How to Use the Datafromfile MCP Server with Claude and Cursor

More from this article

• The Datafromfile MCP server lets Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or Cursor extract a local file directly from a conversation, no browser tab, no manual upload. Here's what it does and how to set it up.
• What MCP is, briefly
• Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that lets an AI assistant call real tools outside the chat window, read a file, query a database, hit an API, instead of only generating text. The Datafromfile MCP server is a thin wrapper around the same extraction endpoint the web app itself calls, so asking it to extract a file runs the identical pipeline a direct upload would.
• What it can do
• One tool, `extract_document`. Point it at a local PDF, photo, scan, CSV, JSON, XLSX, XLS, XML, or HTML file, and it returns the extracted column names and records as structured JSON, ready for whatever the assistant does next in that conversation. Supported extraction modes match the web app: auto, tables, key_values, schema, or a custom natural-language prompt.
• Setup