Nougat-MCP

nougat-mcp is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for high-fidelity OCR of scientific PDFs using Meta's Nougat.

It is designed for agent workflows where you need equations, tables, and structure preserved better than traditional OCR.

Why This Server

• Scientific OCR quality tailored for papers, formulas, and dense layouts.
• MCP-native interface for Codex, Claude, Cursor, Antigravity, and other clients.
• Output-format control:
  • mmd: raw Nougat/Mathpix-style output.
  • md: renderer-friendly conversion (math delimiter and KaTeX compatibility fixes).
• Settings file support so agents can read a shared default format policy.

Installation

Install from PyPI:

uv pip install nougat-mcp

This package installs nougat-ocr and pins known-sensitive dependencies for stability.

Tools

parse_research_paper

Arguments:

• file_path (string): Absolute path to a local PDF.
• output_format (string, optional):
  • default (default): uses server settings.
  • mmd: raw Nougat output.
  • md: converted markdown-friendly output.

Returns:

• OCR result as a single text string in the requested format.

get_output_settings

Returns resolved server output settings, including where settings were loaded from.

Output Conversion (mmd -> md)

When output_format="md", the server applies compatibility conversions:

• \[ ... \] -> $$ ... $$
• \( ... \) -> $ ... $
• \tag{...} -> visible equation label \qquad\text{(...)}
• KaTeX delimiter normalization, for example:
  • \bigl{\|} ... \bigr{\|} -> \bigl\| ... \bigr\|

This avoids common renderer parse errors in markdown environments that are not fully MathJax-compatible.

Server Settings

Settings are read in this order:

1. NOUGAT_MCP_SETTINGS (if set)
2. ./settings.json (current working directory)

Example settings.json:

{
  "nougat_mcp": {
    "default_output_format": "md",
    "md_rewrite_tags": true,
    "md_fix_sized_delimiters": true
  }
}

Agent Configuration

Codex CLI

Add to ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.nougat]
command = "uvx"
args = ["nougat-mcp"]
enabled = true

[mcp_servers.nougat.env]
NOUGAT_MCP_SETTINGS = "/absolute/path/to/settings.json"

Claude Desktop

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nougat": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["nougat-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "NOUGAT_MCP_SETTINGS": "/absolute/path/to/settings.json"
      }
    }
  }
}

Antigravity / Gemini Desktop

Add to ~/.gemini/settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nougat": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["nougat-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "NOUGAT_MCP_SETTINGS": "/absolute/path/to/settings.json"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor

In Cursor MCP settings, add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nougat": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["nougat-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "NOUGAT_MCP_SETTINGS": "/absolute/path/to/settings.json"
      }
    }
  }
}

Note: Cursor MCP config location can vary by version/platform; use the MCP settings UI or your current JSON settings file.

Showcase (Real Page Example)

A real extraction from page 5 of src/2405.08770v1.pdf is included:

• Input PDF page: showcase/2405.08770v1_page5.pdf
• Raw mmd output: showcase/2405.08770v1_page5.mmd
• Converted md output: showcase/2405.08770v1_page5.md

Quick comparison:

# mmd
\[DV=V_{x}. \tag{3.2}\]

# md
$$
DV=V_{x}. \qquad\text{(3.2)}
$$

Performance Notes

• First run may download model weights (~1.4 GB).
• CPU inference is significantly slower than GPU inference.
• Use page subsets whenever possible to reduce runtime.

Release to PyPI

This repository includes automated publishing via GitHub Actions: .github/workflows/publish-pypi.yml.

One-time setup (recommended)

1. Create the nougat-mcp project on PyPI.
2. In PyPI project settings, configure a Trusted Publisher:
   • Owner: svretina
   • Repository: nougat-mcp
   • Workflow: publish-pypi.yml
   • Environment: pypi
3. In GitHub, ensure Actions are enabled for the repo.

Release flow

1. Bump version in pyproject.toml.
2. Commit and push to master.
3. Create and push a version tag:

git tag v0.1.0
git push origin v0.1.0

4. The workflow builds, validates (twine check), and publishes to PyPI.

Compatibility Pins

To keep Nougat stable across environments, the package pins sensitive dependency ranges:

• transformers>=4.35,<4.38
• albumentations>=1.3,<1.4
• pypdfium2<5.0
• huggingface-hub<1.0
• fsspec<=2025.10.0

Credits

• Nougat OCR: https://github.com/facebookresearch/nougat
• Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.13418

License

GNU General Public License v3.0 (LICENSE).