KitchenSink4Word

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

# 🚰 KitchenSink4Word

[![Tests](https://github.com/nometalalchemist/KitchenSink4Word/actions/workflows/tests.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/nometalalchemist/KitchenSink4Word/actions/workflows/tests.yml)
[![PyPI](https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/kitchensink4word)](https://pypi.org/project/kitchensink4word/)
[![License: PolyForm NC](https://img.shields.io/badge/license-PolyForm%20Noncommercial-blue)](LICENSE)

**Everything plus the kitchen sink for Microsoft Word.** The most complete
Word (.docx) MCP server available — 170 tools, engineered not to corrupt, stress-tested against long, heavily formatted real-world documents. Now with live editing: documents open in Word are edited in place, visibly, with each tool call landing as a single Ctrl+Z step.

> **The origin story:** an AI agent once needed *fifteen minutes* to edit
> twenty table cells in a Word document, because no existing Word MCP could
> delete a table column, bulk-edit cells, manage footnotes, AND insert a TOC.
> So instead of installing three mediocre servers, this one got built in a
> day — and now your agents won't have that problem.

## Why this one (the honest comparison)

Every public Word MCP server was surveyed before building this (August 2026):

| Capability | KitchenSink4Word | GongRzhe Office-Word (2.1k★, archived) | word-mcp-live (195★) | SecurityRonin docx-mcp (43★) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Live editing while the doc is open in Word | ✅ cursor-safe, one Ctrl+Z per call | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Table column insert/delete | ✅ merge-aware | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Bulk cell edits (one call) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Cell merge/unmerge | ✅ | merge only | ❌ | ❌ |
| Footnotes AND endnotes CRUD | ✅ + conversion | add only | ❌ | ✅ |
| TOC insert + refresh | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Native citations/bibliography | ✅ 12 styles | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Index generation | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Tracked-change WRITING | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Accept/reject by author | ✅ | ❌ | partial | ✅ |
| Document compare + combine | ✅ Word-native | ❌ | ❌ | buggy |
| Watermarks / protection / line numbers | ✅ | protect only | ❌ | ❌ |
| Section moving / template transfer | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Atomic saves + auto-backup | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |

**170 tools** across: equations (LaTeX → Word math), Zotero library citations, publication style conversion (8 styles, beta), review-cycle analytics, workflow suites (mail merge, batch operations, redaction, compliance/accessibility audits, submission prep, front matter, diagnostics), text and formatting, tables (including merge-aware column
insert/delete and one-call bulk cell edits), footnotes/endnotes (full CRUD +
footnote↔endnote conversion), TOC and caption lists, headers/footers/sections,
images, bulleted/numbered lists, threaded comments, tracked changes (read,
accept/reject by author, AND write edits as tracked changes), plus
Word-COM-backed document compare, field refresh, PDF export, and open-clean
validation on Windows.

## What's new in v1.4 (2026-08-28)

**The workflow tier** — 24 new tools that turn document primitives into
complete jobs:

- **Document production**: `mail_merge` (template + CSV/JSON → one document
  per row, atomic collision refusal), `fill_template` ({{placeholders}} and
  MERGEFIELDs, safe across fragmented runs), `batch_apply` (the same edits
  across dozens of files, all-or-nothing per file), form-field tooling
  (legacy form fields AND content controls: list, fill, validate
  completeness).
- **Pre-flight checks**: `check_template_compliance` (validate margins,
  fonts, spacing, heading structure, page-numbering and required sections
  against a ruleset you write from any formatting guide),
  `check_brand_compliance`, `audit_accessibility` (heading hierarchy, alt
  text, table headers, contrast, link text), `check_image_resolution`
  (effective DPI vs a print threshold), `validate_cross_references` (broken
  REF/PAGEREF targets plus "see Figure 3" text references that match
  nothing), `validate_captions`, `check_defined_terms` (legal drafts:
  defined-but-unused, used-but-undefined, defined twice, used before
  defined).
- **Finishing moves**: `prepare_for_submission` (accept all revisions,
  strip comments and identifying metadata in one call — content untouched,
  idempotent), `redact_text` (TRUE removal from text, tables, headers,
  footnotes, comments, properties, hyperlinks, field codes and tracked
  deletions, with a verification re-scan and an explicit list of what was
  NOT examined), `assemble_front_matter` (title page through TOC with
  roman/arabic numbering switch in one call), `setup_chapter_headers`
  (chapter-title headers via STYLEREF), `diagnose_document` (13 structural
  health checks that never crash on a broken file), `com_import_pdf`
  (PDF → editable .docx via Word's own converter), reference-manager field
  inventory + integrity checking (Zotero, EndNote, Mendeley).

## What's new in v1.3 (2026-08-28)

**Live editing.** A document open in Word no longer has to be closed first —
the high-value tools route to a live COM layer automatically when the file is
locked (or explicitly with `live="force"`; `live="off"` restores the old
refusal):

- Edits appear in the Word window immediately; nothing touches the disk until
  the USER saves (or an explicit save tool is called). Unsaved work is never
  auto-saved or auto-closed.
- **One tool call = one Ctrl+Z step.** Every mutating call is wrapped in a
  custom undo record, so a bulk replace of 40 matches reverts with a single
  undo.
- **The cursor is sacred.** All addressing is Range-based; the user's
  selection, scroll position, and view are never touched. (One deliberate
  exception: `live_scroll_to` brings a location into view on request —
  without selecting it.)
- Routed tools: `search_and_replace`, `insert_paragraphs`,
  `delete_paragraphs`, `set_cells`, `format_text`, `get_text`, `find_text`,
  `get_outline`, `get_document_info`. Live-only tools:
  `live_insert_at_cursor`, `live_scroll_to`, `live_set_track_changes`,
  `word_live_repair` (recovery if a crashed client left Word in a bad state).
- Honest state reporting on every live result: document dirty, AutoSave
  state, read-only, enforced tracking under protection, and per-item skip
  counts when matches sit inside field results (Word regenerates those, so
  editing them is refused rather than faked).
- Protection-restricted documents get typed refusals up front; documents in
  Protected View are named as such.
- Reference-manager field codes (Zotero and friends) survive live and
  file-based edits around them — verified by dedicated tests.

## What's new in v1.2 (2026-08-28)

- **Word-native citations & bibliography**: structured source store, CITATION
  fields with page/suppress switches, BIBLIOGRAPHY field, 12 selectable styles
  (APA, Chicago, MLA, IEEE, ...) — verified end-to-end: Word renders the
  fields in the selected style.
- **Index** (XE entries with nesting and see-references + INDEX field) and
  **caption lists** (List of Tables/Figures).
- **Long-document layout kit**: roman-numeral page formats, line numbering,
  watermarks (compatible with Word's Remove Watermark), multi-column
  sections, Page X of Y.
- **Document protection** with Word-compatible SHA-512 password hashing
  (verified byte-for-byte against Word's own output); the trackedChanges mode
  forces recipients' edits to be tracked.
- **Structure ops**: move_section (a heading plus its entire section, tables
  included), template transfer (restyle to match a reference document with
  name-based style remapping), custom styles, character styles, document
  properties, image alt text.
- **Table completions**: gridBefore/gridAfter rows, named table styles, sort,
  split, header-row repeat, nested-table read/write, cell text direction.
- **Formatting long-tail**: small caps, hidden text, character spacing,
  kerning, CJK language tagging, tab stops with leaders, paragraph
  borders/shading, widow control, change-case.
- **Analysis**: per-section word counts, APA citation-parity checking, Word's
  proofing errors and readability statistics, chapter merge, reviewer
  combine, password-encrypted saving.

## What makes it different

- **Merge-aware table column operations.** `delete_columns` / `insert_columns`
  work correctly through horizontally and vertically merged cells (gridSpan
  shrinks, vMerge chains re-root). At the time of writing, no other public
  Word MCP has this.
- **Bulk-first API.** Editing 20 cells is ONE `set_cells` call with a payload,
  not 20 round-trips.
- **Tracked-change writing.** `track=True, author="Jane"` on replace/insert/
  delete/cell tools produces real Word revisions the recipient can
  accept/reject — proven round-trip against the server's own revision engine.
- **Document compare.** `com_compare_documents` produces a Word-native redline
  between two versions of a document.
- **Never corrupts.** Atomic saves (temp file → structural validation →
  replace), automatic timestamped backups before every mutation, byte-identical
  passthrough of anything not being edited (equations, textboxes, content
  controls survive untouched), and clean typed errors — a file open in Word is
  refused with a message, not a hang.
- **Fragmented-run safe.** Find/replace works across Word's arbitrarily split
  runs while preserving per-character formatting, with a ReDoS timeout guard on
  user regex and an optional `max_replacements` blast-radius limit.

## Requirements

- Windows (COM tools require Microsoft Word installed; all other tools are
  pure file manipulation and work without Word)
- Python 3.12+ (developed on 3.14)

## Install

Two minutes, start to editing:

```
pip install kitchensink4word
claude mcp add word -s user -- kitchensink4word
```

For Claude Desktop / Cursor / any MCP client, point the server command at the
installed `kitchensink4word` (or `word-mcp`) executable:

```json
{"mcpServers": {"word": {"command": "kitchensink4word"}}}
```

From source inst