convert Operation

The convert operation transforms documents between formats without writing custom code. Convert HTML to clean Markdown, render Markdown to HTML, extract Word documents, extract text from PDFs, or parse frontmatter metadata.

The convert operation uses Workers-compatible libraries: turndown for HTML→Markdown, marked for Markdown→HTML, gray-matter for frontmatter, mammoth for DOCX, and unpdf for PDF text extraction. DOCX and PDF require nodejs_compat.

Quick Start

HTML to Markdown:

agents:
  - name: clean-html
    operation: convert
    config:
      input: ${fetch-page.output.html}
      from: html
      to: markdown

Markdown to HTML:

agents:
  - name: render-content
    operation: convert
    config:
      input: ${input.markdown}
      from: markdown
      to: html

Extract Frontmatter:

agents:
  - name: parse-doc
    operation: convert
    config:
      input: ${read-file.output}
      from: markdown
      to: frontmatter

PDF to Text:

agents:
  - name: extract-pdf
    operation: convert
    config:
      input: ${read-pdf.output}  # ArrayBuffer
      from: pdf
      to: text

Configuration

config:
  input: any              # Content to convert (required)
  from: string            # Source format (required)
  to: string              # Target format (required)

  # Format-specific options
  turndown: object        # HTML→Markdown options
  marked: object          # Markdown→HTML options
  mammoth: object         # DOCX conversion options
  pdf: object             # PDF extraction options

Supported Conversions

From	To	Description
`html`	`markdown`	Convert HTML to clean Markdown using turndown with GFM
`html`	`text`	Strip HTML tags to plain text
`markdown`	`html`	Render Markdown to HTML using marked with GFM
`markdown`	`frontmatter`	Extract YAML frontmatter and content
`docx`	`html`	Convert Word document to HTML
`docx`	`markdown`	Convert Word document to Markdown
`pdf`	`text`	Extract text content from PDF documents

HTML to Markdown

Converts HTML to clean Markdown using turndown with GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM) support.

agents:
  - name: convert-article
    operation: convert
    config:
      input: |
        <h1>Welcome</h1>
        <p>This is <strong>bold</strong> and <em>italic</em> text.</p>
        <ul>
          <li>Item 1</li>
          <li>Item 2</li>
        </ul>
      from: html
      to: markdown

Output:

# Welcome

This is **bold** and _italic_ text.

- Item 1
- Item 2

Turndown Options

Customize the Markdown output:

config:
  input: ${html}
  from: html
  to: markdown
  turndown:
    headingStyle: atx          # atx (# heading) or setext (underlines)
    codeBlockStyle: fenced     # fenced (```) or indented
    bulletListMarker: "-"      # -, *, or +
    emDelimiter: "_"           # _ or *
    strongDelimiter: "**"      # ** or __
    linkStyle: inlined         # inlined or referenced
    gfm: true                  # Enable GFM tables, strikethrough

GFM Table Support

Tables are automatically converted:

agents:
  - name: convert-table
    operation: convert
    config:
      input: |
        <table>
          <thead><tr><th>Name</th><th>Age</th></tr></thead>
          <tbody>
            <tr><td>Alice</td><td>30</td></tr>
            <tr><td>Bob</td><td>25</td></tr>
          </tbody>
        </table>
      from: html
      to: markdown

Output:

| Name | Age |
|------|-----|
| Alice | 30 |
| Bob | 25 |

Markdown to HTML

Renders Markdown to HTML using marked with GFM support.

agents:
  - name: render-post
    operation: convert
    config:
      input: |
        # Hello World

        This is a **markdown** document with:
        - Bullet points
        - [Links](https://example.com)
        - `inline code`
      from: markdown
      to: html

Output:

<h1>Hello World</h1>
<p>This is a <strong>markdown</strong> document with:</p>
<ul>
<li>Bullet points</li>
<li><a href="https://example.com">Links</a></li>
<li><code>inline code</code></li>
</ul>

Marked Options

config:
  input: ${markdown}
  from: markdown
  to: html
  marked:
    gfm: true       # Enable GFM (default: true)
    breaks: false   # Convert \n to <br> (default: false)

Code Block Syntax Highlighting

Code blocks preserve language hints for syntax highlighting:

agents:
  - name: render-code
    operation: convert
    config:
      input: |
        ```javascript
        const greeting = "Hello, World!";
        console.log(greeting);

from: markdown to: html

**Output**:
```html
<pre><code class="language-javascript">const greeting = &quot;Hello, World!&quot;;
console.log(greeting);
</code></pre>

Frontmatter Extraction

Parses YAML frontmatter from Markdown documents using gray-matter.

agents:
  - name: parse-blog-post
    operation: convert
    config:
      input: |
        ---
        title: My Blog Post
        author: Alice
        date: 2024-01-15
        tags:
          - typescript
          - tutorial
        ---

        # Introduction

        Welcome to my blog post about TypeScript!
      from: markdown
      to: frontmatter

Output:

{
  frontmatter: {
    title: "My Blog Post",
    author: "Alice",
    date: Date("2024-01-15"),  // Parsed as Date object
    tags: ["typescript", "tutorial"]
  },
  content: "# Introduction\n\nWelcome to my blog post about TypeScript!"
}

Using Extracted Data

agents:
  - name: parse-doc
    operation: convert
    config:
      input: ${read-file.output}
      from: markdown
      to: frontmatter

  - name: render-page
    operation: html
    config:
      template: blog-post
      data:
        title: ${parse-doc.output.frontmatter.title}
        author: ${parse-doc.output.frontmatter.author}
        content: ${parse-doc.output.content}

HTML to Text

Strips all HTML tags and returns plain text. Useful for search indexing, text analysis, or email plain-text versions.

agents:
  - name: extract-text
    operation: convert
    config:
      input: |
        <h1>Title</h1>
        <p>This is <strong>formatted</strong> content.</p>
        <script>alert('removed')</script>
      from: html
      to: text

Output:

Title This is formatted content.

Features:

Removes <script> and <style> tags completely
Decodes HTML entities (& → &, < → <)
Normalizes whitespace

DOCX Conversion

DOCX conversion requires the nodejs_compat compatibility flag in your wrangler.toml. This enables Node.js APIs needed by the mammoth library.

Convert Word documents to HTML or Markdown using mammoth.

agents:
  - name: read-docx
    operation: storage
    config:
      type: r2
      action: get
      bucket: documents
      key: report.docx

  - name: convert-to-html
    operation: convert
    config:
      input: ${read-docx.output}  # ArrayBuffer
      from: docx
      to: html

DOCX to Markdown

agents:
  - name: convert-to-markdown
    operation: convert
    config:
      input: ${read-docx.output}
      from: docx
      to: markdown

DOCX to Markdown internally converts to HTML first, then to Markdown using turndown. This preserves formatting like headings, lists, and tables.

PDF Text Extraction

PDF text extraction requires the nodejs_compat compatibility flag in your wrangler.toml. This enables Node.js APIs needed by the unpdf library.

Extract text content from PDF documents using unpdf, a Workers-compatible PDF library built on PDF.js.

agents:
  - name: read-pdf
    operation: storage
    config:
      type: r2
      action: get
      bucket: documents
      key: report.pdf

  - name: extract-text
    operation: convert
    config:
      input: ${read-pdf.output}  # ArrayBuffer
      from: pdf
      to: text

PDF Options

Control how pages are merged:

config:
  input: ${pdf-data}
  from: pdf
  to: text
  pdf:
    mergePages: true       # Merge all pages into single string (default: true)
    pageSeparator: "\n\n"  # Separator between pages (default: "\n\n")

Multi-page Documents

By default, text from all pages is merged with double newlines:

agents:
  - name: extract-full-doc
    operation: convert
    config:
      input: ${read-pdf.output}
      from: pdf
      to: text
      pdf:
        pageSeparator: "\n---\n"  # Use horizontal rule between pages

PDF Processing Pipeline

Extract PDF text and process it further:

name: pdf-to-summary

agents:
  - name: read-pdf
    operation: storage
    config:
      type: r2
      action: get
      bucket: uploads
      key: ${input.filename}

  - name: extract-text
    operation: convert
    config:
      input: ${read-pdf.output}
      from: pdf
      to: text

  - name: summarize
    operation: llm
    config:
      model: claude-sonnet-4-20250514
      prompt: |
        Summarize the following document in 3-5 bullet points:

        ${extract-text.output}

flow:
  - agent: read-pdf
  - agent: extract-text
  - agent: summarize

output:
  body:
    summary: ${summarize.output}

PDF Input Validation

PDF conversion requires an ArrayBuffer (binary data from R2/storage):

# This will throw an error
config:
  input: "not an ArrayBuffer"
  from: pdf
  to: text

Error: convert: PDF input must be an ArrayBuffer (use storage operation to read the file)

Examples

Web Scraping Pipeline

name: scrape-and-convert

agents:
  - name: fetch-page
    operation: http
    config:
      url: ${input.url}

  - name: convert-to-markdown
    operation: convert
    config:
      input: ${fetch-page.output.body}
      from: html
      to: markdown

  - name: store-content
    operation: storage
    config:
      type: kv
      action: put
      key: content-${input.slug}
      value: ${convert-to-markdown.output}

flow:
  - agent: fetch-page
  - agent: convert-to-markdown
  - agent: store-content

output:
  body:
    markdown: ${convert-to-markdown.output}

Blog Post Processor

name: process-blog-post

agents:
  - name: read-post
    operation: storage
    config:
      type: r2
      action: get
      bucket: blog
      key: posts/${input.slug}.md

  - name: parse-frontmatter
    operation: convert
    config:
      input: ${read-post.output}
      from: markdown
      to: frontmatter

  - name: render-html
    operation: convert
    config:
      input: ${parse-frontmatter.output.content}
      from: markdown
      to: html

flow:
  - agent: read-post
  - agent: parse-frontmatter
  - agent: render-html

output:
  body:
    title: ${parse-frontmatter.output.frontmatter.title}
    author: ${parse-frontmatter.output.frontmatter.author}
    date: ${parse-frontmatter.output.frontmatter.date}
    html: ${render-html.output}

Email with Plain Text Fallback

name: send-newsletter

agents:
  - name: render-html
    operation: convert
    config:
      input: ${input.markdown}
      from: markdown
      to: html

  - name: generate-text
    operation: convert
    config:
      input: ${render-html.output}
      from: html
      to: text

  - name: send-email
    operation: email
    config:
      to: ${input.email}
      subject: ${input.subject}
      html: ${render-html.output}
      text: ${generate-text.output}

flow:
  - agent: render-html
  - agent: generate-text
  - agent: send-email

Document Migration Pipeline

name: migrate-docs

agents:
  - name: read-docx
    operation: storage
    config:
      type: r2
      action: get
      bucket: legacy-docs
      key: ${input.filename}

  - name: convert-to-markdown
    operation: convert
    config:
      input: ${read-docx.output}
      from: docx
      to: markdown

  - name: add-frontmatter
    operation: transform
    config:
      value: |
        ---
        title: ${input.title}
        migrated: true
        originalFile: ${input.filename}
        ---
        ${convert-to-markdown.output}

  - name: store-markdown
    operation: storage
    config:
      type: r2
      action: put
      bucket: new-docs
      key: ${input.slug}.md
      body: ${add-frontmatter.output}

flow:
  - agent: read-docx
  - agent: convert-to-markdown
  - agent: add-frontmatter
  - agent: store-markdown

Error Handling

Invalid Conversion

# This will throw an error
config:
  input: "some text"
  from: text
  to: pdf  # Not supported

Error:

convert: unsupported conversion text → pdf. Supported: html→markdown, html→text, markdown→html, markdown→frontmatter, docx→markdown, docx→html, pdf→text

Empty Input

Empty strings are handled gracefully:

config:
  input: ""
  from: html
  to: markdown

Output: "" (empty string) For frontmatter, empty input returns:

{ frontmatter: {}, content: "" }

DOCX Input Validation

DOCX conversion requires an ArrayBuffer:

# This will throw an error
config:
  input: "not an ArrayBuffer"
  from: docx
  to: html

Error: convert: DOCX input must be an ArrayBuffer (use storage operation to read the file)

Performance

Convert operations are fast and efficient:

Conversion	Typical Speed	Notes
html→markdown	~1-5ms	Depends on DOM complexity
html→text	<1ms	Simple regex operations
markdown→html	~1-3ms	Fast marked parser
markdown→frontmatter	<1ms	Fast YAML parsing
docx→html/markdown	~50-200ms	Depends on document size
pdf→text	~100-500ms	Depends on page count and complexity

transform - Declarative data transformations
html - HTML template rendering
storage - Read/write files for conversion
http - Fetch web pages to convert

Conductor

Getting Started

Core Concepts

Building

Components

Operations Reference

Plugins

Starter Kit

Playbooks

Reference

Quick Start

Configuration

Supported Conversions

HTML to Markdown

Turndown Options

GFM Table Support

Markdown to HTML

Marked Options

Code Block Syntax Highlighting

Frontmatter Extraction

Using Extracted Data

HTML to Text

DOCX Conversion

DOCX to Markdown

PDF Text Extraction

PDF Options

Multi-page Documents

PDF Processing Pipeline

PDF Input Validation

Examples

Web Scraping Pipeline

Blog Post Processor

Email with Plain Text Fallback

Document Migration Pipeline

Error Handling

Invalid Conversion

Empty Input

DOCX Input Validation

Performance

​Quick Start

​Configuration

​Supported Conversions

​HTML to Markdown

​Turndown Options

​GFM Table Support

​Markdown to HTML

​Marked Options

​Code Block Syntax Highlighting

​Frontmatter Extraction

​Using Extracted Data

​HTML to Text

​DOCX Conversion

​DOCX to Markdown

​PDF Text Extraction

​PDF Options

​Multi-page Documents

​PDF Processing Pipeline

​PDF Input Validation

​Examples

​Web Scraping Pipeline

​Blog Post Processor

​Email with Plain Text Fallback

​Document Migration Pipeline

​Error Handling

​Invalid Conversion

​Empty Input

​DOCX Input Validation

​Performance

​Related Operations

Quick Start

Configuration

Supported Conversions

HTML to Markdown

Turndown Options

GFM Table Support

Markdown to HTML

Marked Options

Code Block Syntax Highlighting

Frontmatter Extraction

Using Extracted Data

HTML to Text

DOCX Conversion

DOCX to Markdown

PDF Text Extraction

PDF Options

Multi-page Documents

PDF Processing Pipeline

PDF Input Validation

Examples

Web Scraping Pipeline

Blog Post Processor

Email with Plain Text Fallback

Document Migration Pipeline

Error Handling

Invalid Conversion

Empty Input

DOCX Input Validation

Performance

Related Operations