GUI Hub
For Claude, Cursor, VS Code & other MCP clients

Can Claude add a password to a PDF?

Not on its own. a chat AI can't run programs or write files on your computer. With the GUI Hub Essentials MCP server installed, Claude (Desktop or Code), Cursor, VS Code and other MCP clients can password-protect a PDF locally: the assistant calls the pdfcpu_encrypt tool, which runs pdfcpu on your machine. Files are not uploaded.

Set it up (2 minutes)

  1. Claude Code / Cursor / VS Code / Windsurf: add the MCP server
    npx -y https://guihub.cc/mcp.tgz --product=essentials
    Claude Code: claude mcp add gui-hub-essentials -- npx -y https://guihub.cc/mcp.tgz --product=essentials
  2. Claude Desktop: download the one-file extension and double-click it.
  3. No AI? GUI Hub Essentials is also a point-and-click desktop app.

Then ask

“Add a password to payslip.pdf.”

What the AI gets

pdfcpu_encrypt — Protect a PDF with AES-256 encryption.

InputType
input*string
upw*string
opw*string
out*string

Cost

Free to install; each tool has 3 free uses. Then $9 once for all of GUI Hub Essentials (no subscription). The tool tells the assistant when free uses run out and how to unlock.

Powered by pdfcpu (Apache-2.0), the official release, verified by SHA-256. GUI Hub is independent and not affiliated with pdfcpu, Anthropic, Cursor or Microsoft.

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