Use Tanod PDF and document tools in AnythingLLM as an MCP server

Updated 2026-10-16

Use when you run AnythingLLM (Desktop or self-hosted Docker) and want its agent to read PDFs, including scans, inspect a PDF before parsing it, or turn Word and Office files into Markdown, without installing a parser or an MCP command on your machine.

Tanod's documents server at https://tanod.dev/mcp/docs is a remote MCP server over Streamable HTTP: no install, no sign-up, no key. AnythingLLM can use it with one entry in its MCP config file, but that entry must say "type": "streamable". Without it AnythingLLM assumes the older SSE transport, which Tanod does not serve, and the server will not connect.

What AnythingLLM offers

From AnythingLLM's docs (MCP Compatibility, MCP on Desktop and MCP on Docker, read 16 October 2026):

• MCP servers live in plugins/anythingllm_mcp_servers.json in AnythingLLM's storage directory. The file is created, empty, the first time you open the Agent Skills page.
• A remote server needs a url and a type of streamable or sse; sse is assumed when type is missing. An optional headers object is sent with each request (Tanod needs none).
• Only MCP tools are used; resources, prompts and sampling are not supported. Tanod's servers offer tools only, so nothing is lost.
• Servers start when you open the Agent Skills page or use @agent in a chat, not when the app starts. The Agent Skills page lists each server's status, its tools and its error log, and can reload the config file.
• Desktop needs v1.8.0 or later. On Docker, MCP is for self-hosted instances; the AnythingLLM Cloud service does not offer it.

Step by step

1. Open Agent Skills once, so AnythingLLM creates the config file.
2. Open plugins/anythingllm_mcp_servers.json in your AnythingLLM storage directory (on Docker, the storage folder you mounted) and add the server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tanod-docs": {
      "type": "streamable",
      "url": "https://tanod.dev/mcp/docs"
    }
  }
}

3. Back on the Agent Skills page, reload the MCP servers. tanod-docs should show as running with its tools listed. If it shows an error, check that type is streamable.
4. In a workspace chat, start your message with @agent and use one of the prompts below. Pick a model with reliable tool calling; MCP does not make a model better at choosing tools.

A test on 16 October 2026 with a plain Streamable HTTP client: initialize answered and tools/list returned 40 tools. I did not run AnythingLLM itself for this guide; the steps come from its docs, so trust your screen if a label differs.

Three prompts to try

• "@agent extract the text of https://tanod.dev/samples/sample.pdf and summarise it in three lines." Uses extract_pdf, which has a free daily allowance per IP.
• "@agent inspect https://tanod.dev/samples/tables-sample.pdf: how many pages, and is it scanned or text?" Uses pdf_inspect, which also has a free daily allowance.
• "@agent convert https://tanod.dev/samples/sample.docx to Markdown and list its headings." Uses convert_document_to_markdown, which has no free tier: expect a payment-required result that the agent reports back.

Each tool's description states its price per call and its free allowance, if any. Allowances are per IP address and reset each UTC day. AnythingLLM Desktop calls Tanod from your own machine, so the allowance is yours; a Docker instance calls from its server, so all of its users share one allowance.

Why a hosted server here

Most MCP servers you find for AnythingLLM are commands it starts on your machine (npx, uvx), and the docs say plainly that AnythingLLM does not install those commands for you. A remote server has nothing to install or keep updated: the PDF parsing, OCR and Office conversion run on Tanod's side, and AnythingLLM only sends the file URL and reads the result. Tool results quote text from your documents; Tanod marks it as untrusted data so the agent does not follow instructions hidden in a file.

Payment beyond the free allowance

AnythingLLM's MCP client has no way to pay x402. Calls past the free allowance, and every tool with no free tier, return an x402 payment-required result. For paid volume, call the HTTP API from code with an x402 client: see pay-per-call APIs for AI agents with x402. Prices are per call in USDC; there is no account or key.

Other Tanod MCP endpoints

Same entry, a different url (keep "type": "streamable"). Many tools in these families have a free tier, some have none.

• https://tanod.dev/mcp/web: search, page to Markdown, screenshots
• https://tanod.dev/mcp/images: image toolkit
• https://tanod.dev/mcp/ml: speech to text, embeddings, rerank
• https://tanod.dev/mcp/text: text tools
• https://tanod.dev/mcp/util: developer utilities
• https://tanod.dev/mcp/finance: SEC financials, Treasury yields, ECB FX
• https://tanod.dev/mcp/security: contract and package scans, phishing and OFAC checks

Using Open WebUI, Dify or n8n instead? See Tanod document tools in Open WebUI, in Dify and in n8n. Connection trouble: MCP connection errors explained.

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