tutor-mcp-python
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MCP Tutor Server (Python)
An AI tutoring system that runs as a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, allowing Claude to access and interact with your local educational materials to provide personalized tutoring based on your actual course content.
Features
- Privacy First: All your educational materials stay on your local machine
- Universal Format Support: Works with PDFs, Markdown, and text files
- Smart Search: Find concepts and explanations across all your materials
- Interactive Learning: Generate quizzes, summaries, and detailed explanations
- Resource Access: Claude can read full documents for comprehensive answers
What It Does
The tutor server provides Claude with 5 powerful tools:
- explain_concept - Search for and explain specific concepts from your materials
- search_materials - Full-text search across all documents with context
- summarize_topic - Generate brief or detailed summaries of topics
- generate_quiz - Create practice questions at various difficulty levels
- list_topics - Browse all available educational materials
All your documents are also exposed as resources, allowing Claude to read complete files when needed.
Installation
Prerequisites
- Python 3.10 or higher
- Claude Desktop app
Setup
- Clone or download this directory:
cd tutor-mcp-python
- Install the package:
pip install -e .
Or using uv (recommended):
uv pip install -e .
- Configure Claude Desktop:
Edit your Claude Desktop config file:
- macOS:
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json - Windows:
%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Add the tutor server:
{
"mcpServers": {
"tutor": {
"command": "python",
"args": ["-m", "tutor_mcp.server"],
"env": {
"TUTOR_MATERIALS_PATH": "/absolute/path/to/materials"
}
}
}
}
Or if installed globally:
{
"mcpServers": {
"tutor": {
"command": "tutor-mcp",
"env": {
"TUTOR_MATERIALS_PATH": "/absolute/path/to/materials"
}
}
}
}
- Add your educational materials:
Create a materials directory and add your files:
materials/
βββ computer-science/
β βββ algorithms.pdf
β βββ data-structures.md
βββ mathematics/
β βββ calculus-notes.txt
βββ physics/
βββ quantum-mechanics.pdf
- Restart Claude Desktop
Usage
Once configured, you can ask Claude questions about your materials:
- "Explain the concept of binary search trees based on my materials"
- "Search my notes for information about quantum entanglement"
- "Generate a quiz on recursion with 5 medium difficulty questions"
- "Summarize what my materials say about Big O notation"
- "What topics do I have materials for?"
Claude will use the tutor server to access your files and provide personalized answers based on your actual course content.
Supported File Formats
.txt- Plain text files.md,.markdown- Markdown files.pdf- PDF documents (text extraction)
Configuration
Environment Variables
TUTOR_MATERIALS_PATH- Path to your educational materials directory (default:./materials)
Materials Directory
Organize your materials however you like. The server will:
- Recursively scan all subdirectories
- Index all supported file types
- Make them searchable and accessible to Claude
Development
Running from Source
python -m tutor_mcp.server
Running Tests
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest
Project Structure
tutor-mcp-python/
βββ src/
β βββ tutor_mcp/
β βββ __init__.py
β βββ server.py # Main server implementation
βββ materials/ # Your educational materials
βββ pyproject.toml # Project configuration
βββ README.md
How It Works
- Startup: Server indexes all documents in your materials directory
- Connection: Claude Desktop connects via stdio transport
- Queries: You ask educational questions in Claude
- Tool Use: Claude calls tutor tools to search/summarize/explain
- Response: Server returns relevant content with context
- Answer: Claude synthesizes the information into helpful responses
Privacy & Security
- All data stays on your local machine
- No materials are sent to external services
- Claude only accesses files through the MCP protocol
- You control exactly which directory is accessible
Troubleshooting
Server not appearing in Claude Desktop
- Check the config file syntax (valid JSON)
- Verify Python is in your PATH
- Check Claude Desktop logs for errors
- Restart Claude Desktop completely
No materials found
- Verify
TUTOR_MATERIALS_PATHis an absolute path - Check that the directory exists and contains supported files
- Ensure file extensions are lowercase or supported (.txt, .md, .pdf)
PDF text extraction issues
Some PDFs (especially scanned images) may not extract text properly. For best results:
- Use text-based PDFs, not scanned images
- Consider converting scanned PDFs using OCR
- Alternatively, extract text manually to .txt or .md files
License
MIT
Contributing
Contributions welcome! This is an open-source project to help students learn better with AI assistance.
Acknowledgments
Built with:
- Model Context Protocol - MCP SDK
- pypdf - PDF text extraction
- Claude - AI assistant by Anthropic
