pdfly-cli

A pure-python CLI application for manipulating PDF files. Use when needing to compress, merge, split, rotate, sign, extract images/text, or convert files to/from PDF. Commands: 2-up, booklet, cat, check-sign, compress, extract-annotated-pages, extract-images, extract-text, meta, pagemeta, rm, rotate, sign, uncompress, update-offsets, x2pdf. Trigger phrases: "compress PDF", "merge PDFs", "split PDF", "rotate pages", "extract images from PDF", "sign PDF", "PDF metadata", "convert to PDF".

pdfly CLI Skill

A pure-python CLI for PDF manipulation built on pypdf, fpdf2, and endesive.

Installation

bash

pip install pdfly
# or with uv
uvx pdfly --help

Quick Reference

Command	Description
pdfly compress IN OUT	Lossless compression
pdfly cat IN [PAGES]... -o OUT	Merge/split pages
pdfly rm IN [PAGES]... -o OUT	Remove pages
pdfly rotate -o OUT IN DEG [PGRGS]	Rotate pages
pdfly sign IN --p12 CERT [-o OUT]	Sign PDF
pdfly check-sign IN --pem CERT	Verify signature
pdfly meta IN [-o FORMAT]	Show metadata
pdfly pagemeta IN IDX [-o FORMAT]	Page details (0-based)
pdfly extract-images IN	Extract images
pdfly extract-text IN	Extract text
pdfly extract-annotated-pages IN [-o OUT]	Extract annotated
pdfly uncompress IN OUT	Decompress streams
pdfly update-offsets IN [-o OUT]	Fix offsets
pdfly 2-up IN OUT	2-up layout
pdfly booklet IN OUT [-b FILE] [-c FILE]	Booklet layout
pdfly x2pdf [FILES]... -o OUT	Convert to PDF

Output Formats (meta/pagemeta)

bash

-o text   # Default
-o json
-o yaml

Page Range Syntax

See references/page-ranges.md for full syntax including negative indices and strides.

PDF Signing

See references/sign.md for complete signing/verification workflow.

Rotate Command

The -o/--output option is required and must come before positional arguments:

bash

pdfly rotate -o output.pdf input.pdf 90 "1-3"

See references/rotate.md for full examples.

Extract/Merge (cat)

See references/cat.md for complex merge/split operations.

Key Libraries

Library	Purpose
pypdf	PDF reading/writing, page manipulation
fpdf2	Creating PDFs from images/text
endesive	PDF signing with PKCS12
pillow	Image processing
cryptography	Cryptographic operations

Exit Codes

• 0 = Success
• 1 = Error (file not found, invalid input, etc.)