using-the-mcp-server

using-the-mcp-server is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from xberg-io/html-to-markdown. It costs 57 tokens per session (616 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A guide to using the html-to-markdown MCP server, which lets compatible coding agents convert HTML and extract information through built-in tools. MCP is a standard way for software tools to connect to an AI client.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to convert HTML to Markdown, Djot, or plain text, and to retrieve structured metadata or tables through MCP tools.
Why use it?
It avoids calling a command-line program or writing connecting code when working from an MCP-compatible client. It also explains how the server finds or installs the required converter.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one. Also seen: mentions Claude Code.

Part of the html-to-markdown plugin — 6 skills, 1 MCP server shipped together

Good fit Use it to convert HTML to Markdown, Djot, or plain text, and to retrieve structured metadata or tables through MCP tools.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/xberg-io/html-to-markdown/using-the-mcp-server
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add xberg-io/html-to-markdown --skill using-the-mcp-server
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/xberg-io/html-to-markdown

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Or install html-to-markdown, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 6 skills, 1 MCP server.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for using-the-mcp-server

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/xberg-io/html-to-markdown/using-the-mcp-server.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/xberg-io/html-to-markdown/using-the-mcp-server)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/xberg-io/html-to-markdown/using-the-mcp-server"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/xberg-io/html-to-markdown/using-the-mcp-server.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 57 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 616 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe. Third-party audits
  • NVIDIA SkillSpector pass 7 Sept 2026
How audits are shown
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00057 $0.00616
Opus 5 $0.00028 $0.00308
Sonnet 5 $0.00011 $0.00123
Haiku 4.5 $0.00006 $0.00062

Measured 8d ago against content hash fce8dfe692de, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-08, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

using-the-mcp-server scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 8d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

plugin/.ai-rulez/skills/using-the-mcp-server/SKILL.md · 57 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 57 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Using the MCP Server

The html-to-markdown MCP server exposes the converter's conversion and metadata-extraction capabilities as MCP tools, so an MCP-compatible client (Claude Code, Claude Desktop) can convert HTML and pull structured metadata directly, with no CLI invocation or glue code.

How it runs in this plugin

The plugin auto-registers the server. Its command is the bundled launcher scripts/mcp-launch.sh, which execs html-to-markdown mcp. On first run the launcher resolves an html-to-markdown binary: it reuses one already on PATH or cached in the plugin's bin/, then tries npx/uvx, then Homebrew, then downloads a prebuilt from the tool's latest GitHub release. Override the channel with HTML_TO_MARKDOWN_LAUNCHER=auto|npx|uvx|brew|download.

The mcp subcommand ships in a recent release of the tool. If an older html-to-markdown is already on PATH, it may not expose mcp yet — upgrade the binary (brew upgrade, re-download, or rebuild) to pick it up.

To run it manually:

html-to-markdown mcp        # for Claude Code / Claude Desktop (stdio)

The tools

  • convert_html — convert an HTML string to Markdown, Djot, or plain text. Takes html (the HTML string), an optional config object mirroring ConversionOptions, and an optional json flag. With json: true it returns the full ConversionResult (content, tables, metadata, document structure, inline images, warnings) instead of the bare converted text.
  • extract_metadata — pull structured metadata (document info, Open Graph / Twitter / JSON-LD / Microdata, headers, links, images) from an HTML string. Takes only html.

Both tools accept an HTML string — the MCP server does not fetch URLs or read files (that is CLI-only). The exact argument schemas come from the running server; ask the client to list tools to see the live surface.

When to prefer MCP over the CLI or SDK

  • Prefer MCP inside an agent session: the agent calls the converter directly as a tool, with no shell-out and no process management.
  • Prefer the CLI for one-shot conversions and shell pipelines (… | jq).
  • Prefer the SDK when embedding conversion in application code.

Read the full file on GitHub · 57 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 8d ago First seen · 57 lines · 57 tokens per session scan A fce8dfe692de

Subscribe to this mod's changes

using-the-mcp-server is a skill published in the GitHub repository xberg-io/html-to-markdown (864 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 57 tokens to every session and 616 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

Related

Other skills, from other repositories

feature-flag-policy

Cargo feature flags for crates/xberg — ORT-incompatible targets (WASM, Android x8664 emulator), type-only and tract inference companion features, WASM/Android-safe variants, PDF backend, mutually-exclusive ORT variants, platform-conditional deps, aggregate feature sets, and build profiles. Load when adding, wiring, or…

xberg-io/xberg · 98 tokens

ocr-pipeline-and-quality

Change or evaluate Xberg OCR backends, preprocessing, caching, page acceptance, geometry, hOCR structure, table reconstruction, or cross-backend quality. Load for OCR behavior and A/B quality work, not ordinary PDF text extraction.

xberg-io/xberg · 53 tokens

pdf-backends

Change or diagnose Xberg PDF extraction, native/Pdfium backend selection, PDF rendering sessions, encrypted documents, OCR fallback, or backend-specific capability gaps. Load for PDF engine work, not generic image OCR.

xberg-io/xberg · 46 tokens

rag-web-fallback

Only reach for external web search when the local corpus comes back empty or clearly insufficient. Forces the agent to try knowledge-rag first, then explicitly document why it needed to escalate. Prevents wasted API cost, latency, and (in air-gapped deployments) accidental network calls.

lyonzin/knowledge-rag · 61 tokens

hermes3000-writing

Use Hermes3000 to plan, draft, revise, save, check consistency, and export long-form manuscripts through the Hermes3000 AI writing portal API. Use for novels, fiction series, nonfiction books, whitepapers, long reads, chapter outlines, character/world-building, style guides, consistency memory, and DOCX/PDF/EPUB/HTML…

HybridAIOne/hybridclaw · 78 tokens

advogado-criminal

Advogado criminalista especializado em Maria da Penha, violencia domestica, feminicidio, direito penal brasileiro, medidas protetivas, inquerito policial e acao penal.

ranbot-ai/awesome-skills · 42 tokens