Help! I need someone with a Windows computer to verify Windows support.

[zcaceres]

Many users have experienced problems on Windows. I do not have a Windows computer so I cannot verify changes.

If you have a Windows computer, I need your help to verify support.

[kamusis]

Hi @zcaceres,
I’m using a Windows computer and would be happy to help verify Windows support for the project. Please let me know if you still need assistance or if there are any specific steps you’d like me to follow. Looking forward to helping out!

[zcaceres]

Hi @zcaceres, I’m using a Windows computer and would be happy to help verify Windows support for the project. Please let me know if you still need assistance or if there are any specific steps you’d like me to follow. Looking forward to helping out!

Thanks a lot @kamusis . Really what I need to verify is that you can do a clean setup of the latest version of the markdownify mcp.

• All dependencies install correctly
• All paths resolve correctly
• The server starts correctly and can take a successful action

If the above three items work, then the changes made by contributors recently will have successfully fixed existing issues.

[kamusis]

1. I forked the repository
2. git clone it to my local Windows 11 (x86-64) machine
3. Navigated to the repository directory
4. Ran pnpm install to install dependencies
5. Built the project with pnpm run build
6. Configured Windsurf to use the MCP server with

      "markdownify": {
        "command": "node",
        "args": [
          "C:/Users/kamus/CascadeProjects/markdownify-mcp/dist/index.js"
        ]
      }

7. The MCP server started normally, and the .venv directory was created with all the executable files in place
8. However, when using the tool, I encountered this error, which appears to be a path joining issue - missing a backslash in the path:
   
9. this should be the final issue, I tried to add "" in the path and ran the command directly in terminal, successfully got the markdown output:
   

[kamusis]

I checked the error again and I'm now not sure if the issue is with path joining, since the actual error log shows the backslashes in the path correctly:

Error: Error processing to Markdown: Command failed: ~/.local/bin/uv run C:\Users\kamus\CascadeProjects\markdownify-mcp\.venv\Scripts\markitdown.exe "C:\Users\kamus\AppData\Local\Temp\markdown_output_1747330044964.md"

I also used Claude Desktop to test, the same error:

the complete error log is, have no idea why there are garbled characters:

Error: Error processing to Markdown: Command failed: ~/.local/bin/uv run C:\Users\kamus\CascadeProjects\markdownify-mcp\.venv\Scripts\markitdown.exe "C:\Users\kamus\AppData\Local\Temp\markdown_output_1747331034185.md"
'~' �����ڲ����ⲿ���Ҳ���ǿ����еij���
���������ļ���

[zcaceres]

@kamusis Is it possible the model is appending some kind of weird input that's causing bad behavior? It's suspicious that it works when you call it directly but in the MCP context you see weird stuff after the command.

We could look at the tool definition or the prompt perhaps.

[intounknown]

Windows player here, I encounter this error on my first try:
Error: Error processing to Markdown: markitdown executable not found

[kamusis]

@kamusis Is it possible the model is appending some kind of weird input that's causing bad behavior? It's suspicious that it works when you call it directly but in the MCP context you see weird stuff after the command.

We could look at the tool definition or the prompt perhaps.

I'll try to debug it this weekend, hope we can find the root cause

[kamusis]

I fixed the previous bug, which was caused by the default uv path needing to expandHome first. However, after fixing that, there's still a new issue. The separately forked index.js process cannot correctly access the venv environment, so it reports an error that the markitdown module cannot be found.

If we activate the venv before starting the MCP inspector, then the tools call works normally.

I didn't spend time understanding why you previously chose to use uv run. I directly modified the code for running markitdown, changing it to specify the python interpreter in the venv to execute markitdown. The code is as follows:

const pythonPath = path.join(
  venvPath,
  process.platform === 'win32' ? 'Scripts' : 'bin',
  process.platform === 'win32' ? 'python.exe' : 'python3'
);
const command = `"${pythonPath}" -m markitdown "${filePath}"`;

It seems the problem is solved now, and it also works normally in Claude Desktop.

If you need, I can submit a PR.

[Dennis-Liu]

it's better added "-W ignore" in command :)

[zcaceres]

@kamusis Great find. There was no logic to the previous choice related to Windows because I couldn't test any of those changes. I do think we should make the updates you propose here.

[kamusis]

it's better added "-W ignore" in command :)

correct! I'll add the ignore flag and submit a pr.