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MarkItDown produced useful Markdown from several text-based files in a single logged run, but it did not extract readable content from three scanned PDFs: each process exited successfully while returning only a newline. A recorded MCP STDIO exchange also listed and called the convert_to_markdown tool. These are findings from one experiment, not a general benchmark or proof that every conversion path works.
What this experiment covered
Jeremy Xiao’s experiment log records a run on September 23, 2026, using 14 public fixtures in samples/quality-gallery/files/. Its environment was macOS (Darwin 26.5.1) on Apple Silicon, with uv 0.10.8 and Python 3.12. The recorded package versions were MarkItDown 0.1.8 and markitdown-mcp 0.0.1a7. Conversion used the local CLI, without an LLM client, plugins, or Azure services. The log says manual review was still pending, so treat its output descriptions as reported observations rather than independently validated quality scores. Experiment log
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The log also describes an installation wrinkle specific to that setup: resolving markitdown[all] without allowing prereleases initially selected version 0.1.5; enabling prereleases allowed installation of 0.1.8. This is not a guarantee about current package resolution.
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What the 14 fixtures produced
The experiment log reports that several files with extractable text yielded useful structure: a release-overview PDF produced headings and paragraphs; a Q3-results PDF produced a pipeline table; a library-note PDF and a DOCX produced tables; an XLSX produced sheet headings and rows; a PPTX yielded text; an HTML file converted cleanly; an EPUB yielded chapter headings; and a notebook produced concatenated cell source. Experiment log
#1 Best Overall
Useful extraction did not mean a faithful reproduction of every layout. The log notes blank spacer columns, an empty table-header cell, an Unnamed: 1 spreadsheet header, and loss of presentation layout. Markdown can preserve text and some tabular structure while discarding visual relationships that matter in a slide deck or complex document. Inspect the result against the source when those details are important.
Why a successful exit code can still mean failure
The most important diagnostic finding was the scanned-PDF result: all three scanned PDFs exited with code 0, but each output contained only a single newline. Two scanned PNGs yielded image-size metadata rather than readable image content. The log therefore shows that a process can complete without an error while extracting no useful text. Experiment log
For a conversion workflow, check the output itself—not just the command status. Confirm that it contains expected words, headings, or rows, and treat empty or implausibly short output as a signal to inspect the source and conversion path. Scanned pages generally need OCR to turn pixels into text; this experiment did not test MarkItDown’s OCR plugin or Azure services, so it does not establish which OCR option would work best.
The Tool Desk
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The experiment log summarizes this message sequence: initialize, notifications/initialized, tools/list, then tools/call. It reports that initialization returned server name markitdown, an empty version string, and protocol version 2025-06-18. The tool listing contained one tool, convert_to_markdown, with a required string parameter named uri. A call with a local PDF file URI reportedly returned isError: false and Markdown text whose opening lines matched the CLI output. This is the author’s summary; the published excerpt does not establish an independently captured or validated transcript. Experiment log
The official MarkItDown-MCP README describes a server exposing convert_to_markdown(uri) for HTTP, file, and data URIs, with STDIO, Streamable HTTP, and SSE transports. Its STDIO example uses the markitdown-mcp command. The MCP Python SDK documentation likewise identifies stdio, Streamable HTTP, and SSE as standard transports. MarkItDown-MCP README · MCP Python SDK documentation
Choose CLI or MCP based on how the conversion will be used
| Approach | What it provides | What to account for |
|---|---|---|
| Local CLI or Python library | Direct conversion in a script or application; the experiment used the local CLI. | Install the dependencies needed for the formats you handle, and validate conversion output. The project documents optional format-specific dependencies. |
| MCP server | A tool interface that an MCP client can call through a supported transport; the logged exchange used STDIO. | The server inherits its process privileges. The experiment did not test GUI-client integrations, remote deployment, or authentication. |
The MarkItDown project describes the library as a Python utility for converting files to Markdown for LLM and text-analysis workflows, recommends using a virtual environment, and documents optional dependencies by format. MarkItDown project README
Before choosing either route, consider whether the inputs contain extractable text or require OCR, whether Markdown can preserve the tables or layout you need, which format-specific dependencies are required, and what filesystem or network access the conversion process will have.
Security and scope boundaries
MarkItDown’s official project warns that conversion performs I/O with the privileges of the current process. For server-side or untrusted input, it recommends validating and restricting inputs and using the narrowest conversion method that meets the need. MarkItDown project README
The MCP README says the server has no authentication, runs with its process privileges, and defaults HTTP transports to localhost. It warns against binding beyond localhost without understanding the security implications. MarkItDown-MCP README
The experiment was limited to a local CLI run and a reported STDIO exchange. Claude Desktop, Cursor, and Cline GUI configuration, Docker image builds, LLM image descriptions, markitdown-ocr, Azure Document Intelligence, and Azure Content Understanding were not tested; the log attributes the untested services to unavailable credentials. Its results therefore do not demonstrate remote deployment, authentication, Docker isolation, or desktop-client integration. Experiment log
Quick Recap
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