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mcp-pdf

Say "stamp PAID on that invoice and save a copy" or "pull pages 2 to 6 out of this scan and merge them with the contract" and it happens, on your machine, in a second. This MCP server does the small PDF jobs that otherwise send you to a web uploader: merge, split by page range, extract or reorder pages, rotate a sideways scan, stamp PAID or DRAFT or any text you like, put your business name and VAT id in the footer, count pages across a folder of files, and read a PDF's text back as text. No upload, no account, no native dependency, no office install.

The PDF chores of a freelance business, done from chat instead of from a browser tab you do not trust with an invoice.

60-second install

npm publish for @theluckystrike/mcp-pdf is pending. Until then, the .mcpb one-click bundle or a clone+build is the working path -- both are verified below.

One-click (.mcpb): download pdf.mcpb from the latest release and double-click it in Claude Desktop: https://github.com/theluckystrike/mcp-servers/releases/latest

Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pdf": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@theluckystrike/mcp-pdf"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code:

claude mcp add pdf -- npx -y @theluckystrike/mcp-pdf

Cursor (.cursor/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pdf": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@theluckystrike/mcp-pdf"]
    }
  }
}

The npx form above starts working the moment the package is published. Until then, use the .mcpb bundle above, or build from source with exactly these three commands:

git clone https://github.com/theluckystrike/mcp-servers.git && cd mcp-servers
npm install
npm run build -w packages/mcp-license -w servers/pdf

Then point your client's command at node with one arg: the absolute path to servers/pdf/dist/index.js.

To run in Pro mode set MCP_LICENSE_KEY in the same config block, or call license_activate once with your key.

Tools

Resource: pdf://recent returns the last 25 operations, newest first, with the inputs, the files written and when. Prompt: mark_invoice_paid chains mcp-invoice's invoice_get into pdf_stamp PAID and saves the stamped copy beside the original.

What you can say

Worked example

You: Stamp PAID on ~/invoices/INV-2026-0007.pdf and save a copy.

  pdf_stamp {
    path: "~/invoices/INV-2026-0007.pdf",
    text: "PAID",
    position: "center",
    out_path: "~/invoices/INV-2026-0007-paid.pdf"
  }
  -> Stamped "PAID" on 1 page
  -> ~/invoices/INV-2026-0007-paid.pdf, 0.9 MB

The stamp is drawn text, not a flattened image: it can be selected and searched, it is drawn on the 45-degree diagonal in the preset green, and the original file is byte-for-byte unchanged.

Free vs Pro

A tier limit is an answer, not an error, and nothing is written when one refuses a call.

Pro is a one-time $19, or $39 for every server in the collection, lifetime.

Get Pro: https://mcp.zovo.one/buy/pdf

pdf_text is best effort, and here is exactly what that means

A PDF does not store text. It stores drawing operators, and the text you see is bytes handed to a font. This server decompresses each page's FlateDecode content stream with node:zlib and reads the four text-showing operators -- Tj, TJ, ' and " -- plus the positioning operators that end a line. That is a parser written here, in about two hundred lines, with no pdfjs and no native module, and it has three real limits the tool states in its own answer every time:

• A scan has no text. An image-only page carries no text operators, so nothing comes back. There is no OCR here and there will not be one; the answer says the page is probably a scan rather than returning an empty string with no explanation.
• A custom or CID encoding returns glyph indices, not letters. Subset-embedded and CJK fonts map bytes to glyph numbers through a table this parser does not read. When the output has no readable characters, the answer says the font is the reason.
• Reading order is drawing order. There is no column detection and no layout reconstruction. Word spaces are recovered from the large negative kerns a TJ array uses for them, so a PDF that positions every word separately can come back with words run together.

PDFs written by word processors, invoicing tools and report generators -- everything with a standard or fully embedded font -- read back cleanly. Anything else tells you why it did not.

Encrypted PDFs are refused, not guessed

pdf-lib cannot decrypt, and loading an encrypted file while ignoring the encryption produces pages of garbage that would be written straight into the output. So a file whose trailer names an /Encrypt dictionary is refused by every tool that writes, with the reason and the fix in the message: open it in a reader with the password, export or print to a new PDF, and use that file. pdf_info still answers, with encrypted: true, because reporting is its whole job, and pdf_count reports it as one unreadable file while still counting the rest.

Existing files are never overwritten, and inputs are never modified

Every tool writes a new file and leaves its inputs byte-for-byte alone -- there is no in-place mode, on purpose. An out_path that already exists is refused:

Error: /path/merged.pdf already exists and nothing was written.
Pass overwrite: true to replace it, or give a different out_path.

The path is reserved with an exclusive create, not an existence check, so two processes writing the same out_path at the same time cannot clobber each other: one wins, the other is refused and writes nothing. pdf_split reserves every one of its output paths before it writes any of them, so a collision on part 3 does not leave parts 1 and 2 behind as a half-done split -- and the reservations are released, so nothing empty is left on disk either.

Pass overwrite: true when replacing the file is what you want.

Limits

• Inputs over 100 MB are refused: rewriting a PDF needs several times its size in memory.
• A file that does not start with %PDF- is refused before anything is read.
• Rotation is recorded as page metadata, in multiples of 90 degrees, which is all the format has. Nothing is redrawn.
• Stamp text goes through a built-in PDF font, which carries WinAnsi and its 256 code points. Characters outside it are removed and counted in the answer rather than failing the write; there is no CJK stamp.
• No page numbering, no form filling, no signatures, no redaction, no compression, no PDF/A. This server does the page-level jobs; it is not a PDF editor.
• No OCR. See the pdf_text section.

How it stores data

Only a register of what it did: ${XDG_DATA_HOME:-~/.local/share}/mcp-servers/pdf/operations.json, the last 500 operations, as plain JSON. Your PDFs stay where you put them. Every write to the register runs inside an advisory lock on .../pdf/.lock, so two clients on one data directory cannot lose a record, and saves go to a temporary file and are renamed into place.

If the register is unreadable or not valid JSON it is never treated as "empty": it is moved aside byte-for-byte as operations.json.corrupt-<timestamp> with a marker beside it. The PDF you asked for is still written -- the file is on disk before the register is touched -- and the answer tells you the history could not be updated.

The business footer reads the one shared profile the whole suite uses, ${XDG_DATA_HOME:-~/.local/share}/mcp-servers/profile/business.json, written by business_set in mcp-invoice or mcp-docx. Nothing is invented: with no name stored, pdf_watermark_business refuses and says which tool to run.

Privacy

All data stays local. The server reads and writes files on your machine and makes no network request of any kind -- not for licensing (keys are verified offline), not for fonts, not for telemetry. A PDF you stamp is never uploaded anywhere, which is the entire reason this exists.

Pairs with

• mcp-invoice -- the invoice you sent, stamped PAID: the mark_invoice_paid prompt chains invoice_get into pdf_stamp.
• mcp-docx -- write the proposal as .docx, print it to PDF, then stamp, merge or split it here.
• mcp-resume -- join a CV, a cover letter and a portfolio into the one file an application form accepts.
• office-suite -- several servers behind one install, one config entry.

Troubleshooting

• npx hangs or fails to find the package: npm publish for this package is pending. Use the .mcpb bundle or the clone-and-build path above until it lands.
• "is encrypted and was refused": the file is password or permissions protected. Open it in a PDF reader, export or print to a new PDF, and run the tool on that copy. This server never guesses or strips a password.
• pdf_text returned nothing: the page is a scan, or its font uses a custom encoding. The answer says which. There is no OCR here.
• The stamp is too small or too big: by default it is sized to fit the page width. Pass font_size for an exact point size, and opacity between 0 and 1.
• "already exists and nothing was written": pass overwrite: true, or a different out_path.
• Node version: requires Node >= 18. Check with node -v.

MIT licensed. Support: support@zovo.one

Built by theluckystrike.

Set it up in your client

Exact config path, entry and caveats: Claude Desktop · Claude Code · Cursor · VS Code · Windsurf · Cline · Claude.ai and Claude Desktop connectors · all clients

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Guides

How to track billable hours inside Claude Code and Cursor · Create an invoice PDF from a chat message with an MCP server · Ask questions about an Excel or CSV file from Cursor or Claude · Watch a product price with Claude and get told when it drops · What the free tier includes and what Pro adds · Log expenses and mileage in Claude, split VAT, rebill to an invoice · Convert currencies in Claude with real ECB rates, no API key · Generate Word proposals and contracts from a chat message · Find a meeting time across time zones without doing the arithmetic · Write a resume and a cover letter from chat, without inventing anything · Bill a retainer on a schedule without a billing SaaS · Assemble a contract from your own clause library, in chat · Connect MCP servers to Claude.ai, Claude Desktop, Cursor and VS Code without installing anything · Merge, split and stamp PDFs from chat, and why some come back as glyph numbers · Read a .ics calendar in Claude: free and busy, conflicts, and billable meetings · All guides