MoodlIA Sync MCP

moodlia-sync-mcp is an MCP coordinator for one-way course-content synchronization between Moodle sites. Each endpoint may use Moodle Core web services, the MoodlIA plugin, or both. Provider selection is capability-based and is frozen into every approved action.

The coordinator does not send Moodle tokens or binary files through MCP tool arguments or results. Profiles reference environment variables, and an allowlist restricts profile pairs, course IDs, and effects.

Status

The current preview synchronizes verified course metadata, hidden target-course creation, sections through MoodlIA, groups and grouping membership, Pages/Labels/URLs on creation, file resources and folders on creation, Books with chapter files, selected assignment definitions and new rubrics, and new Workshop grading forms. Existing unsupported authoring changes and unsafe transformations are reported before writing. It does not use Moodle backup files.

Related MCP server: Moodle MCP Server

Configuration

Create .moodle-profiles.json:

{
  "schema_version": 1,
  "profiles": {
    "source": {
      "url": "https://source.example.edu",
      "backend": "auto",
      "credentials": {
        "core": { "token_env": "SOURCE_CORE_TOKEN" },
        "moodlia": { "token_env": "SOURCE_MOODLIA_TOKEN" }
      }
    },
    "target": {
      "url": "https://target.example.edu",
      "backend": "auto",
      "credentials": {
        "core": { "token_env": "TARGET_CORE_TOKEN" },
        "moodlia": { "token_env": "TARGET_MOODLIA_TOKEN" }
      }
    }
  }
}

Create .moodle-sync-policy.json:

{
  "schema_version": 1,
  "allowed_profiles": ["source", "target"],
  "allowed_pairs": [
    {
      "source": "source",
      "target": "target",
      "source_courses": [42],
      "target_courses": [81],
      "target_categories": [7],
      "effects": ["content.read", "content.write"]
    }
  ]
}

Set MOODLIA_SYNC_CONFIG, MOODLIA_SYNC_POLICY, and optionally MOODLIA_SYNC_STATE. Start the stdio server with npx moodlia-sync-mcp.

For Streamable HTTP, set a random MOODLIA_SYNC_BEARER_TOKEN of at least 32 bytes and run npx moodlia-sync-mcp-http. It binds to 127.0.0.1:3333 by default. Put a TLS-authenticated reverse proxy in front of it for remote clients, set MOODLIA_SYNC_ALLOWED_HOSTS, and never expose the plain HTTP listener directly. The bearer token authenticates the client to the coordinator; Moodle tokens remain separate downstream credentials.

Approval boundary

sync_plan_course is read-only. sync_apply_plan accepts only a plan that was approved outside MCP and stored in the same SQLite state database:

moodlia course sync `
  --approve-plan ".moodle-sync\plans\PLAN_ID.json" `
  --state ".moodle-sync\coordinator.sqlite" `
  --yes

Approval is bound to the complete plan digest, expires with the plan, and is consumed before execution. A model-provided boolean is never treated as human authorization.

MCP tools

• sync_list_profiles

• sync_discover_capabilities

• sync_plan_course

• sync_apply_plan

• sync_get_job

• sync_cancel_job

• sync_resume_job

• sync_verify_course

• sync_get_conflicts

• sync_resolve_conflict

• sync_get_history

Jobs, action attempts, approvals, mappings, baselines, and leases are durable in SQLite. On restart, in-flight jobs become interrupted and must be reconciled and explicitly re-approved before resume. Timeout outcomes are marked unknown_outcome, not retried blindly.

All documentation, schemas, source identifiers, and source comments are in English.