didactic.

How Tutor Platform works with Claude

A complete walkthrough — connecting Claude, what your child can ask, how the tutor responds, and where to find their progress.

What you're setting up

A two-minute mental model before you start clicking.

Tutor Platform is a service that turns Claude — the AI assistant your child already uses or will use — into a structured tutor. Instead of Claude answering homework questions directly, it follows a Socratic protocol: ask questions, scaffold understanding, never just hand over the answer. After each session it sends a transcript to a neutral evaluator that scores how well the session went and tracks per-concept mastery over time.

You'll do three things, in this order:

  1. Create an account and add your students on the website.
  2. Connect Claude as a "custom connector" — a one-time link between Claude and the tutor.
  3. Ask Claude to start a tutoring session.

Tip — You don't need an Anthropic API account. If you have a Claude.ai subscription (or are using Claude for free), that's all you need. The tutor runs on whichever Claude product you already use — desktop, mobile, or web.

1. Connecting Claude

Once. Five minutes. You won't have to do this again.

Step 1 — Sign in to Tutor Platform. Create an account at the sign-up page using your email and a password. Add at least one student on the dashboard — just a first name (or nickname) and grade band.

Step 2 — Open Claude → Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector. In Claude desktop, mobile, or claude.ai, find the connector settings. You're adding a "remote MCP server." The only field that matters is the server URL.

Step 3 — Paste this URL:

https://didactic.kecker.co/mcp

That's the only field you need to fill in. Claude will detect that the server requires sign-in and open a browser window when you save.

Step 4 — Sign in and approve when Claude prompts you. You'll see a Tutor Platform sign-in screen, then a consent dialog asking you to allow Claude to read and write your tutoring data. Approve it. You're connected.

Where this works: Claude desktop (Mac/Windows), Claude mobile (iOS/Android), and claude.ai on the web — anywhere custom connectors are available. The same connection covers all of them; you only set it up once per Claude account.

2. Your first session

From here on, everything happens inside Claude.

Open Claude (any platform) and type something like:

You: Start a math tutoring session for Liam.

Claude will call the tutor's list_students tool to find your student, then start_session to begin. From that point on, the conversation is between your child and the tutor. You can hand the device over.

Claude: Hi Liam! Ready to work on some math today? What's a problem you're stuck on, or a topic that's been bugging you?

When your child is done, they can say "I'm done" or just close the chat:

Liam: I'm done.

Claude: Great work today. Quick recap: we worked on equivalent fractions, you nailed the visual model but want to keep practicing the multiply-numerator-and-denominator shortcut. I'll log that for next time.

Behind the scenes, Claude calls end_session with the transcript. A few minutes later you'll see the session scored on the student's dashboard page.

What Claude can do

You don't call these directly — Claude does, in response to natural-language prompts. They're listed here so you know what's happening under the hood.

list_students — See your students

Returns the students you've added, with their ids and grade bands.

You might say:

  • "List my students."
  • "Who's set up on the tutor?"

start_session — Begin a tutoring session

Opens a new session for one student in one subject. Claude reads the tutor's system prompt, your per-student instructions, and the grade band, then takes over as the tutor.

You might say:

  • "Start a math session for Aisha."
  • "Let's do reading with Liam — he's working on inference."

get_active_session — Resume an in-progress session

Checks whether a student has a session that wasn't formally ended.

You might say:

  • "Do I have a session open for Liam?"
  • "Pick up where we left off with Aisha."

log_concept_engaged — Record concept-level signals

The tutor calls this on its own whenever your child demonstrates, struggles with, errors on, or guesses about a concept. You'll see these aggregated as mastery percentages on the dashboard — you don't need to ask for them.

This happens automatically. If you want, you can ask Claude things like:

  • "What concepts has Liam been working on?"

validate_socratic_pathway — Keep the tutor honest

Before the tutor gives anything that looks like a final answer, it has to check with the server. If your child is being scaffolded into the answer, the tutor proceeds. If it's about to just hand it over, the tutor gets redirected.

This happens automatically — it's the guardrail that keeps the tutor from collapsing into a homework-answering bot.

end_session — Close out and get graded

Sends the transcript to the evaluator. Within a few minutes the session appears on the student's dashboard page with a rubric score and a list of concepts engaged.

Your child can trigger this with:

  • "I'm done."
  • "That's enough for today."

A real session, narrated

What it looks like in practice — and what the tutor is doing under the hood.

You: Let's do a math session for Aisha. She's in 5th grade.

Claude calls list_students, then start_session with subject=math.

Claude (as the tutor): Hi Aisha! What's something in math that's been bugging you, or a problem you're stuck on right now?

Aisha: i don't get why 1/2 equals 2/4

Claude (as the tutor): Great question to dig into. Before I jump in — if I gave you a pizza cut into 2 equal slices and you ate 1 slice, how much did you eat?

Tutor is scaffolding, not answering. It calls log_concept_engaged with concept="equivalent_fractions", mastery_observation="struggled".

Aisha: half

Claude (as the tutor): Right. Now imagine I cut each of those slices in half again — so now there are 4 slices total. How many of those smaller slices would you have eaten?

…and so on. The tutor scaffolds toward Aisha figuring it out herself, never just telling her the rule. When Aisha says "ohhh so 2 out of 4 IS half," the tutor calls log_concept_engaged again with mastery_observation="demonstrated".

When Aisha says "ok i'm done," the tutor wraps up with a recap and calls end_session. A few minutes later you can open Aisha's dashboard page and see "equivalent_fractions: 1 demonstrated, 1 struggled — mastery trending up."

Customizing the tutor

Two surfaces for shaping behavior. Both live on the dashboard.

Per-student instructions

On each student's page, you'll find a "Tutor instructions for this student" box, with separate tabs for math, reading, writing, and science. These are free-form notes the tutor reads at the start of every session for that student in that subject. Use them for:

  • What they love or hate. "Loves geometry. Hates word problems." The tutor leans into the first and treads carefully around the second.
  • Known gaps. "Still working on multiplication tables — scaffold below that level."
  • Communication style. "Use sports metaphors." "Be playful." "No nicknames."
  • Hard constraints. "Avoid violent word problems." "Don't joke about death."

Account-wide grading criteria

On the Grading tab you can write notes the evaluator (not the tutor) reads when scoring sessions. Use these to bend the rubric toward what you care about:

  • "Weight conceptual understanding over speed."
  • "Penalize guessing without working through the problem."
  • "For reading, mastery means inference, not just literal recall."

Tip — Plain English works. Both surfaces feed natural-language notes directly into the prompt — there's no special syntax, no required keywords. Write the way you'd brief a human tutor.

Reading progress

How to interpret what the dashboard shows you.

Concept mastery

  • Percentage. Current best estimate based on recent sessions touching that concept. Green ≥ 70%, orange 40–70%, red below 40%.
  • Trend (↑ ↓ →). Is mastery moving up, down, or flat across recent samples? Trend is more informative than absolute number for early signals.
  • Sample count. How many sessions contributed. Treat anything under 3 samples as noise.

Recent sessions

Each row shows subject, duration, and a one-line summary from the evaluator. Sessions are scored on:

  • Rubric envelope — Socratic compliance, session completion, engagement quality.
  • Concept metrics — which concepts came up, how many scaffolding steps, ratio of direct-answer requests vs. given.
  • Your custom criteria — whatever you wrote on the Grading tab gets folded in.
  • Hallucination flags — the evaluator independently checks tutor claims. Rare but worth opening when they appear.

A note for kids

If you're the one using the tutor, this part's for you.

  • Tell the tutor what you're stuck on. "I don't get fractions" works fine. So does "help me with this story."
  • It will ask you questions back. That's the whole point. Try answering even if you're not sure.
  • Wrong answers help just as much as right ones. The tutor uses them to figure out what to ask next.
  • You can ask "why?" any time. The tutor likes that question.
  • When you're done, say "I'm done" or just close the chat.

Tip — If the tutor says something that sounds wrong, push back. Say "I don't think that's right" or "are you sure?" — that's good practice, and the tutor handles it well.

Common questions

Do I need a Claude paid subscription?

No. The tutor works with any Claude product — free or paid, on any platform that supports custom connectors. Heavy users will hit Claude's free-tier message limits faster than light users, but that's between you and Anthropic, not us.

How long should a session be?

Most productive sessions land between 10 and 25 minutes. Younger kids drift after about 15 minutes; older students can sustain longer but quality drops past 30.

Does the tutor remember previous sessions?

It remembers your per-student tutor instructions (always) and high-level concept mastery (for scaffolding decisions). It does not replay full prior session transcripts.

Can I use it for multiple kids in one session?

No — pick one student. The tutor adapts to that child's instructions, grade band, and history. Bouncing between kids muddies the evaluation.

What subjects are supported?

Math, reading, writing, and science out of the box. The tutor can engage with other subjects too; it just doesn't have dedicated per-subject instruction slots for them yet.

Can my child use it without me there?

Yes, once Claude is connected. Sit with them for the first few sessions to see how the tutor behaves, then let them go.

What if my kid tries to get Claude to just give them the answer?

The validate_socratic_pathway guardrail catches most of this — the tutor has to clear any near-answer response with the server first. Persistent attempts are also a signal the evaluator picks up on, and you'll see it reflected in the Socratic-compliance score.

Troubleshooting

"Claude says it can't find my students"

  • Confirm the connector is signed in. In Claude → Settings → Connectors → tutor, you should see your email.
  • Make sure students exist. Check the Students tab on the dashboard.
  • Ask Claude directly: "list my students" — it'll call list_students and tell you what it sees.

"The tutor just gave my kid the answer"

Open the session on the dashboard — the evaluator's Socratic-compliance score will reflect it. Add a note to your grading criteria like "Penalize giving direct answers when scaffolding would work." Future sessions will tighten.

"Mastery numbers look wrong"

Mastery is per-concept and noisy until you have at least 3 samples. With one or two samples, treat percentages as a rough impression — trust the trend arrow more than the absolute number.

"Session never ended" / "Can't start a new one"

Sessions auto-close after inactivity, but if one is stuck open you can ask Claude "end my session for Liam" — it'll close it cleanly and submit the transcript so far.

"I want to remove a session or a student"

Open the dashboard. To delete a student (and all their sessions, transcripts, and evaluations), use the delete button on their card. To delete your entire account, go to Settings → Delete account. Both are immediate, no grace period.

"Connecting Claude didn't work"

In Claude's connector settings, remove the existing tutor connection and add it again from scratch with the URL above. If the browser-based sign-in didn't open, check your popup blocker.

Data & privacy

The short version. Full policy at https://didactic.kecker.co/privacy.

  • What we store: your email, a password hash, the students you add (display name + grade band), session transcripts, structured session events, and evaluator scores.
  • Where it lives: Cloudflare's infrastructure. Encrypted at rest and in transit.
  • Who we share with: Anthropic, for evaluator scoring only — the tutor inference itself runs on your Claude subscription. Nothing else.
  • How long we keep it: transcripts 1 year, metadata and evaluations 3 years, then deleted.
  • Children under 13: you're the account holder; you consent on the student's behalf as their parent or legal guardian. You can delete any student or your whole account at any time.

No analytics, no tracking, no ads. We don't run any third-party tracking, we don't use your or your child's data for marketing, and we don't sell data. Ever.