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AI assistance for helping students

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Overview

• Office hours help requests: Get AI help analyzing student questions and drafting responses
• Discussion threads: Get AI assistance for answering student questions on the discussion board
• Test failures: Analyze why students are failing specific tests
• Build errors: Diagnose compilation and build failures
• Test insights: Analyze common error patterns across multiple submissions

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Setting up AI assistance

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Prerequisites

1. Claude Desktop: Download and install from claude.ai/download
2. MCP Proxy: Install the proxy to connect Claude Desktop to Pawtograder
3. API Token: Create a token in Pawtograder to authenticate the MCP server

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Step 1: Install Claude Desktop

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Step 2: Install the MCP proxy

npx @anthropic-ai/mcp-proxy@latest

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Step 3: Create an API token

1. Navigate to your user menu in Pawtograder
2. Click Settings → API Tokens
3. Click Create New Token
4. Enter a name (e.g., “Claude Desktop”)
5. Copy the token immediately - it will only be shown once

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Step 4: Configure Claude Desktop

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pawtograder": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@anthropic-ai/mcp-proxy@latest", "https://app.pawtograder.com/functions/v1/mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_HEADERS": "{\"Authorization\": \"Bearer YOUR_TOKEN_HERE\"}"
      }
    }
  }
}

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Step 5: Restart Claude Desktop

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Using AI assistance

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Office hours and discussion threads

1. Diagnosis with evidence: The AI fetches the student’s code, test results, and assignment spec to identify the issue
2. Draft responses: Two versions (Socratic/exploratory and direct/efficient) that you can copy or adapt
3. Verification checklist: Reminders to verify the AI’s analysis before sending

• The student’s question and conversation history
• The assignment specification and handout URL
• The student’s submission files and test results
• Related discussion threads from other students

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Test failures and build errors

• Build errors: Click to analyze compilation failures
• Failing tests: Click to analyze why a specific test is failing

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Test insights

1. Analyze the error pattern across multiple submissions
2. Determine if it’s a student error or an assignment/test issue
3. Draft a discussion post you can share with the class

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Providing feedback

• Thumbs up/down: Rate whether the AI’s analysis was accurate
• Optional comment: Provide additional details about what was helpful or not

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Privacy and security

• Never exposes the users table or email addresses
• Never exposes the is_private_profile field
• Only accessible to instructors and graders
• Class-level access control: You can only access data from classes where you have instructor/grader permissions
• Token-based authentication: API tokens can be revoked at any time

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Available MCP tools

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Context tools

• get_help_request: Fetch help request with conversation history
• get_discussion_thread: Fetch discussion thread with replies
• get_assignment: Get assignment details including handout URL

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Submission tools

• get_submission: Get submission metadata
• list_submission_files: See what files were submitted
• get_submission_files: Fetch specific source files (supports glob patterns)

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Test and build tools

• list_submission_tests: See all test results
• get_test_output: Get detailed output for a specific test
• get_submission_build_output: Get compilation/build errors

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Repository tools

• list_grader_files: List files in the grader/solution repository
• get_grader_files: Fetch grader files (tests, mutants, solution code)
• list_handout_files: List files in the template/handout repository
• get_handout_files: Fetch handout/starter code files

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Search tools

• search_help_requests: Find related help requests
• search_discussion_threads: Find related discussion threads
• get_submissions_for_student: Get a student’s submission history

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Managing API tokens

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Viewing tokens

1. Click your user menu
2. Select Settings → API Tokens
3. View all your tokens with their status (Active, Expired, or Revoked)

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Creating tokens

1. Click Create New Token
2. Enter a descriptive name
3. Copy the token immediately - it won’t be shown again
4. Tokens are valid for 90 days by default

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Revoking tokens

1. Find the token in your token list
2. Click the trash icon
3. The token will be immediately revoked and can no longer be used

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Troubleshooting

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Claude Desktop doesn’t show the Pawtograder server

• Verify your claude_desktop_config.json is in the correct location
• Check that the JSON syntax is valid
• Ensure you replaced YOUR_TOKEN_HERE with your actual token
• Restart Claude Desktop after making changes

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”Invalid or expired API token” error

• Your token may have expired (tokens last 90 days)
• Your token may have been revoked
• Create a new token and update your Claude Desktop configuration

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AI can’t access my class data

• Verify you have instructor or grader permissions in the class
• The MCP server only works for instructors and graders, not students
• Check that you’re using the correct class ID in your prompts