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Canvas Discussion Facilitator · vishalsachdev | DecimalAI

productivityby vishalsachdev

Canvas Discussion Facilitator

vishalsachdev/canvas-discussion-facilitator

Source vishalsachdev/canvas-mcp ↗License MIT

Discussion forum facilitator for Canvas LMS. Helps students and educators browse, read, reply to, and create discussion posts. Trigger phrases include "discussion posts", "reply to students", "check discussions", "forum participation", "post a discussion", or any discussion-related Canvas task.

SkillScore73Maintained

Automatic

Tutoring & Education pack

Last verified 9/26/2026

What it changes

Passed 16 of 22 test cases with the skill, and 7 of 22 without it.

Without skill32%

With skill73%

Checks it passed that the model alone missed

Specifies setting include_replies to true in the call.
Requires confirming the draft message text prior to sending.
Requires draft approval from the user prior to executing the post.

and 10 more in the full report

9 fixed7 passed either way6 still failing0 broke

Pass-rate lift: +41 pp
Tokens: +89%
Agent turns: 0%
Response time: -50%

Model gemini-3.6-flashMeasured 9/26/2026v116 of 22 cases passed with skill

Tokens, turns and time describe resource use, not a dollar price.

Use this skill

Save it into your project's skills folder. Claude Code picks it up in its next session.

curl -fsSL --create-dirs -o .claude/skills/vishalsachdev-canvas-discussion-facilitator/SKILL.md https://app.decimal.ai/s/vishalsachdev-canvas-discussion-facilitator/SKILL.md

Want it pinned and updatable? pip install "decimalai>=0.15", then decimalai skills add vishalsachdev-canvas-discussion-facilitator, and start Claude Code with claude --plugin-dir "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)/.agents"

1 · One-time — install the CLI (docs ↗)

pip install "decimalai>=0.15"

2 · Get the skill — writes .agents/skills/vishalsachdev-canvas-discussion-facilitator/ and pins it in .decimal/skills.lock

decimalai skills add vishalsachdev-canvas-discussion-facilitator

No CLI? Get the same file — curl · raw file

curl -fsSL --create-dirs -o .claude/skills/vishalsachdev-canvas-discussion-facilitator/SKILL.md https://app.decimal.ai/s/vishalsachdev-canvas-discussion-facilitator/SKILL.md

Raw file: /s/vishalsachdev-canvas-discussion-facilitator/SKILL.md ↗ · machine-readable summary at /s/vishalsachdev-canvas-discussion-facilitator.json ↗

Safety checks: 3 of 3 passed

Code scan CleanIntent PassedContent Clean

See it in action

One of 9 test cases the skill fixed. Same model, same prompt, with and without the skill.

1 of 9

Prompt

After identifying five students who missed the last two mandatory discussions in MATH 101, I want to send a private Canvas direct message to each of those five students to remind them. Which action should be invoked?

What was checked, without and with the skill
Checked	Without skill	With skill
Identifies send_conversation as the action for messaging specific students.	Missed	Passed
Requires confirming the draft message text prior to sending.	Missed	Passed

case-07 · gemini-3.6-flash · 9/26/2026 · answers are capped and redacted

What's inside

The instructions your model reads when the skill loads.

SKILL.md217 linessingle file

Canvas Discussion Facilitator

Facilitate discussion forum activity in Canvas LMS -- browse topics, read posts, reply to students, create new discussions, and monitor participation. Works for both students and educators.

Prerequisites

Canvas MCP server must be running and connected to the agent's MCP client.
The authenticated user can have any Canvas role (student, TA, or instructor). Tool access is governed by Canvas API permissions.
FERPA-conscious handling (educators): Set ENABLE_DATA_ANONYMIZATION=true in the Canvas MCP server environment to anonymize supported student identity fields in output. This control does not by itself establish compliance.

Steps

1. Identify the Course

Ask the user which course to work with. Accept a course code, Canvas ID, or ask them to pick from a list.

If the user does not specify, use list_courses to show active courses and prompt:

Which course should I look at discussions for?

2. Browse Discussion Topics

Call the MCP tool list_discussion_topics with the course identifier to retrieve all discussion forums.

Parameters:

course_identifier -- course code or Canvas ID
include_announcements -- set to false (default) to see only discussions, or true to include announcements

Data to surface per topic:

Topic ID and title
Author name
Posted date
Number of entries (if available)
Whether the topic is pinned or locked

Present the list so the user can pick a topic to drill into.

3. View Posts in a Discussion

Once the user selects a topic, call list_discussion_entries to retrieve posts.

Track record

Benchmark

16 / 22

test cases passed, vs 7 / 22 without

Adoption

Users: 1
Times used: 7

Safety and source details

SkillSafety

✓ 3 of 3 passed

Code scan15 of 15 checks clean

0 critical · 0 warning · 0 info — scanner v5 — 8/27/2026

View 15 scanner checks

live_secretremote_code_executionreverse_shelldata_exfiltrationssrf_metadataagent_snoopinganti_refusaldestructive_commandsobfuscated_unicodeunicode_homoglyphopaque_blobsuspicious_urltool_overreachtrigger_abuseprompt_injection_phrasing

IntentSafe

LLM judge · does the skill do what it claims

ContentClean

LLM judge · policy & harmful-content review

Source

Imported

vishalsachdev / canvas-mcp

skills/canvas-discussion-facilitator/SKILL.md

View on GitHub ↗

License MITImported 8/27/2026Version v1

More skills from the same source and nearby in the registry, with their headline benchmark lift.

Ready to supercharge your AI agents?

See it in action

What's inside

Canvas Discussion Facilitator

Prerequisites

Steps

1. Identify the Course

2. Browse Discussion Topics

3. View Posts in a Discussion

Track record

Benchmark

Adoption

SkillSafety

Source

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