mcp-education

Education LMS MCP server — manage courses, assignments, grades, students, and announcements via Canvas LMS. 12 tools for instructors, TAs, and administrators. Works with any Canvas instance (Instructure cloud or self-hosted).

Installation

cargo install mcp-education

Setup

1. Get a Canvas API Token

Log into your Canvas instance
Go to Account → Settings
Scroll to Approved Integrations
Click + New Access Token
Give it a name (e.g. "MCP Agent") and click Generate Token
Copy the token (you won't see it again)

2. Run

CANVAS_BASE_URL=https://yourschool.instructure.com \
CANVAS_TOKEN=your_token \
mcp-education

MCP Client Configuration

Claude Desktop / Cursor

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "education": {
      "command": "mcp-education",
      "env": {
        "CANVAS_BASE_URL": "https://yourschool.instructure.com",
        "CANVAS_TOKEN": "your_canvas_api_token"
      }
    }
  }
}

Tools (12)

Read (9)

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | list_courses | All courses for the authenticated user | | get_course | Course details, syllabus, enrollment count | | list_assignments | All assignments in a course | | get_assignment | Assignment details, rubric, submission summary | | list_students | Students enrolled in a course | | get_submissions | All submissions for an assignment | | get_course_analytics | Grade analytics and student summaries | | list_modules | Course content structure (modules + items) | | search_course_content | Search pages, assignments, discussions |

Write (3, gated)

| Tool | Approval | Description | |------|:--------:|-------------| | create_assignment | Yes | Create assignment with name, due date, points, submission types | | grade_submission | Yes | Grade a student's work with score and comment | | post_announcement | Yes | Post announcement to a course |

Usage Examples

"What courses am I teaching?"

→ list_courses()

Results:
  - CS 101: Intro to Programming (45 students)
  - CS 301: Data Structures (32 students)

"Show me ungraded submissions for the midterm"

→ list_assignments(course_id="12345")
→ get_submissions(course_id="12345", assignment_id="67890")

Results:
  - Alice Johnson: submitted 2026-05-20, not graded
  - Bob Smith: submitted 2026-05-21, not graded

"Create a homework assignment due Friday"

→ create_assignment(
    course_id="12345",
    name="Week 8 Problem Set",
    description="Complete exercises 4.1-4.5",
    due_at="2026-05-30T23:59:00Z",
    points_possible=100,
    submission_types=["online_upload"]
  )

"Grade Alice's submission"

→ grade_submission(
    course_id="12345",
    assignment_id="67890",
    student_id="11111",
    grade="92",
    comment="Excellent work on the recursion section!"
  )

"Announce the exam schedule"

→ post_announcement(
    course_id="12345",
    title="Final Exam Schedule",
    message="The final exam will be on June 10th at 9am in Room 301."
  )

Environment Variables

| Variable | Required | Default | Description | |----------|:--------:|---------|-------------| | CANVAS_BASE_URL | Yes | https://canvas.instructure.com | Your Canvas instance URL | | CANVAS_TOKEN | Yes | — | Canvas API access token |

Supported Platforms

Canvas LMS (Instructure) — full support
Any Canvas instance: university, K-12, corporate training
Cloud-hosted or self-hosted

Security

Write operations (create_assignment, grade_submission, post_announcement) are marked as requiring approval in governed environments
The Canvas token scope determines what the agent can access
Use a token with minimal permissions (e.g. TA role for grading only)

License

Apache-2.0

MCP Servers