MarkItDown-MCP

[!IMPORTANT] The MarkItDown-MCP package is meant for local use, with local trusted agents. In particular, when running the MCP server with Streamable HTTP or SSE, it binds to localhost by default, and is not exposed to other machines on the network or Internet. In this configuration, it is meant to be a direct alternative to the STDIO transport, which may be more convenient in some cases. DO NOT bind the server to other interfaces unless you understand the security implications of doing so.

The markitdown-mcp package provides a lightweight STDIO, Streamable HTTP, 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, using STDIO (default), use the following command:

markitdown-mcp

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

markitdown-mcp --http --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 instructions 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"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Debugging

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

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector

You can then connect to the inspector 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 Streamable HTTP:

• select Streamable HTTP as the transport type,
• input http://127.0.0.1:3001/mcp as the URL, 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 of the user running it. For this reason, when running in SSE or Streamable HTTP mode, the server binds by default to localhost. Even still, it is important to recognize that the server can be accessed by any process or users on the same local machine, and that the convert_to_markdown tool can be used to read any file that the server's user has access to, or any data from the network. If you require additional security, consider running the server in a sandboxed environment, such as a virtual machine or container, and ensure that the user permissions are properly configured to limit access to sensitive files and network segments. Above all, DO NOT bind the server to other interfaces (non-localhost) unless you understand the security implications of doing so.

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.