Brown Courses Server

MCP server for Brown University's course catalog (cab.brown.edu). Search courses, get details, check schedule conflicts — all through Claude. No API keys or auth needed.

Tools

Tool	What it does
search	Find courses by keyword, department, instructor, or semester.
course_detail	Full details: description, prereqs, instructor, seats, Critical Review link.
schedule_check	Check multiple courses for time conflicts.
departments	List common Brown department codes.

Typical flow: search to find courses → course_detail for the ones you're interested in → schedule_check to make sure they don't conflict.

Setup

cd brown-courses-mcp
uv sync          # or: pip install -e .

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brown-courses": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "--directory", "/path/to/brown-courses-mcp", "python", "server.py"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add brown-courses -- uv run --directory /path/to/brown-courses-mcp python server.py

API

Both endpoints are Brown-hosted, unauthenticated, and return JSON:

POST https://cab.brown.edu/api/?page=fose&route=search
POST https://cab.brown.edu/api/?page=fose&route=details

Search request body:

{
  "other": {"srcdb": "202520"},
  "criteria": [
    {"field": "keyword", "value": "linear algebra"},
    {"field": "is_canc", "value": "N"}
  ]
}

Details request body:

{
  "srcdb": "202520",
  "group": "code:MATH 1530"
}

Term codes

Code	Meaning
YYYY10	Fall
YYYY15	Winter
YYYY20	Spring
YYYY00	Summer
999999	Any term

Notes

• No authentication required for read-only course data (descriptions, times, instructors, enrollment counts).
• The details endpoint returns HTML fragments for some fields (instructor info, seats, suggested courses) — the server parses these into clean text.
• Term codes go back to at least 2016 in the CAB system.
• schedule_check uses the structured meetingTimes JSON for conflict detection, not the human-readable meets string.

Credits

Pattern inspired by kenmham/DiningMCP.