Word Live MCP Server

A Windows MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that attaches to a running Microsoft Word instance via COM automation and exposes 20 tools for reading, editing, formatting, and exporting documents — live on screen.

The Word counterpart to the PowerPoint Live MCP.

How It Works

The server attaches to the running Word.Application instance via win32com (pywin32). Because it talks to the live COM object, every edit appears instantly on the Word canvas — no file round-trip, no reopen.

Related MCP server: mcp-word-processor

Tools (20)

Requirements

• Windows + Microsoft Word installed

• Python 3.11+ with these packages:

  pip install pywin32 mcp pymupdf

  Run python Scripts/pywin32_postinstall.py -install once after installing pywin32.

Installation

Hermes Agent

Add to ~/.hermes/config.yaml:

mcp_servers:
  word:
    command: "C:/Users/You/AppData/Local/Programs/Python/Python313/python.exe"
    args: ["C:/path/to/word-live-mcp/server.py"]
    connect_timeout: 30
    enabled: true
    timeout: 90

Claude Desktop

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "word": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["C:/path/to/word-live-mcp/server.py"]
    }
  }
}

Generic MCP Client

The server communicates over stdio using the MCP protocol. Any MCP-compatible client can connect by spawning the server process.

Usage

Word must be running with a document open. Tools operate on the active document by default; pass doc="filename.docx" to target a specific open document.

Paragraph and table indices are 1-indexed (matching what you see in Word).

Example workflows

• "Read me paragraph 5" → get_paragraph(paragraph_index=5)

• "Find all mentions of 'confidential'" → find_text(find="confidential")

• "Replace 'old term' with 'new term'" → replace_text(find="old term", replace="new term")

• "Highlight paragraph 20 in yellow" → set_highlight(paragraph_index=20, color="yellow")

• "Show me what page 3 looks like" → export_page_image(page=3)

• "Set paragraph 10 font to bold red" → set_font(paragraph_index=10, bold=True, color_rgb="FF0000")

Architecture

• COM session per call: Each tool call re-initialises COM (pythoncom.CoInitialize) and dispatches Word.Application, which transparently reconnects to the running instance.

• app parameter injection: The word_tool decorator injects the COM app handle as the first argument, but strips it from the public signature so FastMCP doesn't expose it.

• Graceful errors: All exceptions are caught and returned as {"error": "...", "traceback": "..."} JSON dicts — never crash the server.

• 1-indexed: Paragraph and table indices match what the user sees in Word.

License

MIT