MCP server

@pdfforge/mcp is a Model Context Protocol server that exposes the pdfforge toolbox to AI agents — Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, or any MCP client. The agent works with file paths; the server handles upload, base64 and saving results.

Setup

Add the server to your MCP client config (example for Claude Code / Claude Desktop):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pdfforge": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@pdfforge/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "PDFFORGE_API_KEY": "pf_live_..."
      }
    }
  }
}

Env variable	Description
`PDFFORGE_API_KEY`	Required. Your API key.
`PDFFORGE_BASE_URL`	Optional API override (staging, self-hosted).
`PDFFORGE_OUTPUT_DIR`	Where generated PDFs/images are written (default: the OS temp dir).

The tools

Generation

Tool	What it does
`generate_pdf_from_html`	HTML string → PDF file (Tailwind supported).
`generate_pdf_from_template`	Stored template + JSON data → PDF.
`list_templates` / `get_template`	Discover templates and their data schema.

Operations

Tool	What it does
`merge_pdfs`	Merge files by path, in order.
`split_pdf`	One file per page.
`pdf_to_image`	Rasterize pages to PNG — how the agent looks at a document.
`strip_pdf_watermark`	Structurally remove overlay watermarks.

The perceive → act loop

Tool	What it does
`pdf_perceive`	Call this first. Structured map: elements with stable ids, text, bboxes, semantic labels (`email`, `phone`, `iban`, `amount`...), logical regions (`header`, `line_items_table`, `signature_area`...).
`edit_pdf_text`	Rewrite elements by perceived id — design stays intact; works on vector text and OCR/scanned spans.
`redact_pdf`	True redaction by element ids, regex `pattern`, `semantics` labels, or raw regions. `flatten: true` rasterizes for scans.
`place_signature`	Burn a signature image, anchored to text (`anchor_text`) or the perceived `signature_area`.

PDF templates (the import flow)

Tool	What it does
`create_pdf_template`	Mark perceived elements as variables → a reusable template from ANY designed PDF.
`fill_pdf_template`	Render a stored PDF template with values.
`list_pdf_templates`	Discover templates and their variables.

Perceive first

The action tools (edit_pdf_text, redact_pdf, place_signature, create_pdf_template) act on the ids and bboxes returned by pdf_perceive. Ids change after every edit — re-perceive between operations on the same file. The server caches perceptions per file and guards against silently corrupted output (an edit that would destroy unrelated text is aborted).

Example session

A prompt like this is enough — the agent chains the tools itself:

Take ~/Documents/contract.pdf: redact every email address and phone number,
place my signature (~/Documents/signature.png) under "Le Directeur",
then show me page 1.

→ pdf_perceive → redact_pdf (semantics: ["email", "phone"]) → place_signature (anchor "Le Directeur") → pdf_to_image.

Next steps

Inspect — the perception layer these tools are built on.
Import a PDF — the template flow behind create_pdf_template.
n8n — no-code automation instead.

Setup

The tools

Example session

Next steps

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