pdfnative-mcp

Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that bridges the pdfnative library — a zero-dependency, ISO 32000-1 compliant PDF engine — to any MCP-compatible AI client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Continue, ChatGPT, Zed, …).

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✨ Features

pdfnative-mcp exposes 13 production-grade tools to any MCP host:

Tool	Purpose
generate_basic_pdf	Multi-page A4 documents from structured blocks (headings, paragraphs, lists, page breaks). Embedded newlines auto-split into paragraphs. Optional pdfA.
add_barcode	QR Code, Code 128, EAN-13, Data Matrix, PDF417 — embedded in a single-page PDF.
add_international_text	24 scripts (incl. Latin & COLRv1 colour emoji) with BiDi & OpenType shaping; multi-lang per document.
add_table	Tabular reports with smart fields (wrap, repeatHeader, zebra, caption, minRowHeight, cellPadding).
add_form	Interactive AcroForm PDFs with text fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, dropdowns.
embed_image	Embed a JPEG or PNG image (base64) into a titled PDF document.
prepare_signature_placeholder	Step 1 of the two-step sign workflow — create a PDF with a /Sig AcroForm placeholder.
sign_pdf	Apply a PAdES-compatible CMS signature (RSA-SHA256 / ECDSA-SHA256 P-256). Auto-injects a placeholder when needed.
verify_pdf	Verify every PAdES signature in a PDF (integrity + signature value + optional chain trust).
validate_pdf (new in v1.1.0)	Validate a Tagged PDF for PDF/UA (ISO 14289-1) structural conformance (read-only).
add_attachment	Generate a PDF/A-3 document with embedded files (Factur-X / ZUGFeRD invoices).
extract_text	Best-effort plain-text extraction from a non-encrypted PDF.
inspect_pdf	Read-only inspection: PDF version, page count, encryption, PDF/A claim, signatures, attachments, placeholder state.

New in v1.1.0:

• 🆕 Tool validate_pdf — read-only PDF/UA (ISO 14289-1) structural conformance check.
• 🆕 Six new scripts — Telugu, Sinhala, Tibetan, Khmer, Myanmar, Ethiopic (24 scripts total).
• 🆕 COLRv1 colour emoji — native colour emoji with monochrome fallback.
• 🆕 Newline sanitizer — embedded \n in paragraphs auto-splits into separate paragraphs (Safe PDF/A).
• 🆕 Automatic NFC normalisation for add_international_text.
• 🛠 Engine upgrade — pdfnative v1.3.0: the Euro sign / CP-1252 symbols now extract correctly, and wrapped table cells get unique per-line MCIDs (PDF/UA-safe).

New in v1.0.0:

• 🆕 Three new tools: verify_pdf, add_attachment (Factur-X / ZUGFeRD), extract_text.
• 🆕 Smart-table fields: wrap, repeatHeader, zebra, caption, minRowHeight, cellPadding.
• 🆕 inspect_pdf now reports hasSignaturePlaceholder and per-attachment summary; new check values 'placeholder' and 'attachments'.
• 🆕 Signing ergonomics: sign_pdf accepts ECDSA SEC1 / PKCS#8 DER keys and auto-injects a /Sig placeholder when missing (one-call signing of any PDF).
• 🆕 Opt-in cache (PDFNATIVE_MCP_CACHE_DIR): SHA-256 keyed, 1 h TTL, 256 MiB LRU.
• 🆕 _meta.apiVersion and per-tool _meta.examples for AI-agent discovery — see docs/API_STABILITY.md.
• 🆕 AI agent guide: docs/AI_GUIDE.md — decision tree + common pitfalls.
• 🆕 PDF/A authoring guide: docs/guides/PDFA.md.
• 🛠 Env-var rename: PDFNATIVE_MCP_OUTPUT_DIR (was PDFNATIVE_MPC_OUTPUT_DIR; old name still works with a one-shot deprecation warning).
• ⏭ Deferred to v1.1: merge_pdfs, split_pdf, redact_pdf (require pdfnative page-tree primitives not yet exported).

All tools support two output modes:

• base64 (default) — the PDF is returned inline in the MCP response.
• file — the PDF is written to a sandboxed directory configured via PDFNATIVE_MCP_OUTPUT_DIR. File output is disabled unless this variable is set; absolute paths, path traversal, non-.pdf extensions, and NUL bytes are all rejected.

Why pdfnative?

pdfnative-mcp inherits every guarantee of the underlying engine:

• Zero runtime dependencies — pure JavaScript, no native bindings.
• ISO 32000-1 (PDF 1.7) compliant output.
• PDF/A-1b/2b/3b, AES-128/256 encryption, AcroForm, digital signatures.
• 16 Unicode scripts with built-in BiDi reordering, Arabic positional shaping, Thai/Devanagari/Bengali/Tamil OpenType shaping.
• Tree-shakeable ESM build.

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🚀 Installation

# Run directly with npx (recommended for MCP clients)
npx -y pdfnative-mcp

# Or install globally
npm install -g pdfnative-mcp
pdfnative-mcp

Requirements: Node.js ≥ 22.

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⚙️ Configuration

Claude Desktop

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pdfnative": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "pdfnative-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "PDFNATIVE_MCP_OUTPUT_DIR": "/Users/you/Documents/mcp-pdfs"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor / Continue / Zed / Windsurf / Cline / Roo Code

Any MCP-compatible client that supports stdio servers will work. Use the same command + args + env triple. Example for Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pdfnative": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "pdfnative-mcp"],
      "env": { "PDFNATIVE_MCP_OUTPUT_DIR": "/Users/you/Documents/mcp-pdfs" }
    }
  }
}

Windsurf / Cline / Roo Code use the same shape inside their respective MCP config files.

Environment variables

Variable	Purpose
PDFNATIVE_MCP_OUTPUT_DIR	Absolute path to the sandbox directory. Required to enable outputMode: 'file'.
PDFNATIVE_MCP_CACHE_DIR	Absolute path to enable the persistent SHA-256-keyed result cache (1 h TTL, 256 MiB LRU). When unset, the cache is disabled.
PDFNATIVE_MCP_PORT	When set to a valid port (1–65535), starts an HTTP server on http://127.0.0.1:<port>/mcp instead of stdio.

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🛠 Tool reference

generate_basic_pdf

{
  "title": "Q1 2026 Report",
  "blocks": [
    { "type": "heading", "text": "Executive summary", "level": 1 },
    { "type": "paragraph", "text": "Revenue grew 24% year over year." },
    { "type": "list", "style": "bullet", "items": ["Strong APAC", "Stable EU", "Soft NA"] },
    { "type": "pageBreak" },
    { "type": "heading", "text": "Details", "level": 2 }
  ],
  "footerText": "Confidential — Internal use only",
  "outputMode": "base64"
}

add_barcode

{
  "format": "qr",
  "data": "https://pdfnative.dev",
  "caption": "Scan to learn more",
  "ecLevel": "H",
  "outputMode": "file",
  "outputPath": "tickets/event-42.pdf"
}

Supported formats: qr, code128, ean13, datamatrix, pdf417.

add_international_text

{
  "title": "مرحبا بالعالم",
  "lang": "ar",
  "paragraphs": [
    "هذا اختبار للنص العربي مع تشكيل OpenType ومحارف ثنائية الاتجاه.",
    "Mixed content: العربية + English ✓"
  ]
}

Supported lang codes: ar, he, th, ja, zh, ko, el, hi, bn, ta, ru, ka, hy, tr, vi, pl, latin, emoji.

Multi-script documents — pass an array or comma-separated list:

{
  "title": "Mixed Script",
  "lang": ["ar", "emoji"],
  "paragraphs": ["العربية مع رموز 🎉🚀"],
  "pdfA": "pdfa2u"
}

sign_pdf

As of v1.0.0, sign_pdf auto-injects a /Sig placeholder when missing — you can sign any PDF in one call:

{
  "pdfBase64": "<any base64 PDF>",
  "algorithm": "rsa-sha256",
  "certDerBase64": "<base64 X.509 cert in DER>",
  "rsaKeyPkcs1DerBase64": "<base64 PKCS#1 RSAPrivateKey DER>",
  "signerName": "Alice",
  "reason": "Approval",
  "location": "Paris, FR",
  "signingTime": "2026-01-15T10:30:00Z"
}

For ECDSA P-256: use algorithm: "ecdsa-sha256" and supply either ecPrivateKeyDerBase64 (SEC1 or PKCS#8 DER) or ecPrivateScalarHex (64 hex chars).

PEM → DER conversion:

openssl x509 -in cert.pem -outform DER | base64 -w0                 # cert
openssl rsa  -in key.pem  -outform DER -traditional | base64 -w0    # RSA PKCS#1
openssl pkey -in key.pem  -outform DER | base64 -w0                 # ECDSA

Use prepare_signature_placeholder only when you need to customize the placeholder (e.g. larger placeholderBytes for >4096-bit RSA keys). Otherwise call sign_pdf directly.

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add_table

{
  "title": "Monthly Sales",
  "headers": ["Region", "Units", "Revenue"],
  "rows": [
    ["APAC", "1200", "$240,000"],
    ["EMEA", "800", "$160,000"]
  ],
  "infoItems": [{ "label": "Period", "value": "January 2025" }],
  "footerText": "Internal use only",
  "outputMode": "base64"
}

add_form

{
  "title": "Employee Onboarding",
  "fields": [
    { "fieldType": "text", "name": "fullName", "label": "Full Name", "required": true },
    { "fieldType": "dropdown", "name": "dept", "label": "Department", "options": ["Engineering", "Sales", "HR"] },
    { "fieldType": "checkbox", "name": "agree", "label": "I agree to the terms", "checked": false }
  ],
  "outputMode": "base64"
}

embed_image

{
  "title": "Product Photo",
  "imageBase64": "<base64-encoded JPEG bytes>",
  "mimeType": "image/jpeg",
  "caption": "Front view of Model X",
  "width": 400,
  "outputMode": "base64"
}

Note: pdfnative does not support alpha-channel PNGs (color type 6). Pre-process such images to remove the alpha channel before embedding.

prepare_signature_placeholder

{
  "title": "Service Agreement",
  "signerName": "Alice Dupont",
  "reason": "Approved",
  "location": "Paris, FR",
  "blocks": [
    { "type": "paragraph", "text": "By signing below, I accept the terms and conditions." }
  ],
  "outputMode": "base64"
}

Pass the returned PDF bytes to sign_pdf to complete the signing workflow.

inspect_pdf

Read-only structural and security inspection — useful for downstream verification, CI assertions, and AI agents that need to reason about a PDF before acting on it.

{
  "pdfBase64": "<base64 PDF>",
  "pages": true,
  "check": ["pdfa", "signed", "attachments"]
}

Returns:

{
  "version": "1.7",
  "pageCount": 3,
  "encryption": "none",          // 'none' | 'aes-128' | 'aes-256' | 'rc4' | 'unknown'
  "pdfA": "3B",                  // null when no PDF/A claim is present
  "signatureCount": 1,
  "hasSignaturePlaceholder": false,
  "attachments": [{ "filename": "factur-x.xml", "mimeType": "application/xml", "sizeBytes": 1234, "relationship": "Source" }],
  "info": { "Producer": "pdfnative", "Title": "Invoice INV-2025-001" },
  "perPage": [{ "index": 0, "width": 595, "height": 842 }],
  "checks": { "pdfa": true, "signed": true, "attachments": true },
  "checksPassed": true
}

check[] accepts any of 'pdfa', 'signed', 'encrypted', 'placeholder', 'attachments'. checksPassed is the AND of all requested checks.

validate_pdf

Read-only PDF/UA (ISO 14289-1) structural conformance check for a Tagged PDF. Generate an accessible document with any tool using pdfA (e.g. pdfA: 'pdfa2u'), then validate the result:

{ "pdfBase64": "<tagged-pdf-base64>" }

Returns:

{
  "standard": "pdf-ua-1",
  "valid": true,
  "errors": [],          // blocking structural violations (empty when valid)
  "warnings": [],        // non-blocking best-practice recommendations
  "summary": "PDF/UA structural prerequisites hold."
}

It verifies catalog /MarkInfo /Marked true, /StructTreeRoot (+ /ParentTree), /Metadata (XMP), /Lang, and per-page MCID uniqueness. This is a fast developer-time gate — not a substitute for a full reference validator (veraPDF), which additionally checks fonts, colour, and rendering.

verify_pdf, add_attachment, extract_text

See the dedicated sections in docs/AI_GUIDE.md and the reference in docs/KNOWLEDGE_BASE.md. Ready-to-run examples live under examples/.

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🔐 Security model

pdfnative-mcp runs inside the host process and exposes a stdio MCP server. It does not open network sockets and does not perform any I/O outside the configured sandbox.

• File writes are gated by PDFNATIVE_MCP_OUTPUT_DIR. When unset, the file output mode is rejected with a SecurityError.
• Path resolution rejects absolute paths, traversal sequences (..), NUL bytes, and any extension other than .pdf.
• Output size is capped at 50 MB per call.
• Inputs are validated against strict JSON Schemas + Zod runtime checks at the boundary of every tool.

See SECURITY.md for the responsible disclosure process.

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🧪 Local development

git clone https://github.com/Nizoka/pdfnative-mcp.git
cd pdfnative-mcp
npm install
npm run typecheck
npm run lint
npm test
npm run build

Smoke-test the server over stdio:

node dist/cli.js
# In another terminal, send a JSON-RPC initialize request via stdin (e.g. with mcp-inspector).

📣 Release process

pdfnative-mcp follows the same release formalism as pdfnative:

• One release note file per tag in release-notes/vX.Y.Z.md
• CHANGELOG.md mirrors each release bullet list
• GitHub Release body is copied from release-notes/vX.Y.Z.md
• npm publication is handled by GitHub Actions Trusted Publishing (OIDC), without NPM_TOKEN

See release-notes/TEMPLATE.md for the canonical structure and publication checklist.

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📚 Project structure

src/
├── cli.ts                      # stdio entrypoint (#!/usr/bin/env node)
├── index.ts                    # public library exports
├── server.ts                   # McpServer factory + tool registry
├── output.ts                   # sandboxed file writer / base64 emitter
├── text.ts                     # newline sanitizer (Safe PDF/A)
├── errors.ts                   # ToolError, SecurityError
└── tools/
    ├── generate-basic-pdf.ts
    ├── add-barcode.ts
    ├── sign-pdf.ts
    ├── add-international-text.ts
    ├── add-table.ts
    ├── add-form.ts
    ├── embed-image.ts
    ├── inspect-pdf.ts
    ├── verify-pdf.ts
    ├── validate-pdf.ts
    ├── add-attachment.ts
    ├── extract-text.ts
    └── prepare-signature-placeholder.ts
tests/                          # vitest suites

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🗺 Roadmap

v1.1.0 is shipped. The full plan — released milestones, in-progress work, and long-term direction — lives in ROADMAP.md.

Blocked upstream (page-tree manipulation):

• merge_pdfs, split_pdf, redact_pdf — pdfnative does not yet export the page-tree manipulation primitives required to build these safely. They remain on the roadmap, blocked on an upstream API.

Have a feature idea? Open an issue or PR.

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⭐ Star the project

If pdfnative-mcp is useful to you, please ⭐ this repository — and consider also starring the underlying engine Nizoka/pdfnative. Stars help others discover the project and motivate continued development.

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are very welcome. Please read CONTRIBUTING.md, check the open issues, and follow the code of conduct.

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📄 License

MIT © 2026 Nizoka

pdfnative-mcp is built on top of pdfnative and the Model Context Protocol TypeScript SDK.