Avanquest PDF API MCP Server

MCP server that gives the Claude Desktop app access to PDF manipulation tools powered by the Avanquest PDF API.

Features

• Convert PDFs to Word, PowerPoint, Excel, plain text, or JSON
• Convert HTML, images, and text files to PDF
• Merge multiple PDFs into one document
• Split a PDF into separate files
• Compress PDFs with configurable quality levels
• Edit pages - delete, rotate, or resize
• Protect PDFs with passwords or remove existing protection
• Watermark PDFs with custom text or images
• Analyze PDFs for tags, forms, signatures, and attachments

Input file size limit: 10 MB per file. Processed results are available for download for 10 minutes.

Works best with Claude's Filesystem extension for local file access.

Installation

Manual Setup

Clone and build from source:

git clone https://github.com/Avanquest-Software/avanquest-pdfapi-mcp-server.git
cd  avanquest-pdfapi-mcp-server
npm install
npm run build
  

Get a free API key at developers.avanquest.com

Configuration

Usage Examples

Convert a PDF to Word:

"Convert /Users/me/report.pdf to a Word document and save it to /Users/me/report.docx"
  

Extension uploads the file, waits for processing, and saves the resulting .docx file to the specified path.

Merge PDFs:

"Merge /Users/me/part1.pdf and /Users/me/part2.pdf into a single file at /Users/me/combined.pdf"
  

Extension uploads both files, merges them in order, and saves the combined PDF to the specified path.

Compress a PDF:

"Compress /Users/me/presentation.pdf with medium quality and save the result to /Users/me/presentation-small.pdf"
  

Extension uploads the file, applies medium compression, and saves the smaller PDF to the specified path.

Extract text:

"Extract all text from pages 1-5 of /Users/me/book.pdf and save it to /Users/me/excerpt.txt"
  

Extension uploads the file, extracts text from the selected pages, and saves the plain-text output to the specified path.

Add a watermark:

"Add a red 'CONFIDENTIAL' watermark at 45 degrees to /Users/me/doc.pdf and save it to /Users/me/doc-watermarked.pdf"
  

Extension uploads the file, applies the text watermark with the specified color and rotation, and saves the watermarked PDF to the specified path.

Knowledge Base

Filesystem can be installed through the Claude's UI by selecting:

Settings -> Extensions -> Browse extensions -> Filesystem. Click Install sliding the toggle to Enable. It can alternatively be installed manually as an MCP server, alongside the Avanquest PDF API MCP server by including it inside Claude's configuration file claude_desktop_config.json (see step 1. below).

Usage Preparation

• Open Claude's configuration file in an editor. You can find it from the UI by selecting Settings -> Developer. Under Local MCP servers select Edit config. This will take you to the location of the config on your drive.
• The avanquest-pdf part, which you should include in Claude's config file above, can be found in the example file: /avanquest-pdfapi-mcp-server/mcp-config-example.json
• Point to where index.js can be found after installation.
• Paste, where indicated, your API key obtained on our developer portal.
• The filesystem part should be similar to the example below:

  
  "filesystem": {
    "command": "C:\\PROGRA~1\\nodejs\\npx.cmd",
    "args": [
      "-y",
      "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem",
      "C:\\Users\\yourUserName\\Documents",
      "C:\\Users\\yourUserName\\Downloads"
    ]
  }
  

  Note:

  You can find where npx is located by running where npx inside cmd. You should get something like C:\Program Files\nodejs\npx.cmd and input it as the command value, as shown in the code snippet above.

  Tip:

  • Use short 8.3 path and change command to C:\\PROGRA~1\\nodejs\\npx.cmd in order to avoid a cmd empty space interpreter error.
  • The last two arguments to npx are the directories you want to give Claude's filesystem extension access to.

  The LLM should be provided with a personal preference, by selecting: Settings -> General

• Inside the dialog named: What personal preferences should Claude consider in responses?
  Paste the message: At the start of every conversation, always run tool_search to discover available MCP tools before responding to any task involving files, documents, or conversions.
• Completely close Claude (best by killing all processes through Windows' Task Manager).
• Reopen the app to apply all new settings.
• Run your desired task (see Usage Examples section).

Privacy Policy

Files you upload are processed via the Avanquest PDF API and subject to the Avanquest Privacy Policy. Processed files are automatically deleted from Avanquest servers 10 minutes after completion.

License