Canvas Toolchain

canvas-toolchain

A toolchain that helps a professor refresh a Canvas LMS course every semester. It combines three apps — Curriculum Intelligence, Canvas Design Studio, and Command & Control — behind a single MCP entrypoint, plus a Python sidecar for downloading Canvas data and a native installer.

Canvas Backup archive
  -> Curriculum Intelligence   (analyze past course, plan the next one)
  -> Canvas Design Studio      (generate Canvas-safe HTML)
  -> Canvas-safe HTML
  -> optional Canvas publishing

Professors drive the whole thing by talking to the Command & Control MCP server from any MCP-capable AI client (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, ChatGPT, Gemini). Each underlying app also stays independently usable. Direct Canvas API publishing is always optional — the no-token "generate HTML and paste it in" path is first-class.

Optional modules and companion programs: see [docs/modules.md](docs/modules.md).

Where to start

• Installing as a user? Download the native installer (Windows x64 / macOS arm64) from Releases — it bundles Node, the toolchain, and an auto-updater behind a five-screen wizard.
• Working on this repo (human or AI agent)? Read [AGENTS.md](AGENTS.md) first — it maps the tools, skills, packages, and workflow conventions, and links to every per-package handoff doc.
• Latest repo health review: [docs/repo-health-check-2026-06-07.md](docs/repo-health-check-2026-06-07.md).

Documentation

| Doc | What's in it | | --- | --- | | 🧭 [Feature overview](docs/tool-overview.md) | Concise outcome-focused summary of what Canvas Toolchain helps instructors do, with emphasis on accessibility, Canvas management, shell speed/quality, and instructor-led AI review | | 🗺️ [Roadmap](docs/roadmap.md) | What ships next and in what order — the WCAG 2.2 gate phases, upcoming releases, the v2.0 plug-in direction, and the unscheduled ideas backlog | | 🚀 [User Guide & Tutorial](docs/user-guide.md) | Start here. What you can do, how to use it, a hands-on end-to-end tutorial, and a task-by-task command catalog (what each command is · how it works · why you'd use it) | | 📘 [Commands & Credentials reference](docs/commands-and-credentials.md) | Every command (MCP tool) with its parameters, and every API key/secret — what it's for, why, and whether it's optional | | 🧩 [Module view](docs/architecture-modules.md) | The toolchain broken into modules: what each is, why it exists, what it does, and its commands | | ♿ [Accessibility checks](docs/accessibility.md) | Every automated accessibility check the toolchain runs — what each one catches, how it works (with the contrast math), where it runs (advisory vs blocking), how to fix findings, and its limitations | | 🎨 [Visual guide](docs/visual-guide/README.md) | Picture-first tour — diagrams of the pipeline, architecture, and setup ([rendered PNG/SVG](docs/visual-guide/images/) + an editable [Excalidraw scene](docs/visual-guide/pipeline.excalidraw)) |

What lives where

| Path | What it owns | | --- | --- | | packages/command-and-control/ | Single professor-facing MCP entrypoint; workflow orchestration, registry, adapters | | packages/canvas-design-studio/ | Canvas-safe HTML generation, design review, transcript enrichment | | packages/curriculum-intelligence/ | Course analysis, semester comparison, topic currency, planning | | packages/shared-types/ | TypeScript contracts shared across packages | | packages/shared-llm/ | Shared LLM client (Anthropic + Ollama providers) | | packages/module-contract/ | The CanvasToolchainModule plug-in contract for opt-in capability modules | | packages/module-video/ | Lecture Video module (Panopto as the first provider) | | packages/module-oral-assessment/ | Oral/video assessment authoring (Rhetorix-first) | | packages/module-group-builder/ | Create and rotate balanced student groups | | packages/module-roster/ | Roster & Identity Manager (PeopleSoft → de-identified roster + pseudonyms) | | packages/module-peerassessment/ | Export a Canvas group set to a PeerAssessment.com import CSV | | installer/ | Go + Fyne native installer and auto-updater | | canvas-backup (separate repo) | Python Canvas backup downloader, reached via a CLI bridge |

Verification

From the repo root:

npm test          # all TypeScript workspace tests
npm run build     # compile all packages
npm run smoke:integration --workspace=packages/command-and-control

Installer (from installer/):

go vet ./...
go test ./...
go build -o ct-installer.exe .

See [AGENTS.md](AGENTS.md) for the full cross-package verification matrix and the installer's local-payload build notes.

Source & license

This open-source MCP server is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: Ryfter
• Source: Ryfter/canvas-toolchain
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.