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Quick Start

Send PDF documents directly in chat messages for analysis and content extraction. 
import fs from "fs";

const pdfBuffer = fs.readFileSync("contract.pdf");
const pdfBase64 = pdfBuffer.toString("base64");

const response = await openai.chat.completions.create({
  model: "openai/gpt-4o",
  messages: [
    {
      role: "user",
      content: [
        {
          type: "text",
          text: "Extract key terms and conditions from this contract",
        },
        {
          type: "file",
          file: {
            file_data: `data:application/pdf;base64,${pdfBase64}`,
            filename: "contract.pdf",
          },
        },
      ],
    },
  ],
});

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Configuration

ParameterTypeRequiredDescription
type"file"YesContent type for file input
file.file_datastringYesData URI with base64 PDF content
file.filenamestringYesName of the file for model context
Format: data:application/pdf;base64,{base64_content}

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Supported Models

ProviderModelPDF Support
OpenAIgpt-4o✅ Native
OpenAIgpt-4o-mini✅ Native
OpenAIgpt-4-turbo✅ Native
Anthropicclaude-3-sonnet✅ Via conversion
Anthropicclaude-3-haiku✅ Via conversion

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Use Cases

ScenarioBest ModelExample Prompt
Contract analysisgpt-4o”Extract key terms and obligations”
Invoice processinggpt-4o-mini”Extract amounts, dates, vendor info”
Research papersgpt-4o”Summarize methodology and findings”
Form extractiongpt-4o-mini”Convert form data to JSON”

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Code examples

curl -X POST https://api.orq.ai/v2/proxy/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ORQ_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "openai/gpt-4o",
    "messages": [
      {
        "role": "user",
        "content": [
          {
            "type": "text",
            "text": "Please analyze this PDF document and provide a summary"
          },
          {
            "type": "file",
            "file": {
              "file_data": "data:application/pdf;base64,YOUR_BASE64_ENCODED_PDF",
              "filename": "document.pdf"
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }'

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File Handling

Reading PDF files: 
// Node.js
const fs = require('fs');
const pdfBase64 = fs.readFileSync('document.pdf', 'base64');

// Browser (File input)
const fileInput = document.getElementById('pdf-upload');
const file = fileInput.files[0];
const arrayBuffer = await file.arrayBuffer();
const pdfBase64 = btoa(String.fromCharCode(...new Uint8Array(arrayBuffer)));

// Python
import base64
with open('document.pdf', 'rb') as f:
    pdf_base64 = base64.b64encode(f.read()).decode('utf-8')
Size optimization: 
// Check file size before encoding
const maxSize = 20 * 1024 * 1024; // 20MB
if (pdfBuffer.length > maxSize) {
  throw new Error("PDF file too large. Consider compressing first.");
}

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Best Practices

File preparation:
  • Compress PDFs to reduce size (under 20MB recommended)
  • Ensure text is selectable (not scanned images)
  • Remove unnecessary pages for focused analysis
  • Use clear, structured layouts for better extraction
Prompt engineering: 
// Specific extraction
"Extract all dollar amounts and their associated line items as JSON";

// Structured analysis
"Provide a summary with these sections: Executive Summary, Key Findings, Recommendations";

// Data validation
"Verify if all required fields are present: name, date, signature, amount";
Error handling: 
const processPDF = async (pdfPath, prompt) => {
  try {
    const pdfBase64 = fs.readFileSync(pdfPath, "base64");

    if (pdfBase64.length > 50000000) {
      // ~37MB base64 limit
      throw new Error("PDF too large for processing");
    }

    const response = await openai.chat.completions.create({
      model: "openai/gpt-4o",
      messages: [
        {
          role: "user",
          content: [
            { type: "text", text: prompt },
            {
              type: "file",
              file: {
                file_data: `data:application/pdf;base64,${pdfBase64}`,
                filename: pdfPath.split("/").pop(), // Extract filename from path
              },
            },
          ],
        },
      ],
    });

    return response.choices[0].message.content;
  } catch (error) {
    if (error.message.includes("context_length_exceeded")) {
      throw new Error("PDF too large. Try splitting into smaller sections.");
    }
    throw error;
  }
};

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Troubleshooting

PDF not processing
  • Verify base64 encoding is correct
  • Check file size (under model’s context limit)
  • Ensure MIME type is application/pdf
  • Try with a different model
Poor extraction quality
  • Use higher-quality models (gpt-4o vs gpt-4o-mini)
  • Provide more specific prompts
  • Break complex documents into sections
  • Consider preprocessing scanned PDFs with OCR
Performance issues
  • Compress PDFs before sending
  • Extract only relevant pages
  • Use streaming for large documents
  • Cache results for repeated analysis

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Limitations

LimitationDetailsWorkaround
File sizeModel context limitsSplit large PDFs
Scanned documentsQuality varies by modelUse OCR preprocessing
Complex layoutsTables/charts may not extract wellUse structured prompts
SecuritySensitive documents sent to providerUse on-premise models
CostLarge files consume more tokensOptimize file size

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Advanced Usage

Batch processing: 
const processPDFBatch = async (pdfPaths) => {
  const results = await Promise.allSettled(
    pdfPaths.map((path) => processPDF(path, "Extract key information")),
  );

  return results.map((result, index) => ({
    file: pdfPaths[index],
    success: result.status === "fulfilled",
    data: result.status === "fulfilled" ? result.value : null,
    error: result.status === "rejected" ? result.reason : null,
  }));
};
Progressive analysis: 
// Analyze in stages for large documents
const stages = [
  "Identify document type and structure",
  "Extract metadata (author, date, title)",
  "Summarize each section",
  "Extract actionable items",
];

for (const prompt of stages) {
  const result = await processPDF(pdfPath, prompt);
  console.log(`Stage: ${prompt}\nResult: ${result}\n`);
}
Content validation: 
const validateExtraction = async (pdfPath, expectedFields) => {
  const prompt = `Extract these fields as JSON: ${expectedFields.join(", ")}`;
  const result = await processPDF(pdfPath, prompt);

  try {
    const data = JSON.parse(result);
    const missing = expectedFields.filter((field) => !data[field]);

    return {
      valid: missing.length === 0,
      missing,
      data,
    };
  } catch (error) {
    return { valid: false, error: "Invalid JSON response" };
  }
};