How do I install Brightspace D2l?

Copy the stdio config for Cursor, Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or VS Code on this page. It uses the publisher's install, not a PlugMCP proxy.

Does Brightspace D2l need an API key?

No required environment variable is listed on this record.

What transport does Brightspace D2l use?

Brightspace D2l runs locally over stdio.

When was Brightspace D2l last checked?

Last checked 2026-11-12. Brightspace MCP server for D2L: what's due and submitted, grades, exams, what's new, course files.

Brightspace D2l MCP server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that gives AI assistants and agents read access to your Brightspace courses: due dates with real submission status, grades, assignments, rubrics, course content, announcements, discussions and class lists. It works at any school that uses D2L Brightspace, including schools with Microsoft, Duo, Okta or Shibboleth single sign-on.

Quick start

You need Node.js 20 or newer and Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge.

npx brightspace-d2l-mcp setup

That's it. Setup asks for your school, opens a browser so you can sign in, and connects every AI app it finds. Then ask your AI:

"What should I work on right now?" New to this? The step-by-step setup guide walks through everything with pictures of each step. Using a specific app? See the guides for Claude and ChatGPT, or how this compares to other Brightspace MCP servers.

What you can ask

	Try asking
✅ What's left	"What should I work on right now?" · "What haven't I submitted yet?"
📅 Deadlines	"What's due this week?" · "Anything due tomorrow?"
📊 Grades	"What are my grades?" · "Am I passing Calculus?"
📢 Announcements	"Did any professor post something today?"
📚 Course content	"Find the midterm review slides" · "Summarize the Lab 3 instructions"
📎 Assignment files	"What does the rubric for the project ask for?"
💬 Discussions	"What are people saying in the final project thread?"
👥 Class list	"Who's the TA for my networking course?"
🎯 Target grade	"What do I need on the final to get an 80?" · "Can I still pass?"
🗓️ Calendar	"Put my deadlines in my calendar"
📝 Exams	"When is my midterm?" · "What's on my schedule this week?"
🔔 What's new	"Catch me up" · "Did anything get graded?"

It knows what you've already handed in

Most tools only see due dates, so they keep telling you to do work you've finished. This one checks your actual submission for every assignment:

Status	Meaning
`submitted` / `graded`	Done. Never suggested as a to-do.
`not_submitted` / `draft`	Still needs doing.
`not_open_yet`	The dropbox hasn't opened; shows when it will.
`closed` / `past_due`	You can no longer submit.
`unknown`	Quizzes: Brightspace doesn't show students their quiz attempts, so your AI will ask you.

Tools

17 MCP tools for D2L Brightspace. Everything reads from Brightspace and nothing is ever changed there:

Tool	What it does
`get_todo`	Prioritized to-do list across every course: what's due soon, overdue, not open yet, and already done
`get_upcoming_due_dates`	Upcoming deadlines with the real submission status of each assignment
`get_my_courses`	Your enrolled courses with names, codes and ids
`get_my_grades`	Grade breakdown per course with points, percentages and instructor comments
`get_assignments`	Assignments (dropboxes) and quizzes with due dates, status and rubrics
`get_assignment_files`	Reads the instructions, handouts and rubric files attached to an assignment
`get_course_content`	Course modules, lecture slides, files and links
`get_syllabus`	Course syllabus and overview
`get_announcements`	Recent announcements (news) from your instructors
`get_discussions`	Discussion forums, topics and posts
`get_roster`	Instructors and TAs with contact info, optionally the full class list
`get_classlist_emails`	Email addresses for everyone in a course
`download_file`	Saves a course file or submission to a folder you choose
`get_grade_outlook`	Where you stand in a course and what you need on the remaining work to hit a target grade
`export_due_dates_calendar`	Builds a calendar file (.ics) of your unfinished deadlines for Google Calendar, Apple Calendar and Outlook
`get_calendar_events`	Exams, tests, labs, classes and other events from your course calendars
`get_whats_new`	Catch-up across every course: new announcements, newly marked work, unread discussions and untried quizzes

Built-in prompts

Apps that support MCP prompts show these as one-click shortcuts or slash commands: what_should_i_do_now · plan_my_week · weekly_digest · grade_target · exam_prep · summarize_assignment · put_deadlines_in_my_calendar · catch_me_up · when_are_my_exams

Works at any Brightspace school

Every school signs in differently: Microsoft, ADFS, Duo, Shibboleth, Okta, Google, campus pickers, or Brightspace's own form. Instead of guessing how your school works, setup opens a normal browser window and you sign in exactly like you do every day, text codes and authenticator apps included. After that it stays signed in quietly in the background. If your school ever asks you to sign in again, the browser window simply pops up and closes by itself when you're done.

Does my school work?

If your school uses D2L Brightspace, yes. Setup opens a normal browser window so any sign-in works, including Microsoft, Duo, Okta and Shibboleth.

School	Status
One college	Tested by the author
Any other D2L school	Should work. Open an issue with yours and I will add it here

Works with your AI app or agent

Connected automatically by setup: Claude Desktop · Claude Code · Cursor · VS Code (GitHub Copilot) · Windsurf · OpenAI Codex · Gemini CLI · Cline · Roo Code · OpenCode · Zed · LM Studio · Kiro

One copy-paste away: ChatGPT (developer mode) · Continue · Goose · JetBrains AI Assistant · Warp · Amp · Msty · Jan · AnythingLLM

Agent frameworks: OpenAI Agents SDK · Claude Agent SDK · LangChain / LangGraph · Vercel AI SDK · Mastra · CrewAI · Pydantic AI · LlamaIndex

It runs over stdio for local apps and streamable HTTP (serve --http) for ChatGPT and hosted agents. See docs/agents.md for copy-paste setup for every one of these.

Install it with your AI

Paste this into Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Copilot or Codex and it will set everything up for you.

Install brightspace-d2l-mcp for me by following
https://github.com/AnonymousOnyx22/brightspace-d2l-mcp/blob/main/llms.txt

Commands

Command	What it does
`npx brightspace-d2l-mcp setup`	Pick your school, sign in, connect your AI apps. On Windows the window closes by itself when done (`--keep-open` to stop that)
`npx brightspace-d2l-mcp login`	Sign in again
`npx brightspace-d2l-mcp status`	Show your school, whether you're signed in, and connected apps
`npx brightspace-d2l-mcp doctor`	Check Node, your school, sign-in and connected apps, and say how to fix anything wrong
`npx brightspace-d2l-mcp logout`	Delete the saved session
`npx brightspace-d2l-mcp uninstall`	Remove from all AI apps and delete all local data
`npx brightspace-d2l-mcp serve --http`	Run over HTTP for ChatGPT and HTTP-based agents
`npx brightspace-d2l-mcp config`	Print the MCP config JSON for any other app

When a newer version is out, commands ask whether to update first. Set BRIGHTSPACE_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=1 to turn that off.

npx brightspace-d2l-mcp setup --school yourschool.brightspace.com   # skip the school question
npx brightspace-d2l-mcp setup --apps claude-desktop,cursor          # only connect these apps
npx brightspace-d2l-mcp setup --skip-login                          # sign in later, on first use
npx brightspace-d2l-mcp setup --yes                                 # accept every default

App ids: claude-desktop, claude-code, cursor, vscode, windsurf, codex, gemini-cli, cline, roo-code, opencode, zed, lm-studio, kiro.

Privacy and security

Your password is never seen or stored. You type it into your school's own sign-in page in a real browser.
Read-only. It can't submit, post, or change anything in Brightspace. No tool sends anything but GET requests, the API client has no write methods at all, and a test fails the build if one is ever added. See how read-only is enforced.
Local only. Everything runs on your computer and talks only to your school's Brightspace. There's no server in between, and no analytics.
Uses the official Brightspace API with the same access you have in your browser.
Your session is saved in ~/.brightspace-d2l-mcp/, readable only by your user account. logout deletes it; uninstall deletes everything.

Troubleshooting

Install Google Chrome or use Microsoft Edge (already on Windows). Or install a private copy of Chromium with npx playwright install chromium.

Sign in to Brightspace in your browser, then copy the address from the address bar (any page works). If it says your site "runs Blackboard" or "Canvas", your school doesn't use Brightspace.

Fully quit Claude Desktop (tray icon → Quit, not just closing the window), then run setup again. Claude Desktop rewrites its settings while it's open, so setup offers to restart it for you.

Some schools end sessions every few hours. When that happens a browser window opens so you can sign in again. Run npx brightspace-d2l-mcp doctor to find out what is wrong, status for a quick look, or login to sign in right away. If you'd rather it never opens a window on its own, add "autoLogin": false to ~/.brightspace-d2l-mcp/config.json.

Add course ids to ~/.brightspace-d2l-mcp/config.json:

{ "excludeCourses": [123456, 789012] }

Or keep only specific ones with "includeCourses". Ask your AI "list my courses with their ids" to find them.

FAQ

Run npx brightspace-d2l-mcp setup. It connects Claude Desktop and Claude Code automatically. Then ask Claude about your courses.

Yes. This connects Brightspace to the AI app you already use (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini and others), so you can ask about deadlines, grades and course files in plain English instead of clicking through every course.

Run npx brightspace-d2l-mcp serve --http, expose it with a tunnel, and add the URL as a connector in ChatGPT developer mode. docs/agents.md walks through each step.

Run npx brightspace-d2l-mcp setup. It finds Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf and 10 other apps and connects them for you.

Yes. Local agents and SDKs launch it with npx -y brightspace-d2l-mcp@latest, and ChatGPT or HTTP-based agents use npx brightspace-d2l-mcp serve --http. docs/agents.md has copy-paste setup for ChatGPT, the OpenAI Agents SDK, Claude Agent SDK, LangChain, Vercel AI SDK and more.

No. Brightspace API keys normally require an administrator. This uses your own student sign-in instead, so it sees exactly what you see in Brightspace, and nobody at your school has to set anything up.

Yes. You sign in yourself in a real browser window, so any sign-in method your school uses works.

Yes. Ask "what do I need on the final to get an 80 in Calculus?" and get_grade_outlook uses the weights Brightspace reports to give your current percentage, your best and worst possible final grade, and the average you need on everything left.

Yes. Ask your AI to put your deadlines in your calendar. export_due_dates_calendar makes an .ics file with a link back to Brightspace and a one day reminder on each event, and only includes work you have not handed in.

Any school on D2L Brightspace, whether the address looks like yourschool.brightspace.com, yourschool.desire2learn.com, or a custom domain like learn.yourschool.edu.

No. It's read-only on purpose.

No. It's an independent open-source project that uses the official Brightspace API with your own sign-in. It isn't affiliated with or endorsed by D2L.

Development

git clone https://github.com/AnonymousOnyx22/brightspace-d2l-mcp.git
cd brightspace-d2l-mcp
npm install
npm run build
npm test
node build/index.js setup     # connects your AI apps to this local build

Tools live in src/tools/, sign-in in src/auth/, and setup in src/cli/. Issues and pull requests are welcome.

License

D2L and Brightspace are trademarks of D2L Corporation. This project is not affiliated with D2L.

Brightspace D2l

Add this server

Host a copy with our keys and logs.

Server facts

Tools

Questions

How do I install Brightspace D2l?

Does Brightspace D2l need an API key?

What transport does Brightspace D2l use?

When was Brightspace D2l last checked?

Documentation

Quick start

What you can ask

It knows what you've already handed in

Tools

Built-in prompts

Works at any Brightspace school

Does my school work?

Works with your AI app or agent

Install it with your AI

Commands

Privacy and security

Troubleshooting

FAQ

Development

License