MCP Server Canvas

🚀 Canvas MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server implementation for the Canvas LMS API. This server provides functionality to interact with Canvas LMS utilities.

🚀 Quick Start

This is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server implementation for the Canvas LMS API, enabling interaction with Canvas LMS utilities.

✨ Features

• List courses in Canvas LMS, with optional enrollment_type filtering.
• Provide interactive help prompts for using the tools.

📦 Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or higher.
• A Canvas LMS instance.
• A Canvas API access token.
• Cursor (for client integration).

Steps

1. Clone this repository.
2. Install dependencies:

   npm install
   

3. Set environment variables:

   export CANVAS_BASE_URL="https://your-canvas-instance.com"
   export CANVAS_ACCESS_TOKEN="your-api-token"
   

4. Build the project:

   npm run build
   

5. Start the server:

   npm start
   

💻 Usage Examples

Connecting with Cursor

To use this MCP server in Cursor:

1. Open Cursor's settings.
2. Navigate to the MCP configuration section.
3. Add a new server configuration:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "canvas": {
         "command": "npm",
         "args": [
           "start"
         ],
         "cwd": "/path/to/mcp-server-canvas"
       }
     }
   }
   

4. Save the configuration and restart Cursor.
5. The Canvas tools will now be available in Cursor's MCP tool panel.

Available Tools

list_courses

List all courses in Canvas LMS.

Parameters:

• enrollment_type (optional): Filter courses by enrollment type (teacher, student, TA).

Example response:

{
  "content": [
    {
      "type": "text",
      "text": [
        {
          "id": 1234,
          "name": "Example Course",
          "code": "EX101",
          "state": "Available",
          "startDate": "2024-01-01T00:00:00Z",
          "endDate": "2024-12-31T23:59:59Z"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

list-courses-help

Provide interactive prompts to assist with using the list_courses tool.

🔧 Technical Details

This server is built using TypeScript and the MCP SDK. To add new features:

1. Add new API methods to the CanvasAPI class.
2. Register new tools using server.tool().
3. Register interactive prompts using server.prompt().
4. Build and test the changes.

🛠️ Troubleshooting

When encountering issues:

1. Check if the environment variables are set correctly.
2. Confirm that the Canvas API token has the necessary permissions.
3. Check the error messages in Cursor's MCP server logs.
4. Ensure that the server path in the Cursor configuration is correct.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT license.