Canvas MCP Server v2.3.0

A comprehensive Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Canvas LMS with complete student, instructor, and account administration functionality

🚀 What's New in v2.3.0

• 🌐 NEW: Streamable HTTP transport support (MCP_TRANSPORT=streamable-http)

• 🖥️ Preserved: First-class stdio transport for local MCP clients

• 🧪 Added: Behavior tests for lifecycle, transports, and structured failure-path errors

• 🧱 Improved: Stricter tool schemas and codemode-oriented tool descriptions

• 🔧 FIXED: Course creation "page not found" error (missing account_id parameter)

• 👨‍💼 Account Management: Complete account-level administration tools

• 📊 Reports & Analytics: Generate and access Canvas account reports

• 👥 User Management: Create and manage users at the account level

• 🏢 Multi-Account Support: Handle account hierarchies and sub-accounts

• ✅ API Compliance: All endpoints now follow proper Canvas API patterns

Related MCP server: School MCP

🎯 Key Features

🎓 For Students

• Course Management: Access all courses, syllabi, and course materials

• Assignment Workflow: View, submit (text/URL/files), and track assignments

• Communication: Participate in discussions, read announcements, send messages

• Progress Tracking: Monitor grades, module completion, and calendar events

• Quizzes: Take quizzes, view results and feedback

• File Access: Browse and download course files and resources

👨‍🏫 For Instructors

• Course Creation: Create and manage course structure (now with proper account support)

• Grading: Grade submissions, provide feedback, manage rubrics

• User Management: Enroll students, manage permissions

• Content Management: Create assignments, quizzes, discussions

👨‍💼 For Account Administrators (NEW!)

• Account Management: Manage institutional Canvas accounts

• User Administration: Create and manage users across accounts

• Course Oversight: List and manage all courses within accounts

• Reporting: Generate enrollment, grade, and activity reports

• Sub-Account Management: Handle account hierarchies and structures

🛠️ Technical Excellence

• Robust API: Automatic retries, pagination, comprehensive error handling

• Cloud Ready: Docker containers, Kubernetes manifests, health checks

• Well Tested: Unit tests, integration tests, mocking, coverage reports

• Type Safe: Full TypeScript implementation with strict types

• 50+ Tools: Comprehensive coverage of Canvas LMS functionality

Quick Start

Option 1: Claude Desktop Integration (Recommended MCP Setup)

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

Option 2: NPM Package

Option 3: Docker

Transport Modes

The server supports two explicit transport modes:

• stdio (default): best for Claude Desktop/Codex/Cursor local MCP wiring.

• streamable-http: best for local HTTP integrations and containerized workflows.

Transport environment variables

💼 Account Admin Workflow Examples

Create a New Course (FIXED!)

Now properly creates courses with required account_id parameter

Manage Users

Creates user accounts with proper pseudonym and enrollment setup

Generate Reports

Initiates Canvas reporting system for institutional analytics

List Account Courses

Advanced filtering and searching across account course catalogs

🎓 Student Workflow Examples

Check Today's Assignments

Lists upcoming assignments with due dates, points, and submission status

Submit an Assignment

Guides through text submission with formatting options

Check Grades

Shows current scores, grades, and assignment feedback

Participate in Discussions

Displays recent discussion topics and enables posting responses

Track Progress

Shows module completion status and next items to complete

Getting Canvas API Token

1. Log into Canvas → Account → Settings

2. Scroll to "Approved Integrations"

3. Click "+ New Access Token"

4. Enter description: "Claude MCP Integration"

5. Copy the generated token Save securely!

⚠️ Account Admin Note: For account-level operations, ensure your API token has administrative privileges.

Production Deployment

Docker Compose

Kubernetes

Health Monitoring

Development

📚 Available Tools (50+ Tools)

• canvas_health_check - Check API connectivity

• canvas_list_courses - List all your courses

• canvas_get_course - Get detailed course info

• canvas_list_assignments - List course assignments

• canvas_get_assignment - Get assignment details

• canvas_submit_assignment - Submit assignment work

• canvas_get_submission - Check submission status

• canvas_list_modules - List course modules

• canvas_get_module - Get module details

• canvas_list_module_items - List items in a module

• canvas_mark_module_item_complete - Mark items complete

• canvas_list_discussion_topics - List discussion topics

• canvas_get_discussion_topic - Get discussion details

• canvas_post_to_discussion - Post to discussions

• canvas_list_announcements - List course announcements

• canvas_get_user_grades - Get your grades

• canvas_get_course_grades - Get course-specific grades

• canvas_get_dashboard - Get dashboard info

• canvas_get_dashboard_cards - Get course cards

• canvas_get_upcoming_assignments - Get due dates

• canvas_list_calendar_events - List calendar events

• canvas_list_files - List course files

• canvas_get_file - Get file details

• canvas_list_folders - List course folders

• canvas_list_pages - List course pages

• canvas_get_page - Get page content

• canvas_list_conversations - List messages

• canvas_get_conversation - Get conversation details

• canvas_create_conversation - Send messages

• canvas_list_notifications - List notifications

• canvas_get_syllabus - Get course syllabus

• canvas_get_user_profile - Get user profile

• canvas_update_user_profile - Update profile

• canvas_create_course - Create new courses (FIXED: now requires account_id)

• canvas_update_course - Update course settings

• canvas_create_assignment - Create assignments

• canvas_update_assignment - Update assignments

• canvas_list_assignment_groups - List assignment groups

• canvas_submit_grade - Grade submissions

• canvas_enroll_user - Enroll students

• canvas_list_quizzes - List course quizzes

• canvas_get_quiz - Get quiz details

• canvas_create_quiz - Create quizzes

• canvas_start_quiz_attempt - Start quiz attempts

• canvas_list_rubrics - List course rubrics

• canvas_get_rubric - Get rubric details

• canvas_get_account - Get account details

• canvas_list_account_courses - List courses in an account

• canvas_list_account_users - List users in an account

• canvas_create_user - Create new users in accounts

• canvas_list_sub_accounts - List sub-accounts

• canvas_get_account_reports - List available reports

• canvas_create_account_report - Generate account reports

🔧 Breaking Changes in v2.2.0

Course Creation Fix

BEFORE (Broken):

AFTER (Fixed):

🌟 Example Claude Conversations

Student: "I need to check my upcoming assignments and submit my English essay"

Claude: I'll help you check your upcoming assignments and then assist with submitting your English essay. Let me start by getting your upcoming assignments...

[Claude uses canvas_get_upcoming_assignments then helps with canvas_submit_assignment]

Instructor: "Create a new Advanced Physics course in the Science department and enroll my teaching assistant"

Claude: I'll help you create the Advanced Physics course in your Science department account and then enroll your TA...

[Claude uses canvas_create_course with proper account_id, then canvas_enroll_user]

Administrator: "Generate an enrollment report for all Computer Science courses this semester"

Claude: I'll generate a comprehensive enrollment report for your CS courses...

[Claude uses canvas_list_account_courses with filters, then canvas_create_account_report]

🔍 Troubleshooting

Common Issues:

• ❌ 401 Unauthorized: Check your API token and permissions

• ❌ 404 Not Found: Verify course/assignment IDs and access rights

• ❌ "Page not found" on course creation: Update to v2.2.0 for account_id fix

• ❌ Timeout: Increase CANVAS_TIMEOUT or check network connectivity

Debug Mode:

Health Check:

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Quick Contribution Setup

📈 Roadmap

• v2.3: Enhanced reporting, bulk operations, advanced search

• v2.4: Mobile support, offline capability, analytics dashboard

• v3.0: Multi-tenant, GraphQL API, AI-powered insights

🙋 Support & Community

• 🐛 Bug Reports: GitHub Issues

• 💬 Questions: GitHub Discussions

• 📖 Documentation: Wiki

Appendix: MCP in Practice (Code Execution, Tool Scale, and Safety)

Last updated: 2026-02-24

Why This Appendix Exists

MCP is still one of the most useful interoperability layers for agentic tooling. The tradeoff is that large MCP servers can expose dozens of tools, and naive tool-calling can flood context windows with tool schemas, call traces, and low-signal chatter.

In practice, larger tool surfaces only help when orchestration stays token-efficient and execution behavior is constrained.

The Shift to Code Execution / Code Mode

Recent production workflows move orchestration out of conversational turns and into executable loops. This keeps context overhead lower, improves determinism, and makes runs auditable.

Core reading:

• Cloudflare: Code Mode

• Cloudflare: Code Execution with MCP

• Anthropic: Code Execution with MCP

Recommended Setup for Power Users

For lower-noise, repeatable MCP usage, start with codemode-oriented routing:

• codemode-mcp (jx-codes)

• UTCP

Even with strong setup, model behavior can be hit-or-miss across providers and versions. Keep retries and deterministic fallbacks.

Peter Steinberger Workflow Pattern

A high-leverage pattern is turning broad MCP tool surfaces into narrower CLI/task interfaces:

• MCPorter

• OpenClaw

What Works Best With Which MCP Clients

• Claude Code / Codex / Cursor agent workflows: usually strong for direct MCP + code-execution loops.

• Thin hosted chat clients: often safer with wrapped CLIs/gateways instead of full raw tool exposure.

• High-tool-count servers: usually better when split into narrow task gateways.

This ecosystem changes quickly. If you are reading this now, parts of this section may already be out of date.

Prompt Injection: Risks, Consequences, and Mitigations

Prompt injection remains an open problem for tool-using agents. It is manageable, but not solved.

Primary risks:

• Hidden instructions in retrieved content or tool output.

• Secret/token exfiltration through unintended calls.

• Unauthorized state changes in systems or data.

Mitigation baseline:

• Least-privilege credentials and scoped tokens.

• Destination/action allowlists and strict schema validation.

• Human confirmation for destructive operations.

• Sandboxed execution and resource limits.

• Structured logging and replayable execution traces.

Treat every tool output as untrusted input unless explicitly verified.

📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

⭐ Star this repo if it helps you! ⭐