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PDF Reader MCP

Extracts, searches, and reads local PDF files through MCP tools for Claude Code and other compatible clients.

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Install PDF Reader MCP

Pick your client, then add it in one click or paste the config.

STDIONode.js
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fabriqa-ai-pdf-reader-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@fabriqa.ai/pdf-reader-mcp@latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Settings → Developer → Edit Config, merge this into mcpServers, then fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop.

Automated check passed— started and listed 3 tools correctly (6d ago).

Overview

PDF Reader MCP MCP server extracts text, searches content, and retrieves metadata from local PDF files without sending an entire document into the model context. It runs as a local Node.js process over stdio and exposes read-pdf, search-pdf, and pdf-metadata tools. Use it when an agent needs targeted information from large or multi-page PDFs. Claude Code and Claude Desktop setup instructions are provided, with configuration based on npx.

Use cases

  • Read selected pages from a research paper
  • Search a large PDF for a technical term
  • Extract author and page-count metadata
  • Clean extracted text before analysis

Key features

  • Extracts full or selected-page PDF text
  • Searches PDF content with matching options
  • Retrieves PDF metadata
  • Optionally cleans extracted text
  • Runs locally over stdio

Tools3

What PDF Reader MCP lets your agent do. Expand a tool for its parameters.

Verified live~383 tokens of context

Security & health

What it can reach and how reliably it runs — from our own checks, not the maintainer’s claims.

ActiveLast checked Today

Recent health check succeeded.

5/5 checks healthy over the last 16d

What it can do

From the 3 tools this server returned when we ran it.

Read-only tools · 3
Network at startup3 connections
Files written at startupNone
Install scriptsNone
npm provenanceNot published
Package age368 days
Maintainers1

Observed 2026-10-31 in an isolated sandbox. A description of reach, not a security audit.

Supply-chain signal

No high-severity advisories surfaced by our automated scan.

Critical 0High 0Medium 0Low 0

Scanned 16d ago via OSV.dev · @fabriqa.ai/pdf-reader-mcp@latest (npm)

Adoption & maintenance

Factual signals from GitHub, npm, and our automated checks — not a rating.

GitHub stars1Stargazers on the source repository.
npm downloads1.2kPackage downloads in the last 30 days.
Last commit1y agoMost recent push to the default branch.
Availability100%Our rolling endpoint + install checks that succeeded.
Install checkPassedOur sandbox started it and listed its tools.
Tools exposed3Callable tools this server registers over MCP.

How PDF Reader MCP works

What PDF Reader MCP MCP server does

PDF Reader MCP MCP server gives an MCP-compatible AI client tools for working with local PDF files. It supports three operations: extracting text, searching for terms, and reading document metadata. The server is intended for cases where loading a complete PDF into the model context would be wasteful, such as reviewing research papers, checking long reports, or locating a specific section.

The read-pdf tool accepts a file path and can return all pages or a selected range. It also supports optional text cleaning and optional metadata in the result. The search-pdf tool looks for a supplied query and accepts case-sensitive and whole-word matching options. The pdf-metadata tool returns document information such as title, author, page count, and dates when that information is present in the PDF.

How it works

The server is implemented as a local Node.js process and communicates with the MCP client through stdio. It uses pdf-parse for text extraction and the Model Context Protocol SDK for tool communication. Each tool operates on a PDF path supplied in the request, so the client environment must be able to access the referenced file.

A practical workflow is to inspect metadata first, search for a relevant phrase, and then read only the pages needed for closer analysis. Page ranges can use forms such as 1-5, 1,3,5, or all. Search matching is case-insensitive and allows partial-word matches by default, unless the optional flags change that behavior.

Setup and configuration

Install the published package globally with npm install -g @fabriqa.ai/pdf-reader-mcp, or clone the repository and run npm install. Node.js must be installed and available in the system PATH.

For Claude Code, the documented command is claude mcp add pdf-reader npx @fabriqa.ai/pdf-reader-mcp@latest. Manual configuration adds a pdf-reader entry to ~/.claude.json with npx as the command and the package name as its argument. Claude Desktop uses the same command and argument in its platform-specific configuration file. An included script can update the Claude configuration automatically.

When troubleshooting, check that the PDF exists, prefer an absolute path, verify file permissions, and restart the client after changing its configuration.

Tools and capabilities

  • read-pdf: Extracts PDF text from all pages or a specified page range. Optional cleaning normalizes the extracted text, and metadata inclusion is enabled by default.
  • search-pdf: Searches a PDF for a required query, with optional case-sensitive and whole-word matching.
  • pdf-metadata: Retrieves available PDF metadata, including fields such as title, author, page count, and dates.

Limitations and notes

Text extraction depends on what pdf-parse can process. Scanned PDFs that contain images rather than text may not produce useful extracted content, and complex layouts can reduce extraction quality.

The tools read files rather than modifying them. The client must provide a valid path to a locally accessible PDF. PDF Reader MCP MCP server is documented primarily for Claude Code, although its stdio transport can be configured in other MCP clients that support local servers.

Read the full README View source on GitHub

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Frequently Asked Questions about PDF Reader MCP

PDF Reader MCP is an MCP server that connects AI clients to local PDF files through a Node.js stdio process. Its main tools read PDF text, search document content, and retrieve metadata such as titles, authors, page counts, and dates without requiring the entire file in the model context.

Install it with `npm install -g @fabriqa.ai/pdf-reader-mcp`, or clone the repository and run `npm install`. The server requires Node.js. After installation, add it to the client configuration with `npx @fabriqa.ai/pdf-reader-mcp@latest`.

Run `claude mcp add pdf-reader npx @fabriqa.ai/pdf-reader-mcp@latest`. You can also add a `pdf-reader` server entry to `~/.claude.json`, or use the package's configuration script to update that file.

Yes, the `search-pdf` tool searches a specified PDF for a required text query. It supports optional case-sensitive and whole-word matching, while case-insensitive and non-whole-word matching are the defaults.

Scanned PDFs may not produce extractable text because the provided server documentation does not describe OCR support. Text extraction can also be affected by complex layouts, so image-only or unusually formatted documents may return incomplete results.

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