pdf-it

@Marsel Bait (@mrslbt)

Visit Server

2 days ago

Turn Claude research output into designed PDFs. Cover page, table of contents, code blocks that hold across pages. An MCP server and Claude Code skill for markdown to PDF. Works with Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Cline, Continue.dev, Zed, and any MCP-capable client.

Overview Tools Comments

Overview

What pdf-it does

Anthropic ships a PDF skill that reads and fills PDFs. It does not compose them. Every Claude research session ends the same way: a wall of useful markdown and no clean way to turn it into a PDF a person would want to read.

pdf-it is the other half. Markdown in, designed PDF out. No Chrome printing, no manual HTML conversion.

Output: cover page, auto-generated table of contents, body with proper hierarchy, code blocks that hold across page breaks, page-numbered footer.

Works with

pdf-it is a standard Model Context Protocol server. Any local client that supports MCP can use it:

Claude Desktop (Mac, Windows)
Claude Code (CLI) — full skill triggers, "save this as PDF" auto-routes
Cursor
Cline (VS Code)
Continue.dev
Zed
Goose
Any custom agent built on the Anthropic SDK with MCP

Does NOT work on claude.ai web or Claude mobile apps because those cannot run local MCP servers.

Requirements: Node.js 18+ and Google Chrome installed locally on any client.

Install

npm install -g pdf-it-mcp

Or run on demand with npx pdf-it-mcp.

Configure

Claude Desktop, Cursor, Zed, and most other clients use the same JSON shape:

{ "mcpServers": { "pdf-it": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "pdf-it-mcp"] } } }

For Claude Code: claude mcp add pdf-it -- npx -y pdf-it-mcp

Use

In any Claude session connected to the server, ask:

"Save this as a PDF"

Or any of: "export as PDF", "make a PDF report from this", "/pdf", "turn this into a PDF". The output lands in ~/Documents/pdf-it/ by default.

Tools

generate_pdf — Convert markdown to PDF. Accepts a template (research-report or plain), optional title and author, and optional output path.
list_templates — Return the list of available templates.

Templates

research-report — Cover page with title, author, and date. Auto-generated table of contents from H1 and H2. Body with proper hierarchy. Page-numbered footer.
plain — No cover, no TOC. Dense body content for short notes.

Why pdf-it instead of Anthropic's PDF skill

The two are complementary. Anthropic's skill handles input (read text, extract tables, fill forms, OCR scanned pages). pdf-it handles output (compose a designed PDF from markdown). Use both.

License

MIT. Source on GitHub: https://github.com/mrslbt/pdf-it

Built by Marsel Bait · https://marselbait.me

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Server Config

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pdf-it": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "pdf-it-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Build with ShipAny.