GroupDocs.Conversion MCP server

GroupDocs.Conversion MCP Server

Convert PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, HTML, images, and 70+ document formats from Claude, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and any other MCP agent — locally, your files never leave your machine.

Install in 60 seconds

One-click installs pre-fill every supported setting: edit the placeholder documents folder after install (output defaults to the same folder); an empty GROUPDOCS_LICENSE_PATH runs in evaluation mode - point it at your license to lift limits.

More clients - ready-made configs for Claude Code, Codex CLI, Visual Studio 2022, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, and JetBrains Rider live in install/generated/.

Requires the .NET 10 SDK for native runs — or skip straight to Docker.

Run directly with dnx (recommended — no install step):

dnx GroupDocs.Conversion.Mcp --yes

Pulls the latest stable release on every invocation. To pin to a specific version (recommended for shared configs and CI), append @<version>:

dnx GroupDocs.Conversion.Mcp@26.9.0 --yes

Claude Desktop

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "groupdocs-conversion": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "dnx",
      "args": ["GroupDocs.Conversion.Mcp", "--yes"],
      "env": {
        "GROUPDOCS_MCP_STORAGE_PATH": "/path/to/documents"
      }
    }
  }
}

To use a license, add "GROUPDOCS_LICENSE_PATH": "/path/to/GroupDocs.Total.lic" to env — omit it to run in evaluation mode.

Claude Code

claude mcp add groupdocs-conversion -- dnx GroupDocs.Conversion.Mcp --yes

VS Code / GitHub Copilot

Use the Install in VS Code button above, or copy the ready-made snippet from the NuGet package page into .vscode/mcp.json, or take install/generated/vscode-mcp.json from this repo.

Visual Studio 2022 (17.14+)

Create .mcp.json in your solution root with the contents of install/generated/vs2022-mcp.json — same shape as VS Code's. This is the native path for .NET teams already in Visual Studio.

Cursor · Windsurf · Cline · Rider · Codex

• Cursor — use the Add to Cursor button above, or paste install/generated/claude-desktop.json into ~/.cursor/mcp.json.
• Windsurf — follow install/generated/windsurf.md.
• Cline — paste install/generated/cline.json into Cline's MCP settings.
• JetBrains Rider — follow install/generated/rider.md.
• Codex CLI — codex mcp add groupdocs-conversion -- dnx GroupDocs.Conversion.Mcp --yes, details in install/generated/codex.md.

Docker

docker run --rm -i \
  -v $(pwd)/documents:/data \
  ghcr.io/groupdocs-conversion/conversion-net-mcp:latest

Images are published to both GHCR (ghcr.io/groupdocs-conversion/conversion-net-mcp) and Docker Hub (groupdocs/conversion-net-mcp) for linux/amd64 + linux/arm64, tagged latest plus an immutable version tag matching each NuGet release (e.g. :26.9.0).

Global dotnet tool

dotnet tool install -g GroupDocs.Conversion.Mcp
groupdocs-conversion-mcp

Version pinning: in any snippet above, replace "GroupDocs.Conversion.Mcp" with "GroupDocs.Conversion.Mcp@26.9.0" to lock to a specific release. Pinning is recommended for shared / committed configs to avoid surprise upgrades.

Available MCP Tools

Tool	Description
Convert	Converts a document to a different format (PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, HTML, PNG, JPG, and 70+ more) and saves the result to storage
GetSupportedFormats	Lists every target format the source document can be converted to, with primary/secondary indicators
GetDocumentInfo	Returns file type, page count, and basic properties (author, title, dates, password-protected) for a source document

Licensing

The MCP server itself is MIT; the underlying GroupDocs.Conversion engine requires a license for production use. Without one the server runs in evaluation mode:

• Converted output carries an evaluation watermark, and tool responses include an evaluation-mode notice.
• A single server process can open at most 15 documents; further calls fail with "Could not open more than 15 document files in evaluation mode" until the server restarts.

There are two ways to license the server.

License file — point GROUPDOCS_LICENSE_PATH at your GroupDocs.Total.lic. Works offline.

Metered (pay-per-use) — set both GROUPDOCS_METERED_PUBLIC_KEY and GROUPDOCS_METERED_PRIVATE_KEY. You are billed for what you actually process, which suits AI agents well because their usage is bursty and hard to predict up front. If both a metered key pair and a license file are configured, metered wins and the file is ignored.

Metered mode needs outbound connectivity. Usage is reported to GroupDocs servers, so air-gapped or firewalled deployments must allow that egress — or use a license file instead.

Call the get_license_status tool at any time to see which mode is active, and — under metered — the consumed quantity and remaining credit.

Keeping the private key out of your config

The metered private key is a secret. MCP client configs are plain files on disk, and a project-scoped .mcp.json is committed by convention, so prefer, in order:

1. Set the variables in your OS environment and leave them out of the config entirely. An stdio MCP server inherits its client's environment, so this works in every client. On macOS note that an app launched from Finder does not inherit shell exports — use launchctl setenv, or launch the client from a terminal.
2. Reference them indirectly if your client supports it (Claude Code expands ${VAR}; VS Code uses ${env:VAR} and ${input:...}).
3. A literal value in a user-scoped config (for example ~/.claude.json) is acceptable for a single developer.
4. Never commit a literal key in a project-scoped .mcp.json.

For Docker, forward the values without writing them into any file:

docker run --rm -i \
  -e GROUPDOCS_METERED_PUBLIC_KEY -e GROUPDOCS_METERED_PRIVATE_KEY \
  -v /path/to/documents:/data \
  ghcr.io/groupdocs-conversion/conversion-net-mcp:latest

To lift the limits with a license file: commented example in each install snippet above):

• Get a free 30-day temporary license
• Purchase a license · Product page

Configuration

Variable	Description	Default
GROUPDOCS_MCP_STORAGE_PATH	Base folder for input and output files	current directory
GROUPDOCS_MCP_OUTPUT_PATH	(Optional) separate folder for output files	GROUPDOCS_MCP_STORAGE_PATH
GROUPDOCS_LICENSE_PATH	Path to GroupDocs license file	(evaluation mode)
GROUPDOCS_METERED_PUBLIC_KEY	Metered public key. Requires the private key too; takes precedence over the license file	(unset)
GROUPDOCS_METERED_PRIVATE_KEY	Metered private key. Secret - see Licensing	(unset)

Native prerequisites

The underlying GroupDocs engine uses System.Drawing (GDI+) for some operations. When you run the server natively (via dnx or the global dotnet tool) on Linux or macOS, install the native libgdiplus library first:

Platform	Setup
Windows	Nothing — GDI+ is built into the OS.
Linux	sudo apt-get install -y libgdiplus libfontconfig1 ttf-mscorefonts-installer
macOS	brew install mono-libgdiplus
Docker	Nothing — the image already bundles libgdiplus.

Skipping this on Linux/macOS surfaces as DllNotFoundException: libgdiplus in the tool response. The simplest zero-setup option on Linux/macOS is the Docker image.

Usage with Docker Compose

cd docker
docker compose up

Edit docker/docker-compose.yml to point volumes at your local documents folder.

Documentation & guides

Step-by-step deployment guides and a published-package integration test suite live in the companion repo GroupDocs.Conversion.Mcp.Tests:

• Install from NuGet — dnx, global tool, pinned vs always-latest
• Run via Docker
• Verify on the MCP registry
• Use with Claude Desktop
• Use with VS Code / GitHub Copilot
• Run the integration tests

That repo also exercises every advertised tool against the published NuGet artifact on Linux, macOS, and Windows in CI — so the snippets above are verified end-to-end on every release.

License

MIT — see LICENSE