Canvas Assignment Assistant

Instructions

Implementation Reference

• src/tools/list-active-courses.ts:9-42 (handler)

  The handler function that executes the tool logic: fetches active courses from Canvas dashboard API and returns a formatted text list or error.

  async () => {
    try {
      const dashboardCards = await canvasApiRequest<any[]>(`/dashboard/dashboard_cards`);
  
      if (dashboardCards.length === 0) {
        return {
          content: [{
            type: "text",
            text: "No active courses found in your dashboard."
          }]
        };
      }
  
      const courseList = dashboardCards.map((card) => {
        const termName = card.term ? `(${card.term})` : '';
        return `- ID: ${card.id} | ${card.shortName} ${termName}`;
      }).join('\n');
  
      return {
        content: [{
          type: "text",
          text: `Your active courses:\n\n${courseList}`
        }]
      };
    } catch (error) {
      return {
        content: [{
          type: "text",
          text: `Failed to fetch active courses: ${(error as Error).message}`
        }],
        isError: true
      };
    }
  }

• src/tools/list-active-courses.ts:5-43 (registration)

  The server.tool() registration of the canvas_list_active_courses tool, including name, description, empty input schema, and handler reference.

  server.tool(
    "canvas_list_active_courses",
    "Lists only your active/current courses using the dashboard API. Much faster than list_courses.",
    {},
    async () => {
      try {
        const dashboardCards = await canvasApiRequest<any[]>(`/dashboard/dashboard_cards`);
  
        if (dashboardCards.length === 0) {
          return {
            content: [{
              type: "text",
              text: "No active courses found in your dashboard."
            }]
          };
        }
  
        const courseList = dashboardCards.map((card) => {
          const termName = card.term ? `(${card.term})` : '';
          return `- ID: ${card.id} | ${card.shortName} ${termName}`;
        }).join('\n');
  
        return {
          content: [{
            type: "text",
            text: `Your active courses:\n\n${courseList}`
          }]
        };
      } catch (error) {
        return {
          content: [{
            type: "text",
            text: `Failed to fetch active courses: ${(error as Error).message}`
          }],
          isError: true
        };
      }
    }
  );

• src/index.ts:25-25 (registration)

  The call to register the tool on the main MCP server instance in the entrypoint file.

  registerListActiveCoursesTool(server);

• src/api/canvas-client.ts:16-37 (helper)

  Supporting utility function canvasApiRequest used by the handler to perform authenticated GET/POST requests to the Canvas API.

  export async function canvasApiRequest<T>(path: string, method = 'GET', body?: any): Promise<T> {
    if (!canvasApiToken) {
      throw new Error("Canvas API token not set. Please check CANVAS_API_TOKEN environment variable.");
    }
  
    const url = `${getBaseUrl()}${path}`;
    const response = await fetch(url, {
      method,
      headers: {
        'Authorization': `Bearer ${canvasApiToken}`,
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
      },
      body: body ? JSON.stringify(body) : undefined,
    });
  
    if (!response.ok) {
      const error = await response.text();
      throw new Error(`Canvas API error: ${response.status} - ${error}`);
    }
  
    return response.json() as Promise<T>;
  }