microsoft / microsoft/markitdown

FORMULAS feature is unconditionally set in Azure Document Intelligence converter

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Python
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Description

Problem

When using Azure Document Intelligence via markitdown,
DocumentAnalysisFeature.FORMULAS is always enabled, even when formula recognition is not required.

This behavior leads to degraded recognition accuracy, especially for documents that do not contain mathematical formulas.

The relevant code is here:
https://github.com/microsoft/markitdown/blob/main/packages/markitdown/src/markitdown/converters/_doc_intel_converter.py#L232

# _doc_intel_converter.py
features=[
    DocumentAnalysisFeature.FORMULAS,
    DocumentAnalysisFeature.TABLES,
]

Currently, FORMULAS is unconditionally included in the features list, making it impossible to disable.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Configure Azure Document Intelligence and enable it in markitdown
  2. Analyze a document that does not contain mathematical formulas
  3. Observe the extracted text / structure quality
  4. Compare results with and without the FORMULAS feature enabled

Expected Behavior

  • DocumentAnalysisFeature.FORMULAS should be optional and only enabled when explicitly requested
    or

  • It should be disabled by default for general-purpose document parsing

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start in packages/markitdown/src/markitdown/converters/_doc_intel_converter.py around the features list at line 232. Trace how Azure Document Intelligence options are configured and determine how formula recognition should be made optional or disabled by default. Done means FORMULAS is not unconditionally enabled and general-purpose conversion preserves the expected extraction quality.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
azure, python
Domain
backend, tooling
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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