v1.3.0 — pdfnative 1.6.0: text extraction, form fill/flatten, encrypt/decrypt, native charts & page-tree password/streaming

pdfnative-cli v1.3.0

Released 2026-07-24

v1.3.0 surfaces the pdfnative 1.6.0 engine's additions on the CLI: five
new commands — extract-text, fill, encrypt, decrypt, and a
doctor preflight — plus native vector charts in render, fill --export
(read → edit → fill), and --password / --encrypt / --stream on the page-tree
commands. It unifies the render encryption flags with the page-tree vocabulary (and
fixes a silent render --encrypt no-op). For autonomous agents it adds a machine-readable
capability manifest (schema manifest + llms.txt) and the stable E_PASSWORD code.
Also lands PowerShell completion and a CLAUDE.md.

100% backward-compatible with v1.2.0 — every existing invocation keeps working.

⭐ Star pdfnative — the
zero-dependency PDF engine that powers this CLI. Every star helps the
long-term project.

Highlights

• Text extraction (RAG/agent-native). extract-text decodes reading-order
  Unicode text — as plain text, a JSON array, or NDJSON (one object per page)
  — with --runs (positioned runs), --pages, and --password. No OCR.
• Fill, flatten & export forms. fill --data <values.json> fills an existing
  AcroForm via an incremental save (an existing signature stays valid for its
  revision); fill --flatten stamps appearances and removes interactive fields;
  fill --export dumps current values as a --data-shaped map for a
  read → edit → fill round-trip.
• Environment preflight. doctor reports the CLI / Node / pdfnative
  versions, Web Crypto (CSPRNG) availability — required by encrypt — and the
  command count. --format json, exit 0/1: an ideal agent pre-flight.
• Encrypt / decrypt. encrypt re-secures with AES-128/256 (CSPRNG-gated,
  RC4 never emitted); decrypt emits a plaintext copy. Passwords come from env
  (winning over flags) and are never logged.
• Native vector charts. render gains the chart document block — bar,
  barH, line, pie, donut — as pure PDF path operators (zero deps, no
  rasterisation), tagged /Figure with alt text.
• Encrypted & streaming page-tree ops. merge / split / extract accept
  --password (encrypted sources), --encrypt [aes-128|aes-256] (re-encrypt the
  output), and --stream + --chunk-size (constant-memory output).
• Richer inspection. inspect --form-fields lists AcroForm fields;
  inspect --encryption reports the scheme (algorithm, revision, opened-as);
  --password opens encrypted documents.
• Agent tool discovery. schema manifest emits a machine-readable capability
  manifest (commands, flags, error codes); llms.txt ships the LLM-facing
  version. New schema subjects extract-text, fill, status.

What's new

New commands

extract-text

pdfnative extract-text --input report.pdf --format ndjson --runs > pages.ndjson

Reading-order Unicode text via extractText. --format text|json|ndjson,
--pages, --runs, --password, --max-length, plus --summary/--fields.
No OCR — image-only pages yield empty text.

fill

pdfnative fill --input form.pdf --data values.json --output filled.pdf
pdfnative fill --input filled.pdf --flatten --output flat.pdf

--data is a JSON map name → string|boolean|string[] (or { "values": {…} }).
Incremental save keeps existing signatures valid. Discover fields with
inspect --form-fields. Signature fields cannot be filled.

encrypt / decrypt

pdfnative encrypt --input in.pdf --owner-password "$OWNER" --algorithm aes-256 --stream --output enc.pdf
pdfnative decrypt --input enc.pdf --password "$USER" --output plain.pdf

Page-tree re-encryption / transparent decryption. Both rebuild the page tree
(like merge), so signatures and form fields are dropped. encrypt requires a
Web Crypto CSPRNG; RC4 is never emitted. --stream (+ --chunk-size) processes
a large PDF at constant memory.

doctor

pdfnative doctor            # human-readable
pdfnative doctor --format json   # { ok, checks: [{ name, status, value, detail }] }

Offline preflight of the CLI/Node/pdfnative versions, Web Crypto (CSPRNG), and command count.

render

• Native vector charts — the chart document block (bar, barH, line, pie,
  donut) renders as pure PDF path operators, multi-series with legend and nice
  ticks, tagged /Figure + /Alt. Supplied via document JSON / --layout.
• Unified encryption flags — render now accepts --encrypt [aes-128|aes-256] /
  --owner-password / --user-password / --permissions (same vocabulary as
  merge/split/extract); the --encrypt-* flags remain as aliases.

merge / split / extract

• --password — read encrypted source PDFs.
• --encrypt [aes-128|aes-256] with --owner-password / --user-password /
  --permissions — re-encrypt the rebuilt output.
• --stream (+ --chunk-size) — constant-memory streaming output.

inspect

• --form-fields — list AcroForm fields (name, type, value, required/read-only, options).
• --encryption — report the encryption scheme, or null.
• --password — open an encrypted PDF for inspection.

Agent / tooling

• E_PASSWORD stable error code for a missing/incorrect PDF password.
• schema manifest — machine-readable capability manifest for tool discovery;
  new subjects extract-text, fill, status. llms.txt at the repo root.
• completion powershell — PowerShell completion (Register-ArgumentCompleter).
• CLAUDE.md — Claude Code contributor guide.

Compatibility

• Built on pdfnative ^1.6.0 (was ^1.5.0).
• Node.js ≥ 20, Bun, Deno (node dist/cli.cjs).
• Zero extra runtime dependencies — pdfnative remains the sole dependency.
• 100% backward-compatible with v1.2.0.

Security

• Passwords (--password, --owner-password, --user-password) are read from
  env (winning over flags) and are never logged or echoed in error messages.
• encrypt / re-encryption require a Web Crypto CSPRNG and only emit AES; RC4 is
  never produced. All new operations are memory-bounded (--max-length,
  --max-output-size, --chunk-size) and safe on untrusted input.
• No new network surface — the CLI stays offline by default.

Fixed

• render --encrypt was a silent no-op — the render --help advertised
  --encrypt aes-256 / --owner-password / …, but the code only read --encrypt-*
  flags, so render --encrypt aes-256 --owner-password X produced an unencrypted
  PDF with no error. render now reads the unified flags (with --encrypt-* kept as
  aliases), and the help text matches the implementation (including the watermark flags).
• schema / --version in the published binary — the CLI version was
  resolved with a bundle-relative ../../package.json path that does not exist
  next to the flattened dist/cli.cjs, so every schema <subject> call on an
  installed CLI failed with Cannot find module '../../package.json'. Version
  resolution now goes through a robust, name-guarded src/utils/version.ts.
• Empty environment password no longer overrides a flag — an exported-but-empty
  PDFNATIVE_PASSWORD / PDFNATIVE_ENCRYPT_* value used to win over an explicit
  --password / --owner-password; an empty env value is now treated as absent.
• fill error classification — malformed --data content now consistently
  raises E_INPUT at exit 1 (was a mix of exit 2 / E_USAGE).

Notes

• extract-text performs no OCR — pages with only images yield empty text.
• encrypt / decrypt (and page-tree re-encryption) rebuild the page tree, so
  they drop signatures and form fields — use them before signing, not after.
• merge uses one password for all sources. A single --password is applied to every
  source; merging encrypted sources with different passwords fails with E_PASSWORD
  (decrypt the outliers first). split / extract take a single input, so this doesn't apply.
• The global --help is now grouped by category (Create & edit / Page tree / Security /
  Read & extract / Automation & meta) — display-only, no behaviour change.
• Sign-side LTV (embedding timestamps / /DSS at signing time) remains
  upstream-blocked in pdfnative; sign --timestamp stays reserved. See
  ROADMAP.md and SECURITY.md.
• On the roadmap (not in this release): a batch --manifest task orchestrator and a
  compare command are feasible today; an optimize command and a visual compare await
  pdfnative primitives (object GC / linearisation / a rasteriser). See ROADMAP.md.