PDF SPEC MCP Server

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An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that provides structured access to ISO 32000 (PDF) specification documents. Enables LLMs to navigate, search, and analyze PDF specifications through well-defined tools.

[!IMPORTANT] PDF specification files are NOT included in this package. You must obtain the PDF specification documents separately and place them in a local directory.

Download from: PDF Association — Sponsored Standards

See "Setup" for details.

Features

• Multi-spec support — Auto-discovers and manages up to 17 PDF-related documents (ISO 32000-2, PDF/UA, Tagged PDF guides, etc.)
• Structured content extraction — Headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, and notes from any section
• Full-text search — Keyword search with section-aware context snippets
• Requirements extraction — Extracts normative language (shall / must / may) per ISO conventions
• Definitions lookup — Term definitions from Section 3 (Definitions)
• Table extraction — Multi-page table detection with header merging
• Version comparison — Diff PDF 1.7 vs PDF 2.0 section structures
• Bounded-concurrency processing — Parallel page processing for large documents

Architecture

graph LR
    subgraph Client["MCP Client"]
        LLM["LLM<br/>(Claude, etc.)"]
    end

    subgraph Server["PDF Spec MCP Server"]
        direction TB
        MCP["MCP Server<br/>index.ts"]

        subgraph Tools["Tools Layer"]
            direction LR
            T1["list_specs"]
            T2["get_structure"]
            T3["get_section"]
            T4["search_spec"]
            T5["get_requirements"]
            T6["get_definitions"]
            T7["get_tables"]
            T8["compare_versions"]
        end

        subgraph Services["Services Layer"]
            direction LR
            REG["Registry<br/>Auto-discovery"]
            LOADER["Loader<br/>LRU Cache"]
            SVC["PDFService<br/>Orchestration"]
            CMP["CompareService<br/>Version Diff"]
        end

        subgraph Extractors["Extractors"]
            direction LR
            OUTLINE["OutlineResolver<br/>TOC & Section Index"]
            CONTENT["ContentExtractor<br/>Structured Extraction"]
            SEARCH["SearchIndex<br/>Full-text Search"]
            REQ["RequirementExtractor"]
            DEF["DefinitionExtractor"]
        end

        subgraph Utils["Utils"]
            direction LR
            CACHE["LRU Cache"]
            CONC["Concurrency"]
            VALID["Validation"]
        end
    end

    subgraph PDFs["PDF Spec Files (obtained separately)"]
        direction LR
        PDF1["ISO 32000-2<br/>(PDF 2.0)"]
        PDF2["ISO 32000-1<br/>(PDF 1.7)"]
        PDF3["TS 32001–32005<br/>PDF/UA, etc."]
    end

    LLM <-->|"stdio / JSON-RPC"| MCP
    MCP --> Tools
    Tools --> Services
    Services --> Extractors
    Services --> Utils
    LOADER --> PDFs
    REG -->|"Filename pattern<br/>auto-discovery"| PDFs

    style Client fill:#e8f4f8,stroke:#2196F3
    style PDFs fill:#fff3e0,stroke:#FF9800
    style Tools fill:#e8f5e9,stroke:#4CAF50
    style Services fill:#f3e5f5,stroke:#9C27B0
    style Extractors fill:#fce4ec,stroke:#E91E63
    style Utils fill:#f5f5f5,stroke:#9E9E9E

Layer Overview

Layer	Responsibility
Tools	MCP tool schema definitions & handlers (input validation)
Services	Business logic (PDF registry, loader, orchestration)
Extractors	Information extraction from PDFs (TOC, content, search, requirements, definitions)
Utils	Shared utilities (cache, concurrency, validation)

Setup

1. Obtain PDF Specification Files

[!WARNING] PDF specifications are copyrighted documents and are not included in this package. Download them from the sources below and place them in a local directory.

Document	Source
ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0)	PDF Association
ISO 32000-1 (PDF 1.7)	Adobe (free)
TS 32001–32005, PDF/UA, etc.	PDF Association — Sponsored Standards

All 17 files below are supported. You do not need all of them — place only the specs you need (at minimum, ISO 32000-2 is recommended).

pdf-specs/
│
│ ── Standards ─────────────────────────────
├── ISO_32000-2_sponsored-ec2.pdf          # iso32000-2  : PDF 2.0 EC2 (recommended)
├── ISO_32000-2-2020_sponsored.pdf         # iso32000-2-2020 : PDF 2.0 original
├── PDF32000_2008.pdf                      # pdf17       : PDF 1.7 (for version comparison)
├── pdfreference1.7old.pdf                 # pdf17old    : Adobe PDF Reference 1.7
│
│ ── Technical Specifications (TS) ─────────
├── ISO_TS_32001-2022_sponsored.pdf        # ts32001     : Hash extensions (SHA-3)
├── ISO_TS_32002-2022_sponsored.pdf        # ts32002     : Digital signature extensions (ECC/PAdES)
├── ISO_TS_32003-2023_sponsored.pdf        # ts32003     : AES-GCM encryption
├── ISO-TS-32004-2024_sponsored.pdf        # ts32004     : Integrity protection
├── ISO-TS-32005-2023-sponsored.pdf        # ts32005     : Namespace mapping
│
│ ── PDF/UA (Accessibility) ────────────────
├── ISO-14289-1-2014-sponsored.pdf         # pdfua1      : PDF/UA-1
├── ISO-14289-2-2024-sponsored.pdf         # pdfua2      : PDF/UA-2
│
│ ── Guides ────────────────────────────────
├── Tagged-PDF-Best-Practice-Guide.pdf     # tagged-bpg  : Tagged PDF Best Practice
├── Well-Tagged-PDF-WTPDF-1.0.pdf          # wtpdf       : Well-Tagged PDF
├── PDF-Declarations.pdf                   # declarations: PDF Declarations
│
│ ── Application Notes ─────────────────────
├── PDF20_AN001-BPC.pdf                    # an001       : Black Point Compensation
├── PDF20_AN002-AF.pdf                     # an002       : Associated Files
└── PDF20_AN003-ObjectMetadataLocations.pdf # an003      : Object Metadata

2. Install

This package ships a CLI binary (pdf-spec-mcp) intended to be launched by an MCP client. You do not need to install it manually — just point your MCP client to npx @shuji-bonji/pdf-spec-mcp as shown in the next step.

If you want to run it directly from the shell (e.g. for debugging):

PDF_SPEC_DIR=/path/to/pdf-specs npx -y @shuji-bonji/pdf-spec-mcp

Or install it globally (optional):

npm install -g @shuji-bonji/pdf-spec-mcp
PDF_SPEC_DIR=/path/to/pdf-specs pdf-spec-mcp

3. Configure MCP Client

Environment Variable

Variable	Description	Default
PDF_SPEC_DIR	Directory containing PDF specification files	(required)

Claude Desktop

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pdf-spec": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@shuji-bonji/pdf-spec-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "PDF_SPEC_DIR": "/path/to/pdf-specs"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor / VS Code

Add to .cursor/mcp.json or VS Code MCP settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pdf-spec": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@shuji-bonji/pdf-spec-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "PDF_SPEC_DIR": "/path/to/pdf-specs"
      }
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

All tools accept an optional spec parameter to target a specific specification (default: iso32000-2).

Tool	Description
list_specs	List all discovered PDF specifications with metadata
get_structure	Get section hierarchy (table of contents) with configurable depth
get_section	Get structured content of a specific section
search_spec	Full-text keyword search across a specification
get_requirements	Extract normative requirements (shall/must/may)
get_definitions	Lookup term definitions
get_tables	Extract table structures from a section
compare_versions	Compare PDF 1.7 and PDF 2.0 section structures

list_specs — Discover Specifications

List all available specification documents. Use the returned IDs as the spec parameter in other tools.

// List all specs
{ }

// Filter by category
{ "category": "ts" }        // Technical specs only
{ "category": "pdfua" }     // PDF/UA only
{ "category": "guide" }     // Guide documents only

get_structure — Table of Contents

Get the section hierarchy (TOC tree) of a specification.

// PDF 2.0 top-level sections only
{ "max_depth": 1 }

// Expand to 2 levels
{ "max_depth": 2 }

// TS 32002 (Digital Signatures) full structure
{ "spec": "ts32002" }

// PDF/UA-2 structure
{ "spec": "pdfua2", "max_depth": 2 }

get_section — Section Content

Get structured content (headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, notes) of a specific section.

// PDF 2.0 Section 7.3.4 (String Objects)
{ "section": "7.3.4" }

// PDF 2.0 Annex A
{ "section": "Annex A" }

// TS 32002 Section 5
{ "spec": "ts32002", "section": "5" }

// PDF/UA-2 Section 8 (Tagged PDF)
{ "spec": "pdfua2", "section": "8" }

search_spec — Full-text Search

Search across a specification with section-aware context snippets.

// Search PDF 2.0 for "digital signature"
{ "query": "digital signature" }

// Limit results
{ "query": "font", "max_results": 5 }

// Search within TS 32002
{ "spec": "ts32002", "query": "CMS" }

get_requirements — Normative Requirements

Extract normative requirements (shall / must / may) per ISO conventions.

// All requirements in section 12.8
{ "section": "12.8" }

// Only "shall" requirements
{ "section": "12.8", "level": "shall" }

// Only "shall not" requirements
{ "section": "7.3", "level": "shall not" }

// PDF/UA-2 requirements
{ "spec": "pdfua2", "section": "8", "level": "shall" }

get_definitions — Term Definitions

Look up term definitions from Section 3 (Definitions).

// Search for "font" definitions
{ "term": "font" }

// List all definitions
{ }

// PDF/UA definitions
{ "spec": "pdfua2", "term": "artifact" }

get_tables — Table Extraction

Extract table structures (headers, rows, captions) from a section. Multi-page tables are automatically merged.

// All tables in section 7.3.4
{ "section": "7.3.4" }

// Specific table only (0-based index)
{ "section": "7.3.4", "table_index": 0 }

// TS spec tables
{ "spec": "ts32002", "section": "5" }

compare_versions — Version Comparison

Compare section structures between PDF 1.7 (ISO 32000-1) and PDF 2.0 (ISO 32000-2). Uses title-based automatic matching to detect matched, added, and removed sections.

[!NOTE] This tool requires both PDF 1.7 (PDF32000_2008.pdf) and PDF 2.0 files in PDF_SPEC_DIR.

// Diff section 12.8 (Digital Signatures)
{ "section": "12.8" }

// Compare all top-level sections
{ }

Supported Specifications

The server auto-discovers PDF files in PDF_SPEC_DIR by filename pattern matching:

Category	Spec IDs	Documents
Standard	iso32000-2, iso32000-2-2020, pdf17, pdf17old	ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0), ISO 32000-1 (PDF 1.7)
Technical Spec	ts32001 – ts32005	Hash, Digital Signatures, AES-GCM, Integrity, Namespace
PDF/UA	pdfua1, pdfua2	Accessibility (ISO 14289-1, 14289-2)
Guide	tagged-bpg, wtpdf, declarations	Tagged PDF, Well-Tagged PDF, Declarations
App Note	an001 – an003	BPC, Associated Files, Object Metadata

Directory Structure

src/
├── index.ts              # MCP server entry point
├── config.ts             # Configuration & spec patterns
├── errors.ts             # Error hierarchy (PDFSpecError → sub-classes)
├── container.ts          # Service container (DI wiring)
├── services/
│   ├── pdf-registry.ts       # Auto-discovery of PDF files
│   ├── pdf-loader.ts         # PDF loading with LRU cache
│   ├── pdf-service.ts        # Orchestration layer
│   ├── compare-service.ts    # Version comparison
│   ├── outline-resolver.ts   # Section index builder
│   ├── content-extractor.ts  # Structured content extraction
│   ├── search-index.ts       # Full-text search index
│   ├── requirement-extractor.ts
│   └── definition-extractor.ts
├── tools/
│   ├── definitions.ts    # MCP tool schemas
│   └── handlers.ts       # Tool implementations
├── types/
│   └── index.ts          # Shared type definitions
└── utils/
    ├── concurrency.ts    # mapConcurrent (bounded Promise.all)
    ├── text.ts           # Text normalization
    ├── cache.ts          # LRU cache
    ├── validation.ts     # Input validation
    └── logger.ts         # Structured logger

Development

git clone https://github.com/shuji-bonji/pdf-spec-mcp.git
cd pdf-spec-mcp
npm install
npm run build

# Unit tests (237 tests)
npm run test

# E2E tests (212 tests — requires PDF files in ./pdf-spec/)
npm run test:e2e

# Lint & format
npm run lint
npm run format:check

License

MIT