Convert Word to Markdown

When to use this skill

Trigger this skill any time there is a .docx file that needs to be
understood or processed — for example, a user attaches a Word document and
asks questions about it, wants a summary, wants specific data pulled out, or
wants multiple Word documents in a folder processed together. Word's native
.docx format is a zipped XML bundle that is not reliably readable as plain
text, so always convert it to Markdown first using the script in this
skill rather than trying to open or parse the file directly.

This skill only supports .docx. If asked to convert a legacy .doc file,
tell the user it isn't supported and ask them to re-save it as .docx
(Word: File > Save As > Word Document (.docx)) first.

Mixed file types: When the user references a folder or set of documents
containing multiple supported file types (.pdf, .docx, .xlsx), this
skill handles only .docx files. The agent MUST also invoke the sibling
skills in parallel:

• convert-pdf-to-md for any .pdf files
• convert-excel-to-md for any .xlsx files

Never process a folder and silently skip a supported file type. All three
skills must be invoked together when mixed types are present.

Setup (once per environment)

Before the first conversion in a given environment, follow
references/setup.md step by step to ensure Python,
pip, and the markitdown package are installed. Do this proactively rather
than guessing whether the environment is ready — the script itself will
also fail with a clear pointer back to that file if markitdown turns out
to be missing, so it's safe to just try the conversion first if you're
reasonably confident setup was already done.

Usage

The conversion script lives at scripts/convert_word_to_md.py.

Output structure: MarkItDown embeds images as a truncated data:image/png;base64... URI
placeholder (not real image data), so the script
extracts real images directly from the .docx and writes a self-contained
folder per document instead of a single loose .md file:

<name>/
    img/
        img001.<ext>
        img002.<ext>
        ...
    <name>.md          (image references are relative: img/imgNNN.ext)

If the document has no embedded images, no img/ folder is created.

Single file:

# Windows
python scripts\convert_word_to_md.py "C:\path\to\document.docx"

# macOS / Linux
python scripts/convert_word_to_md.py "/path/to/document.docx"

This creates a document\ folder next to the source file (containing
document.md and, if present, document\img\). To control the destination
folder explicitly:

python scripts\convert_word_to_md.py "C:\path\to\document.docx" -o "C:\path\to\output_folder"

A folder of Word documents (batch mode):

python scripts\convert_word_to_md.py "C:\path\to\folder"

Add --recursive to also include subfolders:

python scripts\convert_word_to_md.py "C:\path\to\folder" --recursive

Each .docx found gets its own <name>\ output folder next to it by
default. Pass -o "C:\path\to\output_parent" to collect all the generated
<name>\ folders under a separate parent directory instead (subfolder
structure is preserved when combined with --recursive).

After conversion, read the resulting .md file(s) to perform the actual
analysis the user asked for — the script's job is only to produce accurate
Markdown (and images), not to interpret the content.

Deciding where output goes

Default — always output next to the source file. The <name>/ folder
is created in the same directory as the source .docx. This is the required
default for every case. Do NOT override it unless the user explicitly asks
for a different location.

Only use -o when the user explicitly provides an output path (e.g.,
"save the output to C:\output", "put the results in D:\work"). Do NOT
pass -o based on the agent's current working directory, the session state
folder, or any implied location.

If the source file path cannot be fully resolved — for example, the
user provides only a filename with no directory, or the path is ambiguous —
use ask_user to confirm the full absolute path before running the
conversion. Never guess or assume the directory.

Troubleshooting