MCP PDF Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server exposing tools to render Markdown into PDF.

What’s included

MCP tools: pdf_from_markdown (primary) and md_to_pdf (alias).
Accepts inline Markdown or a file path.
Options for paper format and orientation; sensible output/ defaults.

Prerequisites

Node.js 18+ recommended.

Install

npm install # Download browsers for Playwright (Chromium only is enough): npx playwright install chromium

Build

npm run build

Run (stdio)

npm start

Configure in your MCP-compatible client by pointing to the compiled binary or npm start command.

MCP Tools

Tool ids: pdf_from_markdown (primary) and md_to_pdf (alias for discoverability)
- Purpose: Generate a PDF from Markdown.
- Inputs:
  - markdown (string, optional): Inline Markdown content. If set, path is ignored.
  - path (string, optional): Absolute or relative path to a .md file. Ignored if markdown is provided.
  - outputPath (string, optional): Desired output PDF path. Defaults to output/<timestamp>.pdf and creates missing directories.
  - paperFormat (string, optional): A4 | Letter | Legal (default: A4).
  - paperOrientation (string, optional): portrait | landscape (default: portrait).
  - Provide exactly one of markdown or path. If both are set, markdown takes precedence.
- Output:
  - Returns a text message containing the absolute path to the created PDF.
- Example (inline):
  { "tool": "md_to_pdf", "arguments": { "markdown": "# Hello\nThis will render to PDF.", "paperFormat": "A4" } }
- Example (file path):
  { "tool": "pdf_from_markdown", "arguments": { "path": "examples/sample.md", "outputPath": "output/sample.pdf", "paperOrientation": "landscape" } }

Tool Schema (compact)

tools: - id: pdf_from_markdown alias: md_to_pdf params: markdown?: string # Inline Markdown (preferred if both set) path?: string # Path to a .md file outputPath?: string # Output PDF path (default: output/<timestamp>.pdf) paperFormat?: 'A4'|'Letter'|'Legal' # default: 'A4' paperOrientation?: 'portrait'|'landscape' # default: 'portrait' constraints: - Provide exactly one of markdown or path (if both provided, markdown is used) result: - type: text text: "PDF created at: <absolute path>"

Client configuration (example) If your MCP client supports JSON configuration for a stdio server, a minimal entry might look like:

{ "servers": { "mcp-pdf": { "command": "node", "args": ["dist/index.js"] } } }

Notes

Uses Playwright (Chromium) to render HTML from Markdown and print to PDF.
On first install, Playwright may download a browser. You can also point it to an existing Chrome/Chromium.

One‑liner with npx

After this package is published to npm, you can run the server directly:
- npx -y md-2-pdf-mcp (runs the md-2-pdf-mcp bin)
- Or explicitly: npx -y -p md-2-pdf-mcp mcp-pdf
- The package defines bin entries and a postinstall that installs Chromium.
From the local repo (without publishing):
- npx --yes .
- This uses the bin in package.json and the prepare script to build.