CocoIndex quickstart

Build your first CocoIndex pipeline in 5 minutes: convert PDFs to Markdown and watch incremental processing only reprocess files that actually changed.

Version: v 1.0.2
Last reviewed: May 2, 2026

In this tutorial, we’ll build a simple app that converts PDF files to Markdown and saves them to a local directory.

Overview

Read PDF files from a local directory
Convert each file to Markdown using Docling
Save the Markdown files to an output directory (as target states)

You declare the transformation logic with native Python without worrying about changes.

Think: target_state = transformation(source_state)

When your source data is updated, or your processing logic is changed (for example, switching parsers or tweaking conversion settings), CocoIndex performs smart incremental processing that only reprocesses the minimum. And it keeps your Markdown files always up to date.

Setup

Install CocoIndex (see Installation for other package managers) and the Docling dependency:
bash
```
pip install -U cocoindex docling
```

Create a new directory for your project:

bash

mkdir cocoindex-quickstart
cd cocoindex-quickstart

Create a pdf_files/ directory and add your PDF files:
bash
```
mkdir pdf_files
```
You can download sample PDF files from the git repo.
Create a .env file to configure the database path:
bash
```
echo "COCOINDEX_DB=./cocoindex.db" > .env
```

Define the app

Create a new file main.py. We’ll define the processing functions first, then wire them into an App.

Define file processing

This function converts a single PDF to Markdown:

main.py

import pathlib

import cocoindex as coco
from cocoindex.connectors import localfs
from cocoindex.resources.file import PatternFilePathMatcher
from docling.document_converter import DocumentConverter

_converter = DocumentConverter()

@coco.fn(memo=True)
def process_file(
    file: localfs.File,
    outdir: pathlib.Path,
) -> None:
    markdown = _converter.convert(
        file.file_path.resolve()
    ).document.export_to_markdown()
    outname = file.file_path.path.stem + ".md"
    localfs.declare_file(outdir / outname, markdown, create_parent_dirs=True)

localfs.File — A file object returned by localfs.walk_dir(), implementing the FileLike base class. See the localfs connector for full details.
memo=True — Caches results; unchanged files are skipped on re-runs
localfs.declare_file() — Declares a file target state; auto-deleted if source is removed. See localfs as target for the full API.

Define the main function

main.py

@coco.fn
async def app_main(sourcedir: pathlib.Path, outdir: pathlib.Path) -> None:
    files = localfs.walk_dir(
        sourcedir,
        recursive=True,
        path_matcher=PatternFilePathMatcher(included_patterns=["**/*.pdf"]),
    )
    await coco.mount_each(process_file, files.items(), outdir)

mount_each() mounts one processing component per file. Each item from files.items() is a (key, file) pair — the key (the file’s relative path) becomes the component subpath automatically.

It’s up to you to pick the process granularity — it can be at directory level, at file level, or at page level. In this example, because we want to independently convert each file to Markdown, the file level is the most natural choice.

Create the App

main.py

app = coco.App(
    "PdfToMarkdown",
    app_main,
    sourcedir=pathlib.Path("./pdf_files"),
    outdir=pathlib.Path("./out"),
)

This defines a CocoIndex App — the top-level runnable unit in CocoIndex. It binds the main function with its arguments.

Run the pipeline

Run the pipeline:

bash

cocoindex update main.py

CocoIndex will:

Create the out/ directory
Convert each PDF in pdf_files/ to Markdown in out/

Check the output:

bash

ls out/
# example.md (one .md file for each input PDF)

Incremental updates

The power of CocoIndex is incremental processing. Try these:

Add a new file:

Add a new PDF to pdf_files/, then run:

bash

cocoindex update main.py

Only the new file is processed.

Modify a file:

Replace a PDF in pdf_files/ with an updated version, then run:

bash

cocoindex update main.py

Only the changed file is reprocessed.

Delete a file:

bash

rm pdf_files/example.pdf
cocoindex update main.py

The corresponding Markdown file is automatically removed.

Next steps

Read Core Concepts to understand the mental model — state-driven programming, processing components, and memoization
Dive into the Programming Guide, starting with Apps, to learn how to build more complex pipelines
Browse more examples for real-world patterns (text embedding, RAG, knowledge graphs)