<!-- mcp-name: io.github.KitchenSink4AI/kitchensink4word -->

🚰 KitchenSink4Word

Edit Word documents with your AI assistant: tracked changes, citations, templates, and live edits in an open document.

KitchenSink4Word is an MCP server that lets Claude Code, the Codex CLI, Copilot CLI, Claude Desktop and other local MCP clients read and edit .docx files. It can also work on a document while it is open in Microsoft Word, so you watch the changes arrive. This is the free Community edition, licensed under the AGPL-3.0.

Product page · llms.txt · Changelog

Platform: Windows. Editing files works without Word installed. Live editing and the Word-powered features (PDF import and export, document compare, proofing, field refresh) need Microsoft Word.

Install

The package needs Python 3.12 or newer. Run the commands below in PowerShell or a terminal, not in an AI chat.

Claude Code or Codex CLI. Install uv, run the line for your app, and start a new session:

claude mcp add word -s user -- uvx kitchensink4word

codex mcp add word -- uvx kitchensink4word

Claude Desktop. Install uv and restart Claude Desktop. Download the .mcpb file from the latest release, then open Settings > Extensions > Advanced settings > Install extension and choose the file. The first launch downloads the Python package, so it needs a network connection.

Any other local MCP client. Use uvx as the command and kitchensink4word as its argument, or install the package and run kitchensink4word as the server command:

pip install kitchensink4word

Installing the package by itself does not connect it to an AI app; add it as a local MCP server in your client's settings.

What it can do

• Revise a report while it stays open in Word, with each edit visible as it lands.
• Read, accept and reject tracked changes, write edits as tracked changes, and work through reviewer comments.
• Fill templates, assemble chapter files into one document, and run mail merges.
• Build and format tables, lists, headings, sections and page layouts.
• Insert citations, bibliographies, footnotes, endnotes, captions and cross-references, including Zotero library citations.
• Check formatting, accessibility and document structure before you hand a file over.
• Compare two versions of a document, redact selected text, and import or export PDF through Word.

In total the server offers 110 document tools covering 222 operations, plus two tools that switch capability packs on and off.

Highlights

• Table columns through merged cells. Inserting or deleting a column works correctly when the table has horizontally or vertically merged cells.
• Bulk edits in one call. Twenty cell edits are one set_cells call, not twenty round trips.
• Real tracked changes. Edit tools accept track=True and an author name and produce Word revisions the recipient can accept or reject.
• Word-native compare. com_multi_document(action="compare") produces a redline between two versions.
• Built not to corrupt. Saves are atomic and validated, the previous version is backed up before every change, and anything the call does not touch (equations, text boxes, content controls) passes through byte for byte. A file that is open in Word is refused with a clear message instead of a hang.
• Find and replace across split runs. Matches work even when Word has broken the text into many runs, and per-character formatting is preserved. User regular expressions run with a timeout.

Tool packs and context cost

A session starts with a small core of everyday tools and loads larger capability packs only when a task needs them, which keeps the tool list your AI carries short. All figures count the full tools/list entry the client receives and come from scripts/measure_surface.py.

| Pack | Tools | Approx. tokens | What it covers | |---|---:|---:|---| | lite (loaded at start) | 29 | ~10.2k | Text, paragraphs, tables, cells, lists, find and replace, outline, document view, backups, workflow guides, server info, pack controls | | references | 8 | ~2.9k | Word-native citations and bibliography, Zotero search and cite, citation checks, style conversion | | review | 9 | ~2.4k | Tracked changes, threaded comments, structured diff, anonymize and restore | | academic | 24 | ~7.6k | Footnotes and endnotes, TOC, index, captions, cross-references, front matter, sections, styles, numbering, word counts, validation, accessibility | | assembly | 7 | ~2.1k | Insert and split documents, move sections, copy tables between files, templates, mail merge | | media-forms | 16 | ~5.6k | Images, charts, equations, text boxes, hyperlinks, table structure and styling, form fields, content controls, field codes | | com-live | 13 | ~3.1k | Drives a local Word: PDF import and export, compare and combine, proofing, readability, field refresh, live editing | | protection-io | 6 | ~1.6k | Document protection, watermarks, verified redaction, table data import and export | | Everything | 112 | ~35.5k | All packs plus enable_tools and disable_tools |

Your AI turns a pack on by name when it needs one:

enable_tools(["references"])
enable_tools(["academic", "review"])

A lite tool that cannot do something names the pack and the exact enable_tools call to use, and the get_workflows recipes list the packs each workflow needs. Clients that load tool schemas on first use, such as Claude Code, pay close to nothing until a tool is called.

To load everything from the start, set KS4W_MODE=full. In the Claude Desktop extension, the settings Load every tool at startup and Lock the tool set at startup do the same through KS4W_ALL_TOOLS and KS4W_LOCK_TOOLS (true or false; any other value stops startup with a clear message). KS4W_MODE and KS4W_PACK_POLICY take precedence when set, and the server prints one line at startup saying what decided the tool set.

Fewer permission prompts: in Claude Desktop's tool permissions for this server, set the read-only tools to Always Allow. They cannot change anything. Leave the editing tools on Ask.

If a re-enabled tool reports "no such tool": some clients drop a tool's schema when its pack is turned off and do not reload it when the pack comes back, even though the server announces the change. Refresh the client's tool list (in Claude Code, a ToolSearch call for the tool reloads it).

Safety model

• Before every change to a closed file, the current version is copied into a hidden .ks4w-backups/ folder next to the document. Each document keeps two copies: prev.docx (the state before the most recent change) and anchor.docx (the state at the start of the session, refreshed after an hour of inactivity). Storage stays at about two copies per document no matter how many edits you make. manage_backups lists, restores and purges them, and a restore can itself be undone.
• Edits to a document that is open in Word are not part of this backup system. Word's own AutoRecover and undo cover the open document.
• Saves are atomic and validated. If an operation fails, the original file is left exactly as it was.
• Changes to the same file are serialized, within one server and across server processes, so parallel calls cannot overwrite each other.
• Deleting content that holds footnote references removes the orphaned notes, and validate checks integrity in both directions. Paragraph deletion refuses ranges that would cut a field such as a TOC in half or remove a section break by accident.
• Exclude .ks4w-backups/ from cloud sync (OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive). The backup files change with every edit, and sync clients can hold locks that slow saves down.

Privacy

The server runs on your computer. KitchenSink4AI never receives your files or usage data. Your AI app may send prompts, file contents and tool results to its own provider under that app's settings and terms. The optional update check described below contacts PyPI and sends nothing beyond the request itself. The Privacy Policy covers the product, purchases and support.

Configuration

Update check. The server checks PyPI for a newer release only when you call get_server_info: never at startup or on a timer, at most once every seven days, with a two-second limit. It never downloads or installs anything. Set KS4W_UPDATE_CHECK=off to turn it off completely (the older KS4W_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=1 also works).

Sandboxing (optional). Set KS4W_ALLOWED_ROOTS to a list of folders separated by ; on Windows (: elsewhere), for example %USERPROFILE%\Documents;D:\Work. Every path the server reads or writes must then resolve inside one of them. The check runs on canonical paths, so ..\ traversal, symbolic links and junctions, 8.3 short names, extended-length prefixes, case tricks and lookalike folder names (Documents2 next to an allowed Documents) are all caught. Network (UNC) paths are refused unless an allowed root is itself a UNC path that contains them. A blocked call returns a typed error naming the path and the allowed roots before any file is opened. We recommend it whenever the server handles requests you do not fully trust.

Live editing in Word

Which tools work on a document that is OPEN in Word. Dual-mode tools auto-route (live='auto'); everything else refuses with DOCUMENT_LOCKED until the file is closed. Word COM calls within one server process are serialized. Live calls and passwordless save or close also use a machine-local cross-process lock; a concurrent caller receives APP_BUSY before touching Word and nothing is queued. Live edits stay unsaved until com_save_document; get_workflows(task='live-editing') explains the model.

| Dual-mode tool (file + live) | Live-mode notes | |---|---| | apply_edits | one COM undo group; markdown lists/pipe tables in insert ops refuse up front with a close-the-file hint; replace verifies matched text in the live range; all other index-addressed ops run the snapshot staleness guard against the last saved state | | delete_paragraphs | section-break/field-crossing ranges refuse; range={} location endpoints run the snapshot staleness guard | | find_text | plain queries, 500-match cap; formatting mode and include_textboxes file-mode only | | format_text | formatting mode routes live; case mode file-mode only (live='force' refuses); range={} locations run the snapshot staleness guard | | get_comments | same shape | | get_document_info | same key names; adds words/track_revisions, omits part list | | get_outline | same flat-list shape | | get_text | body shape identical; include_textboxes/textbox modes file-mode only | | insert_paragraphs | heading_level maps to built-in Heading styles by numeric constant (outline-based docs get direct outline levels); inherit_format/copy_format_from file-mode only; text-selector locations run the snapshot staleness guard | | search_and_replace | plain items route live (255-char finds handled); preview and find_formatting modes are file-mode only (find_formatting with live='force' refuses) | | set_cells | plain text cells; vertical merges refuse live | | set_paragraph_format | shading/bor