Canvas LMS MCP

Local MCP server for Canvas LMS instances. It runs over stdio, keeps a live browser session open while the MCP is running, and exposes a read-only tool surface for deadlines, announcements, inbox conversations, course pages, modules, files, grades, and weekly planning.

Highlights

• Works with Canvas LMS web sessions and the standard Canvas API.
• Supports weekly planning, assignments, announcements, inbox conversations, course pages, modules, files, grades, and content search.
• Runs locally over stdio and opens a live browser session for authentication.
• Published on npm as @canvas-mcp/server.

UOC is only an example Canvas deployment. Replace the base URL with your university Canvas URL.

Does My University Use Canvas?

One quick way to check is:

1. Go to Canvas login discovery.
2. Select Students and Educators.
3. Search for your university name.
4. If your institution appears, it is using Canvas.

Requirements

• Node.js 20+
• A local Chromium-based browser. The login flow prefers an installed browser such as Chrome, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, or Opera; it falls back to Playwright Chromium if none is detected.

Runtime Notes

• This MCP uses the standard Canvas web session and Canvas API.
• It should work with many Canvas-based institutions, but the login experience can vary because each university may use different SSO or identity-provider flows.
• The current implementation is not hardcoded to UOC anymore; it opens whatever CANVAS_BASE_URL you configure and validates the session against that Canvas host.
• The main compatibility requirement is that, after login, the Canvas instance exposes the standard authenticated API and sets a reusable Canvas session cookie in the browser session.

Package Usage

Run the published package directly with npx:

npx -y --package @canvas-mcp/server canvasmcp run

When the server starts it opens a browser window automatically, waits for a valid Canvas session, and then keeps that window open while the MCP server is running. Do not close that browser window during use. When the MCP server stops normally or the client closes the stdio connection cleanly, the linked browser window should close with it.

MCP Client Config

By default, this project stores a persistent profile in an OS-standard user directory:

• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\canvas-mcp\profile
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/canvas-mcp/profile
• Linux: ~/.config/canvas-mcp/profile

You can still override it with CANVAS_PROFILE_DIR if needed.

Replace CANVAS_BASE_URL with your university Canvas URL.

Claude Desktop

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "canvasmcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "--package",
        "@canvas-mcp/server",
        "canvasmcp",
        "run"
      ],
      "env": {
        "CANVAS_BASE_URL": "https://canvas.your-university.edu"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "canvasmcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "--package",
        "@canvas-mcp/server",
        "canvasmcp",
        "run"
      ],
      "env": {
        "CANVAS_BASE_URL": "https://canvas.your-university.edu"
      }
    }
  }
}

Windsurf

Windsurf uses ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "canvasmcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "--package",
        "@canvas-mcp/server",
        "canvasmcp",
        "run"
      ],
      "env": {
        "CANVAS_BASE_URL": "https://canvas.your-university.edu"
      }
    }
  }
}

Source: Windsurf MCP docs

Visual Studio Code

VS Code supports MCP servers through mcp.json. Add this to your user or workspace config:

{
  "servers": {
    "canvasmcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "--package",
        "@canvas-mcp/server",
        "canvasmcp",
        "run"
      ],
      "env": {
        "CANVAS_BASE_URL": "https://canvas.your-university.edu"
      }
    }
  }
}

Source: VS Code MCP docs

Claude Code

Claude Code can add local stdio servers from the CLI. On Windows, the official docs note that npx often needs a cmd /c wrapper.

claude mcp add-json canvasmcp "{\"type\":\"stdio\",\"command\":\"cmd\",\"args\":[\"/c\",\"npx\",\"-y\",\"--package\",\"@canvas-mcp/server\",\"canvasmcp\",\"run\"],\"env\":{\"CANVAS_BASE_URL\":\"https://canvas.your-university.edu\"}}"

Source: Claude Code MCP docs

Codex

Codex supports MCP server setup from the CLI or directly in ~/.codex/config.toml. The configuration is shared between the CLI and the app/IDE extension.

CLI:

codex mcp add canvasmcp --env CANVAS_BASE_URL=https://canvas.your-university.edu -- npx -y --package @canvas-mcp/server canvasmcp run

Config file:

[mcp_servers.canvasmcp]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "--package", "@canvas-mcp/server", "canvasmcp", "run"]

[mcp_servers.canvasmcp.env]
CANVAS_BASE_URL = "https://canvas.your-university.edu"

Source: OpenAI Codex MCP docs

Available Tools

• get_auth_status
• get_profile
• list_conversations
• get_conversation_detail
• list_current_courses
• get_course_announcements
• get_discussion_topic_detail
• get_course_assignments
• get_assignment_detail
• get_submission_status
• get_course_activity
• get_course_calendar_events
• get_user_todo
• get_course_modules
• get_module_items
• list_course_pages
• get_course_page_detail
• get_course_files
• get_grades_summary
• search_course_content
• get_weekly_digest

get_weekly_digest is the preferred tool for "what do I have next week?" style questions because assignments alone are often incomplete in many Canvas courses.

For regular course pages (for example content pages that are not assignments or announcements), use:

1. list_course_pages to discover available pages in a course.
2. get_course_page_detail to retrieve full page content (body.html + body.text) for summarization.

Configuration

CANVAS_BASE_URL

• Canvas base URL for your institution.
• Example: https://aula.uoc.edu
• Must use https.

CANVAS_PROFILE_DIR

• Optional path to the Playwright persistent profile. If omitted, the MCP uses an OS-standard location in your user directory.
• Relative values are resolved from the project root.

CANVAS_BROWSER_PATH

• Optional path to a specific browser executable. In normal usage you should not need this; the MCP auto-detects common local browsers and falls back to Playwright Chromium.

Local Development

Install dependencies:

pnpm install

Create local config if needed:

copy .env.example .env

Start the MCP server in development:

pnpm dev

Build and run the compiled server:

pnpm build
pnpm start

Run checks:

pnpm typecheck
pnpm test

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome for bug reports, fixes, and compatibility improvements.

By contributing, you agree that your contributions may be used in this project under the repository license and ownership terms. If you want to propose a larger change, open an issue first so the approach can be discussed before implementation.

Security Notes

• Tool responses may include html fields returned by Canvas. Treat that HTML as untrusted content and sanitize it before rendering in any client UI.
• The MCP only follows Canvas API requests on the configured CANVAS_BASE_URL origin.

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