WordMcp — Microsoft Word MCP Server

An MCP server that lets AI assistants drive Microsoft Word for Windows through COM automation: open documents, read and edit text, manage paragraphs and tables, set document properties and export to PDF.

Windows only. A local installation of Microsoft Word is required — this server automates the real application, it does not parse .docx files.

Requirements

Installation

VS Code

A thin extension in vscode-extension/ registers the server with VS Code, so there is nothing to configure by hand. It does not bundle the server; it launches it through dnx, which means the server updates without a new extension release.

Build and install it from a checkout:

cd vscode-extension
npx @vscode/vsce package
code --install-extension word-mcp-0.1.0.vsix

Then run MCP: List Servers from the Command Palette and start Word.

As a .NET tool

dotnet tool install --global WordMcp.McpServer

The tool is then available as mcp-word.

mcp-word --version
mcp-word --help

To update or remove it later:

dotnet tool update --global WordMcp.McpServer
dotnet tool uninstall --global WordMcp.McpServer

To run an unreleased build instead, pack it locally and install from the output folder:

dotnet pack src\WordMcp.McpServer\WordMcp.McpServer.csproj -c Release -o artifacts
dotnet tool install --global --add-source .\artifacts WordMcp.McpServer

Without installing

The server is listed in the MCP registry as io.github.trsdn/mcp-server-word. Clients that resolve packages themselves can run it through dnx, which fetches the version on demand instead of keeping a global tool around:

{
  "servers": {
    "word": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "dnx",
      "args": ["WordMcp.McpServer@0.1.0", "--yes"]
    }
  }
}

Client configuration

The server speaks stdio.

VS Code / GitHub Copilot

.vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "word": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "mcp-word"
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop

%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "word": {
      "command": "mcp-word"
    }
  }
}

Copilot CLI

copilot mcp add word --command mcp-word

Concepts

Every operation runs inside a session. A session owns one Word instance and one open document, identified by a session_id such as word-a1b2c3d4e5f6g.

file(open|create) ──► session_id ──► text / paragraph / table / document ──► file(save) ──► file(close)

• Paths must be absolute (C:\Users\me\Documents\report.docx).
• Supported input formats: .docx, .docm, .doc, .dotx, .dotm, .rtf.
• The document must not be open in Word already — WordMcp needs exclusive access.
• Word runs invisibly in the background and is terminated when the session closes.

The session service

Sessions normally live inside the MCP server process and disappear with it. WordMcp.Service.exe is an optional background daemon that holds them instead, so a session survives a restarted client and can be shared by several of them:

WordMcp.Service.exe --daemon [--idle-minutes 30]   # listen until idle or stopped
WordMcp.Service.exe --status                       # what is it doing?
WordMcp.Service.exe --stop                         # save open documents and exit

Starting it by hand is rarely necessary — a client configured to use it starts it on demand. The pipe it listens on embeds your SID and is ACL'd to it, so sessions are never shared between accounts. It exits on its own once no session has been open for the idle timeout.

To use it, set WORDMCP_SERVICE_MODE=daemon for the MCP server. Every tool call then travels to the daemon instead of running in the server's own process. Without it the server keeps sessions to itself, which is what a single client wants: no second process and no startup wait.

Tools

Seventeen tools, each with an action parameter.

file — session lifecycle

file(action: "open", path: "C:\\Users\\me\\Documents\\report.docx")
// → { "sessionId": "word-a1b2c3d4e5f6g", "fileName": "report.docx", ... }

text — content

Character positions come from get and find and are Word range offsets.

paragraph — structure

Paragraph indices are 1-based, matching Word.

table — tables

document — metadata and export

image — pictures

field — fields and tables of contents

section — sections and page setup

header-footer — headers and footers

kind selects header or footer, type selects primary, first-page or even-pages.

style — styles

style_type selects paragraph, character, table or list. Pass in_use_only: false to list for the full set, which is over 370 entries on a localized Word.

style(action: "create", session_id: "...", name: "Callout", base_style: "Normal")
style(action: "modify", session_id: "...", name: "Callout",
      font_size: 11, bold: true, color: "#C00000", space_after: 12)

list — bullets and numbering

Omitting end_index applies the action to start_index alone.

list(action: "apply", session_id: "...", start_index: 2, end_index: 5, list_type: "number")
list(action: "set-level", session_id: "...", start_index: 3, end_index: 4, level: 2)
list(action: "restart", session_id: "...", start_index: 6)

comment — review notes