Essay Stats MCP Server

Essay Stats MCP: Essay Word Count and Writing Checker

You are about to hand in an essay and you are not sure if it is over the word limit, or how many pages it is. A chat assistant tends to guess at word counts. This server counts them properly, on your computer, so your assistant can give you real numbers.

Install it in Claude Code with one line:

claude mcp add essay-stats -- npx -y essay-stats-mcp

Then ask things like:

• "My limit is 1500 words, not counting the works cited or quotes. Am I over?"
• "How many pages is this essay in Arial 11 point with 1.5 spacing?"
• "Find the passive voice and filler words in my draft."

Essay Stats MCP is an essay word counter and writing checker that runs offline. It counts words and pages, gives a readability score, and flags passive voice, filler words, long sentences and repeated sentence openers. It also gives the reading time.

There is no account, no API key and no network call. Your essay text never leaves your machine.

Quick start

Claude Code users can use the one line above. For other apps, copy the snippet for your client. It needs Node.js 20 or newer.

Claude Desktop

Open Settings, Developer, Edit Config, and add this to claude_desktop_config.json. Then restart Claude Desktop.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "essay-stats": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "essay-stats-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add this to .cursor/mcp.json in your project, or to ~/.cursor/mcp.json for all projects.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "essay-stats": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "essay-stats-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

VS Code

Add this to .vscode/mcp.json in your workspace. VS Code uses a servers key instead of mcpServers.

{
  "servers": {
    "essay-stats": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "essay-stats-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Windsurf

Use the same snippet as Claude Desktop in ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json.

Tools

All six tools only read the text you give them. Each one returns a short written answer and the same numbers as structured fields.

count_text

Inputs: text, and optional font (times new roman, arial, calibri, georgia, courier new or verdana), font_size in points (default 12) and spacing (single, 1.5 or double, default double). The page count is an estimate from typical words per page, so Word or Google Docs may differ by a little.

readability_scores

Input: text. The grades are roughly US school grades, so 12 is the end of high school. SMOG is designed for 30 sentences or more, so on a short text the result is marked as less reliable.

style_flags

Inputs: text and optional max_sentence_words (default 30). The checks are simple pattern rules. Use them as a prompt to reread a sentence, not as proof of a mistake.

Sentence numbers start at 1 and follow the order of the text. The sentence_list field gives each passive or long sentence with its number, and the text summary ends with a line listing those numbers, so a reply can point you to the right sentence.

sentence_variety

Input: text. Returns the shortest, longest and average sentence length in words, the standard deviation, and how many sentences are short (under 10 words), medium (10 to 24) or long (25 or more). It also lists runs of 3 or more sentences in a row whose lengths are within 3 words of the first one in the run, with their sentence numbers. Sentence numbers start at 1 and follow the order of the text.

word_frequency

Inputs: text, and optional top (how many words to list, default 10), min_count (fewest uses for a word to be listed, default 2) and include_common_words (also count small words such as the, and, of and to, default false). Case is ignored, and words under 3 letters are skipped unless include_common_words is true.

check_word_limit

Inputs: text, limit, and optional minimum, tolerance_percent, exclude_references and exclude_quotes. References are cut from a heading line such as References, Works Cited or Bibliography to the end. Quotes are lines starting with > and text inside double quotes.

FAQ: how words and pages are counted

How does it count a word?

It splits the text on spaces and line breaks and counts each piece that has at least one letter or digit in it. That is the same idea Word and Google Docs use. A hyphenated word such as well known counts as one word when written with a hyphen, and a number like 2024 counts as one word.

Why can my count differ from Word?

Mostly because of what gets pasted. A dash or symbol standing alone between spaces is counted by Word but not here, since it has no letter or digit. Footnotes, headers, footers and text boxes only count if you paste them in. If the two numbers differ by a few words, check those first.

How is the page number worked out?

count_text divides the word count by a fixed words per page figure for the font you pick, then adjusts for font size and line spacing. It is an estimate, not a layout. It does not know your margins, headings, title page, tables or images, so Word can show a different page count. For a hard page rule, trust the page count in your own document.

What does check_word_limit leave out?

Nothing unless you ask. With exclude_references it drops everything from a heading line such as References, Works Cited or Bibliography to the end. With exclude_quotes it drops lines starting with > and text inside double quotes. The answer shows the total, the counted words and how many words were left out, so you can match it to what your instructor counts.

Does the tolerance change the word count?

No. The count stays the same. tolerance_percent only widens the allowed limit, so a limit of 1500 with 10 percent tolerance allows up to 1650 words. The answer says when you are over the limit but inside the tolerance.

Example prompts

• "Count the words in this essay and tell me how many pages it is in Arial 11 point with 1.5 spacing."
• "What reading level is this essay? Give me the Flesch Kincaid, Gunning Fog and SMOG scores."
• "Find the passive voice and filler words in my draft."
• "My limit is 1500 words, not counting the works cited or quotes. Am I over?"
• "Which sentences are over 25 words long?"
• "Do my sentences all sound the same length?"
• "Which words do I overuse in this essay?"

How it compares

Essay Stats MCP does one job: it measures a piece of writing you give it. Other tools in this area do different jobs, so the table below is about what each kind of tool is for, not about which is better.

Essay Stats MCP does not fix your writing or reach into Brightspace. If you want Brightspace data next to it, see the next section for our own server, brightspace-d2l-mcp.

Works well with

If your school uses Brightspace, you can run brightspace-d2l-mcp next to Essay Stats MCP in the same app. That server has its own setup, so follow its README to install and sign in. Essay Stats MCP does not talk to it and does not need it.

With both added to your MCP config, you can ask your assistant to look up the word limit in your assignment details, then pass that number to check_word_limit along with your draft. For example:

• "Find the word limit for my history essay in Brightspace, then check this draft against it, leaving out the works cited."
• "Look up my assignment instructions, then tell me if this draft is under the limit and how many pages it is."

The assignment details come from the other server. The counting and checking happen here, on your machine, and Essay Stats MCP makes no network calls.

Privacy

Everything is calculated locally by a small Node.js program talking to your app over standard input and output. It makes no network requests, stores nothing and needs no keys or passwords. The text you paste is used for the one call and then dropped.

Development

npm install
npm run build
npm test

More free student MCP servers

All free, open source and read only where they touch your accounts. Browse the full list at brightspacemcp.com/more-mcps.

License

MIT