MarkItDown
A Model Context Protocol server that converts over 29 file formats, including PDFs, Office documents, and audio, into structured Markdown using Microsoft's MarkItDown library. It enables AI assistants to process diverse document types through single
What is MarkItDown?
MarkItDown is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, and VS Code to model context protocol server that converts over 29 file formats, including pdfs, office documents, and audio, into structured markdown using microsoft's markitdown library. it enables ai assistants t...
A Model Context Protocol server that converts over 29 file formats, including PDFs, Office documents, and audio, into structured Markdown using Microsoft's MarkItDown library. It enables AI assistants to process diverse document types through single
This server falls under the File Systems category on MCPgee, the world's largest MCP server directory with 33,000+ servers.
Features
- A Model Context Protocol server that converts over 29 file f
Use Cases
Maintainer
Works with
Installation
Manual Installation
npx markitdown-mcp-serverConfiguration
Configuration Details
claude_desktop_config.json
Performance
Response Metrics
Resource Usage
How to Set Up and Use MarkItDown
MarkItDown MCP Server wraps Microsoft's MarkItDown library as a Model Context Protocol server, giving AI assistants a single tool to convert over 29 file formats — including PDFs, PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, images (with OCR), audio files (with transcription), HTML pages, CSV, JSON, and XML — into clean, structured Markdown. This enables Claude and other MCP-compatible assistants to read and reason over virtually any document type without requiring separate format-specific plugins. It is especially useful for knowledge workers who need to feed heterogeneous document collections into AI workflows.
Prerequisites
- Python 3.10 or later with uv package manager installed
- An MCP-compatible client such as Claude Desktop or Zed Editor
- Optional: system libraries for OCR (Tesseract) if processing scanned images
- Optional: ffmpeg if converting audio files to transcribed Markdown
Install via Smithery (quickest path)
Use the Smithery CLI to install the server and automatically register it with your Claude Desktop client in one command.
npx -y @smithery/cli install @KorigamiK/markitdown_mcp_server --client claudeOr clone and install manually with uv
If you prefer a manual setup, clone the repository and install dependencies using the uv package manager.
git clone https://github.com/KorigamiK/markitdown_mcp_server.git
cd markitdown_mcp_server
uv installConfigure Claude Desktop manually
Add the server to your Claude Desktop config file at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json, pointing uv at the local repo directory.
{
"mcpServers": {
"markitdown_mcp": {
"command": "uv",
"args": ["--directory", "/path/to/markitdown_mcp_server", "run", "markitdown-mcp"]
}
}
}Configure Zed Editor
For Zed users, add the server under the context_servers key in Zed's settings.json file.
{
"context_servers": {
"markitdown_mcp": {
"command": {
"path": "uv",
"args": ["--directory", "/path/to/markitdown_mcp_server", "run", "markitdown-mcp"]
}
}
}
}Restart your MCP client
Restart Claude Desktop or reload Zed to pick up the new server configuration. The markitdown_mcp server will appear in the available tools list.
Convert a file
Ask the AI assistant to convert any supported file by referencing its path. The server exposes a single convert-to-markdown tool that accepts a file path and returns the Markdown content.
MarkItDown Examples
Client configuration
Manual Claude Desktop configuration using uv to run the server from a local clone.
{
"mcpServers": {
"markitdown_mcp": {
"command": "uv",
"args": [
"--directory",
"/Users/yourname/markitdown_mcp_server",
"run",
"markitdown-mcp"
]
}
}
}Prompts to try
Once connected, ask Claude to process documents using natural language.
- "Convert /Users/me/reports/Q3_results.pptx to Markdown and summarize the key findings"
- "Read the PDF at ~/Documents/contract.pdf and extract all dates and parties mentioned"
- "Convert my Excel spreadsheet at ~/data/sales.xlsx to Markdown and identify the top 5 products by revenue"
- "Transcribe the audio file at ~/recordings/meeting.mp3 and give me the action items"
- "Parse the HTML file at ~/export.html and reformat it as a clean Markdown document"Troubleshooting MarkItDown
uv command not found during installation
Install uv with: curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh — then restart your shell before retrying.
OCR on scanned PDFs or images returns empty or garbled text
Install Tesseract OCR (brew install tesseract on macOS, apt install tesseract-ocr on Ubuntu) and ensure it is on your PATH so MarkItDown can use it during conversion.
Audio transcription fails with a codec error
Install ffmpeg (brew install ffmpeg or apt install ffmpeg) which MarkItDown requires to decode audio before transcription.
Frequently Asked Questions about MarkItDown
What is MarkItDown?
MarkItDown is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that model context protocol server that converts over 29 file formats, including pdfs, office documents, and audio, into structured markdown using microsoft's markitdown library. it enables ai assistants to process diverse document types through single It connects AI assistants to external tools and data sources through a standardized interface.
How do I install MarkItDown?
Follow the installation instructions on the MarkItDown GitHub repository. Clone the repo, install dependencies, and add the server config to your AI client.
Which AI clients work with MarkItDown?
MarkItDown works with all major MCP-compatible AI clients including Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code (GitHub Copilot), Windsurf, and Cline.
Is MarkItDown free to use?
Yes, MarkItDown is open source and available under the MIT License license. You can use it freely in both personal and commercial projects.
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Set Up MarkItDown in Your Editor
Choose your AI client for step-by-step setup instructions.
Quick Config Preview
Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json or .cursor/mcp.json
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