# docling.rs
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**docling.rs** converts documents — PDF, Office, HTML, scans, audio — into
Markdown, docling JSON and the other shapes an LLM or a RAG pipeline can
read. It is a Rust port of IBM's
[docling](https://github.com/docling-project/docling): the same output,
byte-for-byte, from one static binary. No Python, no PyTorch.
Pulling text out of a PDF is easy. Keeping its *structure* — headings in
order, tables as tables, scanned pages read — takes layout analysis, table
recognition and OCR. docling has the models for that, and a Python stack to
match. docling.rs runs the same models from a single binary: PDF 4.3× faster
than Python docling at under half the RAM, Office and HTML 20–60× faster, and
tables that survive — cell recall 0.94 where MarkItDown gets 0.31
([numbers](#conformance-with-microsoft-markitdown),
[method](./docs/PDF_CONFORMANCE.md#performance--review--profiling-notes)).
## Install
```bash
# CLI + models (Linux x64/arm64 prebuilt; builds from source elsewhere)
# or from crates.io; --cli puts the models where the installed binary looks
cargo install docling-cli
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/docling-project/docling.rs/master/scripts/install/download_dependencies.sh | sh -s -- --cli
pip install docling-rs # Python — drop-in for docling's and MarkItDown's APIs
npm install docling.rs # Node.js / Bun
cargo add docling # Rust library
# containers, models baked in (-cuda variants for NVIDIA)
docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/data" ghcr.io/docling-project/docling-rs paper.pdf
docker run -p 127.0.0.1:5001:5001 ghcr.io/docling-project/docling-rs-serve
```
Office, HTML, Markdown and e-mail need no models. PDF, images and audio need
the ONNX models (layout, OCR, TableFormer, Whisper; under 1 GB): `install.sh`,
`--cli` and the containers bring them along; with `pip`, run
`python -c "import docling_rs; docling_rs.download_models()"` once; with `npm`
or a checkout, run `download_dependencies.sh` where you convert
([details](#getting-the-ml-models)). Windows: [`docs/WINDOWS.md`](./docs/WINDOWS.md).
**▶ [Try it in your browser](https://docling-project.github.io/docling.rs/)**
first — the converter as wasm, OCR included; nothing leaves your device.
## Use
```bash
docling-rs report.pdf > report.md # Markdown (streamed page by page)
docling-rs report.pdf --to json # docling JSON; also html, text, latex, dclx, chunks, images
docling-rs --input ./docs --output ./out # a directory tree; --jobs N in parallel
docling-rs https://example.com/paper.pdf # URLs, data: URIs and stdin (`-`) too
docling-rs --help # every flag: OCR, page ranges, images, enrichment, redaction …
```
```python
from docling_rs import DocumentConverter # was: from docling.document_converter import …
doc = DocumentConverter().convert("report.pdf").document
print(doc.export_to_markdown())
```
```js
import { convertFileAsync } from 'docling.rs'
const { content } = await convertFileAsync('report.pdf', { to: 'markdown' })
```
```rust
use docling::{DocumentConverter, SourceDocument};
let result = DocumentConverter::new().convert(SourceDocument::from_file("report.pdf")?)?;
println!("{}", result.document.export_to_markdown());
```
```bash
curl -F file=@report.pdf 'localhost:5001/v1/convert?to=md' # the server; OpenAPI at /openapi.yaml
```
Same options, same outputs on every surface — every option in
[`docs/OPTIONS.md`](./docs/OPTIONS.md).
## Highlights
- **From MarkItDown:** `pip install docling-rs`, swap one import —
`from docling_rs.markitdown import MarkItDown` — and keep its API with real
layout, tables and OCR behind it ([guide](./docs/MARKITDOWN.md)).
- **From Python docling:** `from docling_rs import DocumentConverter`;
`result.document` is a genuine `DoclingDocument`
([migration notes](./crates/docling-py/README.md#migrating-from-python-docling)).
- **Every docling format, and a few it lacks** — the table under
[Status](#status), each validated against live docling
([Conformance](#conformance-with-python-docling)).
- **Every output docling has:** Markdown (docling's, or a stricter dialect),
docling JSON, HTML, plain text, DocLang, LaTeX, Pandoc AST (→ DOCX, EPUB,
Typst… through pandoc), WebVTT subtitles, RAG chunks and page images
([output formats](./crates/docling/README.md#output-formats)).
- **From any language:** Rust, Python, Node.js / Bun, the browser (wasm,
fully client-side), C, C++, C#, Go, Java and Swift through one C header,
any HTTP client, the shell
([Integration](#integration--using-doclingrs-from-your-language)).
- **A drop-in server for docling-serve:** Open WebUI uses it as its Docling
content-extraction engine — point *Docling Server URL* at
`http://<host>:5001` — and n8n, Dify and LangChain clients work unchanged
([`docling-rs serve`](#http-conversion-api--docling-rs-serve),
[Open WebUI setup](./crates/docling-serve/README.md#open-webui)).
- **AI agents (MCP):** `docling-rs mcp` gives Claude Desktop, Claude Code,
Cursor or VS Code MarkItDown's `convert_to_markdown` tool, plus `convert`
for JSON, chunks and the rest — `uvx docling-rs-mcp`, or
`claude mcp add docling -- docling-rs mcp` ([MCP server](#mcp-server--docling-rs-mcp)).
- **LangChain:** `pip install "docling-rs[langchain]"` — langchain-docling's
`DoclingLoader` on the Rust engine, one import to swap
([details](./crates/docling-py/README.md#langchain)).
- **AutoGen:** `pip install "docling-rs[autogen]"` — `DoclingIndexer` fills
any AutoGen memory with chunks that carry their pages, `DoclingConvertTool`
lets an agent read documents ([details](./crates/docling-py/README.md#autogen)).
- **RAG:** `docling-rag` — chunk, embed and search with a REST API and a web
UI ([RAG subsystem](#rag-subsystem)).
- **Runs where you are:** Linux x64 / arm64 / s390x and Windows prebuilt (CLI,
wheels, npm), macOS from source, containers for amd64 and arm64; NVIDIA
CUDA and TensorRT, DirectML, CoreML and WebGPU in the browser as opt-in
accelerators ([GPU](./docs/MODELS.md#gpu-execution-providers-optional-off-by-default),
[IBM Z](./docs/IBMZ.md)).
Developed with **Claude Code** and _[TENET](https://github.com/artiz/tenet/tree/master)_ (minimalistic AI-driven development framework).
## Status
Every format in docling's pipeline converts — plus a few docling lacks — and
a file that fails under its extension is checked by content and converted as
what it really is, with a warning.
| Text & markup | Markdown, AsciiDoc, HTML, MHTML, LaTeX (multi-file arXiv projects, math, tables) |
| Word processing | DOCX, Word 97–2004 `.doc` (and Word 6/95, 1.x/2.0), ODT, OpenOffice / StarWriter, AbiWord, WordPerfect, MS Works, EPUB, RTF |
| Presentations | PPTX, PowerPoint 97–2003, ODP, OpenOffice / StarImpress |
| Spreadsheets | XLSX, XLSB, Excel 97–2004, ODS, CSV / TSV, dBase, DIF, SYLK, Lotus 1-2-3, Quattro Pro, MS Works |
| Diagrams · Apple iWork | Visio, SVG · Pages, Numbers, Keynote |
| PDF & images | PDF (layout, TableFormer, OCR), PNG, JPEG, TIFF, BMP, WebP, GIF, HEIC (opt-in), METS/GBS scans, DjVu |
| XML · docling native | JATS, USPTO, XBRL, DocLang · docling JSON, DocTags, DCLX |
| Email · subtitles · mainframe | `.eml`, Outlook `.msg` · WebVTT · EBCDIC records through a COBOL copybook |
| Audio · video | WAV, MP3, M4A, AAC, OGG, FLAC; MP4, AVI, MOV, MKV, WebM, MPEG — local Whisper or Parakeet, plus scene frames from video |
Every extension, with what each backend does:
[`docs/MIGRATION.md`](./docs/MIGRATION.md#every-extension-by-category).
<details>
<summary><b>Installing ffmpeg</b> (optional — only for video frame sampling)</summary>
Any ffmpeg ≥ 4.x on `PATH` works; docling.rs shells out to the binary and
parses its output, so no dev headers/libraries are needed.
- **Debian/Ubuntu**: `sudo apt-get install ffmpeg`
- **Fedora**: `sudo dnf install ffmpeg-free` (or `ffmpeg` from RPM Fusion)
- **Alpine**: `apk add ffmpeg`
- **macOS**: `brew install ffmpeg`
- **Windows**: `winget install ffmpeg` (or `choco install ffmpeg`, or
`scoop install ffmpeg`). Installing from a downloaded zip
([gyan.dev](https://www.gyan.dev/ffmpeg/builds/) /
[BtbN](https://github.com/BtbN/FFmpeg-Builds/releases)) also works — either
add the extracted `bin\` folder to `PATH`, or skip `PATH` entirely and point
`DOCLING_FFMPEG` at the exe:
`set DOCLING_FFMPEG=C:\tools\ffmpeg\bin\ffmpeg.exe`
Check with `ffmpeg -version`. `DOCLING_FFMPEG` overrides the binary used on
any OS; the docling-rs-serve Docker image ships ffmpeg preinstalled.
</details>
## Conformance with Microsoft MarkItDown
[MarkItDown](https://github.com/microsoft/markitdown) converts the same kinds
of documents to Markdown for LLMs. Measured side by side — MarkItDown 0.1.8
(`markitdown[all]`) and docling.rs 2.16.0 (release build), 4 vCPU, no GPU —
on this repository's test corpus and on MarkItDown's own OCR test set
([`scripts/conformance/markitdown_compare.py`](./scripts/conformance/markitdown_compare.py)):
| DOCX (38) | 5.04 s | **0.55 s** | 1441 / **14** ms | 0.93 / **1.00** | 0.81 / **1.00** | 0.78 / **1.00** |
| PPTX (8) | 0.15 s | **0.02 s** | 1080 / **9** ms | 0.81 / **0.97** | 0.62 / **1.00** | 0.86 / **1.00** |
| XLSX (14) | 1.08 s | **0.19 s** | 1085 / **11** ms | 0.60 / **0.95** | 0.78 / **0.98** | — ¹ |
| HTML (32) | 0.40 s | **0.06 s** | 1226 / **7** ms | 0.98 / **1.00** | 0.89 / **1.00** | 0.96 / **1.00** |
| CSV (9) | 0.04 s | **0.01 s** | 1086 / **6** ms | 1.00 / 1.00 | 0.78 / **1.00** | — |
| EPUB (1) | 0.06 s | **0.01 s** | 1278 / **14** ms | 0.99 / **1.00** | — | 1.00 / 1.00 |
| PDF (18), full layout + tables + OCR | **10.0 s** | 49.3 s | 1237 / 1314 ms | 0.63 / **0.997** | 0.31 / **0.94** | 0.00 / **0.91** |
| PDF (18), text layer only (`--text-layer-only`) | 10.0 s | **0.7 s** | — | 0.63 / **0.97** | 0.31 / 0.00 | 0.00 / 0.00 |
Accuracy is scored against Python docling's groundtruth, which favours
docling.rs by construction; the timings do not depend on it. Text drawn into
images (MarkItDown's own OCR test set) reads at 1.00 with docling.rs' local
OCR, against 0.00–0.33 for MarkItDown without an LLM. Method, caveats and the full
OCR comparison: [`docs/MARKITDOWN.md`](./docs/MARKITDOWN.md#how-the-comparison-is-scored).
## Conformance with Python docling
Every declarative format is compared against the live library — Markdown
byte for byte, JSON structurally (every key and value but `origin`/`version`
and re-encoded image bytes). Latest sweep, docling **2.129.0**
(`scripts/conformance/full_conformance.py`; ✅ all = every file matches):
| DOCX | 38 | ✅ all | ✅ all | iWork Pages | 1 | ✅ all | ✅ all |
| HTML | 32 | ✅ all | 31 | iWork Keynote | 5 | ✅ all | ✅ all |
| PPTX | 8 | ✅ all | ✅ all | EBCDIC | 3 | ✅ all | ✅ all |
| XLSX | 14 | 13 ² | 13 ² | JATS | 7 | ✅ all | ✅ all |
| ODF | 7 | ✅ all | ✅ all | DocLang | 15 | ✅ all | ✅ all |
| CSV | 9 | ✅ all | 6 | AsciiDoc | 5 | ✅ all | ✅ all |
| Markdown | 11 | ✅ all | 6 | USPTO | 9 | ✅ all | ✅ all |
| DeepSeek-OCR Markdown | 3 | ✅ all | n/a | EPUB | 1 | ✅ all | ✅ all |
| WebVTT | 4 | ✅ all | ✅ all | LaTeX | 8 | ✅ all | 7 ¹ |
| Email (`.eml`) | 2 | ✅ all | ✅ all | | | | |
¹ `1706.03762`: one `tabular`'s cells carry consistent `row_span`/`col_span` where upstream writes the span into the offsets only; PDF figures carry no image payload (upstream renders them with pypdfium2).
² `xlsx_02_sample_sales_data`: 20 date cells print by docling PR #4628's number-format rules (#634), which the released docling does not apply yet.
The residuals, with the exact files: [`docs/MIGRATION.md`](./docs/MIGRATION.md).
The PDF/image pipeline is pinned by a deterministic snapshot baseline and
scored against docling's groundtruth in
[`docs/PDF_CONFORMANCE.md`](./docs/PDF_CONFORMANCE.md).
## Performance
One fixture per format through published Python docling and the Rust release
binary (`scripts/test/performance.sh`); docling ÷ docling.rs, so bigger means
Rust wins by more.
| `picture_classification.pdf` (PDF) | 208 KB | **6.5× less** | 0.8× | 10.6× |
| `docx_rich_tables_01.docx` (DOCX) | 3.1 MB | **39× less** | 1.2× | 19× |
| `wiki_duck.html` (HTML) | 240 KB | **57× less** | 1.3× | 47× |
| `elife-56337.nxml` (JATS XML) | 180 KB | **59× less** | 1.2× | 10× |
| `xlsx_04_inflated.xlsx` (XLSX) | 168 KB | **51× less** | 0.9× | 18× |
| `powerpoint_with_image.pptx` (PPTX) | 80 KB | **55× less** | 1.2× | 3.1× |
| `wiki.md` (Markdown) | 8 KB | **57× less** | 1.2× | 1.2× |
| `csv-comma.csv` (CSV) | 4 KB | **64× less** | 1.2× | 0.6× † |
† A 4 KB CSV converts in microseconds, so Rust's own process startup dominates
its number; end to end it is 870× faster.
Declarative formats hold a few MB against docling's ~750 MB (it imports torch
even for them) and finish 300–870× sooner end to end; the PDF peaks at
0.37 GB against 2.4 GB and converts 28.5× faster end to end. Where the time
goes, and what was measured not to help:
[`docs/PDF_CONFORMANCE.md`](./docs/PDF_CONFORMANCE.md#where-the-time-goes).
## Integration — using docling.rs from your language
One engine, several front doors, the same options and outputs everywhere.
| Rust | the [`docling`](./crates/docling/README.md) crate | `cargo add docling` |
| a shell / CI job | the [`docling-rs` CLI](./crates/docling-cli/README.md), batch mode included | release binaries · `cargo install docling-cli` · `ghcr.io/docling-project/docling-rs` |
| anything that speaks HTTP | [`docling-serve`](./crates/docling-serve/README.md), OpenAPI 3.1 | `ghcr.io/docling-project/docling-rs-serve` · `cargo install docling-serve` |
| Node.js / Bun / Electron | [`docling.rs`](./crates/docling-node/README.md), an N-API addon | `npm i docling.rs` (`docling.rs-cuda`) |
| Python | [`docling-rs`](./crates/docling-py/README.md): docling's and MarkItDown's APIs | `pip install docling-rs` (`docling-rs-cuda`) |
| the browser / Tauri / a PWA | [`docling.rs-wasm`](./crates/docling-wasm/README.md), fully client-side | `npm i docling.rs-wasm` |
| C, C++, C#, Go, Java, Swift, Zig | [`docling-ffi`](./crates/docling-ffi/README.md): one `docling.h` | release archives `docling-ffi-<tag>-<target>` |
**Rust** when you're already in Cargo; the **CLI** for scripts and batch jobs;
**serve** when several services share one warm pipeline; **Node / Python**
in-process; **wasm** when the document must not leave the user's machine;
**FFI** for anything that can call C.
## Rust API
```rust
use docling::{DocumentConverter, SourceDocument};
let converter = DocumentConverter::new();
let result = converter.convert(SourceDocument::from_file("input.md")?)?;
println!("{}", result.document.export_to_markdown()); // Markdown
println!("{}", result.document.export_to_json()); // docling DoclingDocument JSON
```
Every conversion knob is one serializable struct, `docling::ConvertOptions`,
filled the same way by every surface ([`docs/OPTIONS.md`](./docs/OPTIONS.md)).
The [library guide](./crates/docling/README.md) covers the output formats,
error handling, chunking, image extraction, streaming, OCR, the PDF switches
and the remote VLM pipeline.
## HTTP conversion API — `docling-rs serve`
[`docling-serve`](./crates/docling-serve/README.md) exposes the converter over
HTTP with one warm PDF/image pipeline shared across requests (repeat PDFs skip
the model load), streamed Markdown, batches, ZIP inputs, async jobs, an
interactive test form at `GET /` and an OpenAPI 3.1 description at
`GET /openapi.yaml`. It also serves Python docling-serve's routes, so Open
WebUI, n8n, Dify and LangChain clients work unchanged.
```bash
docker run -p 127.0.0.1:5001:5001 ghcr.io/docling-project/docling-rs-serve
curl -F file=@paper.pdf localhost:5001/v1/convert # Markdown
curl -F file=@report.docx 'localhost:5001/v1/convert?to=json' # docling JSON
curl -F file=@a.pdf -F file=@b.docx localhost:5001/v1/convert # a batch
```
Request options, server flags, async jobs, the docling-serve routes and the
Open WebUI setup: [`crates/docling-serve/README.md`](./crates/docling-serve/README.md);
containers and sizing: [`docs/DEPLOYMENT.md`](./docs/DEPLOYMENT.md).
## MCP server — `docling-rs mcp`
`docling-rs mcp` is a [Model Context Protocol](https://modelcontextprotocol.io)
server in the default `docling-rs` binary and image. Agents get MarkItDown's
`convert_to_markdown(uri)` tool — same name and contract, so a
`markitdown-mcp` setup switches by changing the command — plus
`convert(uri, to, options)` and `list_input_formats()`.
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"docling": { "command": "docling-rs", "args": ["mcp", "--root", "/Users/me/Documents"] }
}
}
```
```bash
claude mcp add docling -- docling-rs mcp --root ~/Documents # Claude Code
uvx docling-rs-mcp --root ~/Documents # the same server from PyPI
```
Local reads stay under `--root`; URLs need `--allow-url-fetch`. The PyPI
launcher, Docker, Streamable HTTP (`--http`), the security model and memory
behaviour:
[`crates/docling-cli/README.md`](./crates/docling-cli/README.md#mcp-server--docling-rs-mcp).
## RAG subsystem
[`crates/docling-rag`](./crates/docling-rag/README.md) turns documents into
chunks, embeds them (Ollama, Gemini or a local ONNX model), stores them
(SQLite + sqlite-vec or PostgreSQL + pgvector) and searches them — hybrid,
multi-query and HyDE retrieval, an evaluation harness, a REST API and a
built-in search UI.
## In the browser — `docling-wasm`
The declarative converters and the PDF text layer compile to WebAssembly:
`npm i docling.rs-wasm`, then `convert(bytes, filename, to)` runs **fully
client-side** — no server, a ~3.4 MB gzipped module, optional in-browser OCR.
Details and the demo page: [`crates/docling-wasm`](./crates/docling-wasm/README.md).
## Node.js, Python and C
- **Node.js / Bun** — [`docling.rs`](./crates/docling-node/README.md) on npm, a
prebuilt N-API addon: sync and async conversion, streaming, chunking, ZIP
batches, a warm `Pipeline`.
- **Python** — [`docling-rs`](./crates/docling-py/README.md) on PyPI
(`docling-rs-cuda` for NVIDIA): docling's `DocumentConverter` with a genuine
docling-core `DoclingDocument`, MarkItDown's API, and the LangChain and
AutoGen integrations.
- **C ABI** — [`docling-ffi`](./crates/docling-ffi/README.md): one library and
one `docling.h` for C, C++, C#/.NET, Go, Java, Swift and Zig, prebuilt in
every release.
## Deploy in a container
| [`ghcr.io/docling-project/docling-rs-serve`](https://github.com/docling-project/docling.rs/pkgs/container/docling-rs-serve) | the HTTP API, models baked in (`linux/amd64`, `linux/arm64`) |
| [`ghcr.io/docling-project/docling-rs`](https://github.com/docling-project/docling.rs/pkgs/container/docling-rs) | the CLI, entrypoint `docling-rs`, working directory `/data` |
| `…-serve-cuda` · `…-rs-cuda` | the same on CUDA 13 + cuDNN 9 (`linux/amd64`) |
Compose files (standalone, Caddy TLS, CUDA), environment variables, sizing
and observability: [`docs/DEPLOYMENT.md`](./docs/DEPLOYMENT.md).
## Getting the ML models
The PDF/image pipeline needs ONNX models — RT-DETR layout, PP-OCR, and
TableFormer — and audio needs Whisper. `download_dependencies.sh` fetches
them from this repository's
[releases](https://github.com/docling-project/docling.rs/releases) into
`./.models`, where every surface looks (`--cli`: beside a cargo-installed
binary instead):
```bash
scripts/install/download_dependencies.sh # from a checkout
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/docling-project/docling.rs/master/scripts/install/download_dependencies.sh | sh # anywhere
```
Every asset and option (ASR presets, enrichment models, NER for PII
redaction, INT8, fonts), GPU execution providers and the environment
overrides: [`docs/MODELS.md`](./docs/MODELS.md). IBM Z and other targets
without a prebuilt ONNX Runtime: [`docs/IBMZ.md`](./docs/IBMZ.md).
## Contributing
Bug reports and pull requests are welcome — see
[CONTRIBUTING.md](./CONTRIBUTING.md) for the build and test commands, the
conformance workflow, and the conventions a change is expected to follow.
## License
MIT, matching upstream docling.