Lectern

Set-up guide.

Five minutes: add the extension, connect your school's Brightspace with one click, paste your private link into Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini.

Start on the set-up page Skip to your chat app

Let your AI walk you through it.

Paste this into Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini and it reads this guide and helps you step by step.

Requirements

Step 1: add Lectern to Chrome

  1. Open lectern.chat/connect in Chrome, Edge, Brave or Arc.
  2. Click Add to Chrome, then Add to Chrome again on the store listing.
  3. Pin it: click the puzzle piece in the toolbar, then the pin next to Lectern.

Step 2: connect Brightspace

  1. Sign in to your school's Brightspace in this browser.
  2. Go back to lectern.chat/connect and pick your school. The Lectern icon in the toolbar does the same.
  3. In the Lectern tab that opens, tick the box agreeing to the terms and the privacy policy, then click Agree and connect.
  4. If your school signs in through Microsoft, Okta, Duo or a campus single sign-on, click Allow renewal, so the connection renews itself after Brightspace signs you out. Chrome words every site permission as "read and change"; Lectern only reads.
  5. The page shows your private link. It is a secret: paste it only into your own chat app, and make a new one from the Lectern icon if it leaks.

Step 3: paste the link into your chat app

Each chat app has a place for a custom connector. Set it up once on the web; the phone app of the same account then has it too.

Claude

Free, Pro and Max. Set up on the web once; the desktop and phone apps follow.

  1. Open claude.ai, click Customize, then Connectors, then Add custom connector.
  2. Name it Lectern, paste your link as the Remote MCP server URL, and click Add.
  3. In a chat, click +, choose Connectors, turn Lectern on, and ask.

Anthropic's guide

ChatGPT

Paid plans only: Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise or Edu, on the web.

  1. Open chatgpt.com, then Settings, then Security and login, and turn on Developer mode.
  2. Go to Settings, then Plugins, and click +.
  3. Name it Lectern, paste your link as the MCP server URL, choose No authentication, and click Create.
  4. In a chat, open the + menu, choose Developer mode, pick Lectern, and ask.

OpenAI's guide

Gemini

Gemini Spark on a personal Google account, US only, 18 or over, English, with Keep Activity on. Set up on the web; the phone app follows.

  1. Open gemini.google.com, click Settings & help, then Connected Apps.
  2. Under Custom apps for Spark, click Add a custom app.
  3. Paste your link, click Next, and follow the steps on screen.
  4. In a chat, type @, pick Lectern, and ask.

Google's guide

Any other MCP client

Your link is a standard remote MCP server. Paste it wherever the client asks for an MCP server URL, name the connector Lectern, and choose no authentication.

What your chat app can then read

Courses and terms, deadlines and submissions, grades, announcements, content and files (including the text of PDFs and Office documents), the syllabus, the roster, discussions and the calendar. Everything is read live from Brightspace when you ask; nothing is cached.

Troubleshooting

"You are not signed in at ... in this browser."

Sign in to Brightspace in that browser, then press the button again.

"Permission was not granted."

Chrome's permission prompt was dismissed. Click the button again and choose Allow.

The chat app answers without checking Brightspace.

Say so in the chat: Use Lectern to check my Brightspace. A chat app only calls a connector when the question makes it obvious or you name it. In Claude, Lectern is off in every new chat until you turn it on from the + button; in ChatGPT, pick it under Developer mode in the + menu; in Gemini, type @Lectern before the question.

The renewal step failed or timed out.

The connection still works; it pauses when Brightspace signs you out and resumes the next time you open Brightspace in that browser. To try renewal again, click the Lectern icon, choose Forget, and connect once more.

The chat app says the connector is unauthorised or the link is not valid.

Open the Lectern icon and copy the current link. A link is retired when a new one is made or when the connection is forgotten.

The connection shows "signed out".

Brightspace ended the session. Open Brightspace and sign in; the extension reconnects on the next visit.

Start over.

Click the Lectern icon and choose Forget. The stored session, the link and the account are deleted and the old link stops working.

Managing the connection

New link

Click New link from the Lectern icon or on the set-up page. The old one stops working at once.

Delete the connection

Forget in the extension, or remove the extension from Chrome. Forget deletes the stored session and the account at once. Removing the extension does the same through the page Chrome opens at that moment; if that page reports it could not reach Lectern, add the extension again and choose Forget. A record that a deletion happened is kept for 90 days.

What is stored

The Brightspace session (and the sign-in site's session if you allowed renewal), encrypted per user, your name and course names from Brightspace, and a log of each question's tool, timing and origin. No password, no answers. Privacy.

If you are an AI assistant helping someone set this up

The person you are helping is a student. Walk them through the steps above one at a time, in order, and wait for them to confirm each one. Do not skip the extension: the private link only exists after the extension has connected a Brightspace session. Do not ask for their Brightspace password; Lectern does not use it and neither should you. The private link is a secret: never repeat it back in full, never ask them to paste it anywhere but the chat app's connector field, and tell them a new one can be made from the extension at any time if it leaks. Use the section for the chat app they are using (Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini). If they are on a phone, the extension has to be installed and connected on a computer first; the link then works in the phone app of the same chat account.

The same guide as plain text: lectern.chat/setup.md.