diff --git a/circuitforge_core/documents/pdf.py b/circuitforge_core/documents/pdf.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..727492f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/circuitforge_core/documents/pdf.py
@@ -0,0 +1,113 @@
+# circuitforge_core/documents/pdf.py
+"""
+circuitforge_core.documents.pdf — PDF text extraction and page-level chunking.
+
+Primary path: pdfplumber (selectable text layers).
+Fallback: pytesseract OCR (scanned / image-only pages).
+
+Usage::
+
+    from circuitforge_core.documents.pdf import PDFExtractor
+
+    chunks = PDFExtractor().chunk_pages("/path/to/book.pdf")
+    for chunk in chunks:
+        print(f"[p.{chunk.page_number}] ({chunk.source}) {chunk.text[:80]}")
+"""
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import logging
+from dataclasses import dataclass
+from pathlib import Path
+
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+try:
+    import pdfplumber
+except ImportError:  # pragma: no cover
+    pdfplumber = None  # type: ignore[assignment]
+
+
+@dataclass(frozen=True)
+class PageChunk:
+    """Text content extracted from a single PDF page."""
+
+    page_number: int  # 1-indexed
+    text: str
+    source: str  # "text_layer" | "ocr"
+    word_count: int
+
+
+class PDFExtractor:
+    """
+    Extract page-level text chunks from PDF files.
+
+    Args:
+        ocr_min_words: Pages with fewer words from the text layer trigger OCR.
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self, ocr_min_words: int = 10) -> None:
+        self.ocr_min_words = ocr_min_words
+
+    def chunk_pages(self, pdf_path: str | Path) -> list[PageChunk]:
+        """
+        Primary entry point. Returns one PageChunk per page.
+
+        Uses text-layer extraction per page; falls back to OCR when text is sparse.
+        Empty PDFs return an empty list.
+        """
+        if pdfplumber is None:
+            raise ImportError(
+                "pdfplumber is required for PDF extraction. "
+                "Install it with: pip install pdfplumber"
+            )
+
+        path = Path(pdf_path)
+        chunks: list[PageChunk] = []
+
+        with pdfplumber.open(path) as pdf:
+            for i, page in enumerate(pdf.pages, start=1):
+                text = page.extract_text() or ""
+                words = text.split()
+
+                if len(words) >= self.ocr_min_words:
+                    chunks.append(
+                        PageChunk(
+                            page_number=i,
+                            text=text.strip(),
+                            source="text_layer",
+                            word_count=len(words),
+                        )
+                    )
+                else:
+                    logger.debug(
+                        "pdf: page %d sparse (%d words), falling back to OCR",
+                        i,
+                        len(words),
+                    )
+                    chunks.append(self._ocr_page(page, i))
+
+        return chunks
+
+    def _ocr_page(self, page: object, page_number: int) -> PageChunk:
+        """Render page to image and extract text via tesseract."""
+        try:
+            import io
+
+            import pytesseract
+            from PIL import Image
+
+            rendered = page.to_image(resolution=200).original  # type: ignore[attr-defined]
+            if not isinstance(rendered, Image.Image):
+                rendered = Image.open(io.BytesIO(rendered))
+
+            text = pytesseract.image_to_string(rendered)
+            words = text.split()
+            return PageChunk(
+                page_number=page_number,
+                text=text.strip(),
+                source="ocr",
+                word_count=len(words),
+            )
+        except Exception as exc:
+            logger.warning("pdf: OCR failed for page %d: %s", page_number, exc)
+            return PageChunk(page_number=page_number, text="", source="ocr", word_count=0)
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 1343928..d7fc0ea 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -107,6 +107,14 @@ gestures-mediapipe = [
     "opencv-python>=4.8",
     "numpy>=1.24",
 ]
+pdf = [
+    "pdfplumber>=0.11",
+]
+pdf-ocr = [
+    "circuitforge-core[pdf]",
+    "pytesseract>=0.3",
+    "Pillow>=10.0",
+]
 dev = [
     "circuitforge-core[manage]",
     "pytest>=8.0",
diff --git a/tests/test_documents/test_pdf.py b/tests/test_documents/test_pdf.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6afde6f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_documents/test_pdf.py
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+# tests/test_documents/test_pdf.py
+from __future__ import annotations
+from unittest.mock import MagicMock, patch
+import pytest
+from circuitforge_core.documents.pdf import PDFExtractor, PageChunk
+
+
+def _mock_page(text: str) -> MagicMock:
+    page = MagicMock()
+    page.extract_text.return_value = text
+    return page
+
+
+def _mock_pdf(pages: list[MagicMock]) -> MagicMock:
+    pdf = MagicMock()
+    pdf.__enter__ = MagicMock(return_value=pdf)
+    pdf.__exit__ = MagicMock(return_value=False)
+    pdf.pages = pages
+    return pdf
+
+
+def test_chunk_pages_single_text_layer_page():
+    page = _mock_page("Fireball deals 8d6 fire damage on a failed Dexterity saving throw.")
+    with patch("circuitforge_core.documents.pdf.pdfplumber") as mock_pl:
+        mock_pl.open.return_value = _mock_pdf([page])
+        chunks = PDFExtractor().chunk_pages("/fake/book.pdf")
+    assert len(chunks) == 1
+    assert chunks[0].page_number == 1
+    assert chunks[0].source == "text_layer"
+    assert "Fireball" in chunks[0].text
+    assert chunks[0].word_count >= 10
+
+
+def test_chunk_pages_numbers_from_one():
+    pages = [_mock_page(f"Rule text for page {i} " * 10) for i in range(1, 4)]
+    with patch("circuitforge_core.documents.pdf.pdfplumber") as mock_pl:
+        mock_pl.open.return_value = _mock_pdf(pages)
+        chunks = PDFExtractor().chunk_pages("/fake/book.pdf")
+    assert [c.page_number for c in chunks] == [1, 2, 3]
+
+
+def test_page_chunk_is_frozen():
+    chunk = PageChunk(page_number=1, text="hello", source="text_layer", word_count=1)
+    with pytest.raises(Exception):
+        chunk.text = "modified"  # type: ignore[misc]