📄 MCP Office Documents Server

Let your AI assistant create professional Office documents — PowerPoint, Word, Excel, emails & XML — with a single prompt.

📋 Table of Contents

• What is this?

• Features at a Glance

• Quick Start

• Configuration

• Markdown Reference

• Custom Templates

• Connecting Your AI Client

• Contributing

Related MCP server: Office Whisperer

💡 What is this?

This is an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that runs in Docker and gives AI assistants (like Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible client) the ability to generate real Office files on demand.

Just ask your AI to "create a sales presentation" or "draft a welcome email" — and it will produce a ready-to-use file for you.

No coding required. Install, connect, and start creating.

✨ Features at a Glance

All tools accept an optional file_name parameter. When provided, the output file will use that name (without extension) instead of a randomly generated identifier.

Bonus — Dynamic Templates:

• 📧 Reusable Email Templates — Define parameterized email layouts in YAML. Each becomes its own tool with typed arguments (e.g., first_name, promo_code).

• 📝 Reusable Word Templates — Create .docx files with {{placeholders}}. Each template becomes an AI tool. Placeholders support full Markdown.

Output options:

• Local — Files saved to the output/ folder

• Cloud — Upload to S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob, or MinIO and get a time-limited download link

🚀 Quick Start

Get up and running in 3 steps:

1. Download the compose file

curl -L -o docker-compose.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dvejsada/mcp-ms-office-docs/main/docker-compose.yml

Already cloned the repo? Skip this step — docker-compose.yml is already there.

2. Set up your environment

cp .env.example .env

The defaults work out of the box — files will be saved locally to output/.

3. Start the server

docker-compose up -d

✅ Done! Your MCP endpoint is ready at: http://localhost:8958/mcp

⚙️ Configuration

The server is configured through environment variables in your .env file.

Basic Settings

Set API_KEY in your .env to require an API key for all requests:

API_KEY=your-secret-key

Clients can send the key in any of these headers:

Leave API_KEY empty or unset to allow all requests without authentication.

Set UPLOAD_STRATEGY=S3 and provide:

Credential modes:

• Explicit credentials — Set all three of AWS_ACCESS_KEY, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, and AWS_REGION. Recommended for simple setups.

• AWS default credential chain — Leave the credential variables unset and boto3 will automatically discover credentials from the standard chain:

  • AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID / AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY environment variables

  • Shared credential / config files (~/.aws/credentials)

  • AWS SSO sessions (aws sso login) — useful for local development

  • IRSA (IAM Roles for Service Accounts) — for AWS EKS deployments

  • ECS container credentials / EC2 instance metadata (IMDSv2)

  In this mode only S3_BUCKET is required; region is resolved automatically.

Set UPLOAD_STRATEGY=GCS and provide:

Mount the credentials file via docker-compose.yml volumes.

Set UPLOAD_STRATEGY=AZURE and provide:

Set UPLOAD_STRATEGY=MINIO and provide:

Make sure the bucket exists and your credentials have PutObject/GetObject permissions.

The server exposes health-check endpoints that Kubernetes (or any orchestrator) can use for liveness/readiness probes:

Thread-pool offloading: By default (RUN_BLOCKING_BY_ASYNCIO_THREAD_ENABLED=true), all blocking document-generation work is dispatched to a bounded thread pool (RUN_BLOCKING_MAX_WORKERS threads, default 4). This keeps the asyncio event loop free to respond to health probes and handle concurrent requests — critical for Kubernetes deployments where blocked probes lead to pod restarts.

Set RUN_BLOCKING_BY_ASYNCIO_THREAD_ENABLED=false only for local debugging or to rule out threading-related issues.

📝 Markdown Reference

Both the Word and Excel tools accept Markdown. These references cover everything the parsers understand — including features that are easy to miss.

Golden rule: separate every block element (heading, list, table, quote…) with a blank line.

Tool parameters (create_word_from_markdown):

Block elements (each on its own line, separated by blank lines):

⚠️ Don't confuse --- (page break) with *** (horizontal line).

💡 A single numbered line is only treated as a list when it starts at 1. or is followed by another item. This means a standalone date like 23. června 2026 renders as plain text, not a list. The one exception is a day-1 date (1. června 2026), which is indistinguishable from a one-item list — escape the dot to keep it as text: 1\. června 2026.

Inline formatting (works in paragraphs, headings, list items, table cells, quotes):

Nesting and combinations work, e.g. **bold with *italic* inside**, **~~bold strikethrough~~**.

Table features — place the directive on the line directly above the table:

Text alignment (HTML tags, single- or multi-line):

<center>centered text</center>
<div align="right">right-aligned</div>
<div align="justify">justified paragraph…</div>

Soft line break: end a line with two trailing spaces to break within the same paragraph.

Custom styles (issue #66) — remap built-in styles or apply an ad-hoc one:

<!-- style: Callout -->
This paragraph uses the "Callout" style from your template.

The <!-- style: Name --> directive applies a style to the next block only (every item of a list, or the table). Unknown styles fall back to the default with a warning. To remap styles globally or per template, see Custom Templates.

Tool parameters (create_excel_from_markdown):

Sheets & tables:

Formulas & references (put a formula in any cell, starting with =):

Column directives — place on the line directly above a table:

Column alignment via the :---: separator syntax is honored, and inline **bold** / *italic* in cells is applied as cell formatting.

🎨 Custom Templates

You can customize the look of generated documents by providing your own templates.

Static Templates

Place files in the custom_templates/ folder:

Dynamic Email Templates

Create reusable, parameterized email layouts that your AI can fill in automatically.

1. Create config/email_templates.yaml:

templates:
  - name: welcome_email
    description: Welcome email with optional promo code
    html_path: welcome_email.html  # must be in custom_templates/ or default_templates/
    annotations:
      title: Welcome Email
    args:
      - name: first_name
        type: string
        description: Recipient's first name
        required: true
      - name: promo_code
        type: string
        description: Optional promotional code (HTML formatted)
        required: false

2. Create the HTML file in custom_templates/welcome_email.html:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head><meta charset="UTF-8" /></head>
<body>
  <h2>Welcome {{first_name}}!</h2>
  <p>We're excited to have you on board.</p>
  {{{promo_code_block}}}
  <p>Regards,<br/>Support Team</p>
</body>
</html>

How it works:

• Each template becomes a separate AI tool at startup

• Standard email fields (subject, to, cc, bcc, priority, language) are added automatically

• Use {{variable}} for escaped text, {{{variable}}} for raw HTML

Dynamic Word (DOCX) Templates

Create reusable Word documents with {{placeholders}} that support full Markdown formatting.

1. Create config/docx_templates.yaml:

templates:
  - name: formal_letter
    description: Generate a formal business letter
    docx_path: letter_template.docx  # must be in custom_templates/ or default_templates/
    annotations:
      title: Formal Letter Generator
    args:
      - name: recipient_name
        type: string
        description: Full name of the recipient
        required: true
      - name: recipient_address
        type: string
        description: Recipient's address
        required: true
      - name: subject
        type: string
        description: Letter subject
        required: true
      - name: body
        type: string
        description: Main body of the letter (supports markdown)
        required: true
      - name: sender_name
        type: string
        description: Sender's name
        required: true
      - name: date
        type: string
        description: Letter date
        required: false
        default: ""

2. Create a Word document with placeholders and save as custom_templates/letter_template.docx:

{{date}}

{{recipient_name}}
{{recipient_address}}

Subject: {{subject}}

{{body}}

{{sender_name}}

How it works:

• Each template becomes a separate AI tool at startup

• Placeholders can be in the document body, tables, headers, and footers

• Placeholder values support full Markdown (bold, italic, lists, headings…)

• The placeholder's own formatting — font, size, colour, bold, italic, underline, highlight — is captured and applied to the replacement text (markdown in the value, e.g. **bold**, still wins where it sets formatting)

• Formatting of the surrounding text in the same paragraph (before/after the placeholder) is preserved

For proper formatting, make sure these styles exist in your .docx template:

Tip: Customize these styles (font, size, color, spacing) in your template — the server will use your styling.

If your template defines styles under different names than the built-ins above, map them in config/docx_templates.yaml so rendered Markdown uses them — no need to rename styles in Word.

A top-level style_mapping: applies to every document; each template may add its own style_mapping: which overrides the global one for that template.

# config/docx_templates.yaml

# Global — applies to all conversions:
style_mapping:
  heading_1: "Brand Title"
  list_number: "Brand Numbers"
  quote: "Brand Quote"
  table: "Brand Table"

templates:
  - name: formal_letter
    docx_path: letter_template.docx
    # Per-template override (wins over the global mapping):
    style_mapping:
      quote: "Letter Quote"
    args: [ ... ]

Recognized keys: heading_1…heading_6, list_number / _2 / _3, list_bullet / _2 / _3, quote, table, normal, code (style for fenced code blocks).

Ad-hoc style tag: to apply any style to a single block without a mapping, put a directive directly above it:

<!-- style: Callout -->
This paragraph uses the "Callout" style.

Unknown style names fall back to the document default (with a logged warning) rather than failing the document.

🖥️ Template Admin UI (optional)

Prefer clicking over editing YAML? Enable the built-in template-admin UI to create and manage dynamic Word and email templates from your browser — no YAML, no restart.

1. Set these in your .env:

ADMIN_ENABLED=true
ADMIN_PASSWORD=choose-a-strong-password   # falls back to API_KEY if omitted
# ADMIN_PATH=/admin                        # optional, this is the default

2. Start the server as usual. The admin UI is served from the same port as the MCP endpoint:

http://localhost:8958/admin

3. Log in with your ADMIN_PASSWORD, then:

• Upload a Word .docx (or email .html) that contains {{placeholders}} (and optionally {{#if flag}} … {{/if}} conditionals). Author it in real Word — full fidelity is preserved.

• The UI auto-detects every placeholder and conditional and pre-builds the argument form. Fill in each argument's type, whether it's required, a default, and the description the AI sees.

• Preview with sample values (generates a real file; never uploaded anywhere).

• Save — the template becomes a live MCP tool immediately, no restart.

• Edit later — adjust arguments, or Replace document to upload a new version and re-scan it for placeholders (existing arguments are kept).

• Status page — see live tool counts, per-template usage (calls/errors/last used this session), and a recent activity & error log (filterable to warnings/errors).

How it's stored: the UI writes one file per template into config/docx_templates.d/ or config/email_templates.d/ (plus the asset into custom_templates/). Your hand-written master config/*.yaml files are never modified — UI templates are simply merged on top of them at load time.

Single-instance note: live, no-restart registration assumes one server instance owns the template files (the standard docker-compose setup). For a multi-replica deployment, put the template files on shared storage and roll the pods to pick up changes.

🔌 Connecting Your AI Client

Point your MCP-compatible client to the server endpoint:

http://localhost:8958/mcp

Examples for popular clients:

Add to your Claude Desktop MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "office-documents": {
      "url": "http://localhost:8958/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Add the server to your librechat.yaml configuration under mcpServers:

mcpServers:
  office-documents:
    type: streamableHttp
    url: http://mcp-office-docs:8958/mcp

Note: If LibreChat and this server run in the same Docker network, use the container name (mcp-office-docs) as the hostname. If they run separately, use http://localhost:8958/mcp instead.

To place both services on the same network, add a shared network in your docker-compose.yml:

services:
  mcp-office-docs:
    # ...existing config...
    networks:
      - shared

  librechat:
    # ...existing config...
    networks:
      - shared

networks:
  shared:
    driver: bridge

Use the SSE/streamable HTTP transport and set the endpoint URL to:

http://localhost:8958/mcp

If you have authentication enabled, add the API key header as required by your client.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you'd like to help improve this project:

1. Fork the repository

2. Create a branch for your feature or fix (git checkout -b my-feature)

3. Commit your changes (git commit -m "Add my feature")

4. Push to your branch (git push origin my-feature)

5. Open a Pull Request

Whether it's a bug report, a new feature idea, documentation improvement, or a code contribution — all input is appreciated. Feel free to open an issue to start a discussion.