blackboard-mcp
Server Configuration
Describes the environment variables required to run the server.
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| BB_BASE_URL | No | Base URL of the Blackboard instance. | |
| BB_HEADLESS | No | Set to '0' to run the browser in headed mode. | |
| BB_SSO_ENTRY_URL | No | SSO entry URL for authentication. | |
| BLACKBOARD_HOSTS | No | Additional Blackboard hosts configuration for other institutions. | |
| BB_BROWSER_CHANNEL | No | Browser channel to use for the Playwright browser (e.g., 'chrome'). | |
| BLACKBOARD_MCP_HOME | No | Directory to store MCP data (default is ~/.blackboard-mcp). |
Instructions
Guidance the server publishes about itself, which clients place ahead of the tool catalog so the model reads it before choosing anything.
This server publishes no instructions, or was last inspected before Glama recorded them.
Capabilities
Features and capabilities supported by this server
Protocol revision2025-11-25
| Capability | Details |
|---|---|
| tools | {
"listChanged": true
} |
Tools
Functions exposed to the LLM to take actions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| list_coursesA | List the student’s currently visible Blackboard (Syracuse University) courses. Returns course ids needed by every other blackboard tool. Read-only. |
| get_course_contentA | List a course’s content items (folders, documents, files, assignments, tests, links) from Blackboard. Hierarchy is expanded a couple of folder levels; pass folder_id to go deeper into one folder. Read-only. |
| get_announcementsA | List announcements for one Blackboard course, newest first. Optionally filter to items created or modified after a date. Read-only. |
| get_assignmentsA | List assignments and assessments with due dates, combined and deduplicated from Blackboard course content, the gradebook, and the calendar. Optionally scope to one course and/or a due-date window. Read-only. |
| get_gradesA | List the student’s own grades for one Blackboard course: assignment, score, points possible, percentage, feedback, and grading status. Only grades visible to the signed-in student are returned. Read-only. |
| get_attachmentA | Download a course file (PDF, DOCX, PPTX, images, ...) from Blackboard to this machine and return its local path. Files are saved under ~/.blackboard-mcp/downloads only when you call this tool; nothing is sent anywhere. Small text files also include a text excerpt. Read-only. |
| get_upcoming_workA | Upcoming assignments and assessments across ALL Blackboard courses, sorted by due date. This is the one call to answer “what do I have due?”. Read-only. |
| get_recent_updatesA | Recent Blackboard activity across all courses since a point in time (default: last 7 days): announcements, new/changed content items, changed assignments, and newly posted grades. Read-only. |
| get_assignment_contextA | One package describing a Blackboard assignment: instructions, due date, points, rubric (when available), attachments with local file paths, the student’s grade/status for it, and related course announcements. Use this instead of many low-level calls. Read-only. |
Prompts
Interactive templates invoked by user choice
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
No prompts | |
Resources
Contextual data attached and managed by the client
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
No resources | |
TDQS
Scored across 9 tools
Each tool has a clear target resource or aggregate view, and the descriptions explicitly separate broad queries like get_recent_updates and get_upcoming_work from per-course listers. There is minor overlap between get_assignments, get_upcoming_work, and get_assignment_context, but the descriptions resolve the intended use cases well.
Tool names uniformly follow a snake_case verb_noun pattern using get_ or list_ for read-only operations. The one list_courses versus get_* variation is not confusing because both verbs signal retrieval and the resource nouns are consistent.
Nine tools is a well-scoped size for a Blackboard student read-only server. Each tool covers a meaningful piece of the domain without redundancy or unnecessary bloat.
The toolset covers the full read-only student workflow: courses, content, announcements, assignments, grades, attachments, recent activity, and upcoming work. No obvious missing read operations are apparent for the stated purpose, and the lack of write tools appears intentional.