# edX MCP MCP

> edX MCP lets you search and find online courses from major universities like Harvard, MIT, and Google. Use it to explore specific programs, check prerequisites, or discover entire subject categories across 160+ institutions without needing an API key.

## Overview
- **Category:** productivity
- **Price:** Free
- **Tags:** online-courses, higher-education, course-discovery, academic-learning, skill-development, university-curriculum

## Description

Need to figure out what training is available? This connector gives your agent the ability to walk through edX's massive catalog of online learning. You can search thousands of courses using keywords, filter by academic level, or check which organizations are offering content—from IBM to Columbia. If you find a promising program, you don't stop there; you can get full details on that curriculum and even see what related courses are available in the subject.

It’s about building knowledge paths from scattered data points. For instance, an agent can first look up all major partner universities, then select one to find their specific programs (like MicroMasters), and finally check for upcoming course runs with start dates. This ability to chain together different pieces of information is where the real power lies. When you connect your AI client through Vinkius, it handles the security overhead—your keys pass through a zero-trust proxy that never stores them on disk. You get full visibility into what data flows through and how much budget is used via Vinkius AI Analytics. It’s straightforward access to the world's largest online learning catalog.

## Tools

### get_course
Retrieves detailed information for a specific edX course, including prerequisites and pacing details.

### get_course_run
Get details for a specific course run

### get_course_runs
Lists scheduled offerings for a given course, allowing you to see start dates and enrollment status.

### get_organizations
Gets a list of all partner universities and institutions hosting courses on edX.

### get_program
Retrieves specific details for an entire academic program, like a MicroMasters or Certificate.

### get_subjects
Returns categories of subjects available on the platform, helping you discover topics.

### search_courses
Searches the full course catalog using text input, filtering by organization, level, or subject.

### search_programs
Finds structured academic programs like Professional Certificates and XSeries through a dedicated search.

## Prompt Examples

**Prompt:** 
```
Find machine learning courses from Harvard.
```

**Response:** 
```
Found 12 machine learning courses from HarvardX. Notable: 'CS109B Data Science 2: Advanced Topics' (Harvard), 'Machine Learning Fundamentals' (Harvard). Courses include self-paced and instructor-led options.
```

**Prompt:** 
```
Show me all MicroMasters programs in Data Science.
```

**Response:** 
```
Found 8 MicroMasters programs in Data Science: MIT's 'Statistics and Data Science' (4 courses, $1,350), Columbia's 'Data Science' (4 courses), Georgia Tech's 'Analytics' (4 courses). Each includes course details and enrollment links.
```

**Prompt:** 
```
What organizations offer courses on edX?
```

**Response:** 
```
edX partners with 160+ institutions including: Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Columbia, Cornell, Caltech, University of Sydney, Tsinghua University and many more top universities and companies.
```

## Capabilities

### Find Specific Course Details
Retrieve everything about a single course, including its prerequisites, estimated effort, and subjects.

### Check Enrollment Dates
Get scheduled offerings for a course, letting you know when it's next running or if it’s archived.

### Browse Partner Universities
List all the partner organizations on edX, like Harvard and Google, along with their descriptions and how many courses they host.

### Discover Full Programs
Retrieve information about structured academic paths, such as Professional Certificates or MicroMasters.

### Browse Subject Topics
List all available subject categories so you can narrow down your search by field of study.

### Search the Full Catalog
Perform a free-text search across titles, organizations, and academic levels to find potential courses.

## Use Cases

### A career changer needs credential validation.
They ask the agent: 'Find me all Data Science programs from Google or IBM.' The agent uses `search_programs` and then follows up with `get_program` to confirm course counts, giving them a direct comparison sheet.

### An employer needs training compliance data.
The ops engineer asks: 'What are the latest cybersecurity courses from top universities?' The agent uses `search_courses`, then checks `get_course_runs` for specific dates, creating a ready-made training calendar.

### A student is exploring subjects.
The student asks: 'What kind of courses are available in renewable energy?' The agent first calls `get_subjects` to confirm the category exists, and then uses that subject name to run a targeted search with `search_courses`.

### A curriculum designer needs partner data.
The designer asks: 'List every institution on edX.' The agent executes `get_organizations`, providing an instant, comprehensive list of all potential academic partners for their project.

## Benefits

- Stop wasting time hunting for specific course details. Use the `get_course` tool to instantly get prerequisites and effort estimates for any title.
- Need to know if a course is active? The `get_course_runs` tool shows scheduled offerings, so you skip past archived or expired listings.
- You don't have to visit 160+ websites. Use the `get_organizations` tool to see every partner university and what they offer on edX.
- Comparing degrees is simple. The `search_programs` tool lets you find structured paths like MicroMasters or Professional Certificates quickly.
- Start broad, then narrow down. You can use `search_courses` for a quick text search, which returns basic titles and links to get you started.

## How It Works

The bottom line is you get conversational access to a huge database of academic listings without writing complex API queries.

1. Connect your AI client using this MCP. You don't need an API key; the connection is handled directly through Vinkius.
2. Use natural conversation to ask for data, such as 'Find all Python courses from MIT.'
3. Your agent executes the necessary tool calls and returns structured course details—titles, links, and descriptions—to your client.

## Frequently Asked Questions

**Do I need an API key?**
No! edX's Discovery API is completely free and open for public course catalog data. No authentication required.

**Can I search courses by university?**
Yes! Use search_courses with the org parameter to filter by organization (e.g. "HarvardX", "MITx", "BerkeleyX"). You can also search by topic, level, language and subject simultaneously.

**What types of programs are available?**
edX offers MicroMasters (graduate-level), Professional Certificates (industry-recognized), XSeries (multi-course), and Bootcamps (intensive). Use search_programs with type parameter to filter.

**What required information does `get_course` return?**
It returns detailed metadata, including prerequisites, pacing, and estimated effort. This helps you assess if the course fits your current skill level before enrolling.

**How do I check upcoming start dates for a class using `get_course_runs`?**
This tool provides scheduled offerings, detailing both the start date and if it's currently running or archived. You get direct enrollment links for those specific course runs.

**Can I use `search_courses` to filter results by multiple criteria?**
Yes, you can narrow down results using search parameters like organization, academic level (beginner/intermediate/advanced), language, and subject. This significantly limits the scope of thousands of available courses.

**Does the edX MCP work with any compatible AI client?**
Yes, you connect using your preferred MCP-compatible client. This ensures that whether you're working in an IDE or a chat interface, the data retrieval process is consistent.

**What categories are available when I use `get_subjects`?**
It returns comprehensive subject names and descriptions across the platform. This lets you explore all available topics without needing to know specific keywords upfront.