compare
ClaudeSide by side stats for 2 to 6 courses or instructors. Items are course slugs ("cs-24000", "CS 240") or instructor slugs prefixed with "i:" ("i:turkstra-jeffrey-a").
Education
Overview
boiler.tools gives Claude the grade history of every Purdue University (West Lafayette) course and instructor from Summer 2016 onward, from Purdue's public records. Ask which 300-level CS courses grade highest, how an instructor compares with others teaching the same course, or which humanities gen-eds have a low DFW rate, and Claude answers from real numbers instead of guesses.
Tools
course_sections
ClaudeLive section schedule for a course in one term from purdue.io: CRN, type, meeting days, start time (minutes after midnight, Eastern), room and instructors. Term accepts "f26", "spring 2026" or a Banner code like 202710.
explain_metric
ClaudeHow a boiler.tools metric is computed and its caveats: difficulty, polarization, effect (instructor grading effect), lottery (section lottery), atLeast (chance of a grade), relative (GPA vs campus).
get_course
ClaudeEverything about one course: overall and per-term grade stats, per-instructor stats with grading effect, grade mix, difficulty and other metrics, catalog description, credits, prerequisites, what it is required by, similar and crosslisted courses. Accepts "cs-24000", "CS 240" or "cs240".
get_instructor
ClaudeOne instructor: overall grade stats, shrunk grading effect versus other sections of the same course and term, and per-course stats. Accepts a slug ("turkstra-jeffrey-a") or a name fragment ("turkstra") when it matches exactly one instructor.
query_courses
ClaudeFilter and rank course-term rows (one row per course per term) with the boiler.tools query language. Tokens are combined with AND, separated by spaces: - course or level: "cs 240", "cs 3xx", "level:300", "subject:PHYS" - term: "term:f24" (also sp25, su23); catalog offering: "offered:f26" - instructor: "prof:turkstra" (comma for OR: "prof:turkstra,koh") - stats: "gpa>3.2", "dfw<10", "a>40", "w<5" (comparators > < >= <=) - metrics: "difficulty>70", "polar>0.5", "lottery>80", "rel<-0.3" (GPA vs campus), "effect<-0.2" (instructor grading effect) - catalog: "credits:3", "gened:sts" (wc il oc qr sci sts hum bss ai) - quoted phrases match titles: "\"machine learning\"" Other words match course titles. Example: "cs 3xx term:f24 gpa>3.2".
search_courses
ClaudeFind Purdue courses and instructors by course code ("CS 240"), title words ("linear algebra") or instructor name ("turkstra"). Returns up to 10 of each with slugs for the other tools.
trends
ClaudePer-term grade stats over time for the whole campus, or for one subject when given a code like "CS". Useful for grade inflation questions.
