Agents receive files with misleading extensions, mixed portfolios, and formats that need different parsers. PDF needs evidence twins. Images need metadata and OCR geometry. Videos need ffprobe timelines — not one-size-fits-all text dumps.

Most stacks force the agent or the human to branch on extension, install the right tool, and hope delegation still returns citeable provenance. Wrong reader, wrong schema, silent partial reads. Then citations break — quietly.

Smart Reader MCP is built for the moment your agent needs one read tool that sniffs format and delegates with proof.

Install once. Call once.

npm install -g @sylphx/smart-reader-mcp
prism doctor
# brand bin + MCP
claude mcp add smart-reader -- npx @sylphx/smart-reader-mcp

{
  "path": "/absolute/path/to/report.pdf"
}

read_media sniffs the file, spawns the matching sibling MCP server, and returns a provenance envelope:

{
  "source_path": "/absolute/path/to/report.pdf",
  "detected_format": "pdf",
  "delegated_tool": "read_pdf",
  "raw_result": {
    "page_count": 12,
    "title": "Q3 Report",
    "trust_report": { "warnings": [] }
  }
}

The raw_result field is the passthrough payload from the delegated reader (read_pdf, read_image, or read_video). Install the siblings you need:

npm install @sylphx/pdf-reader-mcp @sylphx/image-reader-mcp @sylphx/video-reader-mcp

Supported formats:

• PDF: .pdf
• Image: .png, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .webp, .tif, .tiff
• Video: .mp4, .m4v, .mkv, .mov, .webm

This repository is product SSOT for Prism. Sibling readers (PDF/image/video) are separate repositories; composition is via public contracts only — not a monorepo.

claude mcp add smart-reader -- npx @sylphx/smart-reader-mcp

Add this to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "smart-reader": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@sylphx/smart-reader-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

npx @sylphx/smart-reader-mcp

Node.js >=22.13 is required. Delegation resolves locally installed sibling packages first, then falls back to npx -y @sylphx/<reader>-mcp.

• Local paths only — read_media resolves files on disk; no remote fetch by default.
• Magic-byte sniffing — format detection uses file content, not extension alone.
• Sibling delegation — spawns known Sylphx Reader packages (@sylphx/pdf-reader-mcp, etc.) via npx -y; no arbitrary executables.
• Provenance envelope — detected_format, delegated_tool, and source_path are always returned for audit.

Claims are backed by CI benchmark:release-gate and the shipped-path matrix (Rust sniff/policy route).

bun run benchmark:release-gate

Artifact: benchmark-artifacts/smart_reader_release_gate.json — must report status: passed before release.

git clone https://github.com/SylphxAI/smart-reader-mcp.git
cd smart-reader-mcp
bun install
bun run build
bun test
bun run doctor
bun run benchmark:release-gate

Useful checks:

bun run check
bun run typecheck
bun run validate
bun run benchmark:release-gate

Example read_media requests live in examples/.

• Issues
• npm package
• Portfolio ADR: ADR-0002

If manual format routing has wasted your MCP configs, your agent prompts, or your trust in mixed-media workflows, you are exactly who this project is for.

⭐ Star the repo — it is the fastest way to help more agent builders find one-call media reading. Share it in your MCP client setup, team wiki, or agent stack README.

Know another MCP directory? Open an issue with the link.

MIT © SylphxAI

Composition doctrine — SDK, not MCP, for product integration · Prism.composeVideo merges Cue structure + Iris L2 objects via SDK.