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Quick Start

Get up and running with Canvas CLI in 5 minutes.

Prerequisites

Step 1: Authenticate

First, authenticate with your Canvas instance:

canvas auth login

This will open your browser for OAuth authentication. After authorizing, you'll be redirected back to the CLI.

API Token Alternative

If OAuth isn't available, you can use environment variables: 

export CANVAS_URL="https://canvas.example.com"
export CANVAS_TOKEN="YOUR_API_TOKEN"
canvas courses list

Step 2: Verify Authentication

Check that you're authenticated:

canvas auth status

You should see your user information and the Canvas instance URL.

Step 3: List Your Courses

canvas courses list

This shows all courses you have access to. Note the course IDs for use in other commands.

Step 4: Explore Course Content

# List assignments
canvas assignments list --course-id 123

# List users in a course
canvas users list --course-id 123

# List modules
canvas modules list --course-id 123

Step 5: Try Different Output Formats

Canvas CLI supports multiple output formats:

canvas courses list

canvas courses list --output json

canvas courses list --output yaml

canvas courses list --output csv

Common Commands

Task Command
List courses canvas courses list
Get course details canvas courses get 123
List assignments canvas assignments list --course-id 123
Grade submission canvas submissions grade 456 --course-id 123 --score 95
List users canvas users list --course-id 123
Upload file canvas files upload ./file.pdf --course-id 123

Next Steps