PaddleOCR Skills

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This directory contains official PaddleOCR Agent Skills. They integrate with AI apps such as Claude Code for OCR text extraction from images/PDFs and layout-aware document parsing.

Included Skills

• paddleocr-text-recognition: extract text from images/PDFs.
• paddleocr-doc-parsing: document parsing that converts images/PDFs to Markdown.

Prerequisites

1. Python 3.8 or later must be installed on the device that runs the skill.
2. These skills depend on PaddleOCR official APIs and require API credentials. Visit the PaddleOCR website, click API, select the model you need, then copy the API_URL and Token. They correspond to the API URL and access token used for authentication. Supported models per skill:
   • paddleocr-text-recognition: PP-OCRv5
   • paddleocr-doc-parsing: PP-StructureV3, PaddleOCR-VL, PaddleOCR-VL-1.5

Using in AI Apps

The instructions below cover both skills. Install and configure only the skill(s) you need.

Install to AI Apps

Option 1: Install via skills CLI

The skills CLI installs skills globally on the device so all AI apps can use them. Node.js is required.

npx skills add PaddlePaddle/PaddleOCR -g --skill paddleocr-text-recognition -y
npx skills add PaddlePaddle/PaddleOCR -g --skill paddleocr-doc-parsing -y

This repository is relatively large. On slower networks, npx skills add may time out. If that happens, clone the repository locally first, then install from the local path:

git clone https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleOCR.git
npx skills add ./PaddleOCR/skills/paddleocr-text-recognition

Option 2: Install via clawhub (OpenClaw)

clawhub install paddleocr-text-recognition
clawhub install paddleocr-doc-parsing

See the OpenClaw Skills documentation for details.

Option 3: Manual installation

If the above options are not available, you can clone the repository and manually copy the skill directories to the location required by your AI app (Git required):

git clone https://github.com/PaddlePaddle/PaddleOCR.git

After cloning, skill source code is located under PaddleOCR/skills. Refer to the documentation for your AI app to complete installation:

• Claude Code: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/skills
• claude.ai: https://support.claude.com/en/articles/12512180-use-skills-in-claude
• OpenClaw: https://docs.openclaw.ai/tools/skills

Configure Environment Variables

After installation, configure the required environment variables so the skills can work properly. Each skill requires the following:

Skill	Required	Optional
paddleocr-text-recognition	PADDLEOCR_OCR_API_URL (API URL), PADDLEOCR_ACCESS_TOKEN (access token)	PADDLEOCR_OCR_TIMEOUT (API request timeout)
paddleocr-doc-parsing	PADDLEOCR_DOC_PARSING_API_URL (API URL), PADDLEOCR_ACCESS_TOKEN (access token)	PADDLEOCR_DOC_PARSING_TIMEOUT (API request timeout)

Below are configuration methods for some AI apps:

• Claude Code: add an env field to .claude/settings.local.json in your project:

  {
    "env": {
      "PADDLEOCR_ACCESS_TOKEN": "<ACCESS_TOKEN>",
      "PADDLEOCR_OCR_API_URL": "<OCR_API_URL>",
      "PADDLEOCR_DOC_PARSING_API_URL": "<DOC_PARSING_API_URL>"
    }
  }
  

• OpenClaw: add skill configuration to ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json:

  {
    "skills": {
      "entries": {
        "paddleocr-text-recognition": {
          "enabled": true,
          "env": {
            "PADDLEOCR_OCR_API_URL": "<OCR_API_URL>",
            "PADDLEOCR_ACCESS_TOKEN": "<ACCESS_TOKEN>"
          }
        },
        "paddleocr-doc-parsing": {
          "enabled": true,
          "env": {
            "PADDLEOCR_DOC_PARSING_API_URL": "<DOC_PARSING_API_URL>",
            "PADDLEOCR_ACCESS_TOKEN": "<ACCESS_TOKEN>"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
  

Usage Examples

After configuration, describe the OCR or document parsing task in natural language and provide a file URL or local path so the AI app can invoke the corresponding skill.

paddleocr-text-recognition

URL example:

Extract all text from this file: https://example.com/invoice.jpg

Local file example:

Extract all text from local file C:\docs\invoice.pdf

paddleocr-doc-parsing

URL example:

Parse this PDF and return the main body plus all tables: https://example.com/report.pdf

Local file example:

Parse local file C:\docs\report.pdf and return complete structured output.

Local Testing

This section describes how to run smoke tests locally to verify that the skills work correctly.

The examples below cover both skills. Run only the commands for the skill(s) you need.

Make sure your working directory is the directory containing this file.

1. Install dependencies.

   python -m pip install -r paddleocr-text-recognition/scripts/requirements.txt
   python -m pip install -r paddleocr-doc-parsing/scripts/requirements.txt
   # Optional: required only when using document file optimization
   python -m pip install -r paddleocr-doc-parsing/scripts/requirements-optimize.txt
   

2. Configure environment variables (see Configure Environment Variables for the list of variables).

   export PADDLEOCR_OCR_API_URL="<OCR_API_URL>"
   export PADDLEOCR_ACCESS_TOKEN="<ACCESS_TOKEN>"
   export PADDLEOCR_DOC_PARSING_API_URL="<DOC_PARSING_API_URL>"
   

3. Run the smoke test scripts.

   python paddleocr-text-recognition/scripts/smoke_test.py
   python paddleocr-doc-parsing/scripts/smoke_test.py