Document Reading

You have a Document Reading and Converter MCP server that lets you convert PDFs and Word documents to Markdown and back, enabling smooth reading and editing of formats that the built-in document reader cannot process on its own. This server expands your document workflow by handling PDF, DOCX, and Markdown conversions directly through MCP-compatible clients.

How to use

You interact with the document-reading MCP from an MCP client or editor. Start the server, then request conversions between PDF, DOCX, and Markdown as needed. Typical workflows include converting a PDF or DOCX to Markdown for in-app editing, converting Markdown to DOCX or PDF for sharing, and reading documents in Markdown format to maintain context without overflowing document size.

How to install

Prerequisites you need before installing the MCP server are listed here. Make sure you meet these requirements so installation and runtime are smooth.

uv add doc-reading-mcp

Or install directly from the source with:

uv add git+https://github.com/mffrydman/doc-reading-mcp.git

Additional setup and usage notes

You can run the MCP in several ways depending on your tooling preference. The standalone runtime and inspector-assisted workflows are shown below.

Run as a standalone server with the runtime command:

uv run mcp install -m doc_reading_mcp

Configuration for Claude Desktop, Cursor, or Windsurf

Register the server with your MCP client by providing the following configuration. It maps a local MCP server named doc-reading-mcp to the runtime you chose.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "doc-reading-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "doc-reading-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Additional run options from the toolset

You can also run with the inspector utility to diagnose and debug MCP configurations.

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uvx run -m doc_reading_mcp

Extended run configurations for MCP clients

If your environment uses a direct UV/CLI path, you can configure the client to invoke the MCP server with a specific directory and module name.

{
  "doc-reading-mcp": {
    "command": "uv",
    "args": [
      "--directory",
      "/absolute/path/to/mffrydman/doc-reading-mcp",
      "run",
      "-m",
      "doc_reading_mcp"
    ]
  }
}

Notes on paths and environment

Replace "/absolute/path/to/" with the actual path on your system to point to the local MCP server files. If you need environmental variables, include those in your MCP client configuration as needed.

Available tools

PDF to Markdown conversion

Converts PDF documents to Markdown text using marker-pdf as the conversion engine.

DOCX to Markdown conversion

Converts DOCX documents to Markdown using pandoc for accurate formatting.

Markdown to DOCX conversion

Converts Markdown documents to DOCX using pandoc to preserve structure and styling.

Markdown to PDF conversion

Converts Markdown documents to PDF using pandoc for easy distribution.