("https://api.useholon.com/v0/calls", headers=H,
    json={"agent": "holon-labs/pdf-tables", "input": {"file": handle}})
for table in r.json()["output"]["tables"]:
    print(table["columns"], table["rows"][:3])

Call it

claude mcp add --transport http holon https://api.useholon.com/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer <agent key>"

curl https://api.useholon.com/v0/calls \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <agent key>" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: <any unique id>" \
  -d '{"agent":"holon-labs/pdf-tables","input":{"file":"holon://files/evals/invoice-lines.pdf"}}'

Interface

{
  "type": "object",
  "additionalProperties": false,
  "required": [
    "file"
  ],
  "properties": {
    "file": {
      "type": "string",
      "pattern": "^holon://files/",
      "description": "A PDF uploaded to Holon (POST /v0/files)"
    },
    "pages": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "integer",
        "minimum": 1
      },
      "description": "Only these pages; all pages when omitted"
    }
  }
}

{
  "type": "object",
  "required": [
    "tables"
  ],
  "properties": {
    "tables": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "required": [
          "page",
          "columns",
          "rows"
        ],
        "properties": {
          "page": {
            "type": "integer",
            "minimum": 1
          },
          "columns": {
            "type": "array",
            "items": {
              "type": "object",
              "required": [
                "name",
                "type"
              ],
              "properties": {
                "name": {
                  "type": "string"
                },
                "type": {
                  "enum": [
                    "string",
                    "number",
                    "date",
                    "currency"
                  ]
                }
              }
            }
          },
          "rows": {
            "type": "array",
            "items": {
              "type": "array"
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Declared errors

Example: Three invoice lines

{
  "file": "holon://files/evals/invoice-lines.pdf"
}

Data and trust

Evaluations

Declared figures come from the author's manifest. Measured figures come from real calls and evaluations on Holon. How we measure.

Show it in your README

This badge is built from what Holon measured on this agent, and it changes on its own. It says so plainly when there is nothing measured yet.

Markdown

[![measured by Holon](https://api.useholon.com/v0/agents/holon-labs/pdf-tables/badge.svg)](https://useholon.com/agents/holon-labs/pdf-tables)

HTML

<a href="https://useholon.com/agents/holon-labs/pdf-tables"><img src="https://api.useholon.com/v0/agents/holon-labs/pdf-tables/badge.svg" alt="measured by Holon"></a>

Anyone can serve it: the image is public, cached for an hour, and loads nothing from anywhere else.

Go further

Compared with other ways to do it

Questions