Aspire Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that connects Claude Cowork to a PostgreSQL database, enabling course navigation (course → unit → chapter → lesson) and LaTeX quiz file import. Parsed quiz questions are inserted into the dim_questions and dim_options tables linked to lessons via dim_tests.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• PostgreSQL database with the Aspire api schema

Setup

cd mcp-server
npm install
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your real DATABASE_URL
npx drizzle-kit pull   # generates src/db/schema.ts from live DB
npm run dev

Connect Cowork

Add MCP server URL: http://localhost:3100/mcp

MCP Tools

Tool	Description
get_courses	Fetch all available courses
get_units_with_chapters	Fetch units and chapters for a course
get_lessons	Fetch lessons for a chapter
import_quizzes	Parse a LaTeX file and insert quiz questions for a lesson

LaTeX File Format

Each question uses a \question macro with 4 brace-delimited arguments:

\question
    {Question text here}
    {\item choice1\item choice2\item choice3\item choice4}
    {Explanation (ignored)}
    {A) choice1}

Assumptions

• The database uses the api schema (not public)
• IDs are bigint (not UUID) — passed as strings in MCP tool parameters
• Quiz questions map to dim_questions + dim_options (normalized), not a flat table
• If a lesson has no dim_test, one is created automatically during import
• Only the first 4-5 answer choices are stored; option E is included if present