This MCP server, built with Anthropic’s TypeScript SDK, turns Teachable’s public API into a suite of tools for use with Claude Desktop. Run it locally to connect your Claude client to a Teachable school and manage courses, users, and transaction data—all through natural language. Learn more about Teachable MCP.

Note: This is experimental software. See the disclaimer included in the project directory for details and use at your own risk.

What you need

MacOS
A Claude Pro account and the Claude Desktop client
VSCode or your preferred code editor
Access to Terminal or preferred terminal app
A Teachable school on at least a Growth plan with a Public API key

Tip: Use this guide to create an API key for your Teachable school before performing installation.

How to install

Install Apple's Xcode Command Line Tools package

Skip to Install NVM and NodeJS step if you already have this installed.

Open Terminal
Type xcode-select --install and hit enter - you should see an indication that the package has downloaded
To verify successful installation, type xcode-select -p. If your terminal displays a file path, such as /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools, this confirms the Command Line Tools package is successfully installed.

Install NVM and NodeJS

Skip to Download MCP step if you already have these installed.

Open Terminal
Type nvm and hit enter - if it says nvm not found then you need to install NVM
Type node and hit enter - if it says node not found then you need to install Node
Install NVM, a tool for managing NodeJS versions:

# Download and install nvm:
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.3/install.sh | bash

# In lieu of restarting the shell
\. "$HOME/.nvm/nvm.sh"

# Download and install Node.js:
nvm install 22

# Verify the Node.js version:
node -v # Should print "v22.20.0"

# Verify npm version:
npm -v # Should print "10.9.3"

5. If you don’t have NPM, try:

npm install -g npm
npm -v

Download MCP server and dependencies

Download the project directory from the link shared with you via email.
Navigate to the project root path in terminal:

cd Downloads/teachable-mcp-local

Tip: By default, the project directory will be saved in your Downloads folder. If you save the file elsewhere, change this path to match directory.

3. Type npm install and hit enter.

4. To verify successful installation, type ls and hit enter. If you see a package-lock.json file and a node_modules folder, this confirms the JS dependencies successfully installed.

Set up Claude Dev configuration file

From the username or Claude menu, select Settings > Developer
Click Edit Config
This will create a configuration file at ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Open this JSON file in your code editor (you should see { “mcpServers”: { } } or just empty brackets)
Copy and paste the code below into the code editor. Then, update [YOUR_API_KEY] and [YOUR_USERNAME]/[DEV_FOLDER] to match your Teachable school API key and the path where the MCP server is installed.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "teachable-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "env": {
        "TEACHABLE_BASE_URL": "https://developers.teachable.com",
        "TEACHABLE_API_KEY":"[YOUR_API_KEY]"
      },
      "args": [
        "-y", "tsx",
        "/Users/[YOUR_USERNAME]/[DEV_FOLDER]/teachable-mcp-local/main.ts"
      ]
    }
  }
}

6. Save your changes to the configuration file

Quit Claude desktop and restart

When Claude starts up again, you should see the Teachable MCP server available in the tools menu and can see your configuration running in the developer settings.

Test the server

Start a chat with Claude and ask something like “I would like to see the tools available to me for managing my Teachable school”. You should see a response that lists all the available MCP tools.

Troubleshooting

Make sure that you've correctly saved your Teachable school API key and the correct file path in the Claude Desktop Config file.
Make sure the Claude Desktop Config file does not contain any extra quotation marks, commas, or unclosed brackets. Try a JSON validator if you’re running into formatting issues.
If you don't know your system username for updating the file path in the Claude Desktop Config file, type whoami into your terminal and hit enter.
Any time you run into problems using terminal commands, copy/paste the output or take a screenshot and use it to get help from Claude or your preferred LLM.
Reference Claude Desktop troubleshooting docs for further steps, if necessary.

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