Settings

Nothing is required: without a site, the agent asks you for one the first time, and everything else has a sensible default. Each setting is an environment variable of the server, set where you added it (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, agent-kit), or a command-line argument after the package name (npx -y @falkenslab/moodle-mcp --role teacher); if both are given, the argument wins.

At a glance

Setting	Default	For
MOODLE_URL	none: the agent asks	Your Moodle site
MOODLE_MCP_SITES	none	Several sites
MOODLE_MCP_COURSES	every course	Only these courses, your classrooms
MOODLE_MCP_ROLE	all	A teacher's or a student's tools
MOODLE_MCP_ACCESS	write	Read only, or read and change
MOODLE_MCP_SCOPES	all	The kinds of data it may touch
MOODLE_MCP_STUDENT_DATA	pseudonymize	What the AI sees of other people
MOODLE_MCP_ADVANCED	false	The advanced tools
MOODLE_MCP_CONFIRM	elicit	Who asks you before what can't be undone
MOODLE_MCP_CHANNEL	Edge, Chrome, Chromium	Which browser
MOODLE_MCP_HEADLESS	true	Whether you see the browser
MOODLE_MCP_PROFILE_DIR	~/.moodle-mcp/profile	Where your login is kept
MOODLE_MCP_DOWNLOAD_BROWSER	true	Downloading a browser when there's none
MOODLE_MCP_TRAIL	realistic	How activities are done as a student

Below, each one: its values (the default in bold), an example, and whether the agent can change it during a chat. It can only ever make things stricter, through its configure tool, never looser than what you set; ask it in your own words, such as "for this chat, only read".

Your site and your courses

MOODLE_URL

Your Moodle site, --url. Any page of it works: the site's address, a course's, the login page.

• Its address, such as https://campus.example.org.
• Not set: the agent asks you for it the first time, and keeps it among the server's sites.

MOODLE_URL=https://campus.example.org. In a chat: the agent can switch to another of your sites (use_site), or add one if you have no classrooms.

MOODLE_MCP_SITES

Several sites, each with a name, --sites; the first is where it starts, and each keeps its own login. See Several sites.

• name=address, separated by commas: school=https://campus.myschool.org,uni=https://moodle.myuni.edu.
• Or JSON: {"school": "https://campus.myschool.org"}.
• Not set: only MOODLE_URL's site, or the ones the agent adds when you ask.

In a chat: switching between them (use_site), adding one ("add my university's Moodle").

MOODLE_MCP_COURSES

The only courses the agent works in, your classrooms, --courses; their sites are added, so you need neither MOODLE_URL nor MOODLE_MCP_SITES. See Classrooms.

• Their URLs, separated by commas: https://campus.myschool.org/course/view.php?id=12,https://moodle.myuni.edu/course/view.php?id=7.
• Not set: every course of yours.

With classrooms, another course, and anything not read in a classroom, is refused; the browser tools, messages and notifications are off. In a chat: fewer of them, never more.

What the agent may do

MOODLE_MCP_ROLE

Which tools the agent gets, by what you do in Moodle, --role. Fewer tools, better choices. See Your role.

• all: every tool, for teaching and for studying.
• teacher: building and running courses, grading, people, reports, forums and messages.
• student: reading courses, doing activities, your grades and to-dos, forums and messages.

MOODLE_MCP_ROLE=teacher. In a chat: from all to one role, never back.

MOODLE_MCP_ACCESS

Whether the agent may change Moodle, --access. See Read only.

• write: it reads and changes: grades, posts, creates.
• read: it only looks; the tools that change something aren't there.

MOODLE_MCP_ACCESS=read. In a chat: from write to read, never back.

MOODLE_MCP_SCOPES

The kinds of data its tools may touch, --scopes: a profile, or a list of scopes. See Scopes.

• all: everything.
• content: building courses only (activities, sections, question banks, rubrics, the calendar, the gradebook's setup), never students' work or grades.
• teacher, student: the kinds a role needs.
• A list, such as content,communication, from: content, student-data, grading, communication, as-student, browser.

MOODLE_MCP_SCOPES=content. In a chat: fewer, never more.

MOODLE_MCP_STUDENT_DATA

What the AI sees of other people, --student-data. See Students' privacy.

• pseudonymize: aliases such as A-7KQ2XM, never their names or Moodle ids; names, emails and the like in what they wrote are replaced.
• block: nothing about them: the tools on other people's data aren't there.
• clear: their names, as Moodle shows them. Only for an AI on your own computer.

In a chat: stricter only (clear, then pseudonymize, then block).

MOODLE_MCP_ADVANCED

The advanced tools, --advanced: areas few people use, off so every chat doesn't pay for their descriptions. See Advanced tools.

• false: left out.
• true: added: course blocks, the content bank, BigBlueButton, competencies, notes about participants and external tools (LTI).

In a chat: no; only you turn them on.

MOODLE_MCP_CONFIRM

Who asks you before what can't be undone (deleting, unenrolling, resetting a course, restoring over one), --confirm. See Confirming what can't be undone.

• elicit: moodle-mcp asks you itself, in your app, with ten minutes to answer. In an app that can't ask (no MCP elicitation), those tools are refused.
• client: your app already asks you before every tool, so moodle-mcp doesn't; for such an app without elicitation.

In a chat: no; only you set it.

The browser

MOODLE_MCP_CHANNEL

Which browser moodle-mcp works in, --channel.

• Not set: Edge, then Chrome, then Chromium, the first it finds.
• msedge: Microsoft Edge. chrome: Google Chrome.
• chromium: Chromium, downloaded the first time if needed.
• firefox: Playwright's own Firefox, downloaded the first time, never the one you have installed.

MOODLE_MCP_CHANNEL=firefox. In a chat: no.

MOODLE_MCP_HEADLESS

Whether you see the browser, --headless or --headed.

• true: it works out of sight; a window opens only to log in, or when you ask to watch (Watching the agent).
• false: a visible window all the time.

In a chat: yes, either way.

MOODLE_MCP_PROFILE_DIR

The folder that keeps your login on the first site, --profile-dir; other sites keep theirs in the server's data folder. A profile can be open in one browser at a time: two sessions using moodle-mcp at once on one site need a folder each.

• A folder; ~/.moodle-mcp/profile by default. Inside a Claude Code plugin, the plugin's data folder.

In a chat: yes, for that session.

MOODLE_MCP_DOWNLOAD_BROWSER

What to do when there's no Edge or Chrome, --no-download-browser.

• true: download Chromium, once.
• false: never download a browser; without one, it says so.

In a chat: no.

MOODLE_MCP_TRAIL

How activities are done as a student, --trail.

• realistic: through the real pages, at a reader's pace, so Moodle records views and completion as for a person.
• fast: straight to the result.

In a chat: yes.

A setting left empty, or that your app passes as an unexpanded ${…}, counts as not set: its default applies, and server_info lists the ones that came so.

Changing them later

Where you added it	How
Claude Code	claude mcp remove moodle and add it again, with the same scope; or edit its env and reconnect it in /mcp
Claude Desktop	Edit claude_desktop_config.json, then quit and open Claude Desktop
Codex	Edit [mcp_servers.moodle.env] where you set it up; a new session takes it
agent-kit	/extensions config moodle-teacher access=read in the chat, or <agent> extension config … in a terminal
Any of them, during a chat	Ask the agent, within what each setting above allows

Sharing the session with moodle-driver

If you also use the moodle command line from moodle-driver, both can share one login: point MOODLE_MCP_PROFILE_DIR at the command line's profile for your site, ~/.moodle-driver/sites/<host>/profiles/<account>. A profile can only be open in one browser at a time, so the two can't use it at the same moment.