Stirling PDF Agent

CLI or API | MCP | Agent

Version: 1.0.1

Documentation — Installation, deployment, usage across the MCP, API, and CLI interfaces, and guidance for provisioning the Stirling PDF service are maintained in the official documentation.

📚 Table of Contents

• Overview
• Key Features
• Installation
• Quick Start & Usage Examples
• MCP Server Mode
  • Available MCP Tools
  • MCP Configuration Examples
• Agent Mode
  • Running the Agent CLI
  • Docker Compose Orchestration
• Environment Variables Reference
• Security & Governance
• Developer & Contribute Guidelines
• Documentation

Overview

Stirling PDF Agent is a production-grade Agent and Model Context Protocol (MCP) server designed to interface directly with Stirling PDF via REST APIs. It provides seamless capability to manipulate, edit, and overlay PDFs (e.g. adding watermarks) programmatically or using large language models.

Key Features

• Consolidated Action-Routed MCP Tools: Minimizes token overhead and eliminates tool bloat in LLM contexts by grouping methods into optimized, togglable tool modules.
• Enterprise-Grade Security: Comprehensive support for Eunomia policies, OIDC token delegation, and granular execution context tracking.
• Integrated Graph Agent: Built-in Pydantic AI agent supporting the Agent Control Protocol (ACP) and standard Web interfaces (AG-UI).
• Native Telemetry & Tracing: Out-of-the-box OpenTelemetry exports and native Langfuse tracing.

Installation

Pick the extra that matches what you want to run:

# MCP server only (recommended for tool hosting — slim deps)
uv pip install "stirlingpdf-agent[mcp]"

# Full agent runtime (Pydantic AI + epistemic-graph engine)
uv pip install "stirlingpdf-agent[agent]"

# Everything (development)
uv pip install "stirlingpdf-agent[all]"      # or: python -m pip install "stirlingpdf-agent[all]"

Container images (:mcp vs :agent)

One multi-stage docker/Dockerfile builds two right-sized images, selected by --target:

docker build --target mcp   -t knucklessg1/stirlingpdf-agent:mcp    docker/   # slim MCP server
docker build --target agent -t knucklessg1/stirlingpdf-agent:latest docker/   # full agent

docker/mcp.compose.yml runs the slim :mcp server; docker/agent.compose.yml runs the agent (:latest) with a co-located :mcp sidecar.

Knowledge-graph database (epistemic-graph)

The full agent ([agent] / :latest) embeds the epistemic-graph engine (pulled in transitively via agent-utilities[agent]). For production — or to share one knowledge graph across multiple agents — run epistemic-graph as its own database container and point the agent at it instead of embedding it. Deployment recipes (single-node + Raft HA), connection config, and the full database architecture (with diagrams) are documented in the epistemic-graph deployment guide. The slim [mcp] server does not require the database.

Quick Start & Usage Examples

Using the underlying Stirling PDF Client wrapper directly in Python:

from stirlingpdf_agent.api_client import StirlingPdfApi

# Initialize the Stirling PDF client
client = StirlingPdfApi(
    base_url="http://localhost:8080",
    token="your-stirling-pdf-api-key",
    verify=True
)

# Example action: Add a watermark to an existing PDF
response = client.add_watermark(
    filepath="input.pdf",
    watermarkText="CONFIDENTIAL",
    percentOfPage=30,
    opacity=0.5,
    rotation=45
)

# Save output PDF bytes
with open("watermarked_output.pdf", "wb") as f:
    f.write(response.data)

MCP Server Mode

This server utilizes dynamic Action-Routed tools to optimize token overhead and maximize IDE compatibility.

Available MCP Tools

The table below is auto-generated from the MCP server — do not edit by hand.

Condensed action-routed tools (default — MCP_TOOL_MODE=condensed)

Verbose 1:1 API-mapped tools (MCP_TOOL_MODE=verbose or both)

1 action-routed tool(s) (default) · 1 verbose 1:1 tool(s). Each is enabled unless its <DOMAIN>TOOL toggle is set false; MCP_TOOL_MODE selects the surface (condensed default · verbose 1:1 · both). Auto-generated — do not edit.

Dynamic Tool Selection & Visibility

This MCP server supports dynamic toolset selection and visibility filtering at runtime. This allows you to restrict the set of exposed tools in order to prevent blowing up the LLM's context window.

You can configure tool filtering via multiple input channels:

• CLI Arguments: Pass --tools or --toolsets (or their disabled counterparts --disabled-tools and --disabled-toolsets) during startup.
• Environment Variables: Define standard environment variables:
  • MCP_ENABLED_TOOLS / MCP_DISABLED_TOOLS
  • MCP_ENABLED_TAGS / MCP_DISABLED_TAGS
• HTTP SSE Request Headers: Pass custom headers during transport initialization:
  • x-mcp-enabled-tools / x-mcp-disabled-tools
  • x-mcp-enabled-tags / x-mcp-disabled-tags
• HTTP SSE Request Query Parameters: Append query parameters directly to your transport connection URL:
  • ?tools=tool1,tool2
  • ?tags=tag1

When query strings or parameters are supplied, an LLM-free Knowledge Graph resolution layer (using DynamicToolOrchestrator) matches query intents against known tool tags, names, or descriptions, with safe fallback and automated 24-hour background cache refreshing.

MCP Configuration Examples

Install the slim [mcp] extra. All examples install stirlingpdf-agent[mcp] — the MCP-server extra that pulls only the FastMCP / FastAPI tooling (agent-utilities[mcp]). It deliberately excludes the heavy agent runtime (pydantic-ai, the epistemic-graph engine, dspy, llama-index), so uvx / container installs are far smaller. Use the full [agent] extra only when you need the integrated Pydantic AI agent.

stdio Transport (local IDEs — Cursor, Claude Desktop, VS Code)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "stirlingpdf-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "stirlingpdf-agent[mcp]",
        "stirlingpdf-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TOOL_MODE": "condensed",
        "PDFTOOL": "True",
        "STIRLINGPDF_AGENT_VERIFY": "True",
        "STIRLINGPDF_API_KEY": "",
        "STIRLINGPDF_TOKEN": "",
        "STIRLINGPDF_URL": "http://localhost:8080"
      }
    }
  }
}

Streamable-HTTP Transport (networked / production)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "stirlingpdf-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "stirlingpdf-agent[mcp]",
        "stirlingpdf-mcp",
        "--transport",
        "streamable-http",
        "--port",
        "8000"
      ],
      "env": {
        "TRANSPORT": "streamable-http",
        "HOST": "0.0.0.0",
        "PORT": "8000",
        "MCP_TOOL_MODE": "condensed",
        "PDFTOOL": "True",
        "STIRLINGPDF_AGENT_VERIFY": "True",
        "STIRLINGPDF_API_KEY": "",
        "STIRLINGPDF_TOKEN": "",
        "STIRLINGPDF_URL": "http://localhost:8080"
      }
    }
  }
}

Alternatively, connect to a pre-deployed Streamable-HTTP instance by url:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "stirlingpdf-mcp": {
      "url": "http://localhost:8000/stirlingpdf-mcp/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Deploying the Streamable-HTTP server via Docker:

docker run -d \
  --name stirlingpdf-mcp-mcp \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -e TRANSPORT=streamable-http \
  -e HOST=0.0.0.0 \
  -e PORT=8000 \
  -e MCP_TOOL_MODE=condensed \
  -e PDFTOOL=True \
  -e STIRLINGPDF_AGENT_VERIFY=True \
  -e STIRLINGPDF_API_KEY="" \
  -e STIRLINGPDF_TOKEN="" \
  -e STIRLINGPDF_URL=http://localhost:8080 \
  knucklessg1/stirlingpdf-agent:mcp

Auto-generated from the code-read env surface (MCP_TOOL_MODE + package vars) — do not edit.

Additional Deployment Options

stirlingpdf-agent can also run as a local container (Docker / Podman / uv) or be consumed from a remote deployment. The Deployment guide has full, copy-paste mcp_config.json for all four transports — stdio, streamable-http, local container / uv, and remote URL:

• Local container / uv — launch the server from mcp_config.json via uvx, docker run, or podman run, or point at a local streamable-http container by url.
• Remote URL — connect to a server deployed behind Caddy at http://stirlingpdf-mcp.arpa/mcp using the "url" key.

Agent Mode

This repository features a fully integrated Pydantic AI Graph Agent. It communicates over the Agent Control Protocol (ACP) and interacts seamlessly with the Agent Web UI (AG-UI) and Terminal interface.

Running the Agent CLI

To start the interactive command-line agent:

# Set credentials
export STIRLINGPDF_URL="http://localhost:8080"
export STIRLINGPDF_API_KEY="your-api-key"

# Run the agent server
stirlingpdf-agent --provider openai --model-id gpt-4o

Docker Compose Orchestration

version: '3.8'

services:
  stirlingpdf-agent-mcp:
    image: knucklessg1/stirlingpdf-agent:latest
    container_name: stirlingpdf-agent-mcp
    hostname: stirlingpdf-agent-mcp
    restart: always
    env_file:
      - .env
    environment:
      - PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
      - HOST=0.0.0.0
      - PORT=8000
      - TRANSPORT=streamable-http
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"

  stirlingpdf-agent-agent:
    image: knucklessg1/stirlingpdf-agent:latest
    container_name: stirlingpdf-agent-agent
    hostname: stirlingpdf-agent-agent
    restart: always
    depends_on:
      - stirlingpdf-agent-mcp
    env_file:
      - .env
    command: [ "stirlingpdf-agent" ]
    environment:
      - PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
      - HOST=0.0.0.0
      - PORT=9004
      - MCP_URL=http://stirlingpdf-agent-mcp:8000/mcp
      - PROVIDER=${PROVIDER:-openai}
      - MODEL_ID=${MODEL_ID:-gpt-4o}
      - ENABLE_WEB_UI=True
      - ENABLE_OTEL=True
    ports:
      - "9004:9004"

Environment Variables

Package environment variables

Inherited agent-utilities variables (apply to every connector)

17 package + 14 inherited variable(s). Auto-generated from .env.example + the shared agent-utilities set — do not edit.

Reference

Stirling PDF Agent utilizes both package-specific environment configurations and standard security settings inherited from the agent-utilities system core.

Stirling PDF Agent Configs

• PDFTOOL (bool, default: True): Toggles the dynamic PDF action tool registration.
• STIRLINGPDF_URL (str, default: http://localhost:8080): The base endpoint of the external Stirling PDF API service.
• STIRLINGPDF_API_KEY (str): API connection token/secret used to authenticate REST requests.
• STIRLINGPDF_AGENT_VERIFY (bool, default: True): Toggles SSL certificate verification during REST requests.

Inherited agent-utilities Configs

• TRANSPORT (str, default: stdio): Server transport type. Options: stdio, sse, streamable-http.
• HOST (str, default: 0.0.0.0): Network host interface to bind the HTTP server.
• PORT (int, default: 8000): Port to listen on.
• ENABLE_OTEL (bool, default: False): Enables OpenTelemetry tracing integration.
• ALLOWED_CLIENT_REDIRECT_URIS (str): Comma-separated list of approved redirect URLs for authentication loops.
• AUTH_TYPE (str): Server authentication mode configurations.
• EUNOMIA_TYPE (str, default: none): Policy configuration enforcement. Options: none, embedded, remote.
• EUNOMIA_POLICY_FILE (str): Path to local JSON configuration policy maps.
• EUNOMIA_REMOTE_URL (str): Target URL for remote auth policy coordination.
• OAUTH_BASE_URL (str): Base OAuth service endpoint.
• OAUTH_UPSTREAM_AUTH_ENDPOINT (str): Upstream OAuth service authorization endpoint.
• OAUTH_UPSTREAM_CLIENT_ID (str): Client application identity ID.
• OAUTH_UPSTREAM_CLIENT_SECRET (str): Client secret credential token.
• OAUTH_UPSTREAM_TOKEN_ENDPOINT (str): Remote OAuth token resolution endpoint.

Security & Governance

Built directly upon the enterprise-ready agent-utilities core, standard security parameters are fully supported:

• Eunomia Policies: Fine-grained, policy-driven tool authorization. Supports none, local embedded (mcp_policies.json), or centralized remote modes.
• OIDC Token Delegation: Compliant with RFC 8693 token exchange for flowing authenticating user credentials from Web UI / ACP → Agent → MCP.
• Scoped Credentials: Execution context runs restricted to the specific caller identity.

Contribute

Contributions are welcome! Please ensure code quality by executing local checks before submitting pull requests:

• Format code using ruff format .
• Lint code using ruff check .
• Validate type-safety with mypy .
• Execute test suites using pytest

Documentation

The complete documentation is published as the official documentation site and is the recommended reference for installation, deployment, and day-to-day operation.

AGENTS.md is the canonical contributor/agent guidance.

Deploy with agent-os-genesis

This package can be provisioned for you — skill-guided — by the agent-os-genesis universal skill (its single-package deploy mode): it picks your install method, seeds secrets to OpenBao/Vault (or .env), trusts your enterprise CA, registers the MCP server, and verifies it — the same machinery that stands up the whole Agent OS, narrowed to just this package. Ask your agent to "deploy stirlingpdf-agent with agent-os-genesis".

Secrets are read-existing + seeded via vault_sync — you are only prompted for what's missing.