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
- Python 3.8 or later must be installed on the device that runs the skill.
- 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-OCRv5paddleocr-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:
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.