oxidize-pdf

Rust-powered PDF library for Python. Generate, parse, split, merge, and manipulate PDFs with native performance. Ships with a built-in MCP server so AI agents can work with PDFs out of the box.

No C dependencies. No Java. No subprocess calls.

Installation

pip install oxidize-pdf            # Core library
pip install "oxidize-pdf[mcp]"     # + MCP server for AI agents

Platforms: Linux (x86_64, aarch64) | macOS (x86_64, Apple Silicon) | Windows (x86_64) Requires: Python 3.10+

Why oxidize-pdf?

	oxidize-pdf	Pure-Python libs	C/Java wrappers
Performance	Native (compiled Rust)	Interpreted	Native but heavy
Dependencies	Zero	Varies	Poppler, Java, Ghostscript
Memory safety	Rust ownership model	GC-dependent	Manual / GC
Type stubs	Full (mypy/pyright)	Partial	Rare
AI-ready (MCP)	Built-in	No	No

---

MCP Server

Give your AI agent full PDF capabilities in one line:

oxidize-mcp

The built-in Model Context Protocol server exposes 12 tools, 6 resources, and 5 prompts — compatible with Claude, GPT, and any MCP client.

Claude Desktop integration

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "oxidize-pdf": {
      "command": "oxidize-mcp",
      "env": {
        "OXIDIZE_WORKSPACE": "/path/to/your/pdfs"
      }
    }
  }
}

GitHub Copilot (VS Code) integration

Copilot's agent mode speaks MCP. Add .vscode/mcp.json to your workspace:

{
  "servers": {
    "oxidize-pdf": {
      "command": "oxidize-mcp",
      "env": {
        "OXIDIZE_WORKSPACE": "/path/to/your/pdfs"
      }
    }
  }
}

Open the Chat view, switch to Agent mode, and the 12 PDF tools appear in the tool picker. (The same block also works under the mcp.servers key in your user settings.json if you prefer a global install.)

OpenAI Agents SDK integration

The OpenAI Agents SDK spawns the server over stdio and exposes its tools to an agent:

from agents import Agent, Runner
from agents.mcp import MCPServerStdio

async with MCPServerStdio(
    params={"command": "oxidize-mcp", "env": {"OXIDIZE_WORKSPACE": "/path/to/your/pdfs"}},
    cache_tools_list=True,
) as server:
    agent = Agent(
        name="PDF assistant",
        instructions="Use the oxidize-pdf tools to inspect and manipulate PDFs.",
        mcp_servers=[server],
    )
    result = await Runner.run(agent, "How many pages does report.pdf have?")
    print(result.final_output)

A runnable version is in examples/openai_agents_quickstart.py.

Both integrations run the server locally over stdio, so its tools operate on PDFs in the configured workspace directory. Remote/hosted use (e.g. the OpenAI Responses API hosted MCP tool) needs an HTTP transport and is not yet exposed.

Available tools

Tool	What it does
read_pdf	Read metadata — page count, version, encryption status, title, author
extract_text	Extract text from all pages or a specific page
convert_pdf	Convert to markdown, chunks, or RAG-optimized format
create_pdf	Create a new PDF with optional metadata
save_pdf	Save a session to disk, with optional encryption
add_content	Add pages, text, and graphics to a session
annotate_pdf	Add text annotations and highlights
manipulate_pdf	Split, merge, rotate, extract pages, reverse, overlay
manage_forms	Create, fill, read, and validate form fields
secure_pdf	Encrypt, check permissions, verify signatures
extract_entities	Extract structured entities from pages
analyze_pdf	Validate structure, detect corruption, check PDF/A compliance

The server also exposes resources (session data, capabilities, version info) and prompts (guided workflows for summarization, data extraction, form filling, and more).

Configuration

OXIDIZE_WORKSPACE=/path/to/pdfs oxidize-mcp

The server is configured entirely through environment variables:

Variable	Default	Purpose
OXIDIZE_WORKSPACE	~/Documents/oxidize-mcp	Sandbox root; all paths must resolve inside it.
OXIDIZE_ALLOWED_PATHS	(none)	Comma-separated extra directories allowed outside the workspace.
OXIDIZE_MAX_FILE_SIZE_MB	100	Reject input PDFs larger than this on disk.
OXIDIZE_MAX_PAGES	10000	Reject documents with more pages than this before any extraction work.
OXIDIZE_MAX_OUTPUT_BYTES	10485760	Cap the serialized size of a tool's JSON response (10 MB).
OXIDIZE_MAX_SESSIONS	10	Maximum concurrent stateful PDF-creation sessions.
OXIDIZE_MAX_SESSION_BYTES	10485760	Cap the content a single session may accumulate (10 MB).
OXIDIZE_SESSION_TIMEOUT	3600	Session expiry, in seconds.

Resource caps (OXIDIZE_MAX_*) protect the server from a large or malicious PDF: oversized documents are rejected up front and tool responses are bounded rather than serialized unbounded. Exceeding a cap returns an error with code RESOURCE_LIMIT.

Or start programmatically:

from oxidize_pdf.mcp.server import run
run()

---

Python API

Create a PDF

from oxidize_pdf import Document, Page, Font, Color

doc = Document()
doc.set_title("My Document")
doc.set_author("Jane Doe")

page = Page.a4()
page.set_font(Font.HELVETICA, 24.0)
page.set_text_color(Color.black())
page.text_at(72.0, 750.0, "Hello from oxidize-pdf!")

page.set_font(Font.TIMES_ROMAN, 12.0)
page.text_at(72.0, 700.0, "Generated with Python + Rust.")

doc.add_page(page)
doc.save("output.pdf")

Parse an existing PDF

from oxidize_pdf import PdfReader

reader = PdfReader.open("document.pdf")
print(f"Pages: {reader.page_count}, Version: {reader.version}")

for i, text in enumerate(reader.extract_text()):
    print(f"--- Page {i + 1} ---")
    print(text)

Operations

from oxidize_pdf import split_pdf, merge_pdfs, rotate_pdf, extract_pages

split_pdf("input.pdf", "output_dir/")                       # Split into individual pages
merge_pdfs(["part1.pdf", "part2.pdf"], "merged.pdf")         # Merge multiple PDFs
rotate_pdf("input.pdf", "rotated.pdf", 90)                   # Rotate all pages
extract_pages("input.pdf", "subset.pdf", [0, 2, 4])          # Extract specific pages

Graphics

from oxidize_pdf import Document, Page, Color

doc = Document()
page = Page.a4()

page.set_fill_color(Color.hex("#3498db"))
page.draw_rect(72.0, 700.0, 200.0, 100.0)
page.fill()

page.set_stroke_color(Color.red())
page.set_line_width(2.0)
page.draw_circle(300.0, 500.0, 50.0)
page.stroke()

doc.add_page(page)
doc.save("graphics.pdf")

Types

from oxidize_pdf import Color, Point, Rectangle, Margins, Font

# Colors
Color.rgb(1.0, 0.0, 0.0)          # RGB
Color.hex("#ff6600")               # Hex
Color.cmyk(0.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.0)   # CMYK

# Geometry
Point(72.0, 720.0)
Rectangle.from_xywh(72.0, 72.0, 468.0, 648.0)
Margins.uniform(72.0)

# Fonts — all 14 standard PDF fonts
Font.HELVETICA    # Font.HELVETICA_BOLD
Font.TIMES_ROMAN  # Font.TIMES_BOLD
Font.COURIER      # Font.COURIER_BOLD

Error handling

from oxidize_pdf import PdfReader, PdfError, PdfIoError, PdfParseError

try:
    reader = PdfReader.open("missing.pdf")
except PdfIoError as e:
    print(f"I/O error: {e}")
except PdfParseError as e:
    print(f"Parse error: {e}")
except PdfError as e:
    print(f"PDF error: {e}")

Exception hierarchy: PdfError > PdfIoError, PdfParseError, PdfEncryptionError, PdfPermissionError

MCP Server

oxidize-pdf includes an MCP server that exposes PDF capabilities to AI assistants like Claude. Install with the mcp extra:

pip install oxidize-pdf[mcp]

Claude Desktop

Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "oxidize-pdf": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "oxidize-pdf[mcp]", "oxidize-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add oxidize-pdf -- uvx --from "oxidize-pdf[mcp]" oxidize-mcp

Available tools

Tool	Description
read_pdf	Open a PDF and get metadata (pages, version, encryption)
extract_text	Extract text content from PDF pages
convert_pdf	Convert between PDF versions
analyze_pdf	Analyze structure, fonts, images, and compliance
extract_entities	Extract images and digital signatures
manipulate_pdf	Split, merge, rotate, extract, and reorder pages
annotate_pdf	Add text annotations, highlights, and stamps
manage_forms	Create, fill, and read PDF form fields
secure_pdf	Encrypt, decrypt, and set document permissions
create_pdf	Create a new PDF document with pages
add_pdf_content	Add text, shapes, and images to pages
save_pdf	Save the document to file or bytes

Resources

• oxidize://fonts — Available built-in PDF fonts
• oxidize://page-sizes — Standard page sizes with dimensions
• oxidize://capabilities — Server capabilities and tool listing
• oxidize://version — Version information
• oxidize://workspace — PDF files in the workspace directory
• oxidize://session/{id} — Session data by ID

Known limitations

• Encryption write support: Document.encrypt() configures encryption parameters but the underlying Rust library does not yet serialize the encryption dictionary to the PDF output. Reading encrypted PDFs works correctly.
• Image extraction returns raw embedded streams: extract_images_from_pdf extracts each embedded image as-is (e.g. a DCTDecode JPEG is written byte-for-byte). Image preprocessing — auto rotation-correction, contrast enhancement, denoise, upscaling, force-grayscale — is not available, because the build excludes the upstream external-images feature (and its image-crate dependency). This keeps extraction faithful and lossless; it does not silently return empty or stub results.
• CPython only: PyPy and GraalPy are not supported.

License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.