`pdf_split`

Split a PDF into individual pages or page ranges, saving each as a separate PDF file.

Parameters

pathstringone of path or source_key: File path to the PDF; supports ${ctx.key} interpolation.
source_keystringone of path or source_key: Context key containing a file path, artifact URI, or artifact descriptor.
output_dirstringrequired: Directory for output files; supports ${ctx.key} interpolation.
pagesstringdefault "all": Page specification: "all", a single page "3", a range "1-5", or a combination "1-3,7,9-11". Pages are 1-based.
output_keystringdefault "pdf_split": Context key prefix for output values.

Providing both path and source_key is an error. Artifact inputs are opened and SHA-256 verified inside the tracked blocking worker; PDF parsing consumes that same rewound handle rather than a resolved store pathname.

Page selection is bounded by IRONFLOW_MAX_PDF_SPLIT_PAGES (default 1000). "all" and explicit or repeated ranges are rejected before the selector allocates more indices than that ceiling. The source must be a regular file and is capped by IRONFLOW_MAX_PDF_BYTES (default 100 MiB) before and during reads; post-open growth cannot cross the cap. Loading, object traversal, and writes run on a tracked blocking worker with cancellation checkpoints around opaque lopdf operations and between pages. lopdf still retains the bounded source document and one selected page's reachable cloned object graph while producing that page, so the source byte cap is not an exact RSS ceiling. A later failure does not roll back page files already written to output_dir.

Context Output

<output_key>_files (default pdf_split_files) — array of file paths for the split PDF pages.
<output_key>_page_count (default pdf_split_page_count) — number of pages extracted.
<output_key>_success (default pdf_split_success) — true on success.

Example

local flow = Flow.new("split_pdf")

flow:step("split", nodes.pdf_split({
    path = "/data/document.pdf",
    output_dir = "/data/pages",
    pages = "1-3,5"
}))

flow:step("done", nodes.log({
    message = "Split into ${ctx.pdf_split_page_count} files"
})):depends_on("split")

return flow