Claude + Moodle MCP — Setup Guide

A complete end-to-end guide for connecting Claude Desktop and Claude Code to your university Moodle — including a workaround for schools that use Microsoft/Google SSO login, where the standard token method doesn't work.

Built on top of moodle-mcp by @1alexandrer. All credit for the MCP server goes to them — this repo documents the full setup process and the SSO token workaround that isn't in the original README.

---

What you can do once connected

• "What assignments do I have due this week?"
• "Summarise my Derivatives course"
• "What are my grades so far?"
• "Build me a linked Obsidian study vault from all my course notes"

Claude gets live access to your courses, assignments, grades, deadlines, and files — all through natural conversation.

---

Table of Contents

1. Prerequisites
2. Step 1 — Get your Moodle token
   • Standard login
   • SSO login (Microsoft/Google)
3. Step 2 — Install moodle-mcp
4. Step 3 — Configure Claude Desktop
5. Step 4 — Verify the connection
6. Step 5 — Use with Claude Code
7. Bonus — Build an Obsidian study vault
8. Troubleshooting
9. Tested on

---

Prerequisites

Requirement	Check
Claude Desktop	Installed and logged in
Node.js (LTS)	node --version → should return a version number
University Moodle account	Any school running Moodle 4.x

---

Step 1 — Get your Moodle token

Standard username/password login

Navigate to this URL while logged into Moodle in your browser:

https://moodle.yourschool.edu/user/managetoken.php

Copy the Moodle mobile web service token and skip to Step 2.

---

SSO (Microsoft/Google) login — the tricky one

If your school uses SSO, the token page only shows an RSS token — not the one you need. The Moodle app "tap the version number 5 times" trick also no longer works on newer app versions.

Here's the method that actually works:

1. Log into Moodle in Safari on your Mac (must be Safari, not Chrome/Firefox).

2. Open this URL — swap in your school's Moodle domain:

https://moodle.yourschool.edu/admin/tool/mobile/launch.php?service=moodle_mobile_app&passport=12345&urlscheme=moodlemobile

3. Safari will try (and fail) to open a moodlemobile:// URL. A blank "Untitled" tab will appear. Click the address bar of that tab — it shows a long URL starting with moodlemobile://token=...

4. Select all (Cmd+A) and copy the full URL.

5. Extract the base64 string — it's everything after token=, including the trailing ==.

6. Decode it in Terminal:

echo "YOUR_BASE64_STRING==" | base64 --decode

Output will look like:

abc123:::dc4e68b94090f96b619adee1b07e658b

Your token is the part after ::: — ignore everything before it.

7. Verify the token works:

curl "https://moodle.yourschool.edu/webservice/rest/server.php?wstoken=YOUR_TOKEN&wsfunction=core_webservice_get_site_info&moodlewsrestformat=json"

A successful response returns your name, username, and site info as JSON. If you see that, your token is valid.

---

Step 2 — Install moodle-mcp

Install the package globally so Claude Desktop can find it without needing to fetch it on every start:

npm install -g moodle-mcp

Then note the full path — you'll need this in the next step:

which moodle-mcp
# e.g. /opt/anaconda3/bin/moodle-mcp

---

Step 3 — Configure Claude Desktop

Open the Claude Desktop config file:

open -e ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Merge in the mcpServers block below. Use the full path from which moodle-mcp — do not just write moodle-mcp or npx:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "moodle": {
      "command": "/opt/anaconda3/bin/moodle-mcp",
      "args": [],
      "env": {
        "MOODLE_URL": "https://moodle.yourschool.edu",
        "MOODLE_TOKEN": "your_token_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Save the file (Cmd+S), then fully quit Claude Desktop (Cmd+Q) and reopen it.

---

Step 4 — Verify the connection

In a new Claude Desktop chat, click the + button in the input box → Connectors → confirm Moodle shows a blue toggle.

Test it by asking: "What courses am I enrolled in?"

---

Step 5 (optional) — Use with Claude Code

To use the same Moodle tools inside the Claude Code CLI, run this once:

claude mcp add moodle /opt/anaconda3/bin/moodle-mcp \
  -e MOODLE_URL=https://moodle.yourschool.edu \
  -e MOODLE_TOKEN=your_token_here

Restart Claude Code for the change to take effect.

---

Bonus — Build an Obsidian study vault

With Claude Code running locally, you can pull all your course materials and have them written as a fully linked Obsidian vault directly to your machine:

Pull all my Moodle courses and build a linked Obsidian vault at
/Users/yourname/Desktop/Study Notes — one note per topic with [[wikilinks]]
between related concepts, a MOC.md index, and tags for each section.

Important: Use Claude Code (not Claude Desktop chat) for this. Claude Desktop runs in a sandbox and cannot write to your local filesystem. Claude Code runs natively on your machine and writes files directly.

---

Troubleshooting

"Server disconnected" in Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop doesn't inherit your shell's PATH, so commands like npx or moodle-mcp won't resolve if Node is installed via Anaconda or a non-standard path. Always use the absolute path from which moodle-mcp.

Token page only shows RSS token

Your school's mobile web service token isn't exposed on the standard token page. Use the SSO method above to extract it via the browser redirect.

fetch failed error in MCP logs

This usually means the token is being rejected. Verify it with the curl command in Step 1 before adding it to the config.

Hammer/tools icon not showing in Claude Desktop

It's hidden behind the + button in the input box → click Connectors.

---

Tested on

School	City St George's, University of London (moodle4.city.ac.uk)
Login	Microsoft SSO
OS	macOS (Apple Silicon)
Moodle version	4.5.8 (Build 20251208)
moodle-mcp version	0.2.0
Node.js version	v22.6.0

---

Credit

All credit for the MCP server goes to @1alexandrer — github.com/1alexandrer/moodle-mcp.

This guide documents the full end-to-end setup and the SSO workaround discovered while setting it up at City St George's, University of London.