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PDFlys
MCP Integration

MCP Integration Setup

Connect AI assistants to PDFlys PDF tools

Last updated: February 2026

What is MCP?

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) lets AI assistants like Claude use PDFlys tools directly. Instead of uploading files to pdflys.com manually, you can ask your AI assistant to process PDFs for you — merge, split, compress, add watermarks, and more — all through a natural conversation.

Claude.ai (web)
Claude Code (CLI)
Cursor IDE
Any MCP-compatible client

Setup Guides

Server URL:https://mcp.pdflys.com/mcp

You'll need a PDFlys API key. Generate one from your account settings.

Claude.ai

1Open Claude.ai and go to Settings
2Navigate to the "Integrations" or "MCP" section
3Click "Add Integration" and enter the server URL:https://mcp.pdflys.com/mcp
4Authenticate using OAuth (automatic) or paste your API key
5Start a conversation and ask Claude to use PDFlys tools

Claude.ai sends file content directly to the MCP server — no local file paths needed. Simply attach a PDF to your conversation.

Example prompts:

  • "Compress this PDF to reduce its file size"
  • "Add page numbers to this document"
  • "Merge these two PDFs into one"

Claude Code (CLI)

1Open your project's MCP configuration file:
~/.claude/settings.json or .mcp.json in your project
2Add the PDFlys MCP server configuration:
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pdflys": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.pdflys.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}
3Restart Claude Code to pick up the new configuration

Local mode

When running via stdio transport, the MCP server runs locally and can read files from your filesystem directly.

Remote mode

When connecting to the remote server at mcp.pdflys.com, files are sent as content — same as Claude.ai.

Cursor / Other IDE Clients

1Open your IDE's MCP settings
2Add a new MCP server with HTTP transport:
{
  "name": "pdflys",
  "transport": "http",
  "url": "https://mcp.pdflys.com/mcp",
  "auth": {
    "type": "bearer",
    "token": "YOUR_API_KEY"
  }
}
3Set authentication to Bearer token with your PDFlys API key
4Restart the IDE to connect

Troubleshooting

"File not found" errors

This happens when a remote MCP client sends a local file path instead of file content. Remote clients (Claude.ai, Cursor) cannot access your local filesystem through the MCP server.

Attach the file directly to your AI conversation instead of referencing a file path. The AI client will send the file content to the MCP server automatically.

Authentication errors

Your API key may be invalid or expired.

  • Check that your API key is correctly configured
  • Generate a new API key from your mcp.docs.setup.settingsLink
  • Ensure the key hasn't been revoked

Rate limit errors

You've exceeded the request limit for your plan.

Wait a moment and try again, or upgrade your plan for higher limits.

Quota exceeded

You've used all operations for this billing period.

Upgrade your plan or wait for the next billing cycle reset.

Supported Operations

All 23 PDF tools available via MCP:

ToolInputMulti-file
Merge PDF.pdfYes
Split PDF.pdfNo
Rotate PDF.pdfNo
Remove Pages.pdfNo
Extract Pages.pdfNo
Add Page Numbers.pdfNo
PDF to JPG.pdfNo
PDF to Image.pdfNo
Image to PDF.jpg,.jpeg,.png,.gif,.webp,.bmp,.tiff,.tif,.svg,.avif,.heic,.heifYes
Compress PDF.pdfNo
Edit PDF.pdfNo
Sign PDF.pdfNo
Crop PDF.pdfNo
Add Text to PDF.pdfNo
Annotate PDF.pdfNo
Draw on PDF.pdfNo
Highlight PDF.pdfNo
Add Shapes to PDF.pdfNo
Redact PDF.pdfNo
Organize PDF Pages.pdfNo
Watermark PDF.pdfNo
Protect PDF.pdfNo
Unlock PDF.pdfNo
Accessibility Checker.pdfNo
Compare PDF.pdfYes

Privacy & Data Handling

When using MCP tools, your files are sent to the PDFlys API for processing. Files are processed immediately and not stored permanently. Results are available via temporary download links that expire within 30 minutes.

No permanent file storage
All transfers encrypted via TLS
Result links expire in 30 minutes