Canvas MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for interacting with the Canvas LMS API. This server provides tools for managing courses, users, content, and assessments in Canvas.

Features

Authentication: Secure authentication with Canvas API tokens
Course Management: Get course information, list courses, update course settings
User Management: Get user information, list course users, manage enrollments
Content Management: Create and manage pages, modules, and module items
Assessment Management: Create and manage assignments, grade submissions, create announcements
Quiz Management: Create and manage quizzes, quiz questions, and grade quiz submissions

Prerequisites

Node.js 16 or higher
A Canvas LMS instance
Canvas API token with appropriate permissions

Installation

Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/canvas-mcp-server.git cd canvas-mcp-server
Install dependencies:
npm install
Create a .env file based on the .env.example file:
cp .env.example .env
Edit the .env file with your Canvas API token and URL:
CANVAS_API_TOKEN=your_canvas_api_token_here CANVAS_API_URL=https://your-institution.instructure.com/api/v1 MCP_SERVER_NAME=canvas-mcp
Build the project:
npm run build

Usage

Running the Server

npm start

Configuring with Claude for Desktop

To use this MCP server with Claude for Desktop, add the following to your Claude for Desktop configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "canvas-mcp": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/canvas-mcp-server/dist/index.js"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Replace /ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/ with the actual path to your canvas-mcp-server directory.

Configuring with Anything LLM

To use this MCP server with Anything LLM, add the following to your Anything LLM MCP configuration:

Navigate to Settings > MCP in your Anything LLM interface
Add a new MCP server with the following configuration:

{
  "name": "canvas-mcp",
  "command": "node",
  "args": [
    "/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/canvas-mcp-server/dist/index.js"
  ]
}

Replace /ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/ with the actual path to your canvas-mcp-server directory.

For more information, see the Anything LLM MCP documentation.

Available Tools

Course Management

get_course: Get information about a Canvas course
list_courses: List Canvas courses for the current user
update_course: Update Canvas course settings
get_course_modules: Get modules for a Canvas course
get_course_assignments: Get assignments for a Canvas course

User Management

get_user: Get information about a Canvas user
get_self: Get information about the current Canvas user
list_course_users: List users enrolled in a Canvas course
enroll_user: Enroll a user in a Canvas course
remove_enrollment: Remove a user enrollment from a Canvas course
send_message: Send a message to a Canvas user

Content Management

get_course_pages: Get pages for a Canvas course
get_page_content: Get content of a Canvas page
create_or_update_page: Create or update a Canvas page
delete_page: Delete a Canvas page
create_module: Create a new module in a Canvas course
add_module_item: Add an item to a module in a Canvas course

Assessment Management

create_assignment: Create a new assignment in a Canvas course
update_assignment: Update an existing assignment in a Canvas course
grade_submission: Grade a student submission for an assignment
get_submissions: Get student submissions for an assignment
create_announcement: Create a new announcement in a Canvas course

Quiz Management

list_quizzes: List quizzes in a Canvas course
get_quiz: Get details of a specific quiz
create_quiz: Create a new quiz in a Canvas course
update_quiz: Update an existing quiz in a Canvas course
delete_quiz: Delete a quiz from a Canvas course
get_quiz_questions: Get questions for a specific quiz
create_quiz_question: Create a new question for a quiz
update_quiz_question: Update an existing quiz question
delete_quiz_question: Delete a question from a quiz
get_quiz_submissions: Get submissions for a specific quiz
grade_quiz_submission: Grade a quiz submission

Development

Project Structure

canvas-mcp-server/
├── src/
│   ├── index.ts            # Main entry point
│   ├── auth/               # Authentication handling
│   ├── api/                # Canvas API client
│   │   └── client.ts       # API client with pagination and rate limiting
│   ├── tools/              # MCP tool implementations
│   │   ├── courses.ts      # Course-related tools
│   │   ├── users.ts        # User-related tools
│   │   ├── content.ts      # Content-related tools
│   │   ├── assessments.ts  # Assessment-related tools
│   │   └── quizzes.ts      # Quiz-related tools
│   └── utils/
│       ├── logging.ts      # Logging utilities
│       └── error.ts        # Error handling utilities
├── dist/                   # Compiled JavaScript files
├── .env                    # Environment variables
└── package.json            # Project dependencies

Running in Development Mode

npm run dev

License

MIT

Acknowledgements

This server cannot be installed

security - not tested

license - not found

quality - not tested

remote-capable server

The server can be hosted and run remotely because it primarily relies on remote services or has no dependency on the local environment.

A Model Context Protocol server that enables AI assistants to interact with Canvas LMS through its API, providing tools for managing courses, users, content, assessments, and quizzes.

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