File Reading & Document Processing

📄 File Reading & Document Processing

Rawi provides powerful file reading capabilities that allow you to process and analyze various document formats seamlessly. Extract content from PDFs, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and text files to enhance your AI conversations with rich document context.

🚀 Quick Start

# Process a single file
rawi ask --file document.pdf "Summarize this document"

# Multiple files
rawi ask --files config.json package.json "Compare these configurations"

# Batch processing with patterns
rawi ask --batch "src/**/*.js" "Review all JavaScript files"

📋 Supported File Formats

📄 PDF Documents (.pdf)

Extract text content from PDF documents for analysis and summarization.

# Basic PDF processing
rawi ask --file report.pdf "What are the main conclusions?"

# Detailed analysis
rawi ask --file financial-report.pdf --act data-analyst "Analyze the financial trends"

# Research paper review
rawi ask --file research.pdf --act academic-researcher "Summarize the methodology and findings"

Features:

• ✅ Text extraction from standard PDFs
• ✅ Multi-page document support
• ✅ Automatic content cleaning
• ⚠️ Limited support for image-heavy PDFs
• ⚠️ Encrypted PDFs require manual unlock

📝 Microsoft Word Documents (.docx)

Process Word documents with full text extraction and formatting awareness.

# Document analysis
rawi ask --file requirements.docx "Extract all functional requirements"

# Content review
rawi ask --file proposal.docx --act tech-writer "Review this proposal for clarity"

# Template generation
rawi ask --file example.docx "Create a similar document template"

Features:

• ✅ Complete text extraction
• ✅ Table content preservation
• ✅ Header and footer inclusion
• ✅ Embedded formatting context
• ⚠️ Images and charts not processed

📊 Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets (.xlsx)

Analyze Excel data with sheet selection and intelligent data formatting.

# Data analysis
rawi ask --file sales-data.xlsx "Identify sales trends and patterns"

# Specific sheet processing
rawi ask --file workbook.xlsx --sheet "Q4 Results" "Analyze Q4 performance"

# Financial modeling
rawi ask --file budget.xlsx --act financial-analyst "Review this budget for accuracy"

Features:

• ✅ Multiple sheet support
• ✅ Automatic data formatting
• ✅ Header row detection
• ✅ Formula result extraction
• ✅ Sheet name listing
• ⚠️ Charts and pivot tables not processed

📋 Text & Source Files

Process various text-based files with intelligent content type detection.

# Source code review
rawi ask --file app.js "Review this code for best practices"

# Configuration analysis
rawi ask --file docker-compose.yml "Optimize this Docker configuration"

# Log file analysis
rawi ask --file app.log "Identify and categorize errors"

# Documentation review
rawi ask --file README.md "Improve this documentation"

Supported Extensions:

Source Code

• .js, .ts, .jsx, .tsx - JavaScript/TypeScript
• .py, .pyw - Python
• .java, .kt, .scala - JVM languages
• .cpp, .c, .h, .hpp - C/C++
• .rs - Rust
• .go - Go
• .rb - Ruby
• .php - PHP
• .swift - Swift
• .dart - Dart

Web & Data

• .html, .htm, .xml - Markup languages
• .css, .scss, .sass - Stylesheets
• .json, .yaml, .yml - Data formats
• .toml, .ini, .env - Configuration
• .csv, .tsv - Tabular data
• .sql - Database queries

Documentation

• .md, .markdown - Markdown
• .txt - Plain text
• .log - Log files
• .dockerfile - Docker
• .gitignore, .gitattributes - Git
• README, CHANGELOG, LICENSE - Project files

🔧 File Processing Options

Single File Processing

# Basic file analysis
rawi ask --file document.pdf "Summarize this document"

# With expert template
rawi ask --file code.js --act code-reviewer "Review this code"

# Override file type detection
rawi ask --file unknown-file --file-type txt "Process as text"

Multiple File Processing

# Process specific files
rawi ask --files file1.pdf file2.docx "Compare these documents"

# Up to 10 files at once
rawi ask --files *.json "Validate all JSON configurations"

Batch Processing with Patterns

# Process all JavaScript files
rawi ask --batch "src/**/*.js" "Find potential bugs"

# Multiple patterns
rawi ask --batch "*.{json,yml,yaml}" "Validate all config files"

# Exclude patterns
rawi ask --batch "src/**/*.js" --exclude "**/node_modules/**" "Review source code only"

Parallel Processing

# Process files in parallel for speed
rawi ask --batch "docs/**/*.md" --parallel "Create documentation index"

# Control concurrency
rawi ask --batch "**/*.py" --parallel --max-concurrency 3 "Analyze Python code"

# Continue on errors
rawi ask --batch "**/*.json" --parallel --continue-on-error "Validate JSON files"

💡 Advanced Usage Patterns

Document Analysis Workflow

PDF Reports

# 1. Overview
rawi ask --file report.pdf "Provide executive summary"

# 2. Detailed analysis
rawi ask --file report.pdf --act business-analyst "Extract key metrics and trends"

# 3. Action items
rawi ask --file report.pdf "What actions should be taken based on this report?"

Code Review

# 1. General review
rawi ask --file src/app.js --act code-reviewer "Review this code"

# 2. Security audit
rawi ask --file src/app.js --act security-expert "Check for vulnerabilities"

# 3. Performance analysis
rawi ask --file src/app.js --act performance-engineer "Identify bottlenecks"

Data Analysis

# 1. Data overview
rawi ask --file data.xlsx "Describe the dataset structure"

# 2. Statistical analysis
rawi ask --file data.xlsx --act data-scientist "Perform statistical analysis"

# 3. Business insights
rawi ask --file data.xlsx --act business-analyst "Extract business insights"

Combining Files and Templates

# Technical documentation
rawi ask --file api.py --act technical-writer "Generate API documentation"

# Financial analysis
rawi ask --file budget.xlsx --act financial-analyst "Analyze budget variance"

# Research review
rawi ask --file paper.pdf --act academic-researcher "Critique methodology"

# Legal document review
rawi ask --file contract.docx --act legal-expert "Identify key terms and risks"

Shell Integration

# Pipe content to Rawi
cat config.json | rawi ask "Optimize this configuration"

# Process command output
ls -la | rawi ask "Explain these file permissions"

# Generate files from analysis
rawi ask --file data.csv "Create Python script to visualize this data" > visualize.py

# Batch process with shell
for file in reports/*.pdf; do
    rawi ask --file "$file" "Extract key metrics" >> summary.md
done

⚠️ Limitations and Considerations

File Size Limits

Caution

Large files may hit provider token limits or timeout restrictions:

• PDFs: Generally work well up to 50-100 pages
• Excel: Up to ~10,000 rows typically process well
• Text files: Around 50,000 lines maximum
• Word docs: Most documents process without issues

Unsupported Content

# These won't be processed:
# - Images within documents
# - Charts and graphs in Excel
# - Embedded objects
# - Protected/encrypted files
# - Binary files without text content

Performance Tips

# For large files, extract specific sections
rawi ask --file large-report.pdf "Focus only on the executive summary section"

# Use batch processing for multiple files
rawi ask --batch "reports/*.pdf" --parallel "Extract key findings from each report"

# Filter before processing
grep ERROR app.log | rawi ask "Categorize these errors"

🔍 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

File not found:

# Use absolute paths
rawi ask --file "$(pwd)/document.pdf" "Analyze this"

# Check file exists
ls -la document.pdf

Permission denied:

# Fix file permissions
chmod 644 document.pdf

Empty content:

# Verify file integrity
file document.pdf

# Check file size
ls -lh document.pdf

Unsupported format:

# Override file type detection
rawi ask --file data.backup --file-type txt "Process as text"

# Convert to supported format first
pandoc document.rtf -o document.docx
rawi ask --file document.docx "Analyze this"

Performance Issues

Timeout errors:

# Process in smaller chunks
split -l 100 large-file.txt chunk_
for chunk in chunk_*; do
    cat "$chunk" | rawi ask "Analyze this section"
done

Memory issues:

# Use head/tail for samples
head -500 large-file.txt | rawi ask "Analyze this sample"

# Filter content first
grep -v DEBUG app.log | rawi ask "Analyze non-debug entries"

📚 Related Documentation

• ask Command Reference - Complete command options
• Advanced Usage Patterns - Effective usage strategies
• Shell Integration - Terminal workflow integration
• Workflow Examples - Real-world usage patterns
• Troubleshooting - Common issues and solutions

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Ready to process your documents? Start with a simple rawi ask --file yourfile.pdf "Summarize this" and explore the possibilities!