Groupdocs Editor Mcp

io.github.groupdocs-editorPublished by GitHub account groupdocs-editorv26.10.0Updated Nov 1, 2026

MCP server for GroupDocs.Editor — edit Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF via HTML with AI agents.

VerifiedSTDIODesktop onlyProductivity & WorkflowFiles & Storage

Overview

AI-generated overview

Local MCP server that lets an assistant inspect, edit and convert Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and text documents while preserving formatting.

What you can do
  • Inspect documents: report format family, page/worksheet/slide counts, size, encryption and save targets
  • Convert to editable HTML: extract a whole document, one worksheet, one slide or a PDF page range, with a text preview
  • Save edited HTML back to Office, PDF, Markdown, EPUB and other formats, optionally splicing one part into the original
  • Find and replace text with literal, case-insensitive, whole-word or regex matching, keeping formatting
  • Read and fill Word form fields such as text boxes, check boxes, drop-downs and date fields
  • Check supported formats and current license status
When to use it
Useful when an assistant must make targeted edits to existing Office or PDF files without breaking layout, such as replacing names in contracts, editing a single worksheet or slide, or filling Word forms. It suits local, file-based document workflows rather than creating documents from scratch.
Requirements
Runs locally over stdio; needs the .NET 10 SDK for native runs (or use the published Docker image, which needs no native setup). Set GROUPDOCS_MCP_STORAGE_PATH for input/output files and optionally GROUPDOCS_MCP_OUTPUT_PATH. A GroupDocs license file via GROUPDOCS_LICENSE_PATH, or metered keys, is needed for production use. Linux needs font packages only for PDF/XPS output.
Before you install
Without a license the engine runs in evaluation mode: output carries a banner, saved workbooks gain an extra worksheet, and only the first 2 pages, worksheets or slides can be edited. Metered mode bills per use and sends usage to GroupDocs servers, requiring outbound connectivity. GROUPDOCS_METERED_PRIVATE_KEY is a secret and should not be committed in project configs. The server writes edited copies to storage, and untrusted input referencing remote resources may trigger network fetches.

Installation

In SourceWeft

  1. Open Groupdocs Editor Mcp in the dashboard and add it to a workspace.
  2. Enable the server for the chats that should use its tools.

Desktop only via STDIO. STDIO servers start a local process, so they need the SourceWeft desktop host.

Other MCP clients

Follow the launch instructions in the repository.

README

GroupDocs.Editor MCP Server

Let Claude, Cursor, GitHub Copilot and any other MCP agent edit Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and text documents without wrecking their formatting — replace text in place, round-trip a document (or one worksheet, slide or PDF page range) through editable HTML, and fill Word form fields. Locally: your files never leave your machine.

[NuGet] [NuGet downloads] [Docker pulls] [MCP Registry] [Integration tests] [License: MIT]

Install in 60 seconds

[Install in VS Code] [Install in VS Code Insiders] [Add to Cursor] [Codex CLI setup] [Windsurf setup]

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):

bash
dnx GroupDocs.Editor.Mcp --yes

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

bash
dnx [email protected] --yes

The server reads and writes documents in GROUPDOCS_MCP_STORAGE_PATH (default: the current directory). Edited copies are saved next to the originals and never overwrite an existing file.

Claude Desktop

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

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

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

Claude Code

bash
claude mcp add groupdocs-editor -- dnx GroupDocs.Editor.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.

Cursor · Windsurf · Cline · Rider · Codex

Docker

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

Images are published to GHCR (ghcr.io/groupdocs-editor/editor-net-mcp) and Docker Hub (groupdocs/editor-net-mcp) for linux/amd64 + linux/arm64, tagged latest plus an immutable version tag matching each NuGet release (e.g. :26.10.0). The image needs no native setup.

Docker on Linux: run the container as your user

The image runs as a non-root user (uid 1654), and a bind mount keeps its host owner — so on a Linux host every edited file the server writes into /data fails with Permission denied unless the container runs as you:

bash
docker run --rm -i --user "$(id -u):$(id -g)" \  -v "$(pwd)/documents:/data" \  ghcr.io/groupdocs-editor/editor-net-mcp:latest

JSON client configs run no shell, so put the numbers in: "args": ["run", "--rm", "-i", "--user", "1000:1000", …]. Docker Desktop on Windows and macOS does not need this.

Global dotnet tool

bash
dotnet tool install -g GroupDocs.Editor.Mcpgroupdocs-editor-mcp

Available MCP Tools

ToolWhat it does
get_document_infoFormat family, format, number of pages / worksheets / slides, size, encryption, and the formats it can be saved to (JSON)
extract_htmlTurns a document — or one worksheet, one slide, or a PDF page range — into editable HTML saved to storage, plus a plain-text preview. Self-contained by default; embedResources=false writes a <name>_resources folder
save_from_htmlSaves edited HTML back as DOCX, DOC, RTF, ODT, XLSX, XLS, ODS, CSV, PPTX, PPT, ODP, PDF, XPS, TXT, Markdown, MHTML, EPUB, MOBI, AZW3, EML or MSG. With sourceFile + worksheet/slide it splices one edited part back into the original and keeps every other part
replace_textFind and replace that keeps formatting — literal, case-insensitive, whole-word or regex; one worksheet or slide at a time; optional output format. Reports how many occurrences changed; writes nothing when nothing matched
get_supported_formatsThe formats GroupDocs.Editor can open and save, per family, or the save targets of one file (JSON)
get_form_fieldsLists a Word document's form fields — text boxes, check boxes, drop-downs, number and date fields — with type and value (JSON)
fill_form_fieldsFills Word form fields and saves a filled copy; unknown names and values that do not fit are reported, never ignored
get_license_statusLicensing mode, metered consumption and engine version (shipped by GroupDocs.Mcp.Core)

Worksheet, slide and page numbers are 1-based. Every failure sets isError and starts with the tool's prefix, e.g. HTML extraction failed for 'report.docx': …, so a client needs one check.

Example prompts for AI agents

Replace "ACME Corp" with "Globex" in contract.docx and keep the formatting.Give me the second worksheet of budget.xlsx as HTML so I can edit it.Save edited.html back as a Word document, and also as a PDF.Fill the form fields in application.docx: name = Jane Doe, agree = yes.Which formats can GroupDocs.Editor open and save?

Evaluation mode

The MCP server itself is MIT; the GroupDocs.Editor engine requires a license for production use. Without one every tool still works, with these limits (measured on GroupDocs.Editor 26.6.1):

  • Edited output starts with an evaluation banner ("Created with evaluation version of GroupDocs.Editor …").
  • A saved workbook gains an extra worksheet.
  • Only the first 2 pages of a PDF, the first 2 (visible) worksheets of a workbook and the first 2 slides of a presentation can be edited. The engine would silently return part 2 for a higher number; the server refuses the request instead and says why. Saving an edited part back into worksheet or slide 3+ is not limited.

Responses of the editing tools then start with one Evaluation mode: line. Call get_license_status to see which mode is active.

Licensing

There are two ways to license the server.

License file — point GROUPDOCS_LICENSE_PATH at your GroupDocs.Editor (or GroupDocs.Total) license file. Works offline.

Metered (pay-per-use) — set both GROUPDOCS_METERED_PUBLIC_KEY and GROUPDOCS_METERED_PRIVATE_KEY. You pay for what you process, which suits agent workloads. 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.

Keeping the private key out of your config

The metered private key is a secret. MCP client configs are plain files, 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. On macOS 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:

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

Configuration

VariableDescriptionDefault
GROUPDOCS_MCP_STORAGE_PATHBase folder for input and output filescurrent directory
GROUPDOCS_MCP_OUTPUT_PATH(Optional) separate folder for output filesGROUPDOCS_MCP_STORAGE_PATH
GROUPDOCS_LICENSE_PATHPath to a GroupDocs license file(evaluation mode)
GROUPDOCS_METERED_PUBLIC_KEYMetered public key. Requires the private key too; takes precedence over the license file(unset)
GROUPDOCS_METERED_PRIVATE_KEYMetered private key. Secret — see Licensing(unset)

Native prerequisites

GroupDocs.Editor draws through Aspose.Drawing (managed) and SkiaSharp, whose native libraries ship inside the package — no libgdiplus is needed on any platform. Saving edited content to PDF or XPS lays text out, so Linux needs real fonts:

PlatformSetup
WindowsNothing.
Linuxsudo apt-get install -y libfontconfig1 ttf-mscorefonts-installer (only for PDF/XPS output)
macOSNothing.
DockerNothing — the image bundles the fonts.

Limits

  • replace_text matches within one formatting run. A phrase split across differently formatted text (half bold, half not) is not matched; use extract_html and save_from_html for such edits.
  • PDF editing is a conversion. A PDF is turned into flowing HTML and back, so complex layouts do not round-trip perfectly. Save the edited result as DOCX if fidelity matters.
  • PPTX and email outputs need an original. save_from_html creates DOCX, XLSX, PDF, TXT, Markdown and EPUB from HTML alone; for PPTX and EML/MSG pass the original as sourceFile.
  • Remote resources. HTML or Office input that references remote images or stylesheets may cause the engine to fetch them while loading. Run the server without network egress if inputs are untrusted.
  • macOS CI. Integration tests gate on Linux and Windows; the family-wide macOS runner hang is tracked separately.

Usage with Docker Compose

bash
cd dockerdocker compose up

Edit docker/docker-compose.yml to point the volume at your documents folder.

Documentation & guides

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

That repo exercises every advertised tool against the published package (dnx on Linux, Windows and macOS) and the Docker image, reading every edit back through the server.

License

MIT — see LICENSE

Source: README.md at commit 5ba07eb

Tools

0
SourceWeft started this package once in an isolated sandbox, without credentials, to list its tools. That failed: the package type cannot run in the sandbox.

Version history

1
  1. v26.10.0LatestNov 1, 2026

Score

50% of the applicable checks met

How complete this listing is, computed from the registry entry, the endpoint and public sources. Not a rating of the server and not a statement that it is safe or working today: reachability is a dated check, and no installs or reviews go into the score.

  • Reached in the last 30 days25 pts

    Keep the endpoint answering the MCP handshake; SourceWeft probes it every 30 days.

  • Auth declared10 pts

    Declare the credential headers in the registry entry, or keep the endpoint answering the probe so its auth can be classified.

  • Tools listed15 pts

    Answer tools/list without a credential, or ship a package that starts in a sandbox without one.

  • DescriptionRequired15 pts
  • Logo10 pts
  • Documentation15 pts
  • License10 pts