perform_ocrLABSCO SUMMARY
Local OCR with no key and no upload, and three input shapes so you rarely have to convert anything first.
Taking a URL directly is the detail that saves steps — no downloading an image just to hand over a path. Because it is Tesseract underneath, quality tracks Tesseract: clean scans read well, and the language pack you have installed decides what it can recognise, which is what get_supported_languages is for.
What it is
An OCR server over Tesseract that takes an image from three different sources and returns the text it finds.
What you get
- perform_ocr accepts a local file path, an image URL, or raw image bytes
- get_supported_languages lists the OCR languages available on your install
- Tesseract installed automatically on macOS via Homebrew and on Linux via apt, dnf or pacman; Windows gets manual instructions
- Errors handled rather than swallowed
Requirements
pip install mcp-ocr, or uv pip install mcp-ocr. Tesseract is pulled in for you on supported platforms. The client launches it as python -m mcp_ocr. No account and no API key — recognition runs locally, so images never leave the machine.
Setup effort
One command — pip install mcp-ocr
USE CASES
01
Reading text out of a screenshot
Give the file path and get the text back in the thread.
02
Getting the text of an image on the web
Pass the URL directly rather than downloading it first.
03
Handling documents that cannot leave the machine
Recognition runs locally against Tesseract, with no API key and nothing uploaded.
04
Working out whether your install can read a language
List the available OCR languages before you try the document.
2 tools
Listed in project docs. Your client may show a different list.
get_supported_languagesBEFORE YOU INSTALL
What to know first
Tools you get
2 tools named in the project's documentation.
Requires
python on PATH
Where it runs
The documented client runs the server on your machine.
INSTALLATION
Connect your client
Server setup
TERMINAL
pip install mcp-ocrMCP Clients
Claude Desktop
CLAUDE DESKTOP · JSON
{
"mcpServers": {
"ocr": {
"command": "python",
"args": [
"-m",
"mcp_ocr"
]
}
}
}
