MCP PDF Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server exposing tools to render Markdown into PDF.

What’s included

• MCP tools: pdf_from_markdown (primary) and md_to_pdf (alias).
• Accepts inline Markdown or a file path.
• Options for paper format and orientation; sensible output/ defaults.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ recommended.

Install

npm install
# Download browsers for Playwright (Chromium only is enough):
npx playwright install chromium

Build

npm run build

Run (stdio)

npm start

Configure in your MCP-compatible client by pointing to the compiled binary or npm start command.

MCP Tools

• Tool ids: pdf_from_markdown (primary) and md_to_pdf (alias for discoverability)
  • Purpose: Generate a PDF from Markdown.
  • Inputs:
    • markdown (string, optional): Inline Markdown content. If set, path is ignored.
    • path (string, optional): Absolute or relative path to a .md file. Ignored if markdown is provided.
    • outputPath (string, optional): Desired output PDF path. Defaults to output/<timestamp>.pdf and creates missing directories.
    • paperFormat (string, optional): A4 | Letter | Legal (default: A4).
    • paperOrientation (string, optional): portrait | landscape (default: portrait).
    • Provide exactly one of markdown or path. If both are set, markdown takes precedence.
  • Output:
    • Returns a text message containing the absolute path to the created PDF.
  • Example (inline):

    {
      "tool": "md_to_pdf",
      "arguments": {
        "markdown": "# Hello\nThis will render to PDF.",
        "paperFormat": "A4"
      }
    }

  • Example (file path):

    {
      "tool": "pdf_from_markdown",
      "arguments": {
        "path": "examples/sample.md",
        "outputPath": "output/sample.pdf",
        "paperOrientation": "landscape"
      }
    }

Tool Schema (compact)

tools:
  - id: pdf_from_markdown
    alias: md_to_pdf
    params:
      markdown?: string                # Inline Markdown (preferred if both set)
      path?: string                    # Path to a .md file
      outputPath?: string              # Output PDF path (default: output/<timestamp>.pdf)
      paperFormat?: 'A4'|'Letter'|'Legal'      # default: 'A4'
      paperOrientation?: 'portrait'|'landscape' # default: 'portrait'
    constraints:
      - Provide exactly one of markdown or path (if both provided, markdown is used)
    result:
      - type: text
        text: "PDF created at: <absolute path>"

Client configuration (example) If your MCP client supports JSON configuration for a stdio server, a minimal entry might look like:

{
  "servers": {
    "mcp-pdf": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Notes

• Uses Playwright (Chromium) to render HTML from Markdown and print to PDF.
• On first install, Playwright may download a browser. You can also point it to an existing Chrome/Chromium.

One‑liner with npx

• After this package is published to npm, you can run the server directly:
  • npx -y md-2-pdf-mcp (runs the md-2-pdf-mcp bin)
  • Or explicitly: npx -y -p md-2-pdf-mcp mcp-pdf
  • The package defines bin entries and a postinstall that installs Chromium.
• From the local repo (without publishing):
  • npx --yes .
  • This uses the bin in package.json and the prepare script to build.