get_assignment
Get a single assignment by ID.
LABSCO SUMMARY
What is due and what it asks for become answerable without opening the course site.
The planner is what lifts this above a course browser: items come back for a date range across contexts, which is the question a student actually holds. Every tool reads — assignments, quizzes, modules and files can be inspected but nothing is submitted or altered — so an assistant can help prepare work without touching the record. Assignment listings take a bucket and a sort order, which is what turns a semester's list into what is coming up next.
What it is
A read client for Canvas LMS covering courses, modules, assignments, quizzes, files and planner items.
What you get
- The courses you are actively enrolled in, listed with paging and fetched individually with includes.
- A course's syllabus, its modules, and the items inside any module.
- Assignments listed by bucket and sort order with paging, and any one of them fetched by ID.
- Quizzes listed for a course and fetched by ID.
- Files listed for a course or a folder, and one fetched by ID.
- Planner items for the authenticated user across a date range and chosen contexts.
Requirements
A Canvas account with an API token in CANVAS_API_TOKEN and your institution's Canvas address in CANVAS_BASE_URL.
Setup effort
One command plus a key — uvx canvas-lms-mcp, then supply credentials
USE CASES
01
Working out what is due this week across every course
The planner spans courses for a date range, which is the one view a per-course listing cannot give you.
02
Understanding what an assignment actually asks for
The listing narrows by bucket and order; the individual assignment carries the description the grade depends on.
03
Finding the reading attached to a module
Modules hold the sequence, module items hold the links, and the file list is where the actual documents are.
04
Preparing for a quiz you have not seen the shape of
The quiz record and the syllabus together say how much it counts for and what it is meant to cover.
12 tools
Counted once with only startup setup. Other versions, modes or optional credentials may expose a different list.
get_course
Get a single course by ID.
get_course_modules
Get modules for a course.
get_course_syllabus
Get a course's syllabus.
get_file
Get a file by ID.
get_module_items
Get items for a module.
get_quiz
Get a single quiz by ID.
list_assignments
List assignments for a course.
list_courses
List courses that the user is actively enrolled in.
list_files
List files for a course or folder.
list_planner_items
List planner items for the authenticated user.
list_quizzes
List quizzes for a course.
BEFORE YOU INSTALL
What to know first
Tools you get
12 tools when we connected; the project documents 22. The other ten, all reads (including list_submissions, list_announcements, list_discussions, list_calendar_events and get_enrollments), are documented but missing from the published 0.1.2 package, which appears older than the documentation.
Requires
- uvx on PATH
- Python 3.13+
- CANVAS_API_TOKEN in your environment
INSTALLATION
Connect your client
Server setup
TERMINAL
uvx canvas-lms-mcpMCP Clients
Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf
JSON
{
"mcpServers": {
"canvas": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"canvas-lms-mcp"
],
"env": {
"CANVAS_API_TOKEN": "<YOUR_CANVAS_API_TOKEN>",
"CANVAS_BASE_URL": "https://<YOUR_INSTITUTION>.instructure.com"
}
}
}
}
