distill-mcp
An MCP server that connects any MCP-compatible client to Distill, converting local documents to clean, token-efficient Markdown before the LLM reads them. Typical token reduction is 40–80% compared to raw document text, letting the model fit more content into its context window and reason over it faster.
Works with Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and any other MCP client that supports tool calling.
Two Modes
| Lightweight | Full (Docker) | |
|---|---|---|
| Requires Docker | No | Yes |
| DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, native PDF, HTML | Yes | Yes |
| Scanned PDF (OCR) | No | Yes |
| Audio (MP3, WAV, etc.) | No | Yes |
| Quality score | No | Yes |
| Install time | ~2 min | ~10 min |
Lightweight needs only Python and pip. Full needs Docker with the Distill service running. See the setup guides for details.
Quick install
No global install required:
npx -y distill-mcp-server
Then configure Claude Desktop — see Lightweight setup or Full setup for step-by-step instructions.
Configuration
Add the server to your claude_desktop_config.json.
Lightweight mode — macOS / Linux:
{
"mcpServers": {
"distill-mcp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "distill-mcp-server"],
"env": {
"DISTILL_MCP_CONFIG": "{\"mode\":\"lightweight\",\"python_path\":\"python3\"}"
}
}
}
}
Lightweight mode — Windows:
{
"mcpServers": {
"distill-mcp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "distill-mcp-server"],
"env": {
"DISTILL_MCP_CONFIG": "{\"mode\":\"lightweight\",\"python_path\":\"py\"}"
}
}
}
}
Full mode — all platforms:
{
"mcpServers": {
"distill-mcp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "distill-mcp-server"],
"env": {
"DISTILL_MCP_CONFIG": "{\"mode\":\"full\",\"distill_url\":\"http://localhost:7860\"}"
}
}
}
}
Full config key reference is in the setup guides: Lightweight | Full
CLAUDE.md snippet
Paste this into your project's CLAUDE.md so Claude knows how to use the
tool automatically. Copy the block below as-is:
## Document Conversion — distill-mcp
When the user references a local file path (e.g. a PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX,
HTML, or audio file), ALWAYS call the `convert_and_save` tool before reading
or reasoning about the document. Do not read the original file directly via
filesystem tools — use only the Markdown returned by `convert_and_save` as
the document content.
### Rules
1. Call `convert_and_save` with the absolute file path before doing anything
else with the document.
2. Use ONLY the Markdown output from `convert_and_save` as the document
content. Never read the original file with filesystem tools.
3. If the response includes `"overwritten": true`, tell the user that a
previous cached version was replaced before proceeding.
4. If the response includes any `warnings`, surface them to the user before
proceeding with the document content.
5. If `convert_and_save` returns an unsupported format error, tell the user
which formats are supported and suggest switching modes if applicable.
### Supported formats
| Category | Lightweight | Full (Docker) |
|---|---|---|
| Word | .docx, .doc, .odt | .docx, .doc, .odt |
| Excel | .xlsx, .xlsm, .csv | .xlsx, .xlsm, .csv |
| PowerPoint | .pptx, .ppt | .pptx, .ppt |
| PDF | .pdf (native text) | .pdf (native + scanned OCR) |
| HTML | .html, .htm | .html, .htm |
| Audio | — | .mp3, .wav, .m4a, .flac, .ogg |
| Other | — | .epub, .json, .sql, .wsdl, .wsd |
### Usage
Say "convert using distill" followed by the file path:
> Convert using distill C:\Users\me\Documents\report.pdf to markdown
The snippet is also available in docs/CLAUDE.md-snippet.md.
Supported formats
| Category | Extensions | Lightweight | Full |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Word | .docx, .doc, .odt | Yes | Yes |
| Microsoft Excel | .xlsx, .xlsm, .csv | Yes | Yes |
| Microsoft PowerPoint | .pptx, .ppt | Yes | Yes |
| PDF (native text) | .pdf | Yes | Yes |
| PDF (scanned/OCR) | .pdf | No | Yes |
| HTML | .html, .htm | Yes | Yes |
| Audio | .mp3, .wav, .m4a, .flac, .ogg | No | Yes |
| EPUB | .epub | No | Yes |
| JSON | .json | No | Yes |
| SQL | .sql | No | Yes |
| WSDL | .wsdl, .wsd | No | Yes |
Privacy
All processing happens locally. In lightweight mode, documents are converted by the distill-core Python library on your machine — no data leaves your computer. In full mode, documents are sent to the Distill Docker service running locally on your machine — no data is sent to external services.
Built on
Distill — document-to-Markdown conversion engine.
License
MIT