Pandoc

Pandoc is a robust, Haskell-based command-line tool designed to convert files from one markup format to another with high fidelity. As of 2026, it remains the gold standard for document engineering due to its unique architecture, which uses an internal Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) to mediate between over 80 input and output formats. This 'hub-and-spoke' model ensures that semantic structure—such as headers, lists, and citations—is preserved across transitions from Markdown to Docx, LaTeX to HTML, or IPYNB to PDF. In the contemporary AI landscape, Pandoc has evolved into a critical utility for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines, allowing developers to programmatically sanitize and structure legacy enterprise data (PDFs, Word docs) into clean, machine-readable Markdown for LLM ingestion. Its extensibility via Lua filters allows for sophisticated, programmatic manipulation of document content during the conversion process, enabling automated redaction, styling, and metadata injection. Whether integrated into CI/CD pipelines for technical documentation or used by researchers to generate publication-ready manuscripts, Pandoc’s stability and performance make it an indispensable asset in the 2026 software stack.