Provides read-only access to Canvas LMS data including courses, assignments, grades, deadlines, files, rubrics, and submission feedback.
Click on "Deploy Server".
Wait a few minutes for the server to deploy. Once ready, it will show a "Started" state.
In the chat, type @ followed by the MCP server name and your instructions, e.g., "@Canvas MCP Server what's due this week?"
That's it! The server will respond to your query, and you can continue using it as needed.
Here is a step-by-step guide with screenshots.
A read-only Model Context Protocol server that gives an AI assistant full structured access to a Canvas LMS account — courses, assignments, grades, deadlines, files, rubrics, and submission feedback.
Instead of opening Canvas and clicking through six courses to figure out what's due, you ask: "what's due this week and what am I behind on?" and get an answer grounded in live data.
Canvas holds everything a student needs, spread across a UI that requires a lot of navigation to answer simple cross-course questions. "What's due in the next two weeks?" means visiting every course individually. There's an API, but it's awkward in ways that make naive integrations break:
Array parameters require bracket notation (include[]=total_scores), silently ignored otherwise
Pagination is driven entirely by Link headers — page-number guessing skips and duplicates records
Rate limits are enforced by a leaky-bucket quota exposed in response headers
Every text field is HTML, not plain text — unusable in a model context without cleaning
Enrollments span all past semesters, so "my courses" needs term-aware filtering
This server absorbs that complexity and exposes 23 clean tools.
Related MCP server: Canvas LMS MCP Server
Two-phase loading. List endpoints return lightweight representations; full content is fetched on demand. Pulling every assignment description across six courses wastes an enormous amount of context for a question like "what's due Friday." List calls stay cheap, detail calls are explicit.
Link-header pagination. paginate() is an async generator that follows Link: rel="next" until exhausted or a caller-supplied limit is hit, yielding items individually so callers can stop early without over-fetching.
Rate-limit awareness, not just retry. The client reads X-Rate-Limit-Remaining and pre-emptively backs off when the quota drops below 50, in addition to exponential backoff on 429s. Reacting only to 429s means you've already been throttled.
Current-semester detection. _is_current_course() filters enrollments by term dates so tools operate on the active semester without the user passing IDs around.
HTML stripping at the boundary. Canvas returns HTML in every description, announcement, and discussion body. It's converted to plain text before reaching the model — script and style blocks removed, <br> mapped to newlines.
Singleton HTTP client. One httpx.AsyncClient with connection pooling for the process lifetime, rather than a new connection per tool call.
Read-only by design. No tool mutates Canvas state. An LLM cannot submit an assignment, post to a discussion, or alter a grade — the blast radius of a bad generation is zero.
Core — get_my_courses, get_todo, get_all_upcoming(days), get_all_grades
Course content — get_course, get_assignments, get_assignment, get_announcements, get_announcement, get_discussions, get_discussion, get_quizzes, get_quiz, get_calendar_events, get_rubrics, get_rubric
Files & modules — get_files, get_file, get_modules, get_module_items, get_page
Submissions — get_submission (includes instructor feedback and rubric assessment)
Aggregator — get_full_course_context (entire course in one call, for deep questions)
uv sync
cp .env.example .env # then add your tokenGenerate a token at Canvas → Account → Settings → New Access Token.
CANVAS_TOKEN=your_canvas_api_token_here
CANVAS_BASE_URL=https://your-institution.instructure.comRegister with an MCP client (Claude Code shown):
claude mcp add canvas -- uv --directory /path/to/canvas-mcp run server.pyPython 3.11+ · mcp · httpx (async) · python-dotenv · typed dataclass models throughout
Your access token carries your full Canvas privileges. It lives in .env, which is gitignored — don't commit it, and revoke it from Canvas settings if it's ever exposed.
Built against the Canvas API as deployed by Northeastern University. Institutions can disable endpoints, so tool availability may vary.
Get grades for all active courses.
Returns: {"grades": [{course_id, course_name, current_score, current_grade}, ...], "count": N}
Inputs: no named parameters.
Get upcoming assignments across all active courses.
Args: days: How many days ahead to look (default 14)
Returns: {"assignments": [{id, name, due_at, course_name, ...}, ...], "count": N}
Inputs: days.
Get a single announcement with full body.
Args: course_id: Canvas course ID announcement_id: Canvas announcement (discussion topic) ID
Returns: {id, title, message, posted_at, author, attachments}
Inputs: course_id (required), announcement_id (required).
Get announcements for a course (list view).
Args: course_id: Canvas course ID
Returns: {"announcements": [{id, title, posted_at, author}, ...], "count": N}
Inputs: course_id (required).
Get a single assignment with full description and attachments.
Args: course_id: Canvas course ID assignment_id: Canvas assignment ID
Returns: {id, name, description, due_at, points_possible, submission_types, attachments, ...}
Inputs: course_id (required), assignment_id (required).
Get all assignments for a course.
Args: course_id: Canvas course ID
Returns: {"assignments": [{id, name, due_at, points_possible, ...}, ...], "count": N}
Inputs: course_id (required).
Get calendar events for a course.
Args: course_id: Canvas course ID
Returns: {"events": [{id, title, start_at, end_at, description, ...}, ...], "count": N}
Inputs: course_id (required).
Get full course details including syllabus.
Args: course_id: Canvas course ID
Returns: {id, name, code, term, syllabus, description, start_at, end_at, ...}
Inputs: course_id (required).
Get a single discussion topic with full message body.
Args: course_id: Canvas course ID discussion_id: Canvas discussion topic ID
Returns: {id, title, message, posted_at, author, attachments, ...}
Inputs: course_id (required), discussion_id (required).
Get all discussion topics for a course.
Args: course_id: Canvas course ID
Returns: {"discussions": [{id, title, posted_at, author, ...}, ...], "count": N}
Inputs: course_id (required).
Get file metadata and download URL.
Args: file_id: Canvas file ID
Returns: {id, display_name, size, content_type, url, created_at, updated_at}
Inputs: file_id (required).
List all files in a course.
Args: course_id: Canvas course ID
Returns: {"files": [{id, display_name, size, content_type, url}, ...], "count": N}
Inputs: course_id (required).
Get EVERYTHING for a course in one call: details, syllabus, assignments, announcements, discussions, modules, files, and grades.
Args: course_id: Canvas course ID
Returns: {course, assignments, announcements, discussions, modules, files, grades}
Inputs: course_id (required).
Get items within a module.
Args: course_id: Canvas course ID module_id: Canvas module ID
Returns: {"items": [{id, title, type, content_id, html_url, ...}, ...], "count": N}
Inputs: course_id (required), module_id (required).
Get module structure for a course.
Args: course_id: Canvas course ID
Returns: {"modules": [{id, name, position, items_count, state}, ...], "count": N}
Inputs: course_id (required).
Get current semester courses (auto-detected as active).
Returns: {"courses": [{id, name, code, term}, ...], "count": N}
Inputs: no named parameters.
Get a wiki page's content with embedded file links.
Args: course_id: Canvas course ID page_url: Page URL slug (e.g., "syllabus" or "week-1-notes")
Returns: {title, body, created_at, updated_at}
Inputs: page_url (required), course_id (required).
Get a single quiz with full details.
Args: course_id: Canvas course ID quiz_id: Canvas quiz ID
Returns: {id, title, description, due_at, points_possible, time_limit, question_count, ...}
Inputs: quiz_id (required), course_id (required).
Get all quizzes for a course.
Args: course_id: Canvas course ID
Returns: {"quizzes": [{id, title, due_at, points_possible, time_limit, ...}, ...], "count": N}
Inputs: course_id (required).
Get a single rubric with full criteria.
Args: course_id: Canvas course ID rubric_id: Canvas rubric ID
Returns: {id, title, points_possible, criteria: [{description, points, ratings}, ...]}
Inputs: course_id (required), rubric_id (required).
Get all rubrics for a course.
Args: course_id: Canvas course ID
Returns: {"rubrics": [{id, title, points_possible, ...}, ...], "count": N}
Inputs: course_id (required).
Get your submission for an assignment, including feedback and comments.
Args: course_id: Canvas course ID assignment_id: Canvas assignment ID
Returns: {id, score, grade, submitted_at, workflow_state, comments, attachments, ...}
Inputs: course_id (required), assignment_id (required).
Get Canvas-computed todo items (assignments needing action).
Returns: {"items": [{type, assignment_name, course_id, due_at, ...}, ...], "count": N}
Inputs: no named parameters.
Recent tool additions, removals, and schema changes observed during successful MCP inspections.
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Scored across 23 tools
Most tools target distinct Canvas entities, but there is slight overlap between get_all_upcoming, get_todo, and get_calendar_events, which all deal with upcoming items. However, descriptions help clarify their differences.
All tools follow a consistent 'get_<entity>' pattern with singular/plural differentiation for single vs. list retrieval. The naming is predictable and uniform.
With 23 tools, the count is slightly above the typical range but each tool addresses a specific Canvas feature. The inclusion of get_full_course_context may be redundant, but overall the scope is reasonable.
The tool set is entirely read-only, lacking any create, update, or delete operations. For a Canvas server, this is a major gap that prevents agents from performing essential actions like submitting assignments or posting announcements.
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