Small changes to favor streamable HTTP over deprecated SSE (#1264)

Author: afourney

packages/markitdown-mcp/README.md

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 ![PyPI - Downloads](https://img.shields.io/pypi/dd/markitdown-mcp)
 [![Built by AutoGen Team](https://img.shields.io/badge/Built%20by-AutoGen%20Team-blue)](https://github.com/microsoft/autogen)
 
-The `markitdown-mcp` package provides a lightweight STDIO, SSE and Streamable HTTP MCP server for calling MarkItDown.
+The `markitdown-mcp` package provides a lightweight STDIO, Streamable HTTP, and SSE MCP server for calling MarkItDown.
 
 It exposes one tool: `convert_to_markdown(uri)`, where uri can be any `http:`, `https:`, `file:`, or `data:` URI.
 
@@ -25,10 +25,10 @@ To run the MCP server, using STDIO (default) use the following command:
 markitdown-mcp
 ```
 
-To run the MCP server, using SSE or Streamable HTTP use the following command:
+To run the MCP server, using Streamable HTTP and SSE use the following command:
 
 ```bash	
-markitdown-mcp --sse --host 127.0.0.1 --port 3001
+markitdown-mcp --http --host 127.0.0.1 --port 3001
 ```
 
 ## Running in Docker
@@ -109,16 +109,16 @@ If using STDIO:
 * input `markitdown-mcp` as the command, and
 * click `Connect`
 
-If using SSE:
-* select `SSE` as the transport type,
-* input `http://127.0.0.1:3001/sse` as the URL, and
-* click `Connect`
-
 If using Streamable HTTP:
 * select `Streamable HTTP` as the transport type,
 * input `http://127.0.0.1:3001/mcp` as the URL, and
 * click `Connect`
 
+If using SSE:
+* select `SSE` as the transport type,
+* input `http://127.0.0.1:3001/sse` as the URL, and
+* click `Connect`
+
 Finally:
 * click the `Tools` tab,
 * click `List Tools`,

packages/markitdown-mcp/src/markitdown_mcp/__main__.py

@@ -75,12 +75,17 @@ def main():
 
     mcp_server = mcp._mcp_server
 
-    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Run MCP SSE-based MarkItDown server")
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Run a MarkItDown MCP server")
 
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--http",
+        action="store_true",
+        help="Run the server with Streamable HTTP and SSE transport rather than STDIO (default: False)",
+    )
     parser.add_argument(
         "--sse",
         action="store_true",
-        help="Run the server with SSE transport rather than STDIO (default: False)",
+        help="(Deprecated) An alias for --http (default: False)",
     )
     parser.add_argument(
         "--host", default=None, help="Host to bind to (default: 127.0.0.1)"
@@ -90,11 +95,15 @@ def main():
     )
     args = parser.parse_args()
 
-    if not args.sse and (args.host or args.port):
-        parser.error("Host and port arguments are only valid when using SSE transport.")
+    use_http = args.http or args.sse
+
+    if not use_http and (args.host or args.port):
+        parser.error(
+            "Host and port arguments are only valid when using streamable HTTP or SSE transport (see: --http)."
+        )
         sys.exit(1)
 
-    if args.sse:
+    if use_http:
         starlette_app = create_starlette_app(mcp_server, debug=True)
         uvicorn.run(
             starlette_app,