Proper MCP Protocol: Implements Streamable HTTP transport with JSON-RPC
Personal Access Token Auth: Students set up in 2 minutes (no admin access needed)
Multi-Institution Support: Works with any Canvas instance
Encrypted Storage: Canvas tokens encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM
Session Persistence: Sessions survive server restarts (stored in SQLite)
Built with Bun: Fast, modern TypeScript using @modelcontextprotocol/sdk

Quick Start#

# Install dependencies
bun install

# Generate encryption key
bun run generate-key

# Copy and configure environment
cp .env.example .env
# Add the generated encryption key to .env

# Run development server
bun dev

Visit http://localhost:3000 to connect your Canvas account.

How It Works#

Web Interface: Students enter Canvas domain + Personal Access Token
Verification: Server validates token by calling Canvas API
Token Storage: Canvas token encrypted and stored server-side
MCP Token: User receives an MCP connection token for their AI client
MCP Protocol: AI client connects to /mcp endpoint with Bearer token
Canvas Proxy: Server proxies tool calls to Canvas using stored token

MCP Tools#

list_courses: List Canvas courses with enrollment filtering
search_assignments: Search assignments across courses
get_assignment: Get detailed assignment information

Client Configuration#

After connecting your Canvas account, add this to Claude Desktop config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "canvas": {
      "url": "https://canvas.dunkirk.sh/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_MCP_TOKEN_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

Architecture#

MCP Server: @modelcontextprotocol/sdk with Streamable HTTP transport
Web Dashboard: Bun.serve with HTML/CSS/JS (no frameworks)
Database: SQLite with encrypted Canvas tokens and persistent sessions
Transport: JSON-RPC over HTTP POST at /mcp endpoint

Security#

Canvas tokens encrypted with AES-256-GCM before storage
MCP tokens hashed with Argon2id (cannot be retrieved after creation)
Sessions stored in database (survive restarts)
HTTPS enforced in production
No Canvas tokens exposed to MCP clients

Deployment#

Deployed at: https://canvas.dunkirk.sh

The canonical repo is hosted on tangled at knot.dunkirk.sh/canvas-mcp

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