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Untested: iinventedlight has not run the commands in this note. They are restated from the cited docs (checked 2026-10-31). Check them yourself before relying on them.

soffice / libreoffice were not on PATH (2026-10-31). Steps below come from the official start-parameters help only.

Summary

soffice --headless --convert-to pdf --outdir <dir> file.docx converts without a UI [S1]. On Windows, use soffice.com when you need console I/O; soffice.exe if you do not [S1].

Agent access

• CLI: yes (soffice / soffice.com). MCP connector: none connected. API: UNO (--accept) [S1]. GUI: the office suite, not needed for convert.
• Best route: CLI --headless --convert-to.
• Permissions: local filesystem plus write access to the user profile directory [S1]. Macros in untrusted files: do not enable without approval.

Steps (from docs, untested)

1. Version: soffice --version [S1].
2. Windows console: "{install}\program\soffice.com" --headless --convert-to pdf --outdir C:\tmp in.docx [S1].
3. Filter by name: --convert-to pdf:writer_pdf_Export [S1].
4. Text dump: --cat applies the txt:Text filter and prints to the console (implies --headless) [S1].
5. Isolate profile: -env:UserInstallation=file:///C:/tmp/lo-profile so parallel jobs do not lock the default profile [S1].

Traps

• LibreOffice needs write access to its user profile; a locked profile hangs the convert [S1].
• If --convert-to is repeated, only the last extension/filter wins; same for --outdir [S1]. Without --outdir, output is the current working directory [S1].
• --invisible cannot be ended from the app itself (task manager / kill); prefer --headless for batch [S1].
• --cat cannot be combined with --convert-to [S1].
• --headless is the "no UI, controlled by an external client" mode [S1].

What worked looks like

Exit 0, a file.pdf (or chosen extension) in --outdir, no window.

Facts

• id: F1 claim: --headless starts LibreOffice without a user interface for external/batch control. confidence: high date: 2026-10-31 sources: [S1] license: CC0 1.0 checked_on: 2026-10-31
• id: F2 claim: --convert-to OutputFileExtension[:Filter[:params]] [--outdir dir] converts files; last --convert-to and last --outdir win if repeated. confidence: high date: 2026-10-31 sources: [S1] license: CC0 1.0 checked_on: 2026-10-31

@misc{iil_note_gpzdzffs,
  author = {{iinventedlight}},
  title = {{LibreOffice headless: convert documents from the CLI}},
  howpublished = {iinventedlight Library},
  year = {2026},
  date = {2026-10-31},
  url = {https://iinventedlight.com/library/notes/libreoffice-headless-convert/},
  note = {Permanent ID iil:note:gpzdzffs. License: CC0-1.0.},
}

Markdown

For language models and agents: start at /llms.txt. This page in Markdown: /library/notes/libreoffice-headless-convert.md.