Common Elements vs Anymd
A side-by-side look at the Common Elements and Anymd MCP servers: transport, auth, tools, quality signals, and the config to install either one in Claude, Cursor, Windsurf or VS Code.
Verdict: choose Common Elements for developer tools work over a hosted endpoint; choose Anymd for developer tools as a local process. You can also run both side by side in one mcpServers block.
Which MCP server should you choose?
Choose Common Elements when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Developer Tools domain.
- You prefer a remote HTTP/SSE transport.
Choose Anymd when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Developer Tools domain.
- You prefer a local stdio subprocess transport.
- You want tools like
inspect, outline, read.
Feature & specification comparison
Rows where the two servers differ are marked.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Category | Developer Tools | Developer Tools |
| Quality signal | 36/100 · Fair | 69/100 · Great |
| Install command | Confirmed | Confirmed |
| Transport | Remote HTTP/SSE | Local subprocess (stdio) |
| Auth | Not declared | Not declared |
| Pricing | Not declared | Not declared |
| Required env vars | None listed | None listed |
| Verified owner | Community listing |
Tools & capabilities
Common Elements tools
No tool names declared yet. Check the project README from the listing page.
Anymd tools 4
inspectDocument and media evidence when Markdown is not enough. video_timeline (bounded scene/cue timeline) and render_frame (actual decoded frames), and cite_check (quote/location support, not semantic truth), are anymd Pro; PDF operations: inspect (page facts, metadata), render_page (PNG images), extract_regions (crop bounding boxes), ocr_pages / analyze_regions (configured OCR or vision provider), structure (JSON with document map, elements, geometry; profile quality|research adds trust and accessibility reports), compare (page-level diff of sources[0] vs sources[1]).outlineReturn a document heading tree with stable node ids, title paths, page/slide/chapter ranges and Markdown byte ranges. PDF bookmarks or detected headings, Word headings, PowerPoint slides, EPUB chapters and headings, HTML and Markdown. format json (default) or tree. Pass a node id to read to fetch that section.readRead any document as clean Markdown: PDF, Word (DOCX), PowerPoint (PPTX), Excel (XLSX/XLS/ODS), CSV, EPUB, HTML or a web URL, Markdown/text, images (metadata + OCR), audio/video (metadata, chapters, subtitles). Pages/slides/sheets carry <!-- page N --> style markers for citation. Long documents stop at max_tokens (default 20000) and end with a cursor to continue; choose pages with pages: "1-5,8". A directory returns its readable files.searchSearch documents for text: one file, many files, whole directories (recursive, .gitignore aware), or URLs, across every format read supports. Returns each hit as file + page/slide/sheet + a snippet with the match in bold. mode auto (default) finds the exact phrase and falls back to BM25-ranked passages when there is none; literal or ranked force one. Narrow directories with glob, e.g. "*.pdf".
Ready-to-paste client configs
Paste either block (or both) into your client config, e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json. We only show a config when the install command is confirmed.
Common Elements
{
"mcpServers": {
"common-elements": {
"url": "https://commonelements.com/api/mcp"
}
}
}
Anymd
{
"mcpServers": {
"anymd": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@sylphx/anymd"
]
}
}
}
Frequently asked questions
Common Elements is categorized under Developer Tools and uses a remote HTTP/SSE transport. Anymd belongs to Developer Tools and uses a local stdio subprocess. Pick Common Elements for developer tools work and Anymd for developer tools.
Copy the mcpServers block from the config section on this page into your client's config (for example claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json), then fully restart the client.
Common Elements has no declared pricing — check the project's own site. Anymd has no declared pricing — check the project's own site. If a server needs environment variables such as API keys, define them under the env key in your client's MCP config.
Yes. MCP clients support multiple servers: add common-elements and anymd as separate keys in the same mcpServers object, and your assistant will call tools from either one.
On AllMCPs, Common Elements has a quality signal of 36/100 (Fair) with 0 views, 0 installs and 0 GitHub stars. Anymd has 69/100 (Great) with 2 views, 0 installs and 1,040 GitHub stars.
