document-mcp

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server exposing documents.js's document-conversion, .odb, metadata, and font tooling as MCP tools, so an MCP-speaking agent can convert, inspect, and edit docx/pptx/odt/odp/ods/odg/odf/pdf/odb/xlsx/markdown documents without writing TypeScript against documents.js directly.

document-mcp adds no conversion or editing logic of its own — it is a dispatch layer over documents.js's existing conversion functions, DocumentConverter port, and .odb/PDF readers, wired up as MCP tools served over stdio. document-cli is the sibling frontend over the identical documents.js library — a terminal CLI/TUI rather than an MCP server — so the two are independent consumers of one shared implementation and can expose different subsets of it. A convert_document call's fidelity — which (source, targetFormat) pairs round-trip losslessly, which are a best-effort reconstruction, and why — is exactly what documents.js's own Fidelity section documents, table included; it is not restated here.

graph TD
    schema("document-schema.js")
    ooxml("ooxml.js")
    odf("odf.js")
    pdfcodec("pdf-codec")
    mdcodec("markdown-codec")
    bytecodec("byte-codec")
    documents("documents.js")
    outline("document-outline.js")
    mcp("document-mcp")
    cli("document-cli")

    schema --> outline
    outline --> mcp
    schema --> ooxml
    schema --> odf
    schema --> pdfcodec
    schema --> mdcodec
    schema --> documents
    ooxml --> documents
    odf --> documents
    pdfcodec --> documents
    mdcodec --> documents
    bytecodec --> pdfcodec
    bytecodec --> documents
    documents --> mcp
    pdfcodec --> mcp
    documents --> cli
    odf --> cli
    pdfcodec --> cli

    click schema "https://github.com/ExaDev/documents.js/tree/main/packages/document-schema.js" "document-schema.js"
    click ooxml "https://github.com/ExaDev/documents.js/tree/main/packages/ooxml.js" "ooxml.js"
    click odf "https://github.com/ExaDev/documents.js/tree/main/packages/odf.js" "odf.js"
    click pdfcodec "https://github.com/ExaDev/documents.js/tree/main/packages/pdf-codec" "pdf-codec"
    click mdcodec "https://github.com/ExaDev/documents.js/tree/main/packages/markdown-codec" "markdown-codec"
    click bytecodec "https://github.com/ExaDev/documents.js/tree/main/packages/byte-codec" "byte-codec"
    click documents "https://github.com/ExaDev/documents.js" "documents.js"
    click outline "https://github.com/ExaDev/documents.js/tree/main/packages/document-outline.js" "document-outline.js"
    click mcp "https://github.com/ExaDev/documents.js/tree/main/packages/document-mcp" "document-mcp"
    click cli "https://github.com/ExaDev/documents.js/tree/main/packages/document-cli" "document-cli"

    style mcp fill:#f9a825,stroke:#333,stroke-width:3px

Getting started

Run the server directly — no install step needed:

npx document-mcp

The server uses stdio transport (runs as a local process). This is supported by Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex CLI, Codex Desktop, and OpenCode directly. Claude Web (claude.ai), Claude Mobile, and ChatGPT require a remote HTTP MCP server — see Remote transport below.

Compatibility

| Client | Transport | Direct support | | ---------------------------- | ------------------- | ------------------------- | | Claude Code (CLI) | stdio | ✅ | | Claude Code (plugin) | stdio | ✅ | | Claude Desktop | stdio | ✅ | | Codex CLI | stdio | ✅ | | Codex Desktop | stdio | ✅ | | OpenCode | stdio | ✅ | | Claude Team/Enterprise (org) | stdio (per-machine) | ✅ via managed settings | | Claude Web (claude.ai) | HTTP/SSE only | ❌ needs remote transport | | Claude Mobile (iOS/Android) | HTTP/SSE only | ❌ needs remote transport | | ChatGPT (web/desktop) | HTTP only | ❌ needs remote transport |

Connecting from Claude Code

One-liner (adds the MCP server directly):

claude mcp add --transport stdio document-mcp -- npx -y document-mcp

Or install as a Claude Code plugin (this repo is a plugin marketplace — includes auto-update on new releases):

From the terminal:

claude plugin marketplace add ExaDev/document-mcp
claude plugin install document-mcp@exadev

Or from within a running Claude Code session:

/plugin marketplace add ExaDev/document-mcp
/plugin install document-mcp@exadev

Run /reload-plugins to activate in an already-running session. In Claude Desktop or on claude.ai: Customize → Plugins → Browse plugins, search for document-mcp, and install.

Connecting from Codex CLI

codex mcp add document-mcp -- npx -y document-mcp

Or via the Codex Desktop app: Settings → MCP Servers → + Add.

Or add to ~/.codex/config.toml manually:

[mcp_servers.document-mcp]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "document-mcp"]

Connecting from OpenCode

Add to opencode.json:

{
  "mcp": {
    "document-mcp": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": ["npx", "-y", "document-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Connecting from Claude Desktop

Add to the mcpServers block in Claude Desktop's config file (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "document-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "document-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Or, for local development against a checkout of this repository rather than the published package, point command at the built binary directly:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "document-mcp": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/document-mcp/dist/bin.js"]
    }
  }
}

Connecting from Claude Team/Enterprise (organization)

Organization admins can deploy MCP server configurations centrally via server-managed settings (Admin Settings → Claude Code → Managed settings in the claude.ai console). A managed-settings.json entry for document-mcp enforces the connection across all Claude Code users in the org — no per-user setup needed. Admins can also allow/block specific MCP servers via allowedMcpServers/blockedMcpServers in the same file.

Remote transport (HTTP)

Claude Web, Claude Mobile, and ChatGPT only accept remote (HTTP/SSE) MCP servers — a local stdio process is not reachable from a browser or phone. To use document-mcp on those platforms, run it behind an HTTP transport:

npx document-mcp --transport http --port 3000

Then add the server URL (e.g., https://your-host:3000/mcp) as a connector in Claude Web (claude.ai/customize/connectors) or ChatGPT (Settings → Connectors → Advanced → Enable Developer Mode → Create). Use a tunnel (Cloudflare Tunnel, ngrok) or deploy to a server with TLS — both platforms require HTTPS.

Note: the --transport http flag is not yet implemented. The server currently only supports stdio. Track this as a future capability — the MCP SDK supports SSE/streamable-http transports, so adding it is a matter of wiring the existing server to an HTTP listener.

Development

Requires Node.js >=20 and pnpm 11.6.0 (pinned via packageManager in package.json).

pnpm install
pnpm build         # turbo -> tsdown -> dist/ (ESM + CJS + .d.ts)
pnpm typecheck     # turbo -> tsc --noEmit
pnpm lint          # turbo -> eslint . --fix --cache --max-warnings 0
pnpm test          # turbo -> vitest run --project unit
pnpm test:workers  # turbo -> vitest under the real Cloudflare Workers runtime (workerd) via @cloudflare/vitest-pool-workers, driving createServer() through an in-memory JSON-RPC pair
pnpm test:smoke    # turbo -> tsdown then vitest --project smoke -- spawns dist/bin.js as a real subprocess driven over genuine MCP stdio

Document I/O

Every tool that takes or produces document bytes goes through the same two hybrid shapes, documented once here rather than repeated per tool below.

Input (DocumentInput) is a union: either a filesystem path (the format is inferred from the file extension — docx, pptx, xlsx, odt, odp, ods, odg, odf, md/markdown, pdf), or inline bytesBase64 plus an explicit format (required, since inline bytes carry no filename to infer one from). Each ODF/OOXML template and macro-enabled variant also reads as its base format: .ott/.ots/.otp/.otg/.otf as odt/ods/odp/odg/odf, and .dotx/.potx/.xltx (templates) or .docm/.xlsm/.pptm (macro-enabled) as their OOXML base — a template is the same package with a -template mimetype, and a macro-enabled file carries a vbaProject part this library reads past without executing or re-emitting. .odb tools are the one exception: a .odb has no single DocumentFormat of its own (it is a database front end, not a document — tables, saved queries, and reports are three unrelated output shapes), so their source.path/source.bytesBase64 bytes are read directly with no format inference at all.

Output (DocumentOutput), on every tool that produces a document, is a single optional outputPath: supply it to have the tool write the result to that filesystem path (the response then reports { path, byteLength }); omit it to receive the bytes inline instead ({ bytesBase64, byteLength }, flagged large: true above 5 MB — advisory only, the bytes are never truncated or refused).

Tools

| Tool | Description | | --------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | convert_document | Converts a document from one supported format to another via documents.js's DocumentConverter port — docx, pptx, xlsx, odt, odp, ods, odg, odf, markdown, and pdf. Not every (source, targetFormat) pair is direct; call list_document_conversions first. | | list_document_conversions | Lists every (source, target) format pair convert_document actually supports. | | metadata_read | Reads a document's title/author/subject/keywords/creator/producer/created-and-modified timestamps. Works across every supported format, including xlsx and odf. | | metadata_write | Patches a document's title/author/subject/keywords in place. Does not convert format — source and target format must match (or both be pdf); odf (a standalone formula document) is rejected as either, since it has no write path back out at all. | | fonts | Lists every source-embedded font face a docx/pptx/odt/odp/ods/odg document carries (family, weight/style, byte length). | | describe_font_file | Reads a standalone .ttf/.otf font file and reports the family/bold/italic triple it declares about itself. | | docx_extras | Reads a docx's own comments, footnotes, header/footer parts, and numbering definitions — data the ContentDocument pivot cannot carry, so no other tool sees it. | | pdf_inspect | Parses a PDF and reports a summary (page count, per-page size and item-kind histogram, metadata, embedded image formats), or with full: true the entire parsed LayoutDocument as plain JSON — no $schema stamp, since that family moved to pdf-codec at document-schema.js 4.0.0 and lost its schema-stamped envelope. | | odm_to_pdf | Converts a .odm (ODF master document) to PDF. A .odm never carries its chapters' content inline, so each chapter resolves via a caller-supplied chapters href-to-document map and/or a chaptersDir searched by basename. | | from_package | Rebuilds real document bytes in a target format from a DocumentTree previously serialised to JSON (e.g. by a conversion tool's own onDocument/package-dump step). Only a package genuinely written by a current dump round-trips: the $schema URI it carries pins the document-schema.js release that wrote it, and a pre-4.0.0 dump (the flat { formatVersion, content, pages } envelope) is rejected with an error naming the pinned release, the flat-to-tree change, and the remedy — a layout-document dump gets its own pointer, naming the move to pdf-codec. | | outline_document | Projects a document's own table of contents as structured JSON: groups ({ text, level, children }) for headings, list items, slides, sheets, and draw pages, leaves ({ kind, text }) for the content between them. The outline is over the source's own content — read through documents.js's DocumentConverter port and built by document-outline.js's buildOutline. | | odb_tables | Lists every table an embedded .odb database declares — column names, types, and row data — across every storage tier documents.js supports (HSQLDB TEXT/CACHED/BINARY, Firebird gbak backups). | | odb_forms | Lists every form an .odb database declares, with each form's own data source and field-bound controls. | | odb_reports | Lists every report an .odb database declares, with each report's own data-source command, band/group structure, and rpt: formula expressions. | | odb_query | Runs a bounded single-table SELECT over an embedded .odb database's extracted tables — given directly as SQL or by naming a saved query. No database engine involved; an unsupported construct is reported as a tool error naming it, never silently ignored. | | odb_to_csv | Extracts exactly one named table from an embedded .odb database as CSV bytes. The table name is required whenever the database declares more than one table. | | odb_to_xlsx | Extracts every table an embedded .odb database declares into one xlsx workbook, one sheet per table. | | odb_render_report | Resolves one of an .odb database's own reports — its data-bound command run through the bounded SQL engine, its rpt: formulas evaluated, its bands laid out — and renders the result to docx, odt, or pdf. |

References

• documents.js — the library this server exposes.
• document-outline.js — the artefact-utilities package over document-schema.js's tree-form DocumentTree whose buildOutline powers outline_document.
• document-cli — the sibling CLI/TUI over the same library, whose toolchain this repository's scaffold mirrors.
• Model Context Protocol — the protocol this server implements, via @modelcontextprotocol/server.

Gotchas

• Runtime dependencies are documents.js + document-outline.js + @modelcontextprotocol/server + zod only; pdf-codec and odf.js are devDependencies (test-support only). document-outline.js is the one dependency beyond the server stack itself: outline_document imports buildOutline/outlineLeafText from it, and documents.js deliberately does not re-export them (the outline projection lives in the family's artefact-utilities package, which depends only on document-schema.js — already a transitive dependency via documents.js — so it adds no second copy of anything). Every runtime reach into pdf-codec/odf.js — ProvidedFont/FontSubstitution/describeFontFace/the WinAnsi substitution shape — goes through documents.js's own re-exports, so a published install pulls in no direct pdf-codec/odf.js dependency. odf.js survives in devDependencies solely because src/test-support/odm-fixture.ts and src/test-support/embedded-font-fixture.ts build real ODF package fixtures from its low-level XML primitives (zipPackage/el/rootElement), and src/test-support/ is excluded from the tsdown build — only src/index.ts and src/bin.ts are entry points — so neither fixture module ever ships in dist/.

Contributing

Release, CI, and commit-message conventions are all workspace-wide, not package-local — see the monorepo root README for the release mechanism and CONTRIBUTING.md for the shared git hooks and history conventions. Work inside packages/document-mcp/.

License

MIT