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Requirements

Before you begin, you must have the following:
  • A Claude plan. To see if you have a plan, sign in to Claude and then on the sidebar, click your user icon. Sign up for Claude.
    Claude Free plan users can connect Transform, but they cannot allowlist the Transform domain for network egress. After connecting, see Parse files without domain access.
  • Claude Desktop installed on your local development machine. Install Claude Desktop.
  • If you’ve already connected to Transform through claude.ai or the Claude mobile apps, you may not need to connect through Claude Desktop. To find out, in Claude Desktop, click Customize, then Connectors, and then type Unstructured Transform in the search box. If Unstructured Transform shows a check mark, it is connected and you are ready to parse your source files.
    Claude Code maintains its own separate connection, so you must install and authenticate the Transform MCP server there independently. See Get started with Unstructured Transform for Claude Code.

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Install the Transform MCP server

To connect and authenticate the Transform MCP server:
  1. Start Claude Desktop.
  2. Allow the Transform domain network access:
    1. On the sidebar, click your user icon, then click Settings, then click Capabilities.
    2. In the Code execution and file creation section, switch on the Code execution and file creation toggle.
    3. Switch on the Allow network egress toggle.
    4. In the Additional allowed domains list, enter the Transform MCP server’s domain as follows:
      Be aware:
      • Code execution and file creation, Allow network egress, and Additional allowed domains are account-level settings, not specific to Claude Desktop. Changing them here also applies to claude.ai and the Claude mobile apps.
      • Additional allowed domains is a single shared allowlist for your account. If you already use other connectors that require network access, add mcp.transform.unstructured.io to your existing list rather than replacing it.
    5. Close the Settings dialog.
  3. Connect to Transform:
    1. On the sidebar, click Customize.
    2. On the side pane, click Connectors, then click Add, then from the drop-down list select Browse connectors.
    3. In the Search connectors box, search for and select the Unstructured Transform connector.
      1. Close the Directory dialog.
      2. Next to Connectors, click the plus icon, and then click Add custom connector.
      3. In the Add custom connector dialog, for Name, enter Unstructured Transform.
      4. For Remote MCP server URL, enter the following:
         https://mcp.transform.unstructured.io
      5. Click Add.
    4. Click Connect, and follow the on-screen directions to finish authenticating. If you do not have a Transform account, click Register and then follow the on-screen directions to finish authenticating.
    After you finish authenticating, the Transform MCP server is ready for you to start using.

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Parse your source files

Parsing requests have the following limits:
  • Each file must be of a supported file type.
  • Each file must be 50 MB or less in size.
  • Each request must have 10 files or fewer.
  • Only 5 requests can be running at a time.
The Transform MCP server is designed to notify Claude Desktop about these limits. Because of this, Claude Desktop should notify you whenever it encounters a file that exceeds 50 MB in size. Also, Claude Desktop should formulate strategies to send requests that are 10 files or fewer and not cause more than 5 requests to be running at a time. After you connect Claude Desktop to the Transform MCP server, complete one of the following sets of instructions, depending on whether you’re using Claude Desktop in Chat mode or Cowork mode.
If you use Transform without allowlisting the Transform MCP server in Claude, you can still run Transform parsing jobs using an interactive file manager card. See Parse files without domain access.
  1. In Claude Desktop, on the sidebar, click the speech balloons icon (Chat).
  2. On the sidebar, click New chat.
  3. Add the files you want Transform to parse to your chat session. To do this, next to the Write a message prompt, click the plus icon (Add files, connectors, and more).
  4. Click Add files or photos.
  5. Follow the on-screen directions to finish adding the files.
  6. From your chat message prompt, ask the following:
    Transform parses your input files and delivers its results to you as a set of output files, one output file per input file.

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Parse files without domain access

The Transform MCP server lets you parse files when you cannot allowlist the Transform domain. It provides a file manager card that Claude renders in the chat window. You select the files to upload, then download the parsed output files yourself. The files transfer directly through your browser. Use this approach when you cannot allowlist the Transform domain:
  • You are on the Claude Free plan.
  • Your organization has not allowed network egress to the Transform domain.
Unstructured recommends allowlisting the Transform domain instead. Allowlisting is faster and supports automated tooling.
To use the Transform MCP server in Claude Desktop without network egress:
  1. From your chat message prompt in Claude Desktop or Cowork, ask Claude to parse files:
    Claude asks for permission to use Transform’s file manager card to upload files.
  2. Click Allow once or Always allow. Claude displays the file manager card. The Transform MCP file manager card, ready to accept file uploads.
  3. Select the files to upload for parsing. After you upload the files, Claude displays the file manager card again. The Transform MCP file manager card listing uploaded files.
  4. Click Done uploading, and then Copy refs to copy the list of file references to your clipboard. The Transform MCP file manager card listing uploaded files, with a button to copy the file references.
  5. Paste the references into your chat message so Claude can locate the uploaded files and start the parsing job. When Transform completes the job, Claude displays the file manager card so you can download the parsed output files.
  6. Check the box next to each parsed output file you want to download, and then click Download. Claude downloads the selected files through your browser as one ZIP file. Unzip it to get the individual JSON files.

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Extract structured data

If you want to pull specific fields from your files, instead of converting the files in full, ask for an extraction. To determine what structured data Transform can extract from your files, use a prompt similar to the following:
Your tool parses each file first, then extracts the field values from the parsed element JSON; this is because the Transform MCP extraction tools read a file’s parsed output, rather than the raw file itself. Transform returns results as JSON matching the schema, wrapped with the source filename so you can tell a batch apart. If you know the specific fields you want, include them in your prompt to guide Transform in extracting just the information that’s important to you. For more information, including prompting patterns and performance considerations, see Structured data extraction.

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Approve Transform tool calls automatically

Claude Desktop asks for approval each time it calls a Transform MCP server tool that you have not already approved. To approve all Transform tools in advance:
  1. In Claude Desktop, on the sidebar, click Customize, then Connectors, then the Unstructured Transform connector.
  2. In the Tool permissions section, click Always allow next to each available tool.

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Next steps

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Questions? Need help?