Markdownify MCP Server: Converts various content to Markdown format based on the MCP protocol.

General Introduction

Markdownify MCP Server is an open source tool based on the Model Context Protocol, hosted on GitHub and created by developer Zach Caceres. It specializes in quickly converting a wide range of file types (e.g., PDFs, images, audio, office documents, etc.) as well as web content into a clean Markdown format. This tool is especially suited for users who need to organize complex information, generate documents, or extract content, such as developers, content creators, or data analysts. With simple setup and runtime steps, users can unify disparate information into easy-to-read Markdown files and increase productivity. The project supports community contributions, and the code is transparent and easily extensible for further customization by technology enthusiasts.

Function List

• Document type conversionConvert PDF, Word, Excel and other office documents to Markdown.
• Image Text Extraction: Extracts text from images and converts it to Markdown using OCR technology.
• audio transcription: Transcribe audio files to text and output to Markdown format.
• Web Content Extraction: Crawls web page text from a specified URL and converts it to Markdown.
• Multi-format support: Compatible with the conversion of tables, slides (PPT) and many other complex formats.
• command-line operation: Provides a simple command line interface for easy batch file processing.
• scalability: Based on the MCP protocol, it supports user-defined tools and functions.

Using Help

Installation process

To use Markdownify MCP Server, you need to set up the environment locally. Below are the detailed installation steps:

1. clone warehouse
   • Open a terminal and enter the following command to clone the project locally:

     git clone https://github.com/zcaceres/markdownify-mcp.git
     

   • Go to the project catalog:

     cd markdownify-mcp
     

2. Installation of dependencies
   • The project is based on Node.js development, so you need to make sure that Node.js is installed locally (recommended version is LTS).
   • Run it in the project directory:

     npm install
     

   • This will install all the necessary dependency packages such as uv(for generic processing), etc. If prompted for a missing specific tool (e.g. uv), you need to manually install and configure environment variables UV_PATH, for example:

     export UV_PATH="/path/to/uv"
     

3. Build and Run
   • Build project:

     npm run build
     

   • Start the server:

     npm start
     

   • Or just run it with the full command (according to the configuration file):

     node dist/index.js
     

   • Once started, the server listens on the local port and waits for an input file or URL.

How to use the main features

1. Convert local files to Markdown

• procedure::
  1. Prepare the files to be converted (e.g. example.pdf,image.jpg maybe audio.mp3) into the project directory or a specified path.
  2. Run the following command in a terminal (assuming the file name is example.pdf):

     node dist/index.js --file example.pdf --output result.md
     

  3. Wait for processing to complete and output the file result.md will be generated in the specified directory.
• caveat::
  • For image files, make sure that an OCR tool (such as Tesseract) is installed on your system.
  • For audio files, it may be necessary to additionally configure a voice transcription service.

2. Converting web content to Markdown

• procedure::
  1. Get the URL of the target page, e.g. https://example.comThe
  2. Enter it in the terminal:

     node dist/index.js --url https://example.com --output webpage.md
     

  3. Upon completion of processingwebpage.md The file will contain the main text content of the web page in Markdown format.
• Featured Functions::
  • Support extracting YouTube video descriptions or subtitles (with related API).
  • Handles pages with nested tables or complex layouts.

3. Batch processing of multiple documents

• procedure::
  1. Putting multiple files into a folder (e.g. input_files).
  2. Run the batch processing command:

     node dist/index.js --dir input_files --output-dir output_files
     

  3. A separate Markdown file will be generated for each file and saved in the output_files folder.
• dominance::
  • Ideal for organizing large amounts of documents or information and saving time on manual operations.

4. Extension of customization tools

• procedure::
  1. Edit the project's dist/index.js or related configuration files.
  2. Add new tools based on the MCP protocol, such as custom OCR models or specific web parsing rules.
  3. Rebuild and run:

     npm run build && npm start
     

• Applicable Scenarios::
  • If the default functionality does not meet the requirements, the functionality can be extended programmatically.

Operation process details

• Document Conversion Process::
  1. The user enters the file path or URL.
  2. The server calls the appropriate module (OCR, transcription or web crawling) to process the data.
  3. The result is formatted in Markdown and output to the specified file.
• error handling::
  • If a missing dependency is encountered, the terminal will prompt an error message, such as uv not foundNeed to check UV_PATH Whether or not it is configured correctly.
  • Network problems may cause the page to fail to be crawled, so it is recommended to check if the URL is valid.
• Optimization Recommendations::
  • For large files, chunking is recommended to avoid memory overflow.
  • Regularly update the repository code to ensure that the latest features and fixes are used.

With the above steps, users can easily get started with Markdownify MCP Server to organize cluttered documents or web content into a unified Markdown format, suitable for document management, knowledge organization or content creation.