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name: cli-and-formats description: "Route Docling CLI work, construct safe local conversion commands, and choose supported input/output formats and image modes." disable-model-invocation: true metadata: disco-role: operating license: MIT

Docling CLI and Formats

Use this sub-skill when an agent needs to run or explain Docling's local CLI (docling), select --from / --to formats, process local files, URLs, or directories, control CLI output files, or reason about image export and HTML/EPUB image fetching.

Do not use this sub-skill for:

• Python DocumentConverter / convert_string code; use the conversion sub-skill.
• docling convert-remote, DoclingServiceClient, or service URL/API key setup; use the remote-service-client sub-skill.
• Pipeline internals, backend tuning, or model-option construction beyond CLI flag routing; use pipeline-configuration/advanced-pipelines.

Quick Routing

• Prefer docling SOURCE for simple local conversion to Markdown in the current directory.
• Use repeated --to flags for multiple outputs, for example --to md --to json.
• Use repeated --from flags to restrict accepted input formats and to filter directory walks, for example --from pdf --from docx.
• Use --output DIR whenever the command should not write files into the current working directory.
• Use --image-export-mode referenced for Markdown/HTML/JSON/YAML outputs when outputs should reference exported image files instead of embedding base64.
• Add --html-image-fetch local for trusted local HTML/EPUB assets; use remote or all only when remote image fetching is intended and safe.

References

• references/cli-reference.md: command anatomy, common recipes, output behavior, and docling-tools model-download awareness.
• references/format-guide.md: supported input/output format names, output suffixes, and --from / --to selection rules.
• references/troubleshooting.md: CLI dependency, image, directory, output, ASR/VLM, and WebVTT troubleshooting.
• scripts/build_docling_command.py: prints a shell-safe docling command from structured arguments.

Command Builder

Use the bundled script to construct command lines without hand-quoting mistakes:

python scripts/build_docling_command.py SOURCE --output out --to md --to json --from pdf --from docx --image-export-mode referenced

The script prints only the command; it does not execute Docling. Pass --help for all supported builder options.