Word Live 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.

Tools (20)

Category	Tool	Description
Discovery	list_documents	List all open Word documents
	get_active_document	Details of active document (name, path, word/para count)
Read	get_document_content	Paginated paragraph listing with styles
	get_paragraph	Full text + formatting of one paragraph
	get_table	All cell content from a table
	get_selection	Current cursor/selection state
	find_text	Full-text search with paragraph locations
Edit	set_paragraph_text	Replace text of a paragraph
	insert_paragraph_after	Insert new paragraph after a given index
	delete_paragraph	Delete a paragraph
	replace_text	Find-and-replace throughout document
Format	set_font	Font size/bold/italic/color/name
	set_highlight	Yellow/red/green/none highlight
	set_paragraph_style	Apply named style (Heading 1, Normal, etc.)
Tables	set_table_cell	Set cell text by (row, column)
	insert_table	Insert a new table
Export	export_pdf	Export document to PDF
	export_page_image	Export single page as PNG (via PDF render)
Other	update_toc	Update all Tables of Contents
	save_document	Save the document

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