Docling MCP: making docling agentic

A document processing service using the Docling-MCP library and MCP (Model Context Protocol) for tool integration.

Overview

Docling MCP is a service that provides tools for document conversion, processing and generation. It uses the Docling library to convert PDF documents into structured formats and provides a caching mechanism to improve performance. The service exposes functionality through a set of tools that can be called by client applications.

Compatibility

docling-mcp	MCP Python SDK
>=3.0.0	mcp>=2.0.0
>=2.0.0,<3.0.0	mcp>=1.9.4,<2.0.0

If your MCP client application has not yet migrated to MCP SDK v2, pin:

pip install "docling-mcp<3.0.0"

See MIGRATION.md for the full migration guide.

Installation Options

Remote Mode (Recommended - Lightweight)

For users with access to Docling Serve API:

Getting Docling Serve: Visit docling-serve for installation guides. You can deploy it from published container images or look for managed Docling SaaS offerings.

pip install docling-mcp

Then configure your environment:

export DOCLING_MCP_SERVICE_URL=https://your-docling-service.example.com
export DOCLING_MCP_SERVICE_API_KEY=your-api-key-here
export DOCLING_MCP_CONVERSION_MODE=remote

Local Mode (Full Features)

For users who need local conversion or don't have Docling Serve access:

pip install docling-mcp[local]

Then configure your environment:

export DOCLING_MCP_CONVERSION_MODE=local

Hybrid Mode (Best of Both)

Install with local support and enable automatic fallback:

pip install docling-mcp[local]

Configure for remote with fallback:

export DOCLING_MCP_SERVICE_URL=https://your-docling-service.example.com
export DOCLING_MCP_CONVERSION_MODE=remote
export DOCLING_MCP_FALLBACK_TO_LOCAL=true

Features

• Conversion tools:
  • PDF document conversion to structured JSON format (DoclingDocument)
• Generation tools:
  • Document generation in DoclingDocument, which can be exported to multiple formats
• Local document caching for improved performance
• Support for local files and URLs as document sources
• Memory management for handling large documents
• Logging system for debugging and monitoring
• RAG applications with Milvus upload and retrieval

Configuration

All settings use the DOCLING_MCP_ prefix and can be supplied as environment variables, in a .env file in the working directory, or via the env block of your MCP client config. Copy .env.example as a starting point.

Conversion mode

Variable	Default	Description
DOCLING_MCP_CONVERSION_MODE	remote	remote or local

Remote service (required when DOCLING_MCP_CONVERSION_MODE=remote)

Variable	Default	Description
DOCLING_MCP_SERVICE_URL	—	URL of the Docling Serve instance
DOCLING_MCP_SERVICE_API_KEY	—	API key for the service
DOCLING_MCP_SERVICE_TIMEOUT	300.0	Timeout in seconds for a whole conversion job
DOCLING_MCP_SERVICE_MAX_RETRIES	3	Max retry attempts
DOCLING_MCP_FALLBACK_TO_LOCAL	false	Fall back to local if service is unreachable (requires docling-mcp[local])

以上为 README 的开头部分。其余内容请阅读原文。 查看完整 README ↗