---
title: mcwaddams
description: MCP server for Microsoft Office document processing. Named for Milton Waddams, who was relocated to the basement with boxes of legacy documents.
template: splash
hero:
  tagline: "I was told there would be document extraction."
  image:
    file: ../../assets/stapler.svg
  actions:
    - text: Get Started
      link: /installation/
      icon: right-arrow
      variant: primary
    - text: View on GitHub
      link: https://github.com/ryanmalloy/mcwaddams
      icon: external
      variant: minimal
---

import { Card, CardGrid, LinkCard } from '@astrojs/starlight/components';

## The Situation

You have Office documents. Lots of them. Some are modern `.docx` files. Others are `.doc` files from 1997 that predate Unicode. Your AI agent needs to read them, but native PDF-to-text tools just stare blankly.

**mcwaddams** handles what nobody else wants to touch.

<CardGrid stagger>
  <Card title="20 Tools" icon="document">
    Extract text, tables, images, metadata. Analyze structure. Convert to Markdown. Index for on-demand fetching.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Legacy Support" icon="puzzle">
    `.doc`, `.xls`, `.ppt` — the formats everyone forgot about until they need them. We didn't forget.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Smart Fallbacks" icon="setting">
    When python-docx chokes, mammoth steps in. When openpyxl fails, pandas takes over. No silent failures.
  </Card>
  <Card title="MCP Resources" icon="open-book">
    Index once, fetch chapters/sheets/slides on demand. Keep your context window manageable.
  </Card>
</CardGrid>

---

## Quick Install

```bash
# With uvx (recommended)
uvx mcwaddams

# Add to Claude Code
claude mcp add mcwaddams "uvx mcwaddams"
```

---

## Documentation Structure

This documentation follows the [Diátaxis framework](https://diataxis.fr/):

<CardGrid>
  <LinkCard
    title="Tutorials"
    description="Learn by doing. Step-by-step guides for common workflows."
    href="/tutorials/first-extraction/"
  />
  <LinkCard
    title="How-To Guides"
    description="Solve specific problems. Task-oriented recipes."
    href="/how-to/extract-tables/"
  />
  <LinkCard
    title="Reference"
    description="Look up tool parameters and return values."
    href="/reference/tools/"
  />
  <LinkCard
    title="Explanation"
    description="Understand the architecture and design decisions."
    href="/explanation/architecture/"
  />
</CardGrid>

---

## TPS Reports

> *"Did you get the memo about the TPS reports?"*

We take testing seriously. Check out our [Test Dashboard](/tps/dashboard/) for live results, or browse the [Torture Tests](/tps/torture/) where we threw 301 random Office documents at mcwaddams.

**Result:** 99.3% success rate. The 2 failures were empty/corrupt files.

---

<div style="text-align: center; margin-top: 3rem; opacity: 0.6;">
  <small>
    Named for Milton Waddams, who was relocated to the basement with the legacy documents.
    <br/>
    <em>"I could set the building on fire..."</em>
  </small>
</div>
