Office Word MCP Server

Instructions

Implementation Reference

• word_document_server/main.py:297-300 (registration)

  MCP tool registration for 'add_footnote_to_document' using @mcp.tool() decorator. This is the entrypoint handler called by the MCP server, which delegates execution to the implementation in footnote_tools.

  @mcp.tool()
  def add_footnote_to_document(filename: str, paragraph_index: int, footnote_text: str):
      """Add a footnote to a specific paragraph in a Word document."""
      return footnote_tools.add_footnote_to_document(filename, paragraph_index, footnote_text)

• word_document_server/tools/footnote_tools.py:29-97 (handler)

  Core implementation of the tool logic. This async function adds a footnote to the specified paragraph using python-docx, attempting native footnote addition first and falling back to manual superscript and section creation if needed.

  async def add_footnote_to_document(filename: str, paragraph_index: int, footnote_text: str) -> str:
      """Add a footnote to a specific paragraph in a Word document.
      
      Args:
          filename: Path to the Word document
          paragraph_index: Index of the paragraph to add footnote to (0-based)
          footnote_text: Text content of the footnote
      """
      filename = ensure_docx_extension(filename)
      
      # Ensure paragraph_index is an integer
      try:
          paragraph_index = int(paragraph_index)
      except (ValueError, TypeError):
          return "Invalid parameter: paragraph_index must be an integer"
      
      if not os.path.exists(filename):
          return f"Document {filename} does not exist"
      
      # Check if file is writeable
      is_writeable, error_message = check_file_writeable(filename)
      if not is_writeable:
          return f"Cannot modify document: {error_message}. Consider creating a copy first."
      
      try:
          doc = Document(filename)
          
          # Validate paragraph index
          if paragraph_index < 0 or paragraph_index >= len(doc.paragraphs):
              return f"Invalid paragraph index. Document has {len(doc.paragraphs)} paragraphs (0-{len(doc.paragraphs)-1})."
          
          paragraph = doc.paragraphs[paragraph_index]
          
          # In python-docx, we'd use paragraph.add_footnote(), but we'll use a more robust approach
          try:
              footnote = paragraph.add_run()
              footnote.text = ""
              
              # Create the footnote reference
              reference = footnote.add_footnote(footnote_text)
              
              doc.save(filename)
              return f"Footnote added to paragraph {paragraph_index} in {filename}"
          except AttributeError:
              # Fall back to a simpler approach if direct footnote addition fails
              last_run = paragraph.add_run()
              last_run.text = "¹"  # Unicode superscript 1
              last_run.font.superscript = True
              
              # Add a footnote section at the end if it doesn't exist
              found_footnote_section = False
              for p in doc.paragraphs:
                  if p.text.startswith("Footnotes:"):
                      found_footnote_section = True
                      break
              
              if not found_footnote_section:
                  doc.add_paragraph("\n").add_run()
                  doc.add_paragraph("Footnotes:").bold = True
              
              # Add footnote text
              footnote_para = doc.add_paragraph("¹ " + footnote_text)
              footnote_para.style = "Footnote Text" if "Footnote Text" in doc.styles else "Normal"
              
              doc.save(filename)
              return f"Footnote added to paragraph {paragraph_index} in {filename} (simplified approach)"
      except Exception as e:
          return f"Failed to add footnote: {str(e)}"

• word_document_server/tools/__init__.py:33-37 (helper)

  Re-exports the add_footnote_to_document function from footnote_tools.py for convenient imports in other modules.

  # Footnote tools
  from word_document_server.tools.footnote_tools import (
      add_footnote_to_document, add_endnote_to_document,
      convert_footnotes_to_endnotes_in_document, customize_footnote_style
  )