LiteParse CLI Reference (lit)

The **lit** command ships with liteparse (Python), @llamaindex/liteparse (npm), and cargo install liteparse (Rust). This reference covers the Python-provided 2.15.0 CLI (lit ... --help was executed). Node/Rust releases target the same commands, but inspect the installed CLI before copying version-specific flags.

lit --help
lit parse --help
lit batch-parse --help
lit screenshot --help

lit parse

Parse a single file or stdin.

lit parse [OPTIONS] <file>

Examples

lit parse document.pdf
lit parse document.pdf --format json -o output.json
lit parse document.pdf --format markdown -o output.md
lit parse document.pdf --target-pages "1-5,10" --no-ocr
lit parse scan.pdf --ocr-language fra --dpi 200
lit parse protected.pdf --password secret
curl -sL https://example.com/paper.pdf | lit parse - -o paper.txt

Optional parse flags verified from 2.15.0 --help:

• --continue-on-page-error: report page extraction failures while retaining successful pages. Check JSON page_errors; text/Markdown errors go to stderr.
• --image-mode off|placeholder|embed: Markdown presentation; use --extract-images --image-output-dir images for actual image files.
• --no-links, --keep-headers-footers: control Markdown rendering.
• --extract-blocks, --extract-annotations, --extract-form-fields, --extract-structure-tree, --extract-vector-graphics, --extract-text-metadata, --extract-xfa-packets, --extract-content-bounds, --complexity: include optional structured fields in JSON.

These optional extraction flags were source/help-checked; representative block, image and metadata behavior was smoke-tested, not every document feature.

lit batch-parse

Parse every supported file in a directory.

lit batch-parse [OPTIONS] <input-dir> <output-dir>

Examples

lit batch-parse ./papers ./parsed
lit batch-parse ./papers ./parsed --format json --recursive
lit batch-parse ./pdfs ./out --extension .pdf --no-ocr

Output paths mirror relative input directories with .txt, .json, or .md replacing the input extension. Same-stem files in the same directory can overwrite each other; restrict --extension .pdf or use the bundled wrapper, which preserves source suffixes and refuses existing outputs.

lit screenshot

Render pages to PNG files.

lit screenshot [OPTIONS] <file>

Examples

lit screenshot document.pdf -o ./screenshots
lit screenshot document.pdf --target-pages "1,3,5" --dpi 300

Environment variables

Reviewed 2026-10-01 against 2.15.0 Python CLI source and installed help/output. Native CLI JSON uses pages[].page and has no top-level text; see output_formats.md.