Connect EasyMD to your AI tools with MCP

What is the EasyMD MCP server?

EasyMD exposes its full document-to-Markdown pipeline as a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. MCP is an open standard that lets AI assistants like Claude Desktop and Cursor call external tools on your behalf — no copy-pasting, no browser switching.

With the EasyMD MCP server your AI assistant can:

• Convert a URL (web page, hosted PDF, DOCX, etc.) to clean Markdown in one tool call.
• Convert a local file (PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, image, …) to Markdown by sending the base64-encoded content.
• Run the same OCR pipeline used by the web app on scanned PDFs and screenshots.

All conversions apply EasyMD's quality pipeline — heading normalisation, table extraction, and AI-assisted OCR — and count against your account's daily quota exactly like web conversions.

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Prerequisites

1. An EasyMD account — sign up free from the Sign in page.
2. An API key that starts with emd_ — generate one on the MCP page (open the MCP item in your account menu). The page also shows the server URL and ready-to-paste config for Claude Code, Cursor, and other MCP clients. Keep the key private; treat it like a password.

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Connecting your AI client

The MCP endpoint is:

https://easymd.dev/mcp

Authentication uses a standard Bearer token:

Authorization: Bearer emd_<your-key>

Claude Desktop

Add the following block to your claude_desktop_config.json (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS, %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json on Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "easymd": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://easymd.dev/mcp",
        "--header",
        "Authorization: Bearer emd_<your-key>"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop after saving. You should see "easymd" appear in the MCP tools list.

Cursor

Open Settings → MCP and add:

{
  "easymd": {
    "transport": "http",
    "url": "https://easymd.dev/mcp",
    "headers": {
      "Authorization": "Bearer emd_<your-key>"
    }
  }
}

Generic MCP client (streamable-HTTP)

The server uses the streamable-HTTP transport. Point your client to https://easymd.dev/mcp and attach the header Authorization: Bearer emd_<your-key>.

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Available tools

convert_url

Convert any publicly accessible URL to Markdown.

Parameter	Type	Description
url	string	The URL to fetch and convert

Example prompt:

"Convert https://example.com/whitepaper.pdf to Markdown."

EasyMD fetches the URL, validates the content type, runs the quality pipeline (including OCR for scanned PDFs), and returns clean Markdown.

convert_document

Convert a local file to Markdown by sending its base64-encoded content.

Parameter	Type	Description
filename	string	Original filename including extension, e.g. report.pdf
content_base64	string	Standard base64-encoded file content

Example prompt:

"Convert the attached PDF to Markdown and summarise the key findings."

The AI client encodes the file and calls this tool automatically when you attach a supported file.

Supported formats: PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX/XLS, CSV, HTML, XML, JSON, TXT, PNG, JPG, WEBP, and more — the same formats accepted by the web app.

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Use cases

RAG ingestion pipeline

Use your AI IDE to loop over a folder of PDFs, call convert_document on each, and write the resulting Markdown to a knowledge base or vector store — all from a single prompt session.

Batch OCR of scanned documents

Point the agent at a set of scanned PDFs (e.g. invoice archive, contract library) and have it OCR each one to Markdown. EasyMD's OCR pipeline handles multi-column layouts, tables, and mixed-language content.

In-IDE document analysis

Attach a PDF report inside Cursor or Claude Desktop and ask the AI to summarise, translate, or extract data from it. EasyMD converts the document first, then the AI works from clean Markdown.

Web-page research

Ask your AI assistant to fetch a URL, convert it, and include the Markdown content in its context window for further analysis — no manual copy-paste.

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Quota and limits

Resource	Limit (default)
Daily conversions	Shared with your web-app quota
Daily OCR conversions	Shared with your web-app OCR quota
Max file size	Same as your account tier
Max URL size	Same as your account tier

MCP conversions are logged in your conversion history just like web conversions. Check your current usage on the account page.

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Troubleshooting

"Missing or invalid Authorization header" — Ensure the header value is exactly Bearer emd_<your-key> with no extra spaces. Re-generate the key on the MCP page if needed.

"Invalid or revoked API key" — The key may have been deleted or rotated. Generate a new one on the MCP page.

"File exceeds the limit" — The file is larger than your account's per-file limit. Try compressing the PDF or splitting it into smaller files.

"OCR daily quota exceeded" — You've hit today's OCR limit. Quota resets at midnight UTC.

Tool not appearing in Claude Desktop — Restart Claude Desktop after editing claude_desktop_config.json. Confirm the JSON is valid (no trailing commas).