Accessing User-Uploaded Files in MCP Server via File ID from OpenWebUI

[dmshin1988]

I want to use the file that a user uploads via the chat window in the MCP server.

It seems that the file itself is not directly transmitted, but if I can at least get the filename (or the hash-based file ID), I believe I can access the file by mounting the disk.

How can I retrieve this information?
Could you provide a prompt example or guidance on how to handle this in the MCP server code?

[SebastianBrunthaler]

Is there a way to get or send the Dokument to mcp Tool?

[victornw]

Any updates on this? Rn the best approach i have found is to let the filename be one of the params of the tool, them searching for it on the uploads/ folder, but i think it gets messy with a lot of files

[palazski]

Hi! I am looking for this feature as well. If the Agent knew the file location (whether on a local mount or in S3), it could pass the location to the tools.

[ejblom]

I found out about a Tools entry that provided me with information about the tool, and also where it was mounted and stored on s3. This was the code:

"""
title: Files
author: open-webui
author_url: https://github.com/open-webui
funding_url: https://github.com/open-webui
version: 0.1.0
"""

import os
import requests
from datetime import datetime
from typing import List

class Tools:
def init(self):
# If set to true it will prevent default RAG pipeline
self.file_handler = True
self.citation = True
pass

def get_files(self, __files__: List[dict] = []) -> str:
    """
    Get the files
    """

    print(__files__)
    return (
        """Show the file content directly using: `/api/v1/files/{file_id}/content`

If the file is video content render the video directly using the following template: {{VIDEO_FILE_ID_[file_id]}}
If the file is html file render the html directly as iframe using the following template: {{HTML_FILE_ID_[file_id]}}"""
+ f"Files: {str(files)}"
)

But it did not really help my problem, whenever i upload a file to the openwebui chat, it has difficulty providing this exact file to a method in my tools section. It will invoke the method, but will mess up the file. Really annoying.