MCP Server — Convert documents to PDF from any AI agent

Install

Claude Code (recommended)

claude mcp add --transport http a2pdf https://a2pdf.com/mcp

Or for older Claude Code releases that only support SSE:

claude mcp add --transport sse a2pdf https://a2pdf.com/mcp/sse

Claude Desktop / Cursor / Windsurf / VS Code MCP

Add this to your mcpServers config:

"a2pdf": {
  "url": "https://a2pdf.com/mcp",
  "transport": "streamable-http"
}

Hermes (YAML)

mcp_servers:
  a2pdf:
    url: "https://a2pdf.com/mcp"

Cline / OpenClaw / others (SSE)

{"url":"https://a2pdf.com/mcp/sse"}

Tools

`convert_to_pdf`

Primary tool — converts any supported input to a PDF and returns a one-time download URL valid for 10 minutes.

{
  "name": "convert_to_pdf",
  "arguments": {
    "text": "# My document\n\nHello **world**.",
    "theme": "clean",
    "paper_size": "letter"
  }
}

Accepts exactly one of:

text — pasted markdown, HTML, or plain text
file_base64 — base64-encoded file bytes (DOCX, JPG, PNG, etc.) — needs filename for format detection
upload_id — returned by POST /mcp/upload (preferred for files > 2 MB)
url — any http:// or https:// URL

Options:

format — md, html, txt, docx, jpg, png, url, auto (default)
theme — clean (default), academic, business, dark
paper_size — a4, letter (default), legal
preserve_source — boolean, honored only for HTML and URL inputs

`preview_html`

Render an input to themed HTML without producing a PDF. Returns the HTML string. Useful when iterating on themes or content before committing to a final render.

`list_themes`

Returns the four themes with one-line descriptions. Call once and cache.

Large files — out-of-band upload

Tool calls have a 2 MB inline cap to protect the agent's token budget. For larger files, upload first:

curl -F [email protected] https://a2pdf.com/mcp/upload
# → {"id":"abc...","filename":"input.docx","bytes":123456,"expires_in_seconds":600}

Then call convert_to_pdf with upload_id: "abc..." and no file_base64. IDs are single-use and expire after 10 minutes.

Transports

Streamable HTTP (recommended): one URL, one POST per request. POST /mcp. Stateless. Used by current Claude clients, Hermes, modern MCP clients.
SSE (legacy): GET /mcp/sse opens the stream, POST /mcp/messages?sessionId=X sends requests. Used by Cline, older Claude Code releases, OpenClaw.

Endpoints reference

POST /mcp                          Streamable HTTP transport
GET  /mcp/sse                      Legacy SSE session opener
POST /mcp/messages?sessionId=X     Legacy SSE replies
POST /mcp/upload                   Out-of-band file upload (multipart, field: file)
GET  /mcp/download/{id}            One-time PDF download (10-min TTL)

Sister sites with MCP

md2doc.com/mcp — Markdown → Word (DOCX). Same dual-transport pattern.
t0md.com/mcp — Document → Markdown. The reverse direction of a2pdf.

MCP server for AI agents.