canvas-lms-mcp

Canvas LMS MCP Server

A minimal Canvas LMS MCP (Machine Conversation Protocol) server for easy access to education data through your Canvas LMS instance. This server provides a bridge between AI systems (like Cursor) and Canvas Learning Management System.

Features

• List planner items (assignments, quizzes, etc.)
• Get and list assignments
• Get and list quizzes
• Get and list courses
• Get course syllabus
• Get course modules
• List files

Installation

Installing via Smithery

To install Canvas LMS Server for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @ahnopologetic/canvas-lms-mcp --client claude

Prerequisites

• Python 3.13+
• Canvas LMS API token
• uv package manager (recommended)

Installation Methods

Option 1: Install with uvx (Recommended)

The easiest way to install and run canvas-lms-mcp is using uvx:

uvx canvas-lms-mcp

This will run the server in an isolated environment without installing it permanently.

To install the tool permanently:

uv tool install canvas-lms-mcp

Option 2: Install from Source

• Clone the repository:

  git clone https://github.com/yourusername/canvas-lms-mcp.git
  cd canvas-lms-mcp
  

• Install with uv:

  # Install uv if you don't have it yet
  curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
  
  # Create a virtual environment and install dependencies
  uv venv
  uv pip install -e .
  

  Alternatively, use traditional methods:

  python -m venv .venv
  source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate
  pip install -e .
  

Configuration

Set the following environment variables:

export CANVAS_API_TOKEN="your_canvas_api_token"
export CANVAS_BASE_URL="https://your-institution.instructure.com"  # Default: https://canvas.instructure.com

You can get your Canvas API token from your Canvas account settings.

Running the Server

Start the server with uv:

uv run src/canvas_lms_mcp/main.py

If installed with uvx tool:

canvas-lms-mcp

By default, the server runs on http://localhost:8000. You can use the FastMCP interface at http://localhost:8000/docs to interact with the API.

Available Tools

The server provides the following tools for interacting with Canvas LMS:

Courses

list_courses

List courses that the user is actively enrolled in.

Parameters:

• page (optional, default=1): Page number (1-indexed)
• items_per_page (optional, default=10): Number of items per page

get_course

Get a single course by ID.

Parameters:

• course_id (required): Course ID
• include (optional): List of additional data to include

get_course_syllabus

Get a course's syllabus.

Parameters:

• course_id (required): Course ID

get_course_modules

Get modules for a course.

Parameters:

• course_id (required): Course ID
• include (optional): List of additional data to include

Assignments

list_assignments

List assignments for a course.

Parameters:

• course_id (required): Course ID
• bucket (required): Filter assignments by ("past", "overdue", "undated", "ungraded", "unsubmitted", "upcoming", "future")
• order_by (required): Field to order assignments by ("due_at", "position", "name")
• page (optional, default=1): Page number (1-indexed)
• items_per_page (optional, default=10): Number of items per page

get_assignment

Get a single assignment by ID.

Parameters:

• course_id (required): Course ID
• assignment_id (required): Assignment ID

Quizzes

list_quizzes

List quizzes for a course.

Parameters:

• course_id (required): Course ID
• include (optional): List of additional data to include
• page (optional, default=1): Page number (1-indexed)
• items_per_page (optional, default=10): Number of items per page

get_quiz

Get a single quiz by ID.

Parameters:

• course_id (required): Course ID
• quiz_id (required): Quiz ID

Files

list_files

List files for a course or folder.

Parameters:

• course_id (optional): Course ID
• folder_id (optional): Folder ID
• include (optional): List of additional data to include
• page (optional, default=1): Page number (1-indexed)
• items_per_page (optional, default=10): Number of items per page

Planner Items

list_planner_items

List planner items for the authenticated user.

Parameters:

• start_date (required): Start date in ISO 8601 format
• end_date (required): End date in ISO 8601 format
• context_codes (optional): List of context codes (e.g., ["course_123"])
• page (optional, default=1): Page number (1-indexed)
• items_per_page (optional, default=10): Number of items per page

Integration with Cursor

Cursor is an AI-powered IDE that can interact with the Canvas LMS MCP server to provide education data directly within your development environment.

Setting Up Cursor Integration

• Install the Cursor IDE from https://cursor.sh/

• Create a .cursor/mcp.json file in your project directory with the following content:

  {
      "mcpServers": {
          "canvas": {
              "command": "uvx",
              "args": [
                   "canvas-lms-mcp"
              ],
              "env": {
                  "CANVAS_API_TOKEN": "your_canvas_api_token",
                  "CANVAS_BASE_URL": "https://your-institution.instructure.com"
              }
          }
      }
  }
  

  Replace:

  • your_canvas_api_token with your actual Canvas API token
  • your-institution.instructure.com with your Canvas institution URL

• Restart Cursor for the changes to take effect.

Cursor Time Integration (Optional)

You can also integrate a time server for timezone-related queries by adding a "time" server to your mcp.json:

"time": {
    "command": "uvx",
    "args": [
        "mcp-server-time",
        "--local-timezone=America/New_York"
    ]
}

This allows you to use time-related functions with your Canvas data.

Usage Examples

Once connected, you can ask Cursor AI about your Canvas data:

• "What assignments do I have due next week?"
• "Show me the syllabus for my Biology course"
• "List all my upcoming quizzes"
• "What's on my schedule for tomorrow?"

Example conversation:

YOU: What assignments do I have due soon?

CURSOR: I'll check your upcoming assignments.

Based on your Canvas data, here are your upcoming assignments:
- "Final Project" for CS101 due on December 10, 2023
- "Lab Report #5" for BIOL200 due on December 7, 2023
- "Research Paper" for ENGL301 due on December 15, 2023

Development

For detailed development instructions, please see the DEVELOPMENT.md file.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.