zcaceres/markdownify-mcp

Markdownify is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that converts various file types and web content to Markdown format. It provides a set of tools to transform PDFs, images, audio files, web pages, and more into easily readable and shareable Markdown text.

Features

• Convert multiple file types to Markdown:
  • PDF
  • Images
  • Audio (with transcription)
  • DOCX
  • XLSX
  • PPTX
• Convert web content to Markdown:
  • YouTube video transcripts
  • Bing search results
  • General web pages
• Retrieve existing Markdown files

Getting Started

1. Clone this repository

2. Install dependencies:

   bun install
   

   The preinstall step creates a Python virtual environment at .venv and installs markitdown[all].

3. Build the project:

   bun run build
   

4. Start the server:

   bun start
   

Development

• Use bun run dev to start the TypeScript compiler in watch mode
• Modify src/server.ts to customize server behavior
• Add or modify tools in src/tools.ts

Usage with Desktop App

To integrate this server with a desktop app, add the following to your app's server configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "markdownify": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "{ABSOLUTE PATH TO FILE HERE}/dist/index.js"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Environment variables

All paths default to sensible values; override only when the defaults don't fit your install layout.

Variable	Default	Purpose
MARKITDOWN_PATH	<project>/.venv/bin/markitdown, then markitdown on PATH	Absolute path to the markitdown executable. Set this when you've installed markitdown system-wide (e.g. pipx install "markitdown[pdf]") instead of using the bundled venv.
REPOMIX_PATH	<project>/node_modules/.bin/repomix, then repomix on PATH	Absolute path to the repomix executable used by git-repo-to-markdown.
MD_ALLOWED_PATHS	unset (unrestricted)	Path-delimiter-separated list (: on POSIX, ; on Windows) of directories the server is allowed to read. When set, all file-input tools (pdf-to-markdown, get-markdown-file, etc.) reject paths outside these directories.
MD_SHARE_DIR	unset	Deprecated alias for MD_ALLOWED_PATHS (single directory). Still honored for backward compatibility.

Usage with Docker

Build and run:

docker build -t markdownify-mcp .
docker run --rm -i \
  -v "$HOME/Documents:/data:ro" \
  -e MD_ALLOWED_PATHS=/data \
  markdownify-mcp

Notes for the Docker MCP catalog (mcp/markdownify):

• Mount any host directories you want the server to read into the container, then pass the container paths to the tools (e.g. /data/foo.pdf, not /Users/you/Documents/foo.pdf).
• Set MD_ALLOWED_PATHS to the colon-separated list of mounted directories so the server enforces a read boundary that matches the bind mount.
• The published Docker image installs markitdown[pdf] only — audio transcription and image OCR (audio-to-markdown, image-to-markdown) require the [all] extras and will fail in the slim image. Use the local install (bun install) for the full feature set.

Available Tools

• youtube-to-markdown: Convert YouTube videos to Markdown

• pdf-to-markdown: Convert PDF files to Markdown

• bing-search-to-markdown: Convert Bing search results to Markdown

• webpage-to-markdown: Convert web pages to Markdown

• image-to-markdown: Convert images to Markdown with metadata

• audio-to-markdown: Convert audio files to Markdown with transcription

• docx-to-markdown: Convert DOCX files to Markdown

• xlsx-to-markdown: Convert XLSX files to Markdown

• pptx-to-markdown: Convert PPTX files to Markdown

• get-markdown-file: Retrieve an existing Markdown file. File extension must end with: *.md, *.markdown.

  OPTIONAL: set MD_ALLOWED_PATHS to restrict every file-input tool to a list of directories, e.g. MD_ALLOWED_PATHS=/data/in:/data/out bun start.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.