DOCX Shell Workaround

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• read_file cannot extract content from .docx files
• execute_code_sandbox encounters failures when creating or modifying docx files
• You need a reliable fallback for docx file manipulation

Reading DOCX Files

Step 1: Extract document.xml using unzip

Use run_shell to unzip the .docx file (which is a ZIP archive) and extract the main document XML:

unzip -p input.docx word/document.xml > document.xml

Step 2: Parse XML with ElementTree via run_shell

Extract text content by parsing the XML. Use run_shell to execute Python code:

python3 << 'EOF'
import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

tree = ET.parse('document.xml')
root = tree.getroot()
namespace = {'w': 'http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/main'}

text_content = []
for elem in root.iter():
    if elem.tag.endswith('t'):
        if elem.text:
            text_content.append(elem.text)

text = ''.join(text_content)
print(text)
EOF

Step 3: Optional - More robust XML parsing

For better text extraction that handles paragraphs:

python3 << 'EOF'
import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

tree = ET.parse('document.xml')
root = tree.getroot()
ns = {'w': 'http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/main'}

paragraphs = []
for p in root.findall('.//w:p', ns):
    para_text = []
    for t in p.findall('.//w:t', ns):
        if t.text:
            para_text.append(t.text)
    if para_text:
        paragraphs.append(''.join(para_text))

for para in paragraphs:
    print(para)
EOF

Creating DOCX Files

Use python-docx via run_shell (NOT execute_code_sandbox)

When execute_code_sandbox fails for docx operations, use run_shell instead:

python3 << 'EOF'
from docx import Document
from docx.shared import Inches, Pt
from docx.enum.text import WD_ALIGN_PARAGRAPH

doc = Document()

# Add heading
doc.add_heading('Document Title', 0)