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John's Essentials MCP Server

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John's Essentials is answering right now. Last checked 11 min ago. It exposes 144 tools.

144 deterministic file tools: PDF, image, media, convert, analyze. Connect in one click (OAuth).

Uptime history 47 days of history · worst day 90%
47 days agonow
100.0%
Uptime 24h
91 of 91 checks
144
Tools
read from the server
232 ms
Response time
average over 24h
OAuth sign-in
Access
streamable-http

Nothing serious here today

Today is the operative word: we check John's Essentials every 15 minutes and re-read its code on every release. Watch it and you find out the day that stops being true.

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Connect this server

Endpoint below is the one we actually reach during checks — not the one copied from a README. Last verified 11 min ago.

run in your terminal
claude mcp add johns-essentials --transport http https://api.johnsessentials.com/mcp/messages
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "johns-essentials": {
      "url": "https://api.johnsessentials.com/mcp/messages"
    }
  }
}
~/.codex/config.toml
[mcp_servers.johns-essentials]
url = "https://api.johnsessentials.com/mcp/messages"
.cursor/mcp.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "johns-essentials": {
      "url": "https://api.johnsessentials.com/mcp/messages"
    }
  }
}
.vscode/mcp.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "johns-essentials": {
      "url": "https://api.johnsessentials.com/mcp/messages"
    }
  }
}

This endpoint answered with an authorization challenge. The server is running, and it signs you in through your browser: there is no API key to paste.

Available tools 144

Read directly from the server with tools/list, grouped by what they act on. If a tool disappears, we record the date.

pdf
pdf_compress
Compress PDF — Reduce PDF file size while preserving readability. Quality presets: light (300 DPI), balanced (150 DPI, default), mobile (96 DPI), maximum (72 DPI). Also supports metadata-only stripping and a target-size mode. [category: pdf]
pdf_crop
Crop PDF — Crop the visible area of all pages in a PDF by setting new margins. Margins are in PostScript points; EVERY omitted edge defaults to 36pt — send 0 to leave an edge uncropped. [category: pdf]
pdf_delete_pages
Delete Pages — Remove specific pages from a PDF. [category: pdf]
pdf_excel_to_pdf
Excel to PDF — Convert Excel spreadsheets (.xlsx / .xls / .csv / .ods) to PDF with fit-to-page, orientation control, paper size, sheet selection, repeat header rows, custom header/footer, PDF/A output, password protection, watermark, and per-sheet split mode. Hybrid pipeline: excelize preprocesses the xlsx (page layout, sheet visibility) then LibreOffice converts. [category: pdf]
pdf_excel_to_pdf_batch
Excel to PDF (Batch) — Apply the same Excel-to-PDF configuration to up to 20 spreadsheets. Returns a ZIP with per-file subfolders. [category: pdf]
pdf_excel_to_pdf_inspect
Excel to PDF (Inspect) — Non-destructive workbook scan: returns per-sheet row/column counts, merged cells, PrintArea presence, and the auto-orientation heuristic's decision per sheet. Used by the frontend to preview before converting. [category: pdf]
pdf_extract_pages
Extract Pages — Extract a specific range of pages from a PDF into a new PDF. [category: pdf]
pdf_file_info
PDF File Info — Detailed info about a PDF: size, pages, version, encryption. [category: pdf]
pdf_flatten
Flatten PDF — Flatten PDF forms and annotations into static page content. Supports granular modes (annotations-only, forms-only, all), page ranges, signature-aware handling, link preservation, watermark stamping, image compression, PDF/A archival output, OCR for scanned inputs, and a ZIP bundle that exports form values + annotation metadata alongside the flattened file. [category: pdf]
pdf_flatten_batch
Flatten PDFs (Batch) — Apply the same flatten configuration to up to 20 PDFs in one request. Returns a ZIP with each flattened file (and per-file error entries on failure). [category: pdf]
pdf_get_metadata
Get PDF Metadata — Read the metadata fields of a PDF: Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Producer, Creator. [category: pdf]
pdf_grayscale
Grayscale PDF — Convert a PDF to grayscale, removing all colour information. [category: pdf]
pdf_header_footer
Add Header/Footer — Add custom text headers and/or footers to every page of a PDF, with optional page numbers. At least one of header, footer, or pageNumbers (other than 'none') is required. [category: pdf]
pdf_html_to_pdf
HTML to PDF — Convert an HTML file (.html or .htm) to PDF using LibreOffice. File upload only — URLs are not fetched. [category: pdf]
pdf_images_to_pdf
Images to PDF — Combine multiple images (JPG, PNG, TIFF) into a single PDF document. [category: pdf]
pdf_interleave
Interleave PDFs — Interleave pages from two PDFs alternately (useful for double-sided scans). [category: pdf]
pdf_merge
Merge PDFs — Combine multiple PDF files (at least 2) into a single document in the order provided. Supports per-file page selection, blank separator pages, bookmarks, and output metadata. [category: pdf]
pdf_ocr
OCR PDF (Make Searchable) — Make a scanned PDF searchable and selectable by adding an invisible OCR text layer over the page images — the pages look identical, but the text becomes findable, copyable, and indexable. Uses ocrmypdf (Tesseract + Ghostscript); already-searchable pages are skipped, so it is safe to run on mixed documents. This CREATES a text layer — to EXTRACT text that already exists, use pdf_to_text instead. [category: pdf] [requires the starter plan]
pdf_page_count
PDF Page Count — Get the total number of pages in a PDF. [category: pdf]
pdf_page_numbers
Add Page Numbers — Add page numbers to a PDF at a specified position (top/bottom, left/center/right). [category: pdf]
pdf_pptx_to_pdf
PowerPoint to PDF — Convert a PowerPoint presentation (.pptx, .ppt) to PDF using LibreOffice. [category: pdf]
pdf_protect
Password-Protect PDF — Add a password to a PDF to prevent unauthorised opening or printing. [category: pdf]
pdf_remove_metadata
Remove PDF Metadata — Strip all metadata (author, title, keywords, etc.) from a PDF for privacy. [category: pdf]
pdf_remove_watermark
Remove PDF Watermark — Attempt to remove an existing watermark layer from a PDF. [category: pdf]
pdf_reorder
Reorder PDF Pages — Reorder the pages of a PDF by supplying the desired page sequence. [category: pdf]
pdf_repair
Repair PDF — Attempt to repair a corrupted or malformed PDF using Ghostscript. [category: pdf]
pdf_reverse
Reverse Page Order — Reverse the page order of a PDF (last page becomes first). [category: pdf]
pdf_rotate
Rotate PDF — Rotate pages of a PDF by 90, 180, or 270 degrees — all pages or specific page numbers. [category: pdf]
pdf_rtf_to_pdf
RTF to PDF — Convert an RTF document to PDF using LibreOffice. [category: pdf]
pdf_set_metadata
Set PDF Metadata — Write or update metadata fields (Title, Author, Subject, Keywords) in a PDF. Fields are soft-verified after writing (mismatches are logged, not failed). At least ONE of title/author/subject/keywords must be provided or the request is rejected. [category: pdf]
pdf_split
Split PDF — Split a PDF by page range, into individual pages, by fixed chunk size, or into even/odd pages. [category: pdf]
pdf_thumbnails
PDF Thumbnails — Generate thumbnail preview images for each page of a PDF. [category: pdf]
pdf_to_excel
PDF to Excel — Extract tables from PDFs into XLSX / CSV / TSV / JSON. Uses tabula-java (lattice + stream modes) with LibreOffice as fallback. Supports page ranges, table selection, sheet strategy (per-table/per-page/single), OCR for scanned PDFs (Starter+), JSON output (Starter+), and a non-destructive inspect endpoint that reports row/col counts plus ragged/sparse confidence flags. [category: pdf]
pdf_to_excel_batch
PDF to Excel (Batch) — Apply the same PDF-to-Excel configuration to up to 20 PDFs. Returns a ZIP with per-file subfolders. [category: pdf]
pdf_to_excel_inspect
PDF to Excel Inspector — Non-destructive scan of a PDF's tables before converting: per-table row/column counts, confidence flags, warnings. [category: pdf]
pdf_to_images
PDF to Images — Rasterize PDF pages to PNG / JPG / WEBP / TIFF (and AVIF, Starter+). Supports page ranges, quality/DPI controls, grayscale/mono color modes, transparent output, custom background color, max-dimension cap, area crop, text watermark, custom filename patterns, contact-sheet/filmstrip tile mode (Starter+), preset profiles (web/print/email/archive), and JSON / MinIO URL response modes. [category: pdf]
pdf_to_images_batch
PDF to Images (Batch) — Apply the same rasterization configuration to up to 20 PDFs. Returns a ZIP with a subfolder per input file. [category: pdf]
pdf_to_pdfa
PDF to PDF/A (Archival) — Convert a PDF to PDF/A-2b, the ISO archival profile required for long-term storage and by many legal, government and enterprise records systems. Embeds fonts and colour information so the document renders identically decades from now. Uses Ghostscript. If a PDF uses features that cannot be embedded (e.g. unlicensed fonts) the conversion fails honestly rather than returning a non-conformant file. [category: pdf]
pdf_to_text
PDF to Text — COPY THE WORDS OUT of a PDF: get the wording, sentences and paragraphs as plain text you can paste into an email, a document or a spreadsheet. Extract the text that is already inside a PDF and return it as a plain .txt file. Reads the PDF's existing text layer using pdftotext with a Ghostscript txtwrite fallback — it does NOT run OCR. A scanned or photographed document has no text layer, so this tool refuses it with a 422 naming pdf_ocr rather than returning an empty file; run pdf_ocr first to add a searchable text layer, then extract. Mixed documents still succeed: pages that yielded no text are reported in the X-Conversion-Notes response header instead of being dropped silently. [category: pdf]
pdf_to_word
PDF to Word — Convert a PDF to an editable Word document (.docx) using LibreOffice. [category: pdf]
pdf_txt_to_pdf
TXT to PDF — Convert a plain text file to a formatted PDF document. [category: pdf]
pdf_unlock
Unlock PDF — Remove password protection from a PDF (you must supply the current password). [category: pdf]
pdf_watermark
Add PDF Watermark — STAMP or watermark a PDF: overlay text or an image across every page (or selected pages) — the tool for stamping DRAFT, CONFIDENTIAL, PAID, APPROVED, COPY or any wording onto a document, marking pages, branding them, or adding a logo overlay. Watermark type is chosen by the 'mode' field. [category: pdf]
photo
photo_bg_remover
Background Remover — Cut out the subject and remove the background from an existing photo, producing a transparent PNG (or a solid fill color). Edits a user-supplied image; does not generate new imagery. [category: photo]
photo_collage
Photo Collage — Arrange 2-16 images into a smart-cropped collage with aspect-ratio-aware layouts, named magazine templates, or legacy NxM grids. Output: JPG, PNG, WebP, AVIF. [category: photo]
photo_collage_animated
Animated Photo Collage — Animated/video collage (MP4/GIF/WebM) with Ken Burns motion. Business-only. [category: photo] [requires the business plan]
photo_collage_mosaic
Photo Mosaic — Render one hero photo as a mosaic of many small tile photos, color-matched per region. Business-only. Takes two separately-named uploads: 'target_image' (exactly 1) and 'tile_files[]' (20-1000). [category: photo] [requires the business plan]
photo_color_adjuster
Color Adjuster — Adjust brightness, contrast, and saturation of an image. [category: photo]
photo_compress
Compress Image — Reduce image file size using lossy or lossless compression. Supports JPEG quality setting and target-size mode. [category: photo]
photo_compress_to_size
Compress Image to Size — Compress an image to hit a target file size in KB. [category: photo]
photo_crop
Crop Image — Crop an image to a specified region (x, y, width, height) in pixels. [category: photo]
photo_editor
Photo Editor — Apply a single named filter to an image: grayscale, sepia, blur, sharpen, negate, or vignette. [category: photo]
photo_exif_viewer
EXIF Viewer — Extract and display all EXIF metadata from a photo including camera, GPS, and settings. [category: photo]
photo_face_blur
Face Blur — Automatically detect and blur faces in a photo for privacy protection. [category: photo]
photo_face_detect
Face Detect — Detect faces in an image and return bounding boxes. [category: photo]
photo_flip_rotate
Flip / Rotate Image — Flip an image horizontally or vertically, rotate it by 90/180/270, or rotate by a custom angle. [category: photo]
photo_format_converter
Image Format Converter — Convert an image between formats: JPG, PNG, WebP, TIFF, BMP, GIF, AVIF. [category: photo]
photo_image_diff
Image Diff — Compare two images and highlight the differences visually. Takes two separately-named uploads: 'image1' and 'image2'. [category: photo]
photo_image_overlay
Image Overlay — Composite one image on top of another at a specified position. Takes two separately-named uploads: 'background' and 'overlay'. [category: photo]
photo_image_splitter
Image Splitter — Split an image into a grid of equal tiles (e.g. 2x2, 3x3). [category: photo]
photo_meme_generator
Meme Generator — Add bold top and bottom caption text to an image in Impact-style font. At least one of top_text/bottom_text is required. [category: photo]
photo_noise_reducer
Noise Reducer — Reduce image noise and grain using ImageMagick's denoising filters. [category: photo]
photo_resize
Resize Image — Resize an image by pixel dimensions, percentage, fit-within-max, or exact canvas. Supports maintaining aspect ratio. [category: photo]
photo_shadow_adder
Add Drop Shadow — Add a drop shadow effect to an image, producing a PNG with transparency. [category: photo]
photo_svg_to_png
SVG to PNG — Rasterize an SVG vector file to PNG (or JPG/WebP) at a chosen resolution, DPI, and background color. [category: photo]
photo_to_text
Photo to Text (OCR) — Extract text from an image via OCR. Language selection uses comma-separated ISO-639-1 codes (en, fr, de, ...) — not Tesseract codes. [category: photo]
photo_upscaler
Image Upscaler — Enlarge an existing image 2x or 4x with super-resolution detail recovery, with an optional face-enhancement pass. Sharpens and upsizes a user-supplied photo; does not generate new imagery. [category: photo]
photo_watermark
Add Image Watermark — Overlay a text watermark on a photo with configurable position (ImageMagick gravity names), opacity, and font size. [category: photo]
analyze
analyze_audio
Audio Analyzer — Analyse an audio file: duration, sample rate, bit rate, channels, codec, waveform data. [category: analyze]
analyze_color_palette
Color Palette Extractor — Extract the dominant colour palette from an image. [category: analyze]
analyze_csv
CSV Analyzer — Analyse a CSV file: row/column count, data types, null counts, min/max/mean per column. [category: analyze]
analyze_duplicate_detector
Duplicate Detector — Identify duplicate or near-duplicate files in a batch upload using perceptual hashing. [category: analyze]
analyze_encoding_detector
Encoding Detector — Detect the character encoding of a text or HTML file. Use when accented letters, apostrophes or quotation marks arrive as garbled symbols: it identifies which character set the file was saved in (UTF-8, Windows-1252, ISO-8859-1, UTF-16 and so on). It REPORTS the encoding only — it does not convert or rewrite the file. [category: analyze]
analyze_file
File Analyzer — Analyse a file and return type, encoding, size, MIME type, magic bytes, and structure summary. [category: analyze]
analyze_file_diff
File Diff — Show a line-by-line diff between two text files (file_a + file_b) or two pasted texts (text_a + text_b). Provide one complete pair. [category: analyze]
analyze_font_detector
Font Detector — Detect fonts used in a PDF or DOCX document. Images are not supported. [category: analyze]
analyze_grammar_check
Grammar Checker — Hybrid LanguageTool + Grok grammar checker with rule citations, style-guide awareness (APA/MLA/Chicago/AP/IEEE), dialect enforcement (US/UK/CA/AU), and per-issue severity. [category: analyze]
analyze_grammar_check_batch
Grammar Checker (Batch) — Run the hybrid grammar checker across up to 20 texts in one call; per-item style, dialect, and mode supported. [category: analyze]
analyze_hash
Hash Generator (File) — Compute MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, and SHA-512 hashes of an uploaded file. [category: analyze]
analyze_image_quality
Image Quality Analyzer — Measure sharpness, noise level, compression artefacts, and BRISQUE quality score of an image. [category: analyze]
analyze_image_similarity
Image Similarity — Compute a perceptual similarity score between two images (pHash distance). Takes two separately-named uploads: 'file_a' and 'file_b'. [category: analyze]
analyze_link_extractor
Link Extractor — Extract all hyperlinks from a PDF or HTML file, or from pasted text. Other file types are scanned as raw text. [category: analyze]
analyze_metadata
Metadata Viewer — Extract and display all metadata from a file (EXIF, PDF info, document properties, audio tags). [category: analyze]
analyze_pdf_inspector
PDF Inspector — Deep inspection of a PDF: page count, fonts used, annotations, form fields, embedded files. [category: analyze]
analyze_readability
Readability Scorer — Calculate Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level for a text. [category: analyze]
analyze_ssl
SSL Checker — Check an SSL certificate for a hostname: expiry, issuer, validity, cipher suite. [category: analyze]
analyze_video
Video Inspector — Inspect a video: duration, resolution, frame rate, codec, audio tracks, bitrate. [category: analyze]
analyze_word_count
Word Counter — Count words, characters, sentences, paragraphs, and reading time in a text or uploaded document (.txt/.pdf/.docx). [category: analyze]
analyze_word_frequency
Word Frequency Analyzer — Analyse word frequency distribution in a text or document file. [category: analyze]
convert
convert_archive
Archive Converter — Convert between archive formats. Input: ZIP, RAR, 7Z, GZ/TAR.GZ, TAR.BZ2, TAR.XZ, TAR, CAB, ISO — recognized by filename extension or file signature, so misnamed uploads work. Output: ZIP, TAR, TAR.GZ, TAR.BZ2, TAR.XZ, 7Z. [category: convert]
convert_batch
Batch Converter — Convert many files in one request and download a ZIP of the results. Auto-target rules pick a sensible output format per file (docx→pdf, heic→jpg, mov→mp4, etc.) or specify a global target like 'pdf' or a per-extension override map. Free tier supports up to 5 files; Business tier up to 50. [category: convert]
convert_chain
Conversion Chain — Run a 1-5 step conversion pipeline in one job, e.g. docx → pdf → epub. Each step's engine is auto-picked from the conversion graph. Input format comes from the 'from' field when given, else magic-byte detection — ALWAYS pass 'from' for text-based inputs (csv, md, html, json): they have no magic bytes and detect as plain txt. Business tier only. [category: convert] [requires the business plan]
convert_contact
Contact Converter — Convert contact/calendar/email formats: vCard↔CSV, vCard→XLSX (vcf to excel), ICS→JSON/CSV, MSG→EML, EML→PDF. [category: convert]
convert_data
Data Converter — Convert a data file between formats (JSON, NDJSON/JSONL, CSV, TSV, XML, YAML, TOML, INI). Upload the data file and pick a target format; the result comes back as a downloadable file (so it chains in workflows). Inline text is also accepted via a JSON-body 'input' string instead of a file. [category: convert]
convert_document
Document Converter — Office & document converter — DOCX/DOC/ODT/RTF/XLSX/XLS/ODS/CSV/PPTX/PPT/ODP/HTML/EPUB/TXT → PDF plus office round-trips (csv→xlsx, docx→odt, epub→pdf) via LibreOffice; MARKDOWN → pdf/docx/html/epub/txt via pandoc with real GFM semantics (headings, lists, tables, code fences); and DOCX/HTML/PDF → MARKDOWN (the LLM-ingestion direction — turn a document into clean GFM an agent can read; PDF via text-layer extraction); plus Jupyter notebooks (.ipynb) → pdf/html/docx/md via pandoc. Pass 'from' so the converter knows the source format. For images/audio/video use convert_file; for data-text transforms use convert_data. Capability envelope: a PDF source extracts to text/markdown only (to=md) — for editable output from a PDF use pdf_to_word / pdf_to_excel / pdf_to_text / pdf_to_images. Office conversions are same-category only (Word↔Word, Sheet↔Sheet, Slides↔Slides) plus any→pdf; cross-category conversions (e.g. Word→slides, Sheet→Word) are not supported. [category: convert]
convert_ebook
eBook Converter — Convert ebooks between formats with calibre: mobi, azw3, fb2, lit and pdf → EPUB, plus epub → mobi/azw3 for older devices. EPUB is the format modern Kindles accept for send-to-device, so →epub is the recommended direction. DRM-protected books cannot be converted. pdf→epub reflows fixed pages, so quality varies with layout complexity; epub→pdf is handled by convert_document (LibreOffice). [category: convert]
convert_file
Universal File Converter — Convert a file between formats: image↔image (jpg/png/webp/bmp/tiff/gif/avif/ico, plus heic/svg/psd as inputs), audio↔audio (mp3/wav/ogg/opus/flac/aac/m4a/wma/aiff, plus alac=Apple Lossless delivered as .m4a), video↔video/GIF (Business gate on some edges) plus legacy flv/wmv/3gp/mpg/vob/ts/m2ts → mp4, extract audio from video (mp4/mov/mkv/webm/avi → mp3/wav/aac/m4a/ogg/flac/opus/aiff/alac), subtitles (srt↔vtt, and srt/vtt→txt), DOC/DOCX/TXT→PDF, image→PDF, comic archive CBZ→PDF. Office/document conversions (xlsx, pptx, csv→xlsx, epub, html) live in convert_document; archives in convert_archive; data formats in convert_data. [category: convert]
convert_geo
GPS & Map Converter — Convert between GPX, KML, KMZ and GeoJSON — the GPS-track and mapping formats used by Garmin, Strava, Google Earth and every GIS tool. Track segments, per-point timestamps, elevations and polygon holes all survive the trip. Anything that cannot survive (a polygon becoming a GPX track, an unlocated feature) is reported in the X-Conversion-Notes header rather than dropped quietly; pass strict=true to refuse instead. [category: convert]
convert_jpg_to_pdf
JPG to PDF — Convert one or more JPG/PNG images to a PDF document. [category: convert]
convert_parquet
Parquet Converter — Convert Apache Parquet to CSV, TSV, JSON, NDJSON or Excel — and back. Types are preserved in both directions: numbers stay numbers in JSON, blank cells become real nulls in Parquet, and identifier columns like '01924' stay text instead of losing their leading zero. Flat schemas only; nested or repeated columns are reported rather than silently flattened. [category: convert]
convert_sqlite
SQLite Converter — Export a SQLite database (.db/.sqlite) to CSV, JSON or Excel. A database holds many tables, so the output adapts: CSV gives one file per table (zipped when there are several), JSON gives rows as objects (keyed by table when there are several), and Excel gives ONE workbook with one worksheet per table. Pass an optional 'table' to export just one. [category: convert]
convert_text
Text Converter — Convert text/data formats: Markdown↔HTML, CSV↔JSON, JSON↔XML/YAML, Base64 and URL encode/decode. Takes 'text' + 'from' + 'to' — there is no 'conversion_type' field. [category: convert]
convert_unit_convert
Unit Converter — Convert between units of measurement: length, weight, temperature, volume, area, speed, time, and data sizes. [category: convert]
convert_url_to_pdf
Webpage to PDF — Convert a live web page (URL) to PDF. Fetches the page and every asset server-side through an SSRF-guarded fetcher, inlines them, and renders offline — pass a JSON-body 'url'. JavaScript is NOT executed (static rendering), so SPAs may render sparsely. [category: convert]
convert_video
Video Converter — Convert a video so it PLAYS or IMPORTS where it currently will not: a camera, phone or camcorder recording that your editing software, media player, website or social platform refuses to accept, open or upload. Converts between mp4, mov, webm, mkv, avi, and animated GIF with codec/resolution/bitrate control and TikTok/Reels/Shorts/Twitter/WhatsApp presets. Also converts legacy formats (flv, wmv, 3gp, mpg, vob, ts, m2ts) to mp4. Free tier covers mp4/mov/webm at ≤720p; mkv, avi, gif, 1080p+ and AV1 require Business. [category: convert]
convert_word_to_pdf
Word to PDF — Convert a Word document (.docx, .doc) to PDF using LibreOffice. [category: convert]
generate
generate_ascii_art
ASCII Art Generator — Convert text or an image to ASCII art. Mode 'text' (default) requires 'text'; mode 'image' requires 'file'. [category: generate]
generate_barcode
Barcode Generator — Generate a barcode (Code128, EAN-13, DataMatrix, PDF417, etc.) as a PNG image. [category: generate]
generate_business_card
Business Card Generator — Generate a printable business card (PDF or PNG) from name, job title, company, and contact details. [category: generate]
generate_certificate
Certificate Generator — Generate a printable certificate of achievement or completion as PDF or PNG. [category: generate]
generate_favicon
Favicon Generator — Generate a favicon set (ico + png sizes) from a source image, with optional rounded corners. This is the tiny icon a browser shows in the tab, beside a bookmark, and on a phone home screen — without one, visitors see a blank page symbol next to your site's name. [category: generate]
generate_hash
Hash Generator — Compute MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, and SHA-512 hashes of text (or an uploaded file). Always returns all four — there is no algorithm selection and bcrypt is not supported. [category: generate]
generate_invoice
Invoice Generator — Generate a professional PDF invoice from line items, client details, and company info. Takes a JSON body (camelCase fields), not form fields. [category: generate]
generate_lorem_ipsum
Lorem Ipsum Generator — Generate lorem ipsum placeholder text by word count or paragraph count. [category: generate]
generate_password
Password Generator — Generate a cryptographically secure random password with configurable length and character sets. [category: generate]
generate_placeholder_image
Placeholder Image — Generate a placeholder image at any dimension with custom background colour and label text. [category: generate]
generate_qr_code
QR Code Generator — Generate a QR code from a URL, text, or vCard data as a PNG image. [category: generate]
octopus
octopus_delete
Delete a file. Default behaviour is a soft delete (the file goes to the trash and can be restored). Pass `hard: true` to permanently remove a file that's ALREADY in the trash — this also reclaims storage quota. [requires a signed-in account]
octopus_list
List My Files — List the user's own saved files (their file storage), newest first, with an optional folder filter. Returns file names, types, folders, and IDs — never file contents. Use it to see what files the user has or to find which one they mean. [category: files]
octopus_make_folder
Create Folder — Create a folder (and any missing parent folders) in the user's file storage. [category: files]
octopus_mkdir
Create a folder. Any missing parent folders along the path are auto-created. Idempotent — creating an existing folder is a no-op. [requires a signed-in account]
octopus_move
Move a file to a different folder in Octopus, optionally renaming it at the same time. Folders are auto-created if they don't exist. This is a metadata-only change — no bytes are copied. [requires a signed-in account]
octopus_move_file
Move File to Folder — Move one of the user's files — an upload or a result from a previous step — into a folder of their file storage, optionally renaming it. Creates the folder if it doesn't exist. Use when the user says save / put / move / file this into a folder. [category: files]
octopus_read
Read the contents of a file the user has stored in Octopus. Small files (<=2 MiB) come back inline as base64 (or UTF-8 text for text/* MIMEs). Larger files return a short-lived presigned download URL the agent can fetch. [requires a signed-in account]
octopus_search
Search the user's Octopus files by filename, tag, or folder. Pass `query` as a substring to match against names; combine with `tag:` or `in:/path/` filter syntax (e.g. `query: invoice tag:tax in:/Finance/`). Returns up to `limit` matching files. [requires a signed-in account]
octopus_search_meta
Find My Files — Find the user's saved files by name, tag, or folder (metadata only — does NOT read file contents). Use it to resolve a reference like 'the invoice from this morning' or 'my Q1 report' to a real file. Returns matching names, types, folders, and IDs. [category: files]
octopus_write
Save a new file the agent has produced (a report, a summary, generated code, etc.) into Octopus. If `path` is omitted the file lands in `/agent/{session}/` — the convention that keeps agent output separate from user uploads. Provide ONE of `content_text` (UTF-8) or `content_base64` (binary). [requires a signed-in account]
media
media_add_watermark
Video Watermark — Overlay a text watermark onto a video using FFmpeg, with position and opacity control. [category: media]
media_compress_video
Compress Video — Reduce video file size using H.264 re-encoding with FFmpeg (quality presets high/medium/low). [category: media]
media_extract_audio
Extract Audio — Extract the audio track from a video file as MP3, WAV, OGG, FLAC, or AAC. [category: media]
media_extract_frames
Extract Frames — Extract frames from a video at a specified frame rate as JPEG images (returned as a ZIP). [category: media]
media_merge_audio
Merge Audio — Concatenate multiple audio files (at least 2) into one MP3 using FFmpeg. [category: media]
media_mute_video
Mute Video — Remove the audio track from a video file. [category: media]
media_trim_audio
Trim Audio — Trim an audio file to a specified start and end time using FFmpeg. [category: media]
media_trim_video
Trim Video — Trim a video clip to a specified start and end time without re-encoding. [category: media]
web
web_extract_table
Extract Table — Extract an HTML table from a public web page at a user-provided http(s) URL, as JSON rows or CSV. [category: web]
web_fetch
Fetch URL — Fetch the raw (decoded) HTML of a public web page at a user-provided http(s) URL. SSRF-guarded, http/https only, 10 MB body cap, robots-aware. [category: web]
web_scrape_page
Scrape Page — Extract structured data from a public web page at a user-provided http(s) URL: CSS-selector mode returns text per selector; readability mode returns the main article as clean markdown. [category: web]
esign
esign_place
PDF E-Signature — Place signature, initial, date or text fields onto a PDF — draw or type a signature — and (Pro+) append a cryptographic ed25519 audit trail. Free tier: 3 signed documents per month. [category: sign]
esign_prepare
E-Sign: Prepare — Return page count and per-page point dimensions for a PDF so signature fields can be positioned by the editor. [category: sign]
chatwithyourpdf
chatwithyourpdf
Chat With Your PDF — Read the text of the user's document — PDFs first and foremost, plus TXT/CSV/Markdown/JSON — so you can chat about it: answer questions, summarize it, or use facts from it in later steps. Business plan only. Returns up to max_chars characters. For Word files: convert with word_to_pdf first, then chat with the PDF. [category: content] [requires the business plan]
describe
describe_image
Describe Image — Look at an image with a vision model and answer a question about it — what it shows, whether it's blurry or usable, visible text, etc. Business plan only. [category: content] [requires the business plan]
email
email_file
Email My File — Email a finished file to the signed-in user's OWN email address, with the file attached. The recipient is ALWAYS the current user — this tool cannot email anyone else and cannot send custom or user-authored content. Use ONLY when the user explicitly asks to have a result emailed to them. [category: utility]
share
share_create
Create Share Link — Create a public download link for a file that works for 24 hours — anyone with the link can download it, no sign-in needed. Use after a conversion to hand the result to a teammate without re-uploading. Business tier only. [category: convert] [requires the business plan]

Endpoints

URLTransportStateLatencyChecked
https://api.johnsessentials.com/mcp/messages streamable-http sign-in 256 ms 11 min ago

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John's Essentials — questions

Answers built from our own checks of this server.

What can John's Essentials do?
It exposes 144 tools, read directly from the server on our last check. Among them: analyze_audio, analyze_color_palette, analyze_csv, analyze_duplicate_detector, analyze_encoding_detector, analyze_file and 138 more. The full list with descriptions is on this page — we take it from the server itself via tools/list, not from a README. How MCP servers expose tools in the first place →
What is John's Essentials mostly used for?
Its tools cluster around pdf, photo and analyze. That is what this server is built to work with — the grouping comes from the actual tool names, not from a category we assigned.
Is John's Essentials working right now?
We send a real MCP handshake every 15 minutes. Over the last 24 hours 91 of 91 checks got a reply (100.0%), average response time 232 ms. The bar chart above shows every period we have measured.
How do I connect John's Essentials?
Copy the ready config from this page — we generate it for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Cursor and VS Code, each with the file path that client actually reads. It is a remote server, so there is nothing to install — the client connects to the address. You sign in through your browser once and the client keeps the session: no key to copy, and it refuses anonymous clients.
How do you sign in to John's Essentials?
No API key is involved. John's Essentials answers our knock with an OAuth challenge, so you authorise it once in your browser and the client keeps the session. That is also why we see no tool list: it will not describe itself to an anonymous client, and that is the server working as intended, not a fault.
How fast is John's Essentials?
It answers our handshake in 232 ms on average, which is faster than 60% of all working MCP servers we measure. The comparison comes from our own checks across the whole registry, every 15 minutes.