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mdshrink
Auto-compress PDFs and screenshots to Markdown before they hit Claude Code's context. 5-10x fewer tokens, fully local, one-line install.
What is mdshrink?
mdshrink is an MCP server that automatically converts PDFs and screenshots to compact Markdown before they hit Claude Code's context window. It preserves semantic content while reducing token usage by 5-10x.
Why?
When you attach a PDF or screenshot in Claude Code:
- A typical 20-page PDF consumes 25k-40k tokens
- A single screenshot consumes 1.5k-3k tokens per image
Most of those tokens are visual redundancy - fonts, layout, whitespace - that the model doesn't need. mdshrink extracts the semantic content and discards the bloat.
Installation
pip install mdshrink-mcp
claude mcp add mdshrink -- mdshrinkRestart Claude Code. That's it.
Usage
Once installed, Claude Code will automatically call mdshrink tools before reading PDF or image files:
- `compress_pdf` - Converts PDFs to compact Markdown
- `compress_image` - OCR extracts text from screenshots
- `get_compressed` - Cache lookup (fast check)
Each conversion reports:
original_tokens- Estimated tokens for native filecompressed_tokens- Actual tokens in Markdownratio- Compression ratio (e.g., "5.2x")
What It Compresses Well
| Type | Compression | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Text-native PDFs | 5-10x | API specs, RFCs, papers, contracts |
| Screenshots of text | 3-5x | Code, error messages, docs, terminal |
| Scanned docs | Varies | Requires OCR (future) |
What It Doesn't Compress
- Scanned/image-only PDFs (v1.1+)
- Tables with complex merged cells
- Equations and charts
- Photos where visual IS the content
- Diagrams (v1.2+ with VLM)
Troubleshooting
Tool not triggering?
/mcpShould show:
✔ Found 1 MCP server
• mdshrink: connected (3 tools)If not, reinstall:
claude mcp remove mdshrink
claude mcp add mdshrink -- mdshrinkPermission errors on Windows
Run PowerShell as Administrator, then:
pip install --force-reinstall mdshrink-mcpCache location
- Linux/macOS:
~/.cache/mdshrink/ - Windows:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\mdshrink\
Disable caching: MDSHRINK_NO_CACHE=1
Clear cache:
from mdshrink_mcp import cache
cache.clear_cache()Uninstall
claude mcp remove mdshrink
pip uninstall mdshrink-mcpLicense
MIT - See LICENSE for details.