PDF viewer

The Pdf class allows you to display a PDF hosted remotely or locally in the chatbot UI. This class either takes a URL of a PDF hosted online, or the path of a local PDF.

Since version 2.11.0, the PDF viewer uses a custom React-based renderer with zoom, pagination, download, and print controls instead of the browser’s built-in iframe viewer. The pdfjs-dist worker is bundled locally — no external CDN requests are made. If you relied on the previous iframe behavior or applied custom CSS targeting the old viewer, you may need to update your styles.

Attributes

str

The name of the PDF to be displayed in the UI.

ElementDisplay

Determines how the PDF element should be displayed in the UI. Choices are “side”, “inline”, or “page”.

str

The remote URL of the PDF file. Must provide url for a remote PDF (or either path or content for a local PDF).

str

The local file path of the PDF. Must provide either path or content for a local PDF (or url for a remote PDF).

bytes

The file content of the PDF in bytes format. Must provide either path or content for a local PDF (or url for a remote PDF).

int

The default rendered page. Must be an integer greater than 0 and less than or equal to the total number of pages in the PDF. The default value is 1.

Example

Inline

import chainlit as cl


@cl.on_chat_start
async def main():
    # Sending a pdf with the local file path
    elements = [
      cl.Pdf(name="pdf1", display="inline", path="./pdf1.pdf", page=1)
    ]

    await cl.Message(content="Look at this local pdf!", elements=elements).send()

Side and Page

You must have the name of the pdf in the content of the message for the link to be created.

import chainlit as cl


@cl.on_chat_start
async def main():
    # Sending a pdf with the local file path
    elements = [
      cl.Pdf(name="pdf1", display="side", path="./pdf1.pdf", page=1)
    ]
    # Reminder: The name of the pdf must be in the content of the message
    await cl.Message(content="Look at this local pdf1!", elements=elements).send()

Life Cycle Hooks

Chat

Elements

Ask User

Integrations

Misceallaneous

Input Widgets

Attributes

Example

Inline

Side and Page

​Attributes

​Example

​Inline

​Side and Page

Attributes

Example

Inline

Side and Page