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DOCX

AnthropicOfficialPublished by Anthropic

  • Skill
  • Tool integration
  • Documents and content
  • Apache-2.0
  • Low risk
  • Has scripts

From the author

Use this skill whenever the user wants to create, read, edit, or manipulate Word documents (.docx files) or Word templates (.dotx files). Triggers include: any mention of 'Word doc', 'word document', '.docx', '.dotx', or requests to produce professional documents with formatting like tables of contents, headings, page numbers, or letterheads. Also use when extracting or reorganizing content from .docx or .dotx files, inserting or replacing images in documents, performing find-and-replace in Word files, working with tracked changes or comments, or converting content into a polished Word document. If the user asks for a 'report', 'memo', 'letter', 'template', or similar deliverable as a Word or .docx file, use this skill. Do NOT use for PDFs, spreadsheets, Google Docs, or general coding tasks unrelated to document generation.
— the description by Anthropic

AutoGineer summary

Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author

This skill provides a structured approach to working with Word documents by leveraging the docx-js library for creation and XML manipulation for editing. It includes specialized scripts for merging fragmented text runs, managing tracked changes, inserting comments, and validating document structure against XSD schemas. The skill also supports document conversion and visual verification using external tools like LibreOffice and Poppler.

What it does

  • Generates new .docx and .dotx files using the docx-js library.
  • Edits existing documents by manipulating underlying XML structures.
  • Merges fragmented text runs to facilitate accurate find-and-replace operations.
  • Manages tracked changes and redlining with validation support.
  • Inserts and anchors comments into document content.
  • Converts legacy .doc files and validates document integrity.

When to use it

  • When you need to generate professional documents like reports or letters programmatically.
  • When you must perform precise edits on existing Word files that require XML-level access.
  • When you need to automate the insertion of comments or track changes in a document.
  • When you need to convert or validate Word documents for specific formatting requirements.

Advantages

  • Provides programmatic control over complex Word document structures.
  • Includes helper scripts to handle common XML-related issues like fragmented text runs.
  • Supports automated validation of document structure and tracked changes.
  • Enables headless conversion and visual verification of document output.

Usage examples

“Create a new Word document with a table of contents and a custom letterhead.”
The agent uses the docx-js library to construct a document with defined headings and layout elements.
“Edit this contract.docx to add a comment on the payment clause.”
The agent uses the comment.py script to inject the comment and anchor it to the specified text.
“Merge the text runs in this document so I can perform a find-and-replace.”
The agent runs the merge_runs.py script to coalesce fragmented XML runs into contiguous strings.
“Convert this legacy .doc file to .docx and validate it.”
The agent uses soffice to convert the file and then runs the validation script to check for errors.

Install

  1. Download the skill as a ZIP:

    https://mp-staging.autogineer.com/agent-skills/anthropics/docx/download
  2. Unzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:

    mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip docx.zip -d .agents/skills

Documentation by Anthropic

DOCX creation, editing, and analysis

A .docx is a ZIP archive of XML files. Choose your approach by task:

TaskApproach
Create a new documentWrite a docx (npm) script — see gotchas below
Edit an existing documentunzip → edit word/document.xml → zip (docx-js cannot open existing files)
Read contentpandoc -t markdown file.docx

Script paths below are relative to this skill's directory.

Creating with docx-js — gotchas

docx is preinstalled — do not run npm install first; write the script and require('docx') directly. Only if that require fails: npm install docx. The model knows the API; these are the footguns:

  • Page size defaults to A4. For US Letter set page: { size: { width: 12240, height: 15840 } } (DXA; 1440 = 1″).

  • Landscape: pass portrait dimensions and orientation: PageOrientation.LANDSCAPE — docx-js swaps width/height internally.

  • Tables need dual widths: set columnWidths on the table AND width on every cell, both in WidthType.DXA (PERCENTAGE breaks in Google Docs). Column widths must sum to the table width.

  • Table shading: use ShadingType.CLEAR, never SOLID (renders black).

  • Lists: never insert • literally; use a numbering config with LevelFormat.BULLET.

  • ImageRun requires type: ("png", "jpg", …).

  • PageBreak must be inside a Paragraph.

  • Never use \n — use separate Paragraph elements.

  • TOC: headings must use built-in HeadingLevel.*; custom heading styles need outlineLevel set or they won't appear.

  • Don't use a table as a horizontal rule — use a paragraph bottom border instead.

  • Dot-leader / right-aligned-on-same-line: use PositionalTab (alignment: PositionalTabAlignment.RIGHT, leader: PositionalTabLeader.DOT) inside a TextRun, not literal . or space padding.

Verify the output

After writing a .docx, render it and look at it:

python scripts/office/soffice.py --headless --convert-to pdf output.docx
pdftoppm -jpeg -r 100 output.pdf page
ls page-*.jpg   # then Read the images

pdftoppm zero-pads page numbers to the width of the page count (page-01.jpg…page-12.jpg).

Editing existing documents

Legacy .doc files must be converted first: python scripts/office/soffice.py --headless --convert-to docx file.doc.

unzip -q doc.docx -d unpacked/
find unpacked -type l -delete   # strip symlink entries — docx from external parties is untrusted
python scripts/merge_runs.py unpacked/   # coalesce fragmented runs so text is findable
# edit unpacked/word/document.xml in place — do NOT reformat or pretty-print
(cd unpacked && rm -f ../out.docx && zip -Xr ../out.docx .)
python scripts/office/validate.py out.docx --original doc.docx   # XSD checks; --auto-repair fixes common issues
# redlining? add --author "<the name you redlined under>" to check every edit is tracked

Word splits text across many <w:r> runs (revision ids, spell-check markers), so a phrase you can see in the document often doesn't exist as a contiguous string in the XML. merge_runs.py merges adjacent identically-formatted runs in word/document.xml without changing content or rendering; it also accepts a .docx directly (python scripts/merge_runs.py doc.docx -o merged.docx).

Tracked changes: when redlining, validate with --author "<the name you redlined under>" (needs --original) — it reports any text you changed without a <w:ins>/<w:del> around it, which is easy to do by accident and invisible in the accepted view. Wrap runs in <w:ins>/<w:del> with w:id, w:author, w:date attributes. Inside <w:del>, the text element is <w:delText>, not <w:t>. A deleted paragraph mark (<w:pPr><w:rPr><w:del w:id=".." w:author=".." w:date=".."/></w:rPr></w:pPr>) means "merge this paragraph into the next" — so deleting a paragraph outright is that plus a <w:del> around every run. The <w:del/> must come before the rPr's other children; their order is schema-enforced.

To produce a clean copy with all tracked changes accepted: python scripts/accept_changes.py in.docx out.docx.

Accepting a deleted paragraph mark should join that paragraph to the one below it, so a paragraph whose runs are all deleted vanishes. Word does this; accept_changes.py and pandoc --track-changes=accept don't always. Both fail the same way — they strip the deleted text but leave the emptied paragraph behind, which reads as a stray empty bullet when it was auto-numbered:

  • pandoc --track-changes=accept never joins the paragraphs.

  • accept_changes.py (LibreOffice) joins them correctly, except when the deleted paragraph is followed by an empty spacer paragraph.

An empty bullet in either view is an artifact of that view, not a defect in the document. Check paragraph deletions in the XML.

Comments

Comments require six cross-linked files. Use the helper — directory mode when you'll also be editing document.xml (saves an unzip/rezip cycle), .docx-direct mode otherwise:

# Against an already-unpacked directory (preferred when also placing markers)
python scripts/comment.py unpacked/ "Fees & expenses cap is too low"
python scripts/comment.py unpacked/ "Agreed" --parent 0

# Against a .docx directly
python scripts/comment.py contract.docx "This cap is too low" -o annotated.docx

The script writes comments.xml, commentsExtended.xml, commentsIds.xml, commentsExtensible.xml, the relationships, and the content-type overrides. Comment IDs are auto-assigned. It then prints the <w:commentRangeStart>/<w:commentRangeEnd>/<w:commentReference> snippet to add to word/document.xml so the comment anchors to specific text — until you place those markers, the comment exists but is not visible.

Dependencies

docx (npm, preinstalled — install only if require('docx') fails) · pandoc · LibreOffice (soffice) · pdftoppm (Poppler)

Files

scripts/comment.py

"""Add comments to a DOCX document.

Accepts either an unpacked directory OR a .docx/.dotx file directly.

Usage:
    # Against an unpacked directory (writes satellite files in place)
    python comment.py unpacked/ "Comment text"
    python comment.py unpacked/ "Reply text" --parent 0

    # Against a .docx directly (extracts, writes satellite files, rezips)
    python comment.py contract.docx "This cap is too low" -o annotated.docx
    python comment.py contract.docx "Comment" --id 5      # explicit ID

The comment ID is auto-assigned (max existing + 1) unless --id is given.
Plain text is XML-escaped automatically; if you pass already-escaped text
(e.g. &amp;, &#x2019;) use --raw to skip escaping.

After running, add markers to word/document.xml so the comment is visible:
  <w:commentRangeStart w:id="N"/>
  ... commented content ...
  <w:commentRangeEnd w:id="N"/>
  <w:r><w:rPr><w:rStyle w:val="CommentReference"/></w:rPr><w:commentReference w:id="N"/></w:r>
"""

import argparse
import random
import shutil
import sys
import tempfile
import zipfile
from datetime import datetime, timezone
from pathlib import Path

import defusedxml.minidom
from xml.parsers.expat import ExpatError
from xml.sax.saxutils import escape as xml_escape

from office.helpers import opc_target, rezip as _rezip, safe_extract as _safe_extract

TEMPLATE_DIR = Path(__file__).parent / "templates"
NS = {
    "w": "http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/main",
    "w14": "http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2010/wordml",
    "w15": "http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2012/wordml",
    "w16cid": "http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2016/wordml/cid",
    "w16cex": "http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2018/wordml/cex",
}

COMMENT_XML = """\
<w:comment w:id="{id}" w:author="{author}" w:date="{date}" w:initials="{initials}">
  <w:p w14:paraId="{para_id}" w14:textId="77777777">
    <w:r>
      <w:rPr><w:rStyle w:val="CommentReference"/></w:rPr>
      <w:annotationRef/>
    </w:r>
    <w:r>
      <w:rPr>
        <w:color w:val="000000"/>
        <w:sz w:val="20"/>
        <w:szCs w:val="20"/>
      </w:rPr>
      <w:t xml:space="preserve">{text}</w:t>
    </w:r>
  </w:p>
</w:comment>"""

COMMENT_MARKER_TEMPLATE = """
Add to word/document.xml (markers must be direct children of w:p, never inside w:r):
  <w:commentRangeStart w:id="{cid}"/>
  <w:r>...</w:r>
  <w:commentRangeEnd w:id="{cid}"/>
  <w:r><w:rPr><w:rStyle w:val="CommentReference"/></w:rPr><w:commentReference w:id="{cid}"/></w:r>"""

REPLY_MARKER_TEMPLATE = """
Nest markers inside parent {pid}'s markers (direct children of w:p, never inside w:r):
  <w:commentRangeStart w:id="{pid}"/><w:commentRangeStart w:id="{cid}"/>
  <w:r>...</w:r>
  <w:commentRangeEnd w:id="{cid}"/><w:commentRangeEnd w:id="{pid}"/>
  <w:r><w:rPr><w:rStyle w:val="CommentReference"/></w:rPr><w:commentReference w:id="{pid}"/></w:r>
  <w:r><w:rPr><w:rStyle w:val="CommentReference"/></w:rPr><w:commentReference w:id="{cid}"/></w:r>"""

SMART_QUOTE_ENTITIES = {
    "“": "&#x201C;",
    "”": "&#x201D;",
    "‘": "&#x2018;",
    "’": "&#x2019;",
}


def _generate_hex_id() -> str:
    return f"{random.randint(0, 0x7FFFFFFE):08X}"


def _encode_smart_quotes(text: str) -> str:
    for char, entity in SMART_QUOTE_ENTITIES.items():
        text = text.replace(char, entity)
    return text


def _append_xml(xml_path: Path, root_tag: str, content: str) -> None:
    dom = defusedxml.minidom.parseString(xml_path.read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
    root = dom.getElementsByTagName(root_tag)[0]
    ns_attrs = " ".join(f'xmlns:{k}="{v}"' for k, v in NS.items())
    wrapper_dom = defusedxml.minidom.parseString(f"<root {ns_attrs}>{content}</root>")
    for child in wrapper_dom.documentElement.childNodes:  
        if child.nodeType == child.ELEMENT_NODE:
            root.appendChild(dom.importNode(child, True))
    output = _encode_smart_quotes(dom.toxml(encoding="UTF-8").decode("utf-8"))
    xml_path.write_text(output, encoding="utf-8")


def _find_para_id(comments_path: Path, comment_id: int) -> str | None:
    dom = defusedxml.minidom.parseString(comments_path.read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
    for c in dom.getElementsByTagName("w:comment"):
        if c.getAttribute("w:id") == str(comment_id):
            for p in c.getElementsByTagName("w:p"):
                if pid := p.getAttribute("w14:paraId"):
                    return pid
    return None


def _next_comment_id(comments_path: Path) -> int:
    if not comments_path.exists():
        return 0
    dom = defusedxml.minidom.parseString(comments_path.read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
    ids = []
    for c in dom.getElementsByTagName("w:comment"):
        try:
            ids.append(int(c.getAttribute("w:id")))
        except ValueError:
            pass
    return (max(ids) + 1) if ids else 0


def _get_next_rid(rels_path: Path) -> int:
    dom = defusedxml.minidom.parseString(rels_path.read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
    max_rid = 0
    for rel in dom.getElementsByTagName("Relationship"):
        rid = rel.getAttribute("Id")
        if rid and rid.startswith("rId"):
            try:
                max_rid = max(max_rid, int(rid[3:]))
            except ValueError:
                pass
    return max_rid + 1


def _has_relationship(rels_path: Path, target: str) -> bool:
    dom = defusedxml.minidom.parseString(rels_path.read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
    return any(
        rel.getAttribute("Target") == target
        for rel in dom.getElementsByTagName("Relationship")
    )


def _has_content_type(ct_path: Path, part_name: str) -> bool:
    dom = defusedxml.minidom.parseString(ct_path.read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
    return any(
        o.getAttribute("PartName") == part_name
        for o in dom.getElementsByTagName("Override")
    )


_COMMENT_RELS = [
    ("http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships/comments", "comments.xml"),
    ("http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2011/relationships/commentsExtended", "commentsExtended.xml"),
    ("http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2016/09/relationships/commentsIds", "commentsIds.xml"),
    ("http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2018/08/relationships/commentsExtensible", "commentsExtensible.xml"),
]
_COMMENT_OVERRIDES = [
    ("/word/comments.xml", "application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.comments+xml"),
    ("/word/commentsExtended.xml", "application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.commentsExtended+xml"),
    ("/word/commentsIds.xml", "application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.commentsIds+xml"),
    ("/word/commentsExtensible.xml", "application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.commentsExtensible+xml"),
]


def _ensure_comment_relationships(unpacked_dir: Path) -> None:
    rels_path = unpacked_dir / "word" / "_rels" / "document.xml.rels"
    if not rels_path.exists():
        return
    dom = defusedxml.minidom.parseString(rels_path.read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
    root = dom.documentElement
    comment_types = {rel_type for rel_type, _ in _COMMENT_RELS}
    existing = set()
    for rel in dom.getElementsByTagName("Relationship"):
        if rel.getAttribute("Type") not in comment_types:
            continue
        part = opc_target(
            rel.getAttribute("Target"),
            "word/document.xml",
            rel.getAttribute("TargetMode"),
        )
        if part is not None:
            existing.add(part)
    next_rid = _get_next_rid(rels_path)
    changed = False
    for rel_type, target in _COMMENT_RELS:
        if opc_target(target, "word/document.xml") in existing:
            continue
        rel = dom.createElement("Relationship")
        rel.setAttribute("Id", f"rId{next_rid}")
        rel.setAttribute("Type", rel_type)
        rel.setAttribute("Target", target)
        root.appendChild(rel)  
        next_rid += 1
        changed = True
    if changed:
        rels_path.write_bytes(dom.toxml(encoding="UTF-8"))


def _ensure_comment_content_types(unpacked_dir: Path) -> None:
    ct_path = unpacked_dir / "[Content_Types].xml"
    if not ct_path.exists():
        return
    dom = defusedxml.minidom.parseString(ct_path.read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
    root = dom.documentElement
    existing = {
        o.getAttribute("PartName")
        for o in dom.getElementsByTagName("Override")
    }
    changed = False
    for part_name, content_type in _COMMENT_OVERRIDES:
        if part_name in existing:
            continue
        override = dom.createElement("Override")
        override.setAttribute("PartName", part_name)
        override.setAttribute("ContentType", content_type)
        root.appendChild(override)  
        changed = True
    if changed:
        ct_path.write_bytes(dom.toxml(encoding="UTF-8"))


def add_comment(
    unpacked_dir: Path | str,
    text: str,
    comment_id: int | None = None,
    author: str = "Claude",
    initials: str = "C",
    parent_id: int | None = None,
    raw: bool = False,
) -> tuple[int, str, str]:
    unpacked_dir = Path(unpacked_dir)
    if not raw:
        text = xml_escape(text)
    author = xml_escape(author, {'"': "&quot;"})
    initials = xml_escape(initials, {'"': "&quot;"})
    word = unpacked_dir / "word"
    if not word.exists():
        raise FileNotFoundError(f"{word} not found (not an unpacked .docx?)")

    comments = word / "comments.xml"
    if comment_id is None:
        comment_id = _next_comment_id(comments)

    parent_para = None
    if parent_id is not None:
        parent_para = _find_para_id(comments, parent_id) if comments.exists() else None
        if not parent_para:
            raise ValueError(f"parent comment {parent_id} not found")

    para_id, durable_id = _generate_hex_id(), _generate_hex_id()
    ts = datetime.now(timezone.utc).strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")

    if not comments.exists():
        shutil.copy(TEMPLATE_DIR / "comments.xml", comments)
    _ensure_comment_relationships(unpacked_dir)
    _ensure_comment_content_types(unpacked_dir)
    _append_xml(
        comments,
        "w:comments",
        COMMENT_XML.format(
            id=comment_id, author=author, date=ts, initials=initials,
            para_id=para_id, text=text,
        ),
    )

    ext = word / "commentsExtended.xml"
    if not ext.exists():
        shutil.copy(TEMPLATE_DIR / "commentsExtended.xml", ext)
    if parent_para is not None:
        _append_xml(
            ext, "w15:commentsEx",
            f'<w15:commentEx w15:paraId="{para_id}" w15:paraIdParent="{parent_para}" w15:done="0"/>',
        )
    else:
        _append_xml(
            ext, "w15:commentsEx",
            f'<w15:commentEx w15:paraId="{para_id}" w15:done="0"/>',
        )

    ids = word / "commentsIds.xml"
    if not ids.exists():
        shutil.copy(TEMPLATE_DIR / "commentsIds.xml", ids)
    _append_xml(
        ids, "w16cid:commentsIds",
        f'<w16cid:commentId w16cid:paraId="{para_id}" w16cid:durableId="{durable_id}"/>',
    )

    extensible = word / "commentsExtensible.xml"
    if not extensible.exists():
        shutil.copy(TEMPLATE_DIR / "commentsExtensible.xml", extensible)
    _append_xml(
        extensible, "w16cex:commentsExtensible",
        f'<w16cex:commentExtensible w16cex:durableId="{durable_id}" w16cex:dateUtc="{ts}"/>',
    )

    action = "reply" if parent_id is not None else "comment"
    return comment_id, para_id, f"Added {action} id={comment_id} (paraId={para_id})"


def main() -> None:
    p = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Add a comment to a DOCX (directory or .docx file).")
    p.add_argument("input", help="Unpacked DOCX directory OR a .docx/.dotx file")
    p.add_argument("text", help="Comment text (plain text; XML-escaped automatically)")
    p.add_argument("--raw", action="store_true",
                   help="Treat text as pre-escaped XML (skip automatic escaping)")
    p.add_argument("--id", type=int, dest="comment_id",
                   help="Comment ID (default: auto-assign as max existing + 1)")
    p.add_argument("--author", default="Claude", help="Author name")
    p.add_argument("--initials", default="C", help="Author initials")
    p.add_argument("--parent", type=int, help="Parent comment ID (makes this a reply)")
    p.add_argument("-o", "--output",
                   help="Output .docx path (only used when input is a .docx; default: overwrite input)")
    args = p.parse_args()

    src = Path(args.input)

    try:
        if src.is_dir():
            if args.output:
                print("Warning: --output ignored for directory input", file=sys.stderr)
            cid, _, msg = add_comment(
                src, args.text, comment_id=args.comment_id,
                author=args.author, initials=args.initials,
                parent_id=args.parent, raw=args.raw,
            )
            print(msg)
        elif src.is_file() and src.suffix.lower() in (".docx", ".dotx"):
            out = Path(args.output) if args.output else src
            with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmp:
                tmp_path = Path(tmp)
                with zipfile.ZipFile(src) as zf:
                    _safe_extract(zf, tmp_path)
                cid, _, msg = add_comment(
                    tmp_path, args.text, comment_id=args.comment_id,
                    author=args.author, initials=args.initials,
                    parent_id=args.parent, raw=args.raw,
                )
                _rezip(tmp_path, out)
            print(msg)
            print(f"Wrote {out} (comment defined; add markers to word/document.xml to make it visible)")
        else:
            print(f"Error: {src} is neither a directory nor a .docx/.dotx file", file=sys.stderr)
            sys.exit(1)
    except (FileNotFoundError, ValueError, zipfile.BadZipFile, ExpatError) as e:
        print(f"Error: {e}", file=sys.stderr)
        sys.exit(1)

    if args.parent is not None:
        print(REPLY_MARKER_TEMPLATE.format(pid=args.parent, cid=cid))
    else:
        print(COMMENT_MARKER_TEMPLATE.format(cid=cid))


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Requirements and compatibility

Written for: Claude Code, Claude apps

Works with: Claude Code, Claude apps, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Kiro, OpenCode, Goose, Amp, Roo Code, JetBrains Junie, Factory Droid, Devin (ex-Windsurf), Mistral Vibe, OpenHands, Letta

“Works with” means the tool reads the open Agent Skills format; a skill written for one tool may use features others lack.

Needs: Needs Python, Needs Node.js

Security

What our scanner noticed· Low risk

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Attribution and licence

Published by
Anthropic
Publisher
Anthropic (Official)
Source
anthropics/skills · skills/docx · commit 2c5958e
Licence
Apache License 2.0 (redistribution allowed)
  • ATTRIBUTION.md (written by AutoGineer)
Synced

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Download ZIP

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