MarkItDown MCP vs Git (Reference)

A side-by-side comparison of two Files & Storage servers — tools, transport, auth, maintenance, and copy-paste config for each.

	MarkItDown MCP Give your agent Microsoft's MarkItDown: convert PDFs, Office docs, images, and URLs into LLM-ready Markdown. Unverified stdio (local) No auth Python	Git (Reference) Official MCP server for reading, searching, and manipulating a local Git repository's files and history. Verified stdio (local) No auth Python
Category	Files & Storage	Files & Storage
Language	Python	Python
Transport	stdio (local)	stdio (local)
Auth	None	None
GitHub stars	162k	74k
Last commit	8 days ago	5 months ago
Verified
Actively maintained
Install	`pip install markitdown-mcp`	`uvx mcp-server-git --repository /absolute/path/to/repo`
Repo	Open	Open

Verdict

Pick MarkItDown MCP if you prefer the more popular, battle-tested option.

Pick Git (Reference) if you need the broadest set of tools, and you want a verified, documented setup.

Add MarkItDown MCP

Install / run

pip install markitdown-mcp

Paste into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "markitdown-mcp": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--rm",
        "-i",
        "markitdown-mcp:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Requires Docker to be installed and running.

Add Git (Reference)

Install / run

uvx mcp-server-git --repository /absolute/path/to/repo

Paste into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "git-reference": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-server-git",
        "--repository",
        "/absolute/path/to/repo"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Requires `uv` (the Python package runner). Install it from https://docs.astral.sh/uv/ if `uvx` is not found.

FAQ

MarkItDown MCP or Git (Reference) — which is better?

Pick MarkItDown MCP if you prefer the more popular, battle-tested option. Pick Git (Reference) if you need the broadest set of tools, and you want a verified, documented setup.

Can I use both MarkItDown MCP and Git (Reference)?

Yes — MCP clients let you enable multiple servers at once. Add both configs to your client's mcpServers and use whichever tool fits the task.

Do MarkItDown MCP and Git (Reference) work with Claude, Cursor and Windsurf?

Both do. Copy the per-client config below into Claude Desktop, Cursor, or Windsurf.

View MarkItDown MCP →View Git (Reference) →More comparisons →