Canvas CLI Overview

Goals

• Professor-friendly CLI for common Canvas tasks.
• Stable, machine-friendly interface for LLMs.
• Rust ADTs and strict typing to make invalid state unrepresentable.
• Parse and validate at the edges, internal logic uses only valid ADTs.

Non-Goals (v1)

• Student-only features.
• Institution-wide admin features.
• GUI or TUI.

Deliverables

• canvas CLI with human and JSON outputs.
• Rust workspace with canvas-cli, canvas-core, canvas-models.
• Core workflows: auth, course list/select, assignment list, submission grade.

JSON Output

• Every --json response includes stable top-level keys: ok, schema_version, and command.
• Success responses carry data with command-specific keys; error responses include error with code, message, and details.
• Use canvas --schema to retrieve the JSON schemas for each command group and confirm the current schema_version.

Configuration

• Config file path: ~/.config/canvas-cli/config.toml
• Environment overrides file values: CANVAS_HOST and CANVAS_TOKEN win over auth.host and auth.token.

Milestones

1. MVP: auth, course list/select, assignment list, submission grade.
2. Expand: assignment CRUD, file upload, pages/modules.
3. Communication: announcements, messages, discussions.
4. Analytics and reports.
5. LLM schema output stabilization.