mcp-canvas-lms vs filesystem

Side-by-side comparison to help you pick between these two MCP servers.

	mcp-canvas-lms by DMontgomery40	filesystem by modelcontextprotocol
Stars	★ 97	★ 85,748
30d uses	—	—
Score	49	77
Official	—	✓
Categories	educationProductivityDeveloper Tools	File SystemDeveloper ToolsProductivity
Language	JavaScript	TypeScript
Last commit	this month	this month

mcp-canvas-lms · Summary

Comprehensive MCP server for Canvas LMS with 54+ tools for students, instructors, and administrators.

filesystem · Summary

A feature-rich MCP server for filesystem operations with dynamic directory access control.

mcp-canvas-lms · Use cases

Automate course management tasks for instructors including creating assignments, grading submissions, and managing student enrollments
Help students track their academic progress by checking grades, upcoming assignments, and module completion status
Enable Canvas administrators to manage user accounts, generate institutional reports, and oversee course hierarchies

filesystem · Use cases

Enable AI models to read and write project files during development
Allow Claude or other MCP clients to browse and analyze codebases
Provide secure sandboxed access to specific directories for content generation

mcp-canvas-lms · Install

Installation

Claude Desktop Integration (Recommended)

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "canvas-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "canvas-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "CANVAS_API_TOKEN": "your_token_here",
        "CANVAS_DOMAIN": "your_school.instructure.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

NPM Package

npm install -g canvas-mcp-server
export CANVAS_API_TOKEN="your_token_here"
export CANVAS_DOMAIN="your_school.instructure.com"
canvas-mcp-server

Docker

docker run -d \
  --name canvas-mcp \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  -e CANVAS_API_TOKEN="your_token" \
  -e CANVAS_DOMAIN="school.instructure.com" \
  -e MCP_TRANSPORT="streamable-http" \
  ghcr.io/dmontgomery40/mcp-canvas-lms:latest

filesystem · Install

Installation

Using NPX

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem",
        "/path/to/allowed/directory"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Using Docker

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "--mount", "type=bind,src=/path/to/allowed/dir,dst=/projects/allowed/dir",
        "mcp/filesystem",
        "/projects"
      ]
    }
  }
}

VS Code Extension

Click the installation buttons in the README to install directly in VS Code.

Comparison generated from public README + GitHub signals. Last updated automatically.