Pdf4vllm
PDF reader for vision LLMs. Auto-detects text corruption and switches to image mode.
Runs on your machine from its package; the steps are below.
What it does
- Reads
- Writes
- High impact
At most: only reads or looks up information.
What it costs
FreeOdel charges nothing per call. The publisher may charge for its own service.
Runs locally over stdio
This server isn't hosted — your MCP client launches it from a package registry. Use one of the commands below, or drop the config into your client (e.g. Claude Desktop).
Run
uvx pdf4vllm-mcp
MCP client config
{
"mcpServers": {
"pdf4vllm": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"pdf4vllm-mcp"
]
}
}
}
PDF reading MCP server optimized for vision LLMs.
한국어
문제
| 방식 | 문제점 |
|---|---|
| 텍스트 추출 | 인코딩 깨짐 → 쓰레기 출력, 이미지-텍스트 순서 뒤섞임 |
| 이미지 변환 | 토큰 폭발 (특히 페이지 많을 때) |
해결
pdf4vllm은 PDF가 지저분하다고 가정합니다.
- 텍스트 손상 자동 감지 → 이미지로 자동 전환
- 읽기 순서 보존 (텍스트 → 표 → 이미지 블록 순서대로)
- 페이지 제한으로 컨텍스트 오버플로우 방지
- 불필요한 이미지 자동 필터링 (로고, 선, 헤더/푸터)
설치
pip install pdf4vllm-mcp
# 또는
uvx pdf4vllm-mcp
Claude Desktop 설정
git clone https://github.com/PyJudge/pdf4vllm-mcp.git
cd pdf4vllm-mcp
python scripts/install_mcp.py
또는 직접 설정 (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):
{
"mcpServers": {
"pdf4vllm": {
"command": "/python/경로",
"args": ["/pdf4vllm-mcp/경로/src/server.py"]
}
}
}
도구
| 도구 | 설명 |
|---|---|
list_pdfs | PDF 파일 찾기 (glob 패턴 name_pattern 지원) |
read_pdf | PDF 내용 블록으로 추출 |
grep_pdf | PDF 내 텍스트 검색 (pdfgrep 설치 필요) |
추출 모드
| 모드 | 설명 |
|---|---|
auto (기본) | 텍스트 추출 시도 → 손상 감지 시 이미지로 전환 |
text_only | 텍스트/표만 추출, 이미지 없음 |
image_only | 페이지를 이미지로만 렌더링 |
Problem
| Approach | Issue |
|---|---|
| Text extraction | Encoding corruption → garbage output, mixed text-image ordering |
| Image conversion | Token explosion (especially with many pages) |
Solution
pdf4vllm assumes PDFs are messy.
- Auto-detects text corruption → switches to image automatically
- Preserves reading order (text → table → image blocks in sequence)
- Page limits prevent context overflow
- Filters unnecessary images (logos, lines, headers/footers)
PDF Input
↓
Corruption Detection (pdfminer.six + pattern analysis)
↓
┌─────────────┬─────────────┐
│ Corrupted │ Clean │
│ → Image │ → Text + │
│ only │ Tables + │
│ │ Images │
└─────────────┴─────────────┘
↓
Ordered Blocks (JSON)
Install
pip install pdf4vllm-mcp
# or run without installing
uvx pdf4vllm-mcp
Claude Desktop Setup
git clone https://github.com/PyJudge/pdf4vllm-mcp.git
cd pdf4vllm-mcp
python scripts/install_mcp.py
Or manually edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"pdf4vllm": {
"command": "/path/to/python",
"args": ["/path/to/pdf4vllm-mcp/src/server.py"]
}
}
}
Claude Code Setup
Create .mcp.json in your project:
{
"mcpServers": {
"pdf4vllm": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["pdf4vllm-mcp"]
}
}
}
Tools
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
list_pdfs | Find PDF files with glob filtering (name_pattern) |
read_pdf | Extract PDF content as ordered blocks |
grep_pdf | Search text in PDFs using pdfgrep (requires pdfgrep installed) |
Extraction Modes
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
auto (default) | Try text extraction → switch to image if corrupted |
text_only | Text/tables only, no images |
image_only | Render pages as images only |
Output Format
{
"pages": [
{
"page_number": 1,
"content_blocks": [
{"type": "text", "content": "..."},
{"type": "table", "content": "| A | B |"},
{"type": "image", "content": "[IMAGE_0]"}
]
}
]
}
When text is corrupted:
{
"page_number": 2,
"content_blocks": [],
"text_corrupted": true,
"page_image": "[IMAGE_1]"
}
Configuration
config.json or environment variables:
{
"max_pages_per_request": 10,
"max_image_dimension": 842,
"page_image_dpi": 100
}
export PDF_MAX_PAGES=20
export PDF_PAGE_IMAGE_DPI=150
Test Server
pip install pdf4vllm-mcp[test]
python test_server.py
# → http://localhost:8000
License
MIT
