Canvas LMS MCP Server
An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that connects Claude Code to your Canvas LMS account. Ask Claude about your courses, assignments, grades, and files — no manual downloading needed.
What it does
This server exposes 13 tools that let Claude Code interact with your Canvas account:
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
list_courses | List all your enrolled courses |
get_course_modules | Get the module structure for a course |
get_module_items | Get items within a specific module |
get_page_content | Read a Canvas page as clean text |
search_course_content | Search across all pages in a course |
list_course_files | List files in a course or folder |
download_file | Download a file to your local disk |
get_assignments | List assignments with due dates and status filters |
get_assignment_details | Full assignment details with submission status |
get_syllabus | Get the course syllabus |
get_announcements | Get recent course announcements |
get_grades | Get your grades and submission scores |
export_course_content | Bulk download an entire course as a ZIP |
Setup
1. Generate a Canvas Personal Access Token
- Log into your Canvas instance (e.g.
https://uncch.instructure.com) - Go to Account > Settings
- Scroll to Approved Integrations
- Click + New Access Token
- Give it a name (e.g. "Claude Code MCP") and click Generate Token
- Copy the token — it looks like
7006~abc123...
2. Install dependencies
cd /path/to/canvas-mcp
npm install
3. Configure in Claude Code
Add the server to your Claude Code MCP config. For global access (all projects), create or edit ~/.claude/.mcp.json:
{
"mcpServers": {
"canvas-lms": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["tsx", "/absolute/path/to/canvas-mcp/src/index.ts"],
"env": {
"CANVAS_DOMAIN": "your-school.instructure.com",
"CANVAS_ACCESS_TOKEN": "7006~your-token-here",
"CANVAS_DOWNLOAD_DIR": "/absolute/path/to/canvas-mcp/downloads"
}
}
}
}
For project-level access, create .mcp.json in your project root with the same content.
4. Restart Claude Code
Restart Claude Code and run /mcp to verify the server is connected and all 13 tools appear.
Environment Variables
| Variable | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
CANVAS_DOMAIN | Yes | Your Canvas instance domain (e.g. uncch.instructure.com) |
CANVAS_ACCESS_TOKEN | Yes | Personal access token from Canvas Settings |
CANVAS_DOWNLOAD_DIR | No | Directory for downloaded files (defaults to ./downloads) |
Usage Examples
Once configured, just ask Claude naturally:
- "List my Canvas courses"
- "What are my grades in COMP 455?"
- "Show me the modules for course 104811"
- "Download the latest homework for my CS class"
- "What assignments do I have coming up?"
- "Get the syllabus for STOR 435"
- "Search my COMP 211 course for 'linked list'"
- "Export all content from my COMP 301 course"
How it works
The server uses the Canvas LMS REST API with Bearer token authentication. It handles pagination, rate limiting, and converts Canvas HTML content to clean readable text for Claude.
Built with:
@modelcontextprotocol/sdk— MCP protocol implementationcheerio— HTML to text conversionadm-zip— ZIP extraction for course exportszod— Input validation
Project Structure
canvas-mcp/
├── src/
│ ├── index.ts # Entry point, registers tools, stdio transport
│ ├── canvas-client.ts # Canvas API client (auth, pagination, rate limits)
│ ├── html-to-text.ts # HTML to clean text conversion
│ └── tools/
│ ├── courses.ts # list_courses
│ ├── modules.ts # get_course_modules, get_module_items
│ ├── pages.ts # get_page_content, search_course_content
│ ├── files.ts # list_course_files, download_file
│ ├── assignments.ts # get_assignments, get_assignment_details
│ ├── syllabus.ts # get_syllabus
│ ├── announcements.ts # get_announcements
│ ├── grades.ts # get_grades
│ └── export.ts # export_course_content
├── package.json
└── tsconfig.json