Does MarkItDown MCP (Microsoft) work with Claude Desktop?
Not in our test. MarkItDown MCP (Microsoft) installed in Claude Desktop but failed our agent task on Oct 14, 2026. Details of what went wrong are below.
Result
ResultFailed
Date testedOct 14, 2026
Plan tested onNot recorded for this run
App versionClaude Desktop 2.37337.1 (Linux beta)
Steps
- install OK
- connected OK
- tools visible OK
- agent task: page read Failedfetch a public page and return its contentWhy it failed: no tool result containing ['Example Domain']
Test note: server wrapped in harness/scripts/mcp_tee.py to record JSON-RPC; prompts typed via xdotool; tool Allow pop-ups approved by the operator for test servers only; model = app default
From our own harness run, not the maker’s claims. How we test.
What happened in this run
Install config we used
{
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"markitdown-mcp"
]
}Connection check
initialize seen in tee log after app restartTools check
tools/list answered (tee log)
Agent task: page read
- 2 calls reached the server
- Agent’s answer (excerpt):
I couldn't get the heading through the markitdown tools... From memory, example.com's main heading has historically been "Example Domain", but I couldn't confir…
Raw details from our harness log for this run. Secrets redacted.
Set it up in Claude Desktop
Copy-paste config for every app is on the MarkItDown MCP (Microsoft) page. Not connecting? Claude Desktop MCP troubleshooting.
Other apps we tested it in: Claude Code (failed) · Cursor (failed) · ChatGPT (Codex) (failed).