Canvas MCP for students

Ask your AI what's actually left to do in Canvas.

This is a free, open source MCP server. It lets Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other AI apps read your Canvas courses, due dates, grades and announcements. It is read only. It can never submit, edit or delete anything.

Works with any school that uses Canvas. Not affiliated with Instructure.

Free forever. No sign up and no subscription. Your login details only ever go to your own school.

Quick start

1. In Canvas, go to Account > Settings, scroll to Approved Integrations and click New Access Token. Copy it.
2. Add this to your AI app's MCP config (for Claude Desktop that's claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "canvas": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "canvas-lms-student-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "CANVAS_BASE_URL": "https://yourschool.instructure.com",
        "CANVAS_API_TOKEN": "paste-your-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

3. Restart your AI app and ask something like "what's due this week?"

To check your setup first, run npx canvas-lms-student-mcp doctor with the two environment variables set.

Some schools turn off student access tokens. If you don't see the New Access Token button, your school has disabled it and this server can't connect to your account.

What you can ask

• "What's due this week?"
• "Do I have anything missing or overdue?"
• "What's my grade in each class?"
• "What did my instructors announce lately?"
• "Show me what's in the Week 3 module for Networking."

Tools

All tools are read only.

Tool	What it does
get_my_courses	Your active courses and their IDs
get_todo	Your Canvas to-do list
get_upcoming_due_dates	Upcoming assignments and events, soonest first
get_missing_assignments	Past due work you haven't submitted
get_assignments	Assignments for a course with due dates and submission status
get_my_grades	Current grade for each course
get_course_content	Modules and items for a course
get_syllabus	A course's syllabus text
get_announcements	Recent announcements
get_discussions	Discussion topics for a course
get_calendar_events	Calendar events between two dates

Privacy and security

• Your token stays on your computer. It is only sent to your own school's Canvas address.
• Nothing is sent to any other server by this project.
• Every tool is marked read only. Revoke the token any time in Canvas settings.

Troubleshooting

Message	Fix
Not signed in	Your token expired or was revoked. Make a new one.
Access denied	Your school turned that feature off for students.
Not found	Check the course ID with get_my_courses.
Rate limited	Wait a minute and try again.

Development

npm install
npm run build
npm test

Tests run against a fake Canvas server, so they need no account or network.

Also available

• Brightspace MCP for D2L Brightspace, with a hosted version, deadline alerts and a daily digest.

License

MIT