Pdf MCP

Agentic RAG over your PDFs, one file or a whole folder, as a single MCP tool. Its 13 documented tools cover pdf, corpus, pages, cache. It runs locally over stdio via the published package.

People who work with pdf, corpus and pages and want it reachable from Claude, Cursor, VS Code, or another MCP client. The project is written in Python.

VERIFIED ACTIVE

LAST COMMIT 2026-09-17 · ★ 135 · #2 OF 41 MAINTAINED FILESYSTEM · VERIFIED 2026-09-18

MIT · Python servers · how we verify → /methodology

01 · Install Pdf MCP

before you install - you'll need

Set PDF_MCP_AUTH_TOKEN before connecting.

Claude Code

claude mcp add jztan-pdf-mcp -- uvx pdf-mcp

Claude Desktop / Cursor / VS Code - add to config

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jztan-pdf-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "pdf-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Same JSON for Cursor. For VS Code, rename the top-level key from `mcpServers` to `servers`.

Using another client? Same JSON, different key

Claude Desktop · mcpServers

Cursor · mcpServers

VS Code · servers

Windsurf · mcpServers

Zed · context_servers

Cline · mcpServers

Roo Code · mcpServers

Continue · mcpServers

LibreChat · mcpServers

Gemini CLI · mcpServers

Codex CLI · mcp_servers

Full setup guides: every client.

02 · Evidence

Security posture

What to check before giving this server access to your agent - from the registry, GitHub, and our own probes. We don't score safety; we show what's verifiable.

runs as local process (stdio) - runs on your machine with your user's permissions

license MIT - declared in the repository

pypi package pdf-mcp - check the name against the project README before installing (PyPI has no namespace ownership)

registry namespace io.github.jztan is GitHub-verified and matches the repo owner

03 · What Pdf MCP can do

Prose above is summarized from the project's README and registry record - no invented capabilities.

What you can build

With this server connected, an agent can read specific pages or ranges, with OCR on demand, tables, and embedded images, read a whole document in one call, byte-capped, and search across a folder, with document and page provenance.

Capability map

Tools grouped from the project's README - what Pdf MCP lets an agent do.

Pdf

12 tools - e.g. Page count, metadata, TOC summary, scanned-page detection. Call first.; Hybrid search (keyword + semantic), page or section granularity, paragraph or context-window excerpts with source coordinates; Read…

pdf_info · pdf_search · pdf_read_pages · pdf_read_all · pdf_get_toc · pdf_render_pages…

Server

1 tool - e.g. Which optional features and config are active

server_info

Latest releases

v3.2.0 · 2026-09-12

Highlights · Embedding, the step behind semantic search and corpus warming, is faster on CPU in this release and can now run on an NVIDIA GPU. · On CPU, embedding 778 real page units on an M4 Pro went from 25.9 s to…

v3.1.0 · 2026-09-05

Highlights · Search results now tell you when a document has no searchable text. A scanned, never-OCR'd PDF used to return zero hits that looked identical to "term not found". Every search and warm response now carries…

v3.0.0 · 2026-08-29

Highlights · pdf-mcp 3.0.0 replaces the runtime PDF engine with a permissive, fully MIT-compatible stack, and quality was gated on the full benchmark set before the swap. Excerpt containment rose to 0.773 from 0.707…

04 · Who maintains Pdf MCP

pdf-mcp is maintained by jztan. We track 3 MCP servers from jztan - 3 actively maintained, 215 combined GitHub stars, oldest repo from May 2025. Full record: all servers from jztan.

  1. redmine-mcp-server MCP server that lets AI assistants manage Redmine issues, projects, wikis, and time tracking ★ 77
  2. qt4-doc-mcp-server Offline MCP server for local Qt 4.8, Qt 5, and Qt 6 documentation with full-text search. ★ 3

05 · Facts

repository
github.com/jztan/pdf-mcp
category
filesystem - ranked #2 of 41 actively-maintained filesystem servers as of 2026-09-18.
release cadence
10+ releases in the last 90 days (latest 2026-09-12)
registry
io.github.jztan/pdf-mcp (active, first published 2026-02-01 · 28 versions)
packages
pypi:pdf-mcp

06 · Pdf MCP FAQ

Is Pdf MCP still maintained?

Yes - as of 2026-09-18, its last commit was 2026-09-17 and it shipped 10+ releases in the last 90 days. We re-verify nightly.

What can Pdf MCP do?

With this server connected, an agent can read specific pages or ranges, with OCR on demand, tables, and embedded images, read a whole document in one call, byte-capped, and search across a folder, with document and page provenance.

How do I install Pdf MCP?

Run `uvx pdf-mcp`. The README documents one environment variable (PDF_MCP_AUTH_TOKEN) to set first. Set PDF_MCP_AUTH_TOKEN before connecting. You can also paste the ready-made client config above.

Does Pdf MCP run locally?

Yes - it's a stdio server: it runs on your machine (via uvx) with your user's permissions. Your data stays local unless the server itself calls external APIs.

07 · Alternatives to Pdf MCP

Alternatives to Pdf MCP

Maintained filesystem servers if Pdf MCP isn't the fit.

  1. Server Filesystem MCP server for filesystem access ★ 39,038 · 2026-09-11
  2. Directory A directory of product launch platforms: where your product qualifies and how each form is filled. ★ 297 · 2026-08-19
  3. Remote Filesystem MCP server for remote filesystem operations on cloud storage (Google Cloud Storage). ★ 80 · 2026-08-30
  4. Keibi Drop Give two agents on two machines the same encrypted folder. P2P, no cloud, only read bytes move. ★ 60 · 2026-09-16
  5. V8 Run JavaScript and TypeScript in sandboxed V8 isolates with policy-controlled host capabilities. ★ 57 · 2026-09-08
  6. Work OS Manage your WorkOS workspace in plain language: orgs, users, SSO, Directory Sync, and AuthKit. ★ 46 · 2026-09-17

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