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User Guide

Learn how to configure and use Canvas CLI effectively.

Topics

  • Configuration

    Configure Canvas CLI for your environment, including multiple instances

    Configuration

  • Output Formats

    Learn about output formats and filtering options

    Output Formats

  • Shell Completion

    Set up tab completion for your shell

    Shell Completion

  • Command Aliases

    Create shortcuts for frequently used commands

    Aliases

  • Context Management

    Set default values for course, assignment, and user IDs

    Context

Key Concepts

Course Context

Most commands require a course context. You can specify this with the --course-id flag:

canvas assignments list --course-id 123

Output Formats

Canvas CLI supports multiple output formats:

  • table (default) - Human-readable table format
  • json - JSON for scripting and automation
  • yaml - YAML format
  • csv - CSV for spreadsheet import

Caching

Canvas CLI caches API responses for better performance. You can:

  • Disable caching with --no-cache
  • Clear the cache with canvas cache clear
  • View cache statistics with canvas cache stats

Masquerading

Administrators can act as other users with the --as-user flag:

canvas courses list --as-user 456

This requires masquerading permissions in Canvas.

Dry-Run Mode

Preview API calls without executing them using the --dry-run flag:

canvas --dry-run courses list

This prints the equivalent curl command, which is useful for:

  • Debugging - See exactly what API call would be made
  • Learning - Understand the Canvas API structure
  • Scripting - Generate curl commands for other tools

By default, tokens are redacted as [REDACTED]. Use --show-token to see the actual token:

canvas --dry-run --show-token courses list

See the Scripting Tutorial for more examples.