Canvas LMS MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol server that gives an MCP client (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or anything else that speaks MCP) read-only access to your Canvas LMS account.

It answers two questions:

• "What am I taking and how am I doing?" — active courses with current grades.
• "What do I still owe and when is it due?" — outstanding assignments with due dates.

Communication uses the standard stdio transport, so the client launches the server as a subprocess. Nothing is written to stdout except MCP traffic.

Requirements

• Node.js 18.17 or newer (the server uses the built-in fetch)
• A Canvas personal access token

Install

cd canvas-mcp-server
npm install

Configuration

Both variables are required; the server exits with a clear message if either is missing.

Variable	Description	Example
CANVAS_API_URL	Your Canvas instance root. A trailing / or /api/v1 is fine — it gets normalized.	https://asu.instructure.com
CANVAS_ACCESS_TOKEN	A Canvas personal access token.	7~AbCdEf...

Getting a Canvas access token

1. Log in to Canvas.
2. Go to Account → Settings.
3. Under Approved Integrations, click + New Access Token.
4. Give it a purpose and (optionally) an expiry date, then click Generate Token.
5. Copy the token immediately — Canvas shows it only once.

The token carries your full Canvas privileges. Keep it out of version control, and revoke it from the same settings page if it ever leaks.

Connecting a client

Add the server to your MCP client config, pointing at the absolute path of src/index.js:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "canvas": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/canvas-mcp-server/src/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "CANVAS_API_URL": "https://asu.instructure.com",
        "CANVAS_ACCESS_TOKEN": "your-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

• Claude Desktop — claude_desktop_config.json (macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/, Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\).
• Claude Code — claude mcp add canvas --env CANVAS_API_URL=... --env CANVAS_ACCESS_TOKEN=... -- node /absolute/path/to/canvas-mcp-server/src/index.js

Restart the client after editing the config.

Tools

list_courses_and_grades

Every course you are actively enrolled in as a student, with its current grade.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
include_all_terms	boolean	false	Also include active enrollments from terms that have already ended.

Canvas reports grades twice when your institution uses grading periods: once for the period in progress and once for the whole course. The grades.scope field says which one you are looking at:

• current_grading_period — the score covers the grading period in progress, and course_total_score / course_total_grade carry the whole-course numbers.
• course_total — the institution does not use grading periods, so the score is the course total.
• unavailable — Canvas returned no enrollment with grade data.

Within either scope, current_* ignores work that has not been graded yet, while final_* counts ungraded work as a zero.

{
  "courses": [
    {
      "id": "101",
      "name": "Full Stack Web Development",
      "course_code": "GIT-411",
      "term": "Fall 2026",
      "term_start": "2026-08-20T00:00:00Z",
      "term_end": "2026-12-18T00:00:00Z",
      "enrollment_state": "active",
      "grades": {
        "current_score": 88.0,
        "current_grade": "B+",
        "final_score": 80.5,
        "final_grade": "B-",
        "scope": "current_grading_period",
        "grading_period_title": "Fall Term",
        "course_total_score": 91.4,
        "course_total_grade": "A-"
      },
      "html_url": "https://asu.instructure.com/courses/101"
    }
  ],
  "course_count": 1,
  "retrieved_at": "2026-09-01T12:00:00.000Z"
}

list_upcoming_assignments

Assignments across your active courses that are still outstanding, sorted by due date, soonest first.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
days_ahead	integer 1–365, or null	14	How far ahead to look. null removes the upper bound.
include_overdue	boolean	true	Include past-due work that was never turned in.
include_undated	boolean	false	Include outstanding work with no due date.
course_ids	string[]	all active courses	Restrict to specific Canvas course IDs.

An assignment counts as outstanding when it is published, gradable, and not submitted, graded, or excused. Concretely, these are filtered out:

• anything with a submission timestamp
• submissions in submitted, pending_review, or graded state
• excused assignments
• assignments that already carry a score or grade (manual or on-paper entry)
• not_graded assignments (attendance placeholders and the like)
• unpublished assignments

{
  "assignments": [
    {
      "id": "9004",
      "name": "Missed lab writeup",
      "course_id": "101",
      "course_name": "Full Stack Web Development",
      "due_at": "2026-08-28T06:59:00.000Z",
      "days_until_due": -4.2,
      "overdue": true,
      "points_possible": 25,
      "submission_types": ["online_upload"],
      "submission_state": "unsubmitted",
      "missing": true,
      "locked": false,
      "unlock_at": null,
      "lock_at": null,
      "html_url": "https://asu.instructure.com/courses/101/assignments/9004"
    }
  ],
  "assignment_count": 1,
  "courses_checked": 2,
  "window": {
    "from": "2026-09-01T12:00:00.000Z",
    "to": "2026-09-15T12:00:00.000Z",
    "include_overdue": true,
    "include_undated": false
  },
  "errors": [],
  "retrieved_at": "2026-09-01T12:00:00.000Z"
}

If one course cannot be read — concluded, restricted, or otherwise erroring — it is listed in errors and the remaining courses still return results.

Notes on behavior

• Pagination. Canvas paginates every collection via the Link header. The client follows rel="next" at 100 records per page, capped at 20 pages per endpoint so a bad response cannot loop forever.
• Concurrency. Assignments are fetched from at most 5 courses at a time to stay clear of Canvas rate limits.
• Current term. By default only courses whose term has not ended are returned. Canvas's default term has no end date and is always included.
• Errors. Canvas failures come back as MCP tool errors carrying the status code and Canvas's own message, with a hint for the common cases (401 → bad token, 404 → wrong URL).
• Read-only. Both tools are annotated readOnlyHint. The server issues only GET requests and never modifies your Canvas data.

Development

npm test    # 36 tests: API client, grade logic, filtering, and an end-to-end MCP round trip

The suite uses a fetch stand-in with recorded Canvas payloads, so no network or real token is needed. All fixture dates are relative to the moment the tests run.

src/
  index.js        MCP server: tool definitions, schemas, stdio wiring
  canvas.js       Canvas REST client: auth, pagination, error mapping
  courses.js      Active-course and grade normalization
  assignments.js  Outstanding-assignment filtering and due-date windows

License

MIT