Document DOCX Skill - Quick Reference

This skill enables creation, editing, and analysis of .docx files for reports, contracts, proposals, documentation, and template-driven outputs.

Modern best practices (2026):

• Prefer templates + styles over manual formatting.
• Treat .docx as the editable source; treat PDF as a release artifact.
• If distributing externally, include basic accessibility hygiene (headings, table headers, alt text).

Quick Reference

Tool Selection

• Prefer docxtpl when non-developers must edit layout/design in Word.
• Prefer python-docx for structural edits (paragraphs/tables/headers/footers) when formatting complexity is moderate.
• Prefer docx (Node.js) for server-side generation in TypeScript-heavy stacks.
• Prefer mammoth for text-first extraction or DOCX-to-HTML (best effort; may drop some layout fidelity).

Known Limits (Plan Around These)

• .doc (legacy) is not supported by these libraries; convert to .docx first (e.g., LibreOffice).
• python-docx cannot reliably create true tracked changes; use Word compare or specialized OOXML tooling.
• Tables of Contents and many fields are placeholders until opened/updated in Word.

Core Operations

Create Document (Python - python-docx)

from docx import Document
from docx.shared import Inches, Pt
from docx.enum.text import WD_ALIGN_PARAGRAPH

doc = Document()

# Title
title = doc.add_heading('Document Title', 0)
title.alignment = WD_ALIGN_PARAGRAPH.CENTER

# Paragraph with formatting
para = doc.add_paragraph()
run = para.add_run('Bold and ')
run.bold = True
run = para.add_run('italic text.')
run.italic = True

# Table
table = doc.add_table(rows=3, cols=3)
table.style = 'Table Grid'
for i, row in enumerate(table.rows):
    for j, cell in enumerate(row.cells):
        cell.text = f'Row {i+1}, Col {j+1}'

# Image
doc.add_picture('image.png', width=Inches(4))

# Save
doc.save('output.docx')

Create Document (Node.js - docx)

import { Document, Packer, Paragraph, TextRun, Table, TableRow, TableCell } from 'docx';
import * as fs from 'fs';

const doc = new Document({
  sections: [{
    properties: {},
    children: [
      new Paragraph({
        children: [
          new TextRun({ text: 'Bold text', bold: true }),
          new TextRun({ text: ' and normal text.' }),
        ],
      }),
      new Table({
        rows: [
          new TableRow({
            children: [
              new TableCell({ children: [new Paragraph('Cell 1')] }),
              new TableCell({ children: [new Paragraph('Cell 2')] }),
            ],
          }),
        ],
      }),
    ],
  }],
});

Packer.toBuffer(doc).then((buffer) => {
  fs.writeFileSync('output.docx', buffer);
});

Template-Based Generation (Python - docxtpl)

from docxtpl import DocxTemplate

doc = DocxTemplate('template.docx')
context = {
    'company_name': 'Acme Corp',
    'date': '2025-01-15',
    'items': [
        {'name': 'Widget A', 'price': 100},
        {'name': 'Widget B', 'price': 200},
    ]
}
doc.render(context)
doc.save('filled_template.docx')

Extract Content (Python - python-docx)

from docx import Document

doc = Document('input.docx')

# Extract all text
full_text = []
for para in doc.paragraphs:
    full_text.append(para.text)

# Extract tables
for table in doc.tables:
    for row in table.rows:
        row_data = [cell.text for cell in row.cells]
        print(row_data)

Styling Reference

Do / Avoid (Dec 2025)

Do

• Use consistent heading levels and a table of contents for long docs.
• Capture decisions and action items with owners and due dates.
• Store docs in a versioned, searchable system.

Avoid

• Manual formatting instead of styles (breaks consistency).
• Docs with no owner or review cadence (stale quickly).
• Copy/pasting without updating definitions and links.

Output Quality Checklist

• Structure: consistent heading hierarchy, styles, and (when needed) an auto-generated table of contents.
• Decisions: decisions/actions captured with owner + due date (not buried in prose).
• Versioning: doc ID + version + change summary; review cadence defined.
• Accessibility hygiene: headings/reading order are correct; table headers are marked; alt text for non-decorative images.
• Reuse: use assets/doc-template-pack.md for decision logs and recurring doc types.

Optional: AI / Automation

Use only when explicitly requested and policy-compliant.

• Summarize meeting notes into decisions/actions; humans verify accuracy.
• Draft first-pass docs from outlines; do not invent facts or quotes.

Navigation

Resources

• references/docx-patterns.md - Advanced formatting, styles, headers/footers
• references/template-workflows.md - Mail merge, batch generation
• references/tracked-changes.md - Tracked changes: what is feasible, and what is not
• references/accessibility-compliance.md - WCAG 2.2 AA, reading order, alt text, EU EAA
• references/cross-platform-compatibility.md - Rendering across Word, Google Docs, LibreOffice
• how to use document-docx
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  How to use document-docx on Cursor

  AI-first code editor with Composer

  1

  Prerequisites

  Before installing skills in Cursor, ensure your development environment meets these requirements:

  • ›Cursor installed and configured on your development machine
  • ›Node.js version 16.0+ with npm package manager (verify with node --version)
  • ›Active project directory or workspace where you want to add document-docx

  2

  Execute installation command

  Execute the skills CLI command in your project's root directory to begin installation:

  $npx skills add https://github.com/vasilyu1983/ai-agents-public --skill document-docxcopy

  The skills CLI fetches document-docx from GitHub repository vasilyu1983/ai-agents-public and configures it for Cursor.

  3

  Select Cursor when prompted

  The CLI will show a list of available agents. Use arrow keys to navigate and space to select Cursor:

  ◆ Which agents do you want to install to?

  │

  │ ── Universal (.agents/skills) ── always included ────

  │ • Amp

  │ • Antigravity

  │ • Cline

  │ • Codex

  │ ●Cursor(selected)

  │ • Cursor

  │ • Windsurf

  4

  Verify installation

  Confirm successful installation by checking the skill directory location:

  .cursor/skills/document-docx

  Reload or restart Cursor to activate document-docx. Access the skill through slash commands (e.g., /document-docx) or your agent's skill management interface.

  ⚠

  Security & Verification Notice

  We perform automated surface-level scans (Gen AI Scanner, Socket, Snyk) during installation. These checks detect common vulnerabilities but do not guarantee complete security. Always review skill source code and verify the publisher's reputation before production use.

  Skills execute code in your development environment. Always verify the publisher's identity, review recent commits, and test in isolated environments before production deployment.

  Additional Resources

  ›View source code on GitHub›Skills CLI documentation›Learn more about Cursor›What are agent skills?