Legal OCR Engine

Extract text from scanned PDFs and images using high-accuracy OCR with confidence scoring.

Supported formats: .pdf (scanned), .png, .jpg, .jpeg, .tiff, .tif, .bmp Input modes: single file OR a directory of scanned documents

Skill Directory

Scripts are in the scripts/ subdirectory of this skill's directory. Resolve SKILL_DIR as the absolute path of this SKILL.md file's parent directory. Use SKILL_DIR in all script paths below.

Agent Delegation (Conditional)

For directories with 10+ files, delegate result analysis to avoid context overflow from summarizing many OCR outputs simultaneously.

When to Delegate

• 1-9 files: Process and present results directly — no delegation needed.
• 10+ files: After OCR processing completes, delegate result analysis to subagents.

Orchestrator Workflow (When Delegating)

1. You handle: Steps 1-3 below (validate, check deps, run OCR on the entire directory).
2. After OCR completes, read the JSON output to get the list of processed files and their results.
3. Divide files into groups of ~10 and launch one subagent per group (Agent tool, subagent_type: "general-purpose"). Substitute the resolved $OUTPUT_DIR path literally into each agent's prompt — do not pass shell variable names. Each agent's prompt:

   "Read the OCR output files for these documents: {list of files}. For each, note: pages processed, average confidence, any low-confidence pages. Write a summary to $OUTPUT_DIR/batch_{N}_summary.md."

4. Collect and present: Read batch summaries, compile overall statistics, present to the user per Steps 4-5.

Process

Step 1: Validate Input

1. Confirm the user provided a path. If not, ask: "Please provide the path to the scanned PDF or image file you want to OCR."
2. Determine if the path is a file or directory:
   • File: verify it exists and has a supported extension (.pdf, .png, .jpg, .jpeg, .tiff, .tif, .bmp)
   • Directory: verify it exists; the script will find all supported files inside it
3. If a directory, tell the user which files were found before proceeding.
4. Ask the user if they have a language preference (default: English). PaddleOCR supports 80+ languages.

Step 2: Check Dependencies

python3 "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/check_dependencies.py"

• Exit 0: all good. Exit 1: packages were installed (proceed). Exit 2: failed (report to user).
• Important: PaddleOCR + PaddlePaddle is ~738MB on first install. Warn the user this may take a few minutes.

Step 3: Run OCR Processing

Determine the output directory:

• Single file: OUTPUT_DIR="{parent_dir}/{filename_without_ext}_ocr_output"
• Directory: OUTPUT_DIR="{directory_path}/_ocr_output"

mkdir -p "$OUTPUT_DIR"

python3 "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/ocr_process.py" \
  --input "<file_or_directory_path>" \
  --output-dir "$OUTPUT_DIR" \
  --engine paddleocr \
  --language en \
  --dpi 300

The script prints JSON to stdout with the processing results. Progress messages go to stderr.

Engine options:

• paddleocr (default): Highest accuracy, best for legal documents
• tesseract: Lighter weight fallback, requires tesseract system package

Step 4: Present Results

Read the script's JSON output. Present to the user:

1. Documents processed: count and filenames
2. Per-document results:
   • Pages processed
   • Average confidence score (flag anything below 0.85 as potentially unreliable)
   • Any warnings (low confidence pages, skipped pages)
3. Overall statistics: total pages, average confidence, processing time

Read $OUTPUT_DIR/extraction_report.txt and present the key findings.

If any pages have confidence below 0.70, warn the user:

"Pages X, Y, Z had low OCR confidence. The extracted text may contain errors. Consider re-scanning these pages at higher resolution."

Step 5: Offer Next Steps

Present these options to the user:

1. Summarize the extracted text: "Would you like me to summarize the extracted content? I can pipe it to /legal-toolkit:doc-summary."
2. Generate a searchable PDF: "I can create a searchable PDF with the OCR text layer embedded."
3. Generate a Word document: "I can create a .docx report with the extracted text, organized by page."
4. Review specific pages: "Would you like to review the extracted text for specific pages?"

Step 6: Generate Output Report (if requested)

If the user wants a .docx report, use the npm docx package to generate a Word document containing:

• Title: "OCR Extraction Report: {filename}"
• Metadata: Source file, pages processed, OCR engine, average confidence
• Per-page content: Page number heading, extracted text, confidence score
• Flagged sections: Pages with low confidence highlighted

Output file: {OUTPUT_DIR}/{original_filename}_ocr_report.docx

Error Handling

• Path not found: Ask user to verify the path
• Unsupported format: Supported types are .pdf, .png, .jpg, .jpeg, .tiff, .tif, .bmp
• Empty directory: No supported files found -- ask user to check the folder
• PaddleOCR not available: Fall back to tesseract. If neither available, report to user.
• Very low confidence (<0.5): Document may be too degraded. Suggest re-scanning or manual review.
• Script not found: Verify the skill is installed (ls $SKILL_DIR/scripts/)