Canvas MCP Server v2.3.0

A comprehensive Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Canvas LMS with complete student, instructor, and account administration functionality

🚀 What's New in v2.3.0

🌐 NEW: Streamable HTTP transport support (MCP_TRANSPORT=streamable-http)
🖥️ Preserved: First-class stdio transport for local MCP clients
🧪 Added: Behavior tests for lifecycle, transports, and structured failure-path errors
🧱 Improved: Stricter tool schemas and codemode-oriented tool descriptions
🔧 FIXED: Course creation "page not found" error (missing account_id parameter)
👨‍💼 Account Management: Complete account-level administration tools
📊 Reports & Analytics: Generate and access Canvas account reports
👥 User Management: Create and manage users at the account level
🏢 Multi-Account Support: Handle account hierarchies and sub-accounts
✅ API Compliance: All endpoints now follow proper Canvas API patterns

🎯 Key Features

🎓 For Students

Course Management: Access all courses, syllabi, and course materials
Assignment Workflow: View, submit (text/URL/files), and track assignments
Communication: Participate in discussions, read announcements, send messages
Progress Tracking: Monitor grades, module completion, and calendar events
Quizzes: Take quizzes, view results and feedback
File Access: Browse and download course files and resources

👨‍🏫 For Instructors

Course Creation: Create and manage course structure (now with proper account support)
Grading: Grade submissions, provide feedback, manage rubrics
User Management: Enroll students, manage permissions
Content Management: Create assignments, quizzes, discussions

👨‍💼 For Account Administrators (NEW!)

Account Management: Manage institutional Canvas accounts
User Administration: Create and manage users across accounts
Course Oversight: List and manage all courses within accounts
Reporting: Generate enrollment, grade, and activity reports
Sub-Account Management: Handle account hierarchies and structures

🛠️ Technical Excellence

Robust API: Automatic retries, pagination, comprehensive error handling
Cloud Ready: Docker containers, Kubernetes manifests, health checks
Well Tested: Unit tests, integration tests, mocking, coverage reports
Type Safe: Full TypeScript implementation with strict types
50+ Tools: Comprehensive coverage of Canvas LMS functionality

Quick Start

Option 1: Claude Desktop Integration (Recommended MCP Setup)

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "canvas-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "canvas-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "CANVAS_API_TOKEN": "your_token_here",
        "CANVAS_DOMAIN": "your_school.instructure.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

Option 2: NPM Package

# Install globally
npm install -g canvas-mcp-server

# Configure
export CANVAS_API_TOKEN="your_token_here"
export CANVAS_DOMAIN="your_school.instructure.com"

# Run
canvas-mcp-server

Option 3: Docker

docker run -d \
  --name canvas-mcp \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  -e CANVAS_API_TOKEN="your_token" \
  -e CANVAS_DOMAIN="school.instructure.com" \
  -e MCP_TRANSPORT="streamable-http" \
  -e MCP_HTTP_HOST="0.0.0.0" \
  -e MCP_HTTP_PORT="3000" \
  -e MCP_HTTP_PATH="/mcp" \
  ghcr.io/dmontgomery40/mcp-canvas-lms:latest

Transport Modes

The server supports two explicit transport modes:

stdio (default): best for Claude Desktop/Codex/Cursor local MCP wiring.
streamable-http: best for local HTTP integrations and containerized workflows.

Transport environment variables

# Required Canvas auth
CANVAS_API_TOKEN=your_token
CANVAS_DOMAIN=your_school.instructure.com

# Transport selection
MCP_TRANSPORT=stdio # or streamable-http

# Streamable HTTP settings
MCP_HTTP_HOST=127.0.0.1
MCP_HTTP_PORT=3000
MCP_HTTP_PATH=/mcp
MCP_HTTP_STATEFUL=true
MCP_HTTP_JSON_RESPONSE=true
MCP_HTTP_ALLOWED_ORIGINS=

💼 Account Admin Workflow Examples

Create a New Course (FIXED!)

"Create a new course called 'Advanced Biology' in account 123"

Now properly creates courses with required account_id parameter

Manage Users

"Create a new student user John Doe with email [email protected] in our main account"

Creates user accounts with proper pseudonym and enrollment setup

Generate Reports

"Generate an enrollment report for account 456 for the current term"

Initiates Canvas reporting system for institutional analytics

List Account Courses

"Show me all published Computer Science courses in our Engineering account"

Advanced filtering and searching across account course catalogs

🎓 Student Workflow Examples

Check Today's Assignments

"What assignments do I have due this week?"

Lists upcoming assignments with due dates, points, and submission status

Submit an Assignment

"Help me submit my essay for English 101 Assignment 3"

Guides through text submission with formatting options

Check Grades

"What's my current grade in Biology?"

Shows current scores, grades, and assignment feedback

Participate in Discussions

"Show me the latest discussion posts in my Philosophy class"

Displays recent discussion topics and enables posting responses

Track Progress

"What modules do I need to complete in Math 200?"

Shows module completion status and next items to complete

Getting Canvas API Token

Log into Canvas → Account → Settings
Scroll to "Approved Integrations"
Click "+ New Access Token"
Enter description: "Claude MCP Integration"
Copy the generated token Save securely!

⚠️ Account Admin Note: For account-level operations, ensure your API token has administrative privileges.

Production Deployment

Docker Compose

git clone https://github.com/DMontgomery40/mcp-canvas-lms.git
cd mcp-canvas-lms
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your Canvas credentials
docker-compose up -d

Kubernetes

kubectl create secret generic canvas-mcp-secrets \
  --from-literal=CANVAS_API_TOKEN="your_token" \
  --from-literal=CANVAS_DOMAIN="school.instructure.com"

kubectl apply -f k8s/

Health Monitoring

# Check application health
curl http://localhost:3000/health

# Or use the built-in health check
npm run health-check

Development

# Setup development environment
git clone https://github.com/DMontgomery40/mcp-canvas-lms.git
cd mcp-canvas-lms
npm install

# Start development with hot reload
npm run dev:watch

# Run tests
npm run test
npm run coverage

# Code quality
npm run lint
npm run type-check

📚 Available Tools (50+ Tools)

canvas_health_check - Check API connectivity
canvas_list_courses - List all your courses
canvas_get_course - Get detailed course info
canvas_list_assignments - List course assignments
canvas_get_assignment - Get assignment details
canvas_submit_assignment - Submit assignment work
canvas_get_submission - Check submission status
canvas_list_modules - List course modules
canvas_get_module - Get module details
canvas_list_module_items - List items in a module
canvas_mark_module_item_complete - Mark items complete
canvas_list_discussion_topics - List discussion topics
canvas_get_discussion_topic - Get discussion details
canvas_post_to_discussion - Post to discussions
canvas_list_announcements - List course announcements
canvas_get_user_grades - Get your grades
canvas_get_course_grades - Get course-specific grades
canvas_get_dashboard - Get dashboard info
canvas_get_dashboard_cards - Get course cards
canvas_get_upcoming_assignments - Get due dates
canvas_list_calendar_events - List calendar events
canvas_list_files - List course files
canvas_get_file - Get file details
canvas_list_folders - List course folders
canvas_list_pages - List course pages
canvas_get_page - Get page content
canvas_list_conversations - List messages
canvas_get_conversation - Get conversation details
canvas_create_conversation - Send messages
canvas_list_notifications - List notifications
canvas_get_syllabus - Get course syllabus
canvas_get_user_profile - Get user profile
canvas_update_user_profile - Update profile

canvas_create_course - Create new courses (FIXED: now requires account_id)
canvas_update_course - Update course settings
canvas_create_assignment - Create assignments
canvas_update_assignment - Update assignments
canvas_list_assignment_groups - List assignment groups
canvas_submit_grade - Grade submissions
canvas_enroll_user - Enroll students
canvas_list_quizzes - List course quizzes
canvas_get_quiz - Get quiz details
canvas_create_quiz - Create quizzes
canvas_start_quiz_attempt - Start quiz attempts
canvas_list_rubrics - List course rubrics
canvas_get_rubric - Get rubric details

canvas_get_account - Get account details
canvas_list_account_courses - List courses in an account
canvas_list_account_users - List users in an account
canvas_create_user - Create new users in accounts
canvas_list_sub_accounts - List sub-accounts
canvas_get_account_reports - List available reports
canvas_create_account_report - Generate account reports

🔧 Breaking Changes in v2.2.0

Course Creation Fix

BEFORE (Broken):

{
  "tool": "canvas_create_course",
  "arguments": {
    "name": "My Course"  // ❌ Missing account_id - caused "page not found"
  }
}

AFTER (Fixed):

{
  "tool": "canvas_create_course", 
  "arguments": {
    "account_id": 123,              // ✅ Required account_id
    "name": "My Course",
    "course_code": "CS-101"
  }
}

🌟 Example Claude Conversations

Student: "I need to check my upcoming assignments and submit my English essay"

Claude: I'll help you check your upcoming assignments and then assist with submitting your English essay. Let me start by getting your upcoming assignments...

[Claude uses canvas_get_upcoming_assignments then helps with canvas_submit_assignment]

Instructor: "Create a new Advanced Physics course in the Science department and enroll my teaching assistant"

Claude: I'll help you create the Advanced Physics course in your Science department account and then enroll your TA...

[Claude uses canvas_create_course with proper account_id, then canvas_enroll_user]

Administrator: "Generate an enrollment report for all Computer Science courses this semester"

Claude: I'll generate a comprehensive enrollment report for your CS courses...

[Claude uses canvas_list_account_courses with filters, then canvas_create_account_report]

🔍 Troubleshooting

Common Issues:

❌ 401 Unauthorized: Check your API token and permissions
❌ 404 Not Found: Verify course/assignment IDs and access rights
❌ "Page not found" on course creation: Update to v2.2.0 for account_id fix
❌ Timeout: Increase CANVAS_TIMEOUT or check network connectivity

Debug Mode:

export LOG_LEVEL=debug
npm start

Health Check:

npm run health-check

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Quick Contribution Setup

git clone https://github.com/DMontgomery40/mcp-canvas-lms.git
cd mcp-canvas-lms
npm install
npm run dev:watch
# Make changes, add tests, submit PR

📈 Roadmap

v2.3: Enhanced reporting, bulk operations, advanced search
v2.4: Mobile support, offline capability, analytics dashboard
v3.0: Multi-tenant, GraphQL API, AI-powered insights

🙋 Support & Community

🐛 Bug Reports: GitHub Issues
💬 Questions: GitHub Discussions
📖 Documentation: Wiki

Appendix: MCP in Practice (Code Execution, Tool Scale, and Safety)

Last updated: 2026-02-24

Why This Appendix Exists

MCP is still one of the most useful interoperability layers for agentic tooling. The tradeoff is that large MCP servers can expose dozens of tools, and naive tool-calling can flood context windows with tool schemas, call traces, and low-signal chatter.

In practice, larger tool surfaces only help when orchestration stays token-efficient and execution behavior is constrained.

The Shift to Code Execution / Code Mode

Recent production workflows move orchestration out of conversational turns and into executable loops. This keeps context overhead lower, improves determinism, and makes runs auditable.

Core reading:

Recommended Setup for Power Users

For lower-noise, repeatable MCP usage, start with codemode-oriented routing:

Even with strong setup, model behavior can be hit-or-miss across providers and versions. Keep retries and deterministic fallbacks.

Peter Steinberger Workflow Pattern

A high-leverage pattern is turning broad MCP tool surfaces into narrower CLI/task interfaces:

What Works Best With Which MCP Clients

Claude Code / Codex / Cursor agent workflows: usually strong for direct MCP + code-execution loops.
Thin hosted chat clients: often safer with wrapped CLIs/gateways instead of full raw tool exposure.
High-tool-count servers: usually better when split into narrow task gateways.

This ecosystem changes quickly. If you are reading this now, parts of this section may already be out of date.

Prompt Injection: Risks, Consequences, and Mitigations

Prompt injection remains an open problem for tool-using agents. It is manageable, but not solved.

Primary risks:

Hidden instructions in retrieved content or tool output.
Secret/token exfiltration through unintended calls.
Unauthorized state changes in systems or data.

Mitigation baseline:

Least-privilege credentials and scoped tokens.
Destination/action allowlists and strict schema validation.
Human confirmation for destructive operations.
Sandboxed execution and resource limits.
Structured logging and replayable execution traces.

Treat every tool output as untrusted input unless explicitly verified.

📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

⭐ Star this repo if it helps you! ⭐

Canvas MCP Server