Docling Python SDK

Warnings

• breaking Python 3.9 support was dropped in Docling version 2.70.0. Users on Python 3.9 or older must upgrade their Python environment.
  Fix: Upgrade Python to version 3.10 or higher. For example, use Python 3.10, 3.11, or 3.12.
• gotcha The `convert()` method returns a `result` object, not the `DoclingDocument` directly. The document, its status, and input information are encapsulated within this `result` object.
  Fix: Access the document via `result.document`, the status via `result.status`, and input details via `result.input`.
• gotcha Integrating Docling into multi-threaded applications may require careful resource management to avoid thread-safety issues, especially with backend resources like pypdfium, which had previous fixes related to thread-unsafe closures.
  Fix: Review Docling's documentation on advanced usage, resource management, and potential configurations for multi-threaded environments. Ensure proper handling of `DocumentConverter` instances and their underlying resources.

Install

• pip install docling Install latest version

Imports

• DocumentConverter

  from docling.document_converter import DocumentConverter

• DoclingDocument

  from docling.document import DoclingDocument

  The DoclingDocument is typically accessed via the result object of a conversion.

Quickstart

This quickstart demonstrates how to convert a document (from a URL in this example) into a structured DoclingDocument and then export its content to Markdown format. Docling automatically detects the document type and provides a `result` object containing the `DoclingDocument`, conversion `status`, and input details.

import os
from docling.document_converter import DocumentConverter

# Example: Convert a document from a URL and export to Markdown
# Docling supports local file paths, URLs, or file-like objects.
source_url = os.environ.get('DOCLING_EXAMPLE_URL', 'https://arxiv.org/pdf/2408.09869')

# Initialize the DocumentConverter
converter = DocumentConverter()

try:
    # Convert the document
    result = converter.convert(source_url)

    # Check conversion status
    if result.status == 'SUCCESS':
        # Access the structured document and export it to Markdown
        markdown_output = result.document.export_to_markdown()
        print(markdown_output[:500]) # Print first 500 characters
        print("\n... (truncated output)")
    else:
        print(f"Document conversion failed or was partial: {result.status}")
        # You can inspect result.input for details about the source
except Exception as e:
    print(f"An error occurred during conversion: {e}")