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Requirements

Already set up Transform for Codex mode in the ChatGPT desktop app on this machine? You may already have it here, too. To check, run codex mcp get unstructured-transform. If it’s listed, skip ahead to parse your source files. Otherwise, before you begin, you must have the following:

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Install the Transform MCP server

You should be able to instruct the Codex CLI to install the Transform MCP server by asking the Codex CLI the following:
During this process, Codex will open a browser window where you sign in to Transform to complete authentication. If you do not have a Transform account, click Register and then follow the on-screen directions to finish authenticating. Once authenticated, close the browser and return to Codex.If this does not work, to install the Transform MCP server manually, complete the following steps.
If you were able to install the Transform MCP server using the prompt above, skip ahead to parse your source files.
  1. Add the Transform MCP server, and then authenticate in your web browser when prompted:
    If you do not have a Transform account, click Register and then follow the on-screen directions to finish authenticating.
  2. To verify you are connected, run:
    If you need to authenticate again later, run:

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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 the Codex CLI about these limits. Because of this, the Codex CLI should notify you whenever it encounters a file that exceeds 50 MB in size. Also, the Codex CLI 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.
  1. After you install the Transform MCP server and start a Codex CLI session, from your terminal, switch to the folder on your local machine that stores the files you want Transform to parse.
  2. Enter the following prompt:
    As needed, adapt the phrase in this project in the preceding prompt to indicate a more specific project folder. Also, as needed, guide the Codex CLI as to where to write Transform’s output into the project. 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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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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Use Transform in other Codex clients

The Codex CLI and Codex mode in the ChatGPT desktop app share MCP configuration on the same Codex host. If the ChatGPT desktop app is running, restart it to use Transform. If the app requests authentication, select Authenticate.

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Next steps

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Questions? Need help?