PDF MCP Server
A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for processing large PDF files with intelligent chunking and text extraction.
Features
- PDF Metadata: Get file info, page count, author, title, etc.
- Text Extraction: Extract text from specific page ranges with character limits
- PDF Search: Search within PDFs with contextual results
- Smart Chunking: Calculate optimal page ranges for processing large PDFs
Tools
1. pdf_get_metadata
Get metadata about a PDF file.
Parameters:
pdf_path(string, required): Full path to the PDF file
Returns:
- File size, page count, title, author, and other metadata
2. pdf_extract_text
Extract text from a range of pages.
Parameters:
pdf_path(string, required): Full path to the PDF filestart_page(integer, optional): Starting page (1-indexed, default: 1)end_page(integer, optional): Ending page (default: last page)max_chars(integer, optional): Maximum characters to extract
Returns:
- Extracted text with page markers
- Character count and truncation info
3. pdf_search
Search for text within a PDF.
Parameters:
pdf_path(string, required): Full path to the PDF filequery(string, required): Text to search for (case-insensitive)context_chars(integer, optional): Context characters around matches (default: 200)max_results(integer, optional): Maximum results (default: 50)
Returns:
- List of matches with page numbers and context
4. pdf_get_chunks
Calculate optimal chunking strategy for large PDFs.
Parameters:
pdf_path(string, required): Full path to the PDF filemax_chars_per_chunk(integer, optional): Target chunk size (default: 50000)overlap_pages(integer, optional): Page overlap between chunks (default: 1)
Returns:
- List of chunks with page ranges and estimated character counts
Installation
- Install dependencies:
pip install -r requirements.txt
- Configure in Claude Code (see Configuration section)
Configuration
Add to your Claude Code MCP settings (%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json on Windows):
{
"mcpServers": {
"pdf-processor": {
"command": "python",
"args": ["c:\\Users\\Will\\pdf-mcp-server\\server.py"]
}
}
}
After configuration, restart Claude Code to load the MCP server.
Usage Examples
Processing a 55MB PDF
- First, get metadata:
Use pdf_get_metadata to check the page count
- Calculate chunks:
Use pdf_get_chunks to determine optimal page ranges
- Extract text by chunk:
Use pdf_extract_text with the page ranges from step 2
- Search across the PDF:
Use pdf_search to find specific content
Technical Details
- Uses
pdfplumberfor high-quality text extraction - Uses
pypdffor metadata and PDF structure - Runs locally using your compute resources
- No file size limits (processes in chunks)
- Handles encrypted PDFs (if not password-protected)
Troubleshooting
Server not appearing in Claude Code:
- Check that the path in config is correct
- Restart Claude Code after configuration changes
- Check Python is accessible from command line
Extraction issues:
- Scanned PDFs may have poor text extraction (OCR not yet implemented)
- Some PDFs may have unusual encoding