MCP server

Coding agents read Markdown well and PDFs, scans and slide decks badly. The AnythingMD MCP server gives your agent one tool for that: it sends a local file or a link, and gets back clean Markdown with headings, tables and OCR’d text.

What you can ask for

Once it is connected, ask in plain language. The agent picks the tool, uploads local files itself, and reads the result.

“Convert ~/Downloads/lease.pdf to Markdown and list every date and amount in a table.”
“Read https://arxiv.org/pdf/2005.14165 and summarize the method section.”
“Pull the tables out of invoices/march.pdf and save them as CSV.”
“Convert the Word files in docs/specs to Markdown and save each one next to the original.”
“This scanned contract is in Chinese. Convert it and translate the termination clause.”

It handles PDFs (including scans), Word, PowerPoint, Excel, images and HTML, up to 1,000 pages per document.

Set it up

Get an API key

Save the key as an environment variable

The configs below read the key from ANYTHINGMD_API_KEY, so it never sits in a file you might commit.

macOS / Linux

echo 'export ANYTHINGMD_API_KEY="paste-your-key-here"' >> ~/.zshrc

Windows

setx ANYTHINGMD_API_KEY "paste-your-key-here"

Open a new terminal and restart your editor or agent so it picks up the variable.

Add the server to your agent

Pick your client. Every config points at https://mcp.anythingmd.com/mcp.

Run in a terminal. -s user makes it available in every project; the single quotes keep the key out of Claude Code’s config, which reads it from the variable when it connects.

claude mcp add -s user --transport http anythingmd https://mcp.anythingmd.com/mcp --header 'Authorization: Bearer ${ANYTHINGMD_API_KEY}'

Start a new session and run /mcp to check that anythingmd is connected.

Run in a terminal. Codex reads the key from the variable each time it connects; the config stores only the variable’s name. The Codex CLI, IDE extension and desktop app share this setting.

codex mcp add anythingmd --url https://mcp.anythingmd.com/mcp --bearer-token-env-var ANYTHINGMD_API_KEY

Install in Cursor, or add this to ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "anythingmd": {
      "url": "https://mcp.anythingmd.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${env:ANYTHINGMD_API_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Then enable anythingmd under Cursor Settings → MCP.

Add this to .vscode/mcp.json. VS Code asks for the key the first time the server starts and stores it outside the file.

{
  "inputs": [
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "anythingmd-key",
      "description": "AnythingMD API key",
      "password": true
    }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "anythingmd": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.anythingmd.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${input:anythingmd-key}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Add this to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "anythingmd": {
      "serverUrl": "https://mcp.anythingmd.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${env:ANYTHINGMD_API_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Add this to your global Kilo config, ~/.config/kilo/kilo.json (or kilo.jsonc). Don’t put it in a project’s kilo.json: Kilo skips MCP servers whose headers read environment variables from project config, so a cloned repository can’t read your key.

{
  "mcp": {
    "anythingmd": {
      "type": "remote",
      "url": "https://mcp.anythingmd.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer {env:ANYTHINGMD_API_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Any client that supports remote MCP servers over Streamable HTTP. Send the key as a bearer token, using your client’s own way to read an environment variable:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "anythingmd": {
      "type": "streamable-http",
      "url": "https://mcp.anythingmd.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <your ANYTHINGMD_API_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}

The same snippets are under Settings → API Keys with a copy button.

Try it

Ask your agent:

Convert https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf to Markdown.

Within about 20 seconds you should see the form as Markdown, plus how many credits it used. If the agent says it has no such tool, or the call fails with an authentication error, see Troubleshooting.

Not supported yet

Claude.ai, ChatGPT and the Claude desktop app add servers as connectors that sign in through a browser (OAuth). The AnythingMD MCP server uses API keys only, so those apps can’t connect yet. Use one of the clients above.

What it costs

MCP uses the same credits as the website: 15 credits a page, OCR included, with packs from $5 for 200 pages. Failed and canceled conversions are free. Your agent reports the credits each conversion used. See Pricing and limits.

How it works

Local files go straight to storage through a short-lived upload link. The file never passes through the chat. Agents with a terminal upload it themselves; others hand you a browser link to upload it.
Long documents come back a page at a time (about 20,000 tokens each), so one PDF doesn’t fill the agent’s context. The agent also gets a download link for the whole Markdown file.
Five tools do the work: convert_to_markdown, create_upload, get_conversion, get_pricing and cancel_job. You don’t call them yourself; see the Tools reference if you’re building on them.

Troubleshooting

Key not picked up, uploads, large files, errors.

Tools reference

Arguments and replies, for building on the server.

Pointing an agent at these docs? Give it docs.anythingmd.com/llms.txt.

Get started

Using the API

MCP

What you can ask for

Set it up

Try it

Not supported yet

What it costs

How it works

Troubleshooting

Tools reference

​What you can ask for

​Set it up

​Try it

​Not supported yet

​What it costs

​How it works

Troubleshooting

Tools reference

What you can ask for

Set it up

Try it

Not supported yet

What it costs

How it works