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Connect the Windows Claude Desktop app to a local PDF.co MCP server. Complete the shared prerequisites first, including installing uv and getting your PDF.co API key.

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Open the configuration

  1. Open Claude Desktop’s Settings.
  2. Select Developer, then Edit Config.
  3. Open claude_desktop_config.json in the location shown by the app. The standard Windows location is %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json.
Use the app’s Edit Config action to find the configuration used by your installation. The walkthrough screenshot below shows a Windows installation storing it under the app package’s LocalCache\Roaming\Claude directory.
Claude Desktop Developer settings with the Edit config button highlighted

Open Developer settings and select Edit config.

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Add PDF.co

For a new configuration file, paste the following JSON. If the file already contains mcpServers, add the pdfco entry inside that object and preserve the other entries. If the file has other settings but no mcpServers, add mcpServers as a top-level property alongside those settings, keeping a comma between properties.
Replace command with the path returned by (Get-Command uvx -ErrorAction Stop).Source, keeping doubled backslashes in the JSON. Replace YOUR_PDFCO_API_KEY with your key from the PDF.co dashboard. The command field contains only the executable path. pdfco-mcp is a separate argument. You do not need a server URL for this STDIO connection.
claude_desktop_config.json with the mcpServers object, absolute uvx.exe path, pdfco-mcp argument, and placeholder API key highlighted

Add the pdfco entry to claude_desktop_config.json while preserving the other settings.

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Restart and check the tools

  1. Save the file and fully quit Claude Desktop, including its system-tray process if it is still running.
  2. Reopen Claude Desktop and start a new chat.
  3. Confirm that pdfco is running in Settings > Developer. In the chat, open + > Connectors, select pdfco, and check its tool access.
  4. Send this prompt and approve the PDF.co tool calls when requested:
Open the output file and confirm it contains text from the sample. See Verify your connection for the completion criteria.
Claude Desktop showing the sample PDF-to-text prompt, two tool calls, and a completed one-page conversion with a redacted output link

Claude Desktop reports a completed conversion; sensitive parts of the temporary output URL are hidden.

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Troubleshooting

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Claude does not select PDF.co automatically

Tool selection can vary by model. If Claude does not pick up PDF.co, explicitly ask it to use the PDF.co MCP server (pdfco) and name the required tool, such as pdf_to_text, as in the sample prompt above. This can also help after restarting the app.

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Server is running but Claude cannot find the tools

If Claude says it has no PDF.co connector or cannot use pdf_to_text even though the server is running:
  1. In the chat, open + > Connectors > pdfco.
  2. Open Tool access.
  3. Change the setting from loading tools only when needed to the option that keeps the tools loaded.
  4. Send the sample conversion prompt again and approve the PDF.co tool calls when requested.
This setting resolved tool discovery during a Windows walkthrough. Use it when tools are not being picked up; server startup alone does not confirm that the tools are available in the chat. Menu wording may vary by Claude version.

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Other connection issues

  • If pdfco is absent, confirm that you edited the file opened through Edit Config, saved valid JSON, and fully restarted the app.
  • If the server cannot start, check the full uvx.exe path and the server’s error output in Developer settings.
  • If tools load but processing fails, check X_API_KEY and the PDF.co error returned by the tool.
For the general configuration workflow, see Connect to local MCP servers.