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This guide provides a quick overview for getting started with the Unstructured Transform tools. The Unstructured Transform MCP server ingests and transforms files (PDF, DOCX, images, and 70+ file types) into partitioned, enriched, chunked, and embedded data for RAG and AI pipelines. The langchain-unstructured-transform package loads those tools as native LangChain tools.

Overview

Details

Features

  • Loads the hosted Transform MCP server’s tools as native LangChain tools.
  • Drives the full parsing lifecycle: request an upload URL, transform files, poll status, and fetch results.
  • Works with any LangChain or LangGraph agent.
  • Remote and hosted — no local server or bridge to run.

Setup

To access the Unstructured Transform tools, you’ll need an Unstructured account and an API key, and you’ll need to install the langchain-unstructured-transform package.

Credentials

Get an API key from the Unstructured docs, then set it as an environment variable:
Set API key
It’s also helpful (but not needed) to set up LangSmith for best-in-class observability/ of your tool calls. To enable automated tracing, set your LangSmith API key:
Enable tracing

Installation

The Unstructured Transform tools live in the langchain-unstructured-transform package:

Instantiation

The Transform tools are loaded over MCP, which is an asynchronous operation. Use the toolkit’s aget_tools() method (or the aget_transform_tools() helper) to load them:
Load the tools
The loaded tools include request_file_upload_url, transform_files, check_transform_status, and get_transform_results.

Invocation

Within an agent

The tools are designed to be orchestrated by an agent, which chains them to run a full parsing job.
Agent with tools
The agent requests an upload URL, uploads each file, starts the transform, polls for status, and returns the results — one output per input file.

Limits

Parsing requests have the following limits:
  • Each file must be 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 run at a time.
The Transform MCP server reports these limits back to the agent through its tool responses, so you can instruct your agent to batch files and back off accordingly in its system prompt.

API reference

For detailed documentation of the Unstructured Transform MCP server, its tools, and how to control its output, head to the Unstructured Transform documentation.