canvas-cli

Connect Canvas courses to AI agents.

canvas-cli turns Canvas LMS into an agent-readable course workspace. Today, students dig through Canvas, download slides, find assignments, copy pages, and upload everything back into LLMs. Canvas CLI makes that one workflow: pull course materials, modules, files, assignments, pages, folders, and review packs into a structure AI agents can immediately understand.

Install · Agent Skills · Auth · Commands · Security · License · Roadmap

Why canvas-cli?

• Built for technical students — bring Canvas into your terminal, scripts, and AI workflow.
• Agent-native design — structured skills teach agents Canvas auth, pagination, course structure, and study workflows.
• No more manual Canvas digging — pull slides, files, pages, assignments, folders, and module structure without download/upload loops.
• Review-pack first — export course structure into an agent-readable folder for study sessions.
• Canvas-native commands — simple commands such as canvas courses list, canvas modules list, and canvas review pack.
• Student-facing scope — starts with the read-only course surface students need for review, planning, and coursework navigation.

Features

Category	Capabilities
Auth	Interactive canvas auth login, school picker, Canvas settings walkthrough, local PAT config
Courses	List, search, inspect, and summarize active courses
Tabs	Inspect visible Canvas course tabs and external tool links
Modules	Traverse modules and module items in Canvas order
Pages	List pages, inspect Canvas HTML, and export visible pages
Files	List files/folders and download accessible course files safely
Folders	Browse Canvas folder trees and folder paths
Assignments	List assignments, due dates, descriptions, visible attachments, and exports
Raw API	Run read-only GET requests against Canvas API paths
Review Packs	Preserve Canvas course structure in an agent-readable export
Agent Skills	Skills that teach agents exact commands, output shapes, and Canvas workflows

Status

Student read-only MVP in progress.

Implemented:

• canvas auth login/status/logout, canvas config show, and canvas me.
• Courses, tabs, modules, assignments, pages, files, folders, raw GET, and review-pack foundation commands.
• Local JSON/HTML/Markdown exports for modules, assignments, pages, and review packs.
• Safe file download to a requested output directory.
• Core runtime utilities for output envelopes, redaction, config paths, pagination, and Canvas GET/download requests.
• Unit tests for command normalization, routing helpers, and safety-critical runtime.
• Engineering PRD and executable build plan.
• Agent skill bundle for the implemented command surface.

Planned next:

• Post-login context bootstrap.
• Broader review-pack indexing, citations, and linked-file resolution.
• Grades, submissions, discussions, announcements, calendar, groups, conversations, and richer review indexing.

Installation & Quick Start

Requirements

• Node.js 20+
• npm
• A Canvas personal access token generated from your own Canvas account

Install

npm install -g @lukeguo12210/canvas-cli

Use

# 1. Authenticate with your Canvas school
canvas auth login

# Agent/non-interactive auth
canvas auth schools search "Columbia"
canvas auth login --school "Columbia"
canvas auth login --school "Columbia" --token-env CANVAS_TOKEN

# 2. List courses
canvas courses list

# 3. Inspect a course
canvas courses overview <course-id>

# 4. Build a local review pack foundation
canvas review pack --course-id <course-id> --out ./review/<course>

Install Agent Skills

canvas skills install

Equivalent direct installer command:

npx skills add lukeguo12210/canvas-cli -g --skill "*" -y

Agent Skills

Skill	Description
canvas-shared	Auth, token safety, output formats, pagination, raw API usage, common Canvas errors
canvas-courses	Course discovery, course name disambiguation, tabs, and overview
canvas-modules	Module traversal, module item resolution, Canvas course order
canvas-pages	Page listing, page HTML inspection, local page export
canvas-files	File metadata, folders, linked files, safe downloads
canvas-assignments	Assignments, due dates, descriptions, visible attachments
canvas-review	Review-pack workflow that preserves Canvas course structure

Skills live in skills/. Each domain skill points agents back to canvas-shared first, then gives quick decisions, command examples, Canvas concepts, common errors, and output expectations.

Authentication

The MVP uses personal access tokens only.

canvas auth login

The login flow will:

1. Ask for your school.
2. Open your Canvas settings page.
3. Guide you through creating a personal access token.
4. Store the token locally.
5. Run a lightweight context bootstrap.

Agents can complete setup with a token the user provides:

canvas auth login --school "Berkeley" --token "paste-token-here"

Command System

canvas-cli uses a simple Canvas-native command system.

Student Workflows

canvas review pack --course-id <course-id> --out ./review/<course>
canvas review pack --course-id <course-id> --out ./review/<course> --include-all-files

Full Command Surface

canvas auth login
canvas auth login --school "Berkeley"
canvas auth login --school "Columbia" --token-env CANVAS_TOKEN
canvas auth login --school-url https://courseworks2.columbia.edu --school-name "Columbia University (CourseWorks)" --token "paste-token-here"
canvas auth schools search "Columbia"
canvas auth status
canvas auth logout
canvas config show
canvas me

canvas courses list
canvas courses search "algorithms"
canvas courses show <course-id>
canvas courses overview <course-id>
canvas tabs list --course-id <course-id>

canvas modules list --course-id <course-id>
canvas modules items --course-id <course-id> --module-id <module-id>
canvas modules item --course-id <course-id> --module-id <module-id> --item-id <item-id>
canvas modules export --course-id <course-id> --module-id <module-id> --out ./module

canvas assignments list --course-id <course-id>
canvas assignments show --course-id <course-id> --assignment-id <assignment-id>
canvas assignments export --course-id <course-id> --assignment-id <assignment-id> --out ./assignment

canvas pages list --course-id <course-id>
canvas pages show --course-id <course-id> --page <url-or-id>
canvas pages export --course-id <course-id> --page <url-or-id> --out ./page

canvas files list --course-id <course-id>
canvas files show <file-id>
canvas files download <file-id> --out ./files
canvas files download-linked --course-id <course-id> --out ./files

canvas folders list --course-id <course-id>
canvas folders path --course-id <course-id> --path "course files/week 1"

canvas review pack --course-id <course-id> --out ./review/<course>
canvas review pack --course-id <course-id> --out ./review/<course> --include-all-files

canvas api get /api/v1/courses
canvas api get /api/v1/courses/<course-id>/modules --params '{"include":["items"]}'

canvas skills install
canvas install-skills
canvas skills command
canvas skills status

MVP raw API access is GET-only.

Output Formats

--format json      # default, agent-friendly
--format pretty    # human-readable
--format table     # simple list output
--format ndjson    # streaming/batch-friendly

Security & Privacy

• Tokens are stored in the local Canvas CLI config after auth.
• Logs and errors redact Authorization, access_token, token, and bearer values.
• The MVP refuses Canvas write methods.
• Review packs exclude grades, submissions, conversations, and group member lists by default.
• Downloads are constrained to the requested output directory.
• Pagination follows Canvas Link headers instead of guessing URLs.

License

canvas-cli is source-available under the Business Source License 1.1.

Personal, educational, research, academic, non-commercial, and internal evaluation use is permitted. Commercial hosted services, managed services, paid integrations, or competing product offerings require a separate commercial license until the Change Date.

Change Date: May 29, 2030.

Change License: GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later.

See LICENSE.

Roadmap

Near term:

• Implement canvas auth login.
• Add school registry and custom Canvas URL setup.
• Add post-login context bootstrap.
• Implement courses, tabs, modules, assignments, pages, and files.
• Expand canvas review pack with citations, indexing, and richer file resolution.
• Package skills for npx skills add lukeguo12210/canvas-cli -g --skill "*" -y.

Later:

• Full student read surface: grades, submissions, quizzes, discussions, announcements, planner, groups, conversations.
• Optional write-capable student workflows with explicit commands and dedicated skills.
• Public npm release.

Development

npm install
npm run typecheck
npm run test
npm run build

Docs

• Engineering PRD
• Executable Build Steps
• Read-Only-First Plan

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