@mdgate/doc

Convert legacy Word .doc files to Markdown in TypeScript.

@mdgate/doc reads binary Word documents (.doc, .dot) directly in JavaScript and converts them into GitHub-Flavored Markdown, without Python, native addons, WASM, or Microsoft Word.

Works in Node.js, Cloudflare Workers, Edge runtimes, and browsers.

npm install @mdgate/doc

import { toMarkdown } from '@mdgate/doc';

const markdown = await toMarkdown(bytes);

bytes is a Uint8Array, so the document can come from a file upload, object storage, an HTTP request, a browser file picker, or anywhere else your application gets bytes.

Why @mdgate/doc

Old Word files are still everywhere: attachments from 2004, government forms, mail archives.

Most JavaScript stacks have a DOCX parser and nothing for binary Word. @mdgate/doc reads the OLE compound file in the same runtime as your application:

• Pure TypeScript
• DOC → Markdown locally
• No Python runtime
• No native addons
• No WASM runtime
• Zero third-party runtime dependencies
• Works with raw Uint8Array input
• Detects binary Word from OLE streams, not only the filename

Use it when an agent or ingestion pipeline has to read the Word format people actually sent, not only .docx.

What it extracts

@mdgate/doc parses the binary Word document stream and rebuilds a shared document model.

The converter handles Word 97-2003 concerns including:

• paragraphs and heading styles
• bold, italic, and strikethrough
• lists
• tables
• basic character encoding
• encrypted document detection

The output is Markdown that can be searched, indexed, chunked, cached, or passed directly to an AI agent.

OOXML Word files (.docx) are a different format. Use @mdgate/docx for those.

Node.js

import { readFile } from 'node:fs/promises';
import { toMarkdown } from '@mdgate/doc';

const bytes = new Uint8Array(await readFile('memo.doc'));
const markdown = await toMarkdown(bytes);

console.log(markdown);

Browser

import { toMarkdown } from '@mdgate/doc';

const file = input.files![0];
const bytes = new Uint8Array(await file.arrayBuffer());

const markdown = await toMarkdown(bytes);

Conversion can happen locally without uploading the document to a parsing service.

Cloudflare Workers and Edge runtimes

import { toMarkdown } from '@mdgate/doc';

export default {
  async fetch(request: Request) {
    const bytes = new Uint8Array(await request.arrayBuffer());
    const markdown = await toMarkdown(bytes);

    return new Response(markdown, {
      headers: {
        'content-type': 'text/markdown; charset=utf-8',
      },
    });
  },
};

upload DOC
↓
Cloudflare Worker
↓
@mdgate/doc
↓
Markdown
↓
agent / search / index / storage

Format detection

You do not need to trust the file extension.

@mdgate/doc recognizes binary Word from OLE compound-file streams.

const markdown = await toMarkdown(bytes);

A path can still be supplied as a format hint when @mdgate/doc is used through @mdgate/converters or a reader composed with @mdgate/core, but the path is never used to read a file from disk.

Some files named .doc are actually RTF. Those belong to @mdgate/rtf.

Encrypted documents

Encrypted or password-protected Word files are reported as encrypted rather than returning misleading partial output.

Compose it with other file readers

@mdgate/doc implements the converter interface from @mdgate/core.

import { create } from '@mdgate/core';
import { doc } from '@mdgate/doc';
import { docx } from '@mdgate/docx';

const read = create([
  doc(),
  docx(),
]);

const markdown = await read(bytes);

The application still uses one reading interface while each format remains independently installable.

Need more than Word?

If your application needs to read many different file types, use the complete converter set:

npm install @mdgate/converters

import { toMarkdown } from '@mdgate/converters';

const markdown = await toMarkdown(bytes, {
  path: filename,
});

@mdgate/doc is one of the single-format packages in the open-source mdgate/converters project.

For AI agents, the same converter architecture can be used to extend read_file from text files to real-world document formats.

License

MIT