How to Merge PDFs by Asking Claude
Merging PDFs is the classic in-between task: too small to justify writing a script, too annoying to do in a desktop tool, and just sensitive enough that you don't want to upload client reports to a random "free PDF merger" site.
If you already work with Claude, there's a better way: connect it to Apdf over MCP once, and merging becomes a sentence. You describe the result; the agent picks the tool and does the work.
Connect Claude to Apdf
The MCP server lives at a single OAuth-signed endpoint — no API keys, no token files:
https://apdf.io/mcp/mainIn Claude Desktop add it under Settings → Connectors → custom connector, paste the URL, and sign in when the OAuth window opens. In Claude Code it's a one-liner:
claude mcp add --transport http apdf https://apdf.io/mcp/mainThe same endpoint works in ChatGPT, Cursor, Gemini — anything that speaks MCP.
Ask for the merge
Point Claude at your files (any publicly reachable URLs — object storage, your server, Apdf documents) and describe the result:
https://storage.example.com/report-april.pdf
https://storage.example.com/report-may.pdf
https://storage.example.com/report-june.pdf
Behind the scenes, Claude calls the merge-pdf-files
tool and gets this back:
{
"file": "https://apdf-files.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/2ec63b146a61be4bb06ff.pdf",
"expiration": "2026-07-23T08:10:04.637363Z",
"pages": 3,
"size": 72209
}Get precise: page ranges per file
The tool takes an ordered list of files, each with an optional page range — which means your instructions can be surgical and stay in plain English:
{
"file": "https://apdf-files.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/74e1cc946a61be6bc4907.pdf",
"expiration": "2026-07-23T08:10:36.600193Z",
"pages": 2,
"size": 49475
}
For big batches the tool also runs asynchronously — the agent gets a job id
back and can poll check-job-status, or hand you the
result via a webhook. You just keep talking.
Where to go from here
Merging is one of the tools on the belt — the same connection carries every PDF operation.
Related tutorials
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How to Merge Multiple PDF Reports into a Single File (Node.js & PHP)
This tutorial explains how to combine multiple PDF files into a single document using the Apdf Merge API with Node.js or PHP. By sending file URLs to the API, developers can avoid server memory issues and easily handle advanced tasks, such as excluding cover pages by specifying page ranges.
Search a PDF From Your Editor
The integration spec is a PDF and your questions arrive mid-function. With the editor connected over MCP, 'what's the retry policy?' comes back with the exact line and page — and a regex search turns 'list every error code' into one call with three cited matches.
Your code made the PDF.
Then it went dark.
Opened, read, re-read, dropped on page 4 — you never see any of it. Share the PDFs you generate through Apdf recipient links, and every signal becomes something you can act on: ping Slack, update the CRM, let an agent follow up. Same account, same API token, one more call.
API · Webhook · MCP