Markitai

Opinionated Markdown converter with native LLM enhancement support.

• Multi-format: DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, PDF, EPUB, EML, TXT, MD, images (JPG/PNG/WebP), and URLs → clean Markdown; legacy .doc/.ppt via the legacy extra
• LLM enhancement: AI-powered format cleaning, frontmatter metadata, and vision analysis of embedded images via litellm, so any provider works (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, local CLIs, and more)
• Batch processing: concurrent conversion with progress display and --resume for interrupted jobs
• OCR: scanned PDFs and images via local RapidOCR (optional extra, see below), or --ocr --llm to have the vision model read the page images directly (VLM-OCR)
• Web fetching: static HTTP with cache revalidation, or Playwright rendering for JS-heavy pages
• Local web workspace: upload files or folders, submit URLs, configure LLM providers, compare results, retry failures, and revisit conversion history — CLI runs can opt in too, via --record-history

Docs: https://markitai.dev

Install

Recommended: guided installer. Checks/installs Python and uv, lets you pick extras, installs the optional Playwright browser, falls back to a mirror when it measures the default index as unreachable, and is bilingual (EN/中文):

# Linux/macOS
curl -fsSL https://markitai.dev/setup.sh | sh
# Windows (PowerShell)
powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://markitai.dev/setup.ps1 | iex"

Minimal (uv / pip), if you already have Python 3.11-3.13 and just want the package:

uv tool install markitai     # isolated environment (recommended)
pipx install markitai        # or pipx

After a uv/pip install, do the setup steps the guided installer would have done for you:

markitai doctor           # check core and optional capabilities
markitai init             # create a config and set up an LLM provider

If you need Playwright browser rendering, add its package before asking doctor to install Chromium:

uv tool install "markitai[browser]" --force     # uv tool install
# pipx install "markitai[browser]" --force      # pipx alternative
markitai doctor --fix                           # install Chromium

Both installs provide the markitai command and the shorter mkai alias. They are the same command (mkai --help == markitai --help). If you already have a different mkai on your PATH, use the full markitai to avoid ambiguity.

Extras

The base install is deliberately lean (~475MB). ocr is the one extra that adds real weight (~160MB of models and OpenCV), so it is opt-in:

uv tool install "markitai[ocr]" --force

The guided installer offers it as a yes/no question (defaulting to yes, and remembering a "no" for the rest of the run); markitai doctor reports OCR as an optional capability and prints this command when it is not installed.

Launch the local web workspace with:

uv tool install "markitai[serve]" --force
markitai serve

Quick start

markitai document.pdf -o out/            # convert a file
markitai https://example.com -o out/     # convert a URL
markitai ./docs -o out/                  # batch convert a directory
markitai doctor                          # check dependencies and configuration

For LLM enhancement, export any supported provider key — markitai picks the model up from the environment, no config file needed:

export GEMINI_API_KEY=...                # or OPENAI_/ANTHROPIC_/DEEPSEEK_/OPENROUTER_API_KEY
markitai document.pdf -o out/ --llm      # clean formatting + generated frontmatter
markitai document.pdf --preset rich      # LLM + alt text + descriptions + screenshots
markitai init                            # or configure it interactively, once

See the Getting Started guide for LLM configuration, presets, caching, and batch options.

MCP server

The MCP server markitai-mcp (bundled with markitai, enabled by the mcp extra) exposes conversion to AI agents over the Model Context Protocol: convert_document, convert_url, batch_convert, job_status. Zero install via uvx; large outputs land on disk instead of in the model context. For Claude Code, claude mcp add markitai -- uvx --from "markitai[mcp]" markitai-mcp; for other clients:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "markitai": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["--from", "markitai[mcp]", "markitai-mcp"] }
  }
}

markitai mcp starts the same server through the CLI itself (uvx --from "markitai[mcp]" markitai mcp), which is how the MCP Registry lists it. See the MCP guide for LLM enhancement and batch jobs.

Comparison

How markitai compares to three tools people mention in the same breath. No star or download counts — those go stale immediately.

Each optimizes for a different job: anydoc for dependency-free speed, docling for ML-driven document structure in RAG pipelines, markitdown for ecosystem reach — markitai trades those for a built-in LLM pipeline, live web fetching, and a local UI. Two of them are also dependencies rather than only alternatives: markitdown converts the Office formats, and anydoc handles legacy .doc/.ppt behind markitai[legacy].

License

markitai's own source code is MIT.

The default installation is not uniformly MIT, because the PDF engine is not. The PyMuPDF packages pymupdf, pymupdf-layout, and pymupdf4llm come from Artifex Software and are dual-licensed under AGPL-3.0 or a commercial licence from Artifex. They are core dependencies — PDF conversion does not work without them.

For local use — running the CLI on your own machine, or a markitai serve instance only you talk to — this changes nothing. AGPL obligations attach when you redistribute the combined work or offer it to other people over a network: in that case AGPL-3.0 asks you to make the corresponding source available on the same terms, or to buy a commercial licence from Artifex instead.

Everything else in the default install is MIT, Apache-2.0, BSD, or MIT-CMU. CI enforces this: scripts/check_licenses.py fails the build on any non-commercial or proprietary dependency, and on any AGPL/GPL package outside an explicit allowlist.

Full details, plus attribution for the code markitai ports from defuddle (MIT) and marker (Apache-2.0), are in NOTICE.