Convert DOCX to PDF with an AI agent

Choosing the PDF renderer for step two

The PDF renders safe-docx's semantic HTML — structural, not a pixel-exact clone of the Word layout. For a print-exact reproduction, export the PDF from Word or LibreOffice using the original .docx.

The workflow, step by step

1. 1

   Install safe-docx for your agent

   Add the MIT-licensed safe-docx MCP server to your agent once. For Claude Code:

   claude mcp add safe-docx -- npx -y @usejunior/safe-docx

   The same server works with Gemini CLI, Cursor, and Codex.

2. 2

   Export the .docx to semantic HTML

   Ask in plain language: “Export bonterms-mutual-nda.docx to HTML.” The agent calls the safe-docx export tool with the HTML format:

   export(file_path="bonterms-mutual-nda.docx", format="html")

   The tool writes bonterms-mutual-nda.html next to the source — paragraphs, headings, nested lists, tables with merged cells, images, and footnotes, as structural HTML.

3. 3

   Render the HTML to PDF with a tool you already have

   Any HTML-to-PDF renderer finishes the job. If Chrome or Chromium is on the machine — it almost always is — the agent finds the executable and runs one command:

   CHROME="/Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome"  # macOS
   "$CHROME" --headless --no-pdf-header-footer \
     --print-to-pdf=bonterms-mutual-nda.pdf bonterms-mutual-nda.html

   On Linux the binary is usually google-chrome or chromium — set CHROME accordingly.

4. 4

   Or use Pandoc — or convert directly with LibreOffice

   If you already script with Pandoc, point it at the exported HTML. Pandoc needs a PDF engine on the machine — a LaTeX install by default, or pass --pdf-engine=weasyprint:

   pandoc bonterms-mutual-nda.html -o bonterms-mutual-nda.pdf

   And if LibreOffice is installed, you can skip the HTML step entirely: it converts the original Word file straight to PDF, with the closest layout fidelity. The PDF lands in the directory you run it from (pass --outdir to choose another):

   soffice --headless --convert-to pdf bonterms-mutual-nda.docx

5. 5

   Tune the page setup with print CSS (optional)

   The exported HTML is deliberately unstyled, so the renderer's defaults decide margins and page size. For Chrome, ask the agent to add a small print stylesheet to the HTML head before rendering:

   <style>
     @page { size: Letter; margin: 1in; }
     body { font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5; max-width: 42em; }
   </style>

   That one block controls page size, margins, and typography for the whole document.