Smart Reader MCP

One MCP call reads PDF, image, or video by sniffing format and delegating to Sylphx Reader siblings.

Status: v0.1.0 — read_media ships with format sniffing, sibling delegation, and provenance envelope.

Portfolio architecture (orchestration only): ADR-0002.

Repository	Role
pdf-reader-mcp	PDF (production)
image-reader-mcp	Image
video-reader-mcp	Video
smart-reader-mcp (this repo)	Sniff format + delegate; phase 2 adds universal local/remote paths here

Read vs interpret

Read (this repo): extract facts, metadata, transcripts, regions, and timelines with provenance — no generative LLM required.

Interpret (out of scope): summarize, classify, or answer open questions — belongs in the agent or an optional remote provider adapter.

MCP surface (v0.1.0)

read_media

Reads a local file by sniffing magic bytes and extension, then delegates to the matching Sylphx Reader sibling MCP server.

Input

{
  "path": "/absolute/or/relative/path/to/media.pdf"
}

Supported formats

• PDF: .pdf
• Image: .png, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .webp, .tif, .tiff
• Video: .mp4, .m4v, .mkv, .mov, .webm

Response envelope

Every successful call returns a normalized envelope with provenance:

{
  "source_path": "/path/to/media.pdf",
  "detected_format": "pdf",
  "delegated_tool": "read_pdf",
  "raw_result": {}
}

• source_path — resolved absolute path that was read
• detected_format — sniffed format (magic bytes first, extension fallback)
• delegated_tool — sibling tool invoked (read_pdf, read_image, or read_video)
• raw_result — passthrough result from the delegated reader

Delegation model

Smart Reader does not parse PDF/image/video itself. It spawns a stdio MCP client to the matching sibling package:

1. Resolve a locally installed sibling (@sylphx/pdf-reader-mcp, etc.) via node <package-bin>
2. Fall back to npx -y @sylphx/<reader>-mcp when the package is not installed locally
3. Return an informative install hint if delegation fails

Install the readers you need:

npm install @sylphx/pdf-reader-mcp
npm install @sylphx/image-reader-mcp
npm install @sylphx/video-reader-mcp

Quick start

git clone https://github.com/SylphxAI/smart-reader-mcp.git
cd smart-reader-mcp
bun install
bun run build
npx @sylphx/smart-reader-mcp

MCP client config (stdio)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "smart-reader": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@sylphx/smart-reader-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Development

bun install
bun run validate

License

MIT © SylphxAI