PowerPoint MCP Server

Based on Office-PowerPoint-MCP-Server by GongRzhe – all credit for the core implementation goes to the original author.

Setup

./start_server.sh

Creates a .venv, installs dependencies from requirements.txt, and starts the server on port 8001 via streamable HTTP.

Related MCP server: mcp-powerpoint

Deployment to Docker host

./deploy_to_remote.sh user

Syncs the server via rsync to the Docker host and builds/starts the container via docker compose.

MCP Registration

# Docker / remote
claude mcp add --scope user --transport http ppt http://<docker-host>:8001/mcp

# Local
claude mcp add --scope user --transport http ppt http://127.0.0.1:8001/mcp

File Transfer

The server runs in Docker and cannot access local file paths (e.g. /Users/…). Files must be uploaded via HTTP before they can be used with MCP tools.

Files are stored in /app/pptx_files inside the container (mapped to /mnt/dockershare/powerpoint).

# Upload (required before open_presentation)
curl -s -H "X-API-Key: $MCP_API_KEY" -F "file=@deck.pptx" http://<docker-host>:8001/upload
# → returns JSON with "file_path": "/app/pptx_files/deck.pptx"

# Download
curl -H "X-API-Key: $MCP_API_KEY" http://<docker-host>:8001/download/deck.pptx -o deck.pptx

# List files
curl -H "X-API-Key: $MCP_API_KEY" http://<docker-host>:8001/files

# Delete single file
curl -X DELETE -H "X-API-Key: $MCP_API_KEY" http://<docker-host>:8001/files/deck.pptx

# Delete all files
curl -X DELETE -H "X-API-Key: $MCP_API_KEY" http://<docker-host>:8001/files

Workflow for agents

1. Upload the local file via curl -s -H "X-API-Key: $MCP_API_KEY" -F "file=@/path/to/file.pptx" http://<docker-host>:8001/upload

2. Use the returned file_path with open_presentation(file_path="/app/pptx_files/file.pptx")

3. Do NOT try to read or unzip PPTX files locally — always upload via curl first

API Key

Set MCP_API_KEY in the container environment to require X-API-Key on all /upload, /download, and /files requests. If unset, endpoints are unprotected.

See docker-compose.yml for the placeholder.

License

MIT