SylphxAI/anymd

PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, EPUB, HTML and web pages, images (OCR), audio and video (metadata, subtitles, transcripts). A fast Rust MCP server and CLI that runs on your machine. No API key.
anymd is the free, local mode of the same crates that run Sylphx AI parse, the hosted document-parse service: the same crates, hosted and metered per page for callers that want no local runtime.
Install · Benchmarks · Tools · CLI · Formats · Docs · Pro
Formerly pdf-reader-mcp. Migrating from pdf-reader-mcp
A real, unedited terminal recording (asciinema + agg, script ). The last command is Claude Code answering from the PDF through the anymd MCP server.
bash
npx -y @sylphx/anymd setup # add anymd to every MCP client on this machine
npx -y @sylphx/anymd report.pdf > report.md # or convert from the shell
## Why anymd
Fast. Native Rust converts in parallel, page by page. On the 38 benchmark documents, anymd takes 11.5 s in total; docling 2,432.4 s (212×), markitdown 75.6 s (7×); marker converted 30 of them in 7,104.5 s, against anymd's 4.64 s on the same 30 (1,532×).
Accurate. A layout engine rebuilds words from glyph gaps, puts two-column papers in reading order, and recovers tables, including borderless ones. The text stays exactly as printed, with no glued words and no scrambled columns.
Lean on tokens. Pages come back as Markdown with citation anchors, a small front-matter header, and compact tables. A token budget and a cursor keep large documents within your agent's context.
Every format, one call. One tool reads every format listed below. It also accepts web URLs and whole directories, and search looks across all of them.
Local and private. Nothing is uploaded. OCR uses installed local doc-VLM models or tesseract; transcripts use ffmpeg and bundled Qwen3-ASR. OCR setup and ASR model downloads require explicit opt-in.
## Install
Add anymd to every MCP client on your machine (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, Claude Desktop, Windsurf, Gemini CLI) with one command:
bash
npx -y @sylphx/anymd setup # --dry-run to preview, --remove to undo
Or add it by hand: every MCP client runs the same command, npx -y @sylphx/anymd. Node 18+ is the only requirement; npm installs the native binary for your platform.
Claude Code
bash
claude mcp add anymd -- npx -y @sylphx/anymd
Or as a plugin, with the anymd skill: /plugin marketplace add SylphxAI/anymd, then /plugin install anymd@anymd.
Codex
bash
codex mcp add anymd -- npx -y @sylphx/anymd
or in ~/.codex/config.toml:
toml
[mcpservers.anymd]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "@sylphx/anymd"]
Cursor
or in .cursor/mcp.json:
json
{ "mcpServers": { "anymd": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "@sylphx/anymd"] } } }
VS Code
Install in VS Code with one click, or from a terminal:
bash
code --add-mcp '{"name":"anymd","command":"npx","args":["-y","@sylphx/anymd"]}'
or in .vscode/mcp.json:
json
{ "servers": { "anymd": { "type": "stdio", "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "@sylphx/anymd"] } } }
Claude Desktop
One click: download anymd- .mcpb from the latest release and open it. Or, by hand:
Add to claudedesktopconfig.json (Settings → Developer → Edit Config):
json
{ "mcpServers": { "anymd": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "@sylphx/anymd"] } } }