markitdown/packages/markitdown-mcp/README.md

MarkItDown-MCP

The markitdown-mcp package provides a lightweight STDIO and SSE MCP server for calling MarkItDown.

It exposes one tool: convert_to_markdown(uri), where uri can be any http:, https:, file:, or data: URI.

Installation

To install the package, use pip:

pip install markitdown-mcp

Usage

To run the MCP server, ussing STDIO (default) use the following command:

markitdown-mcp

To run the MCP server, using SSE use the following command:

markitdown-mcp --sse --host 127.0.0.1 --port 3001

Running in Docker

To run markitdown-mcp in Docker, build the Docker image using the provided Dockerfile:

docker build -t markitdown-mcp:latest .

And run it using:

docker run -it --rm markitdown-mcp:latest

This will be sufficient for remote URIs. To access local files, you need to mount the local directory into the container. For example, if you want to access files in /home/user/data, you can run:

docker run -it --rm -v /home/user/data:/workdir markitdown-mcp:latest

Once mounted, all files under data will be accessible under /workdir in the container. For example, if you have a file example.txt in /home/user/data, it will be accessible in the container at /workdir/example.txt.

Accessing from Claude Desktop

It is recommended to use the Docker image when running the MCP server for Claude Desktop.

Follow these instrutions to access Claude's claude_desktop_config.json file.

Edit it to include the following JSON entry:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "markitdown": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--rm",
        "-i",
        "markitdown-mcp:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

If you want to mount a directory, adjust it accordingly:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "markitdown": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
	"run",
	"--rm",
	"-i",
	"-v",
	"/home/user/data:/workdir",
	"markitdown-mcp:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Accessing from VS Code

For quick installation, use one of the one-click install buttons below...

For manual installation, add the following JSON block to your User Settings (JSON) file in VS Code. You can do this by pressing Ctrl + Shift + P and typing Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON).

Optionally, you can add it to a file called .vscode/mcp.json in your workspace. This will allow you to share the configuration with others.

Note that the mcp key is not needed in the .vscode/mcp.json file.

Using pip:

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "markitdown": {
        "command": "markitdown-mcp"
      }
    }
  }
}

Using Docker:

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "markitdown": {
        "command": "docker",
        "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "markitdown-mcp:latest"]
      }
    }
  }
}

If you need to access local files, you can mount a directory using Docker:

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "markitdown": {
        "command": "docker",
        "args": [
          "run",
          "-i",
          "--rm",
          "-v",
      	  "/home/user/data:/workdir",
	        "markitdown-mcp:latest"
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

Debugging

To debug the MCP server you can use the mcpinspector tool.

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector

You can then connect to the insepctor through the specified host and port (e.g., http://localhost:5173/).

If using STDIO:

• select STDIO as the transport type,
• input markitdown-mcp as the command, and
• click Connect

If using SSE:

• select SSE as the transport type,
• input http://127.0.0.1:3001/sse as the URL, and
• click Connect

Finally:

• click the Tools tab,
• click List Tools,
• click convert_to_markdown, and
• run the tool on any valid URI.

Security Considerations

The server does not support authentication, and runs with the privileges if the user running it. For this reason, when running in SSE mode, it is recommended to run the server bound to localhost (default).

Trademarks

This project may contain trademarks or logos for projects, products, or services. Authorized use of Microsoft trademarks or logos is subject to and must follow Microsoft's Trademark & Brand Guidelines. Use of Microsoft trademarks or logos in modified versions of this project must not cause confusion or imply Microsoft sponsorship. Any use of third-party trademarks or logos are subject to those third-party's policies.