Canvas in your
terminal▍

The live MCP targets macOS 13.5 or newer on Apple Silicon or Intel, and Windows 11 on x64. Choose your platform in Step 1: both one-line installers supply CanvasCtrl's private Node.js runtime and native credential/approval helpers, so no system Node.js, npm, or administrator access is required. The Windows choice unlocks only when a Windows runtime covered by CanvasCtrl's maintainer-signed release manifest is present on this site. A prerelease is visibly labeled Beta test, is never selected automatically, and stays on the signed beta update channel; the normal label and stable channel appear only after approval for general release. This is not a claim of Microsoft Authenticode signing. macOS also needs no Homebrew, Apple Command Line Tools, or Apple Developer account. Chrome is supported for browser-session authentication; Windows can also use Microsoft Edge. Windows ARM64 is not currently advertised.

canvasctrl itself is free and MIT-licensed. The only cost is your own AI usage when you use the agent — Anthropic, OpenAI, or even a free local model via an OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Billed directly to your key, at your rate, with no markup from us.

Yes. Updater-enabled stable installations check the maintainer-approved stable channel when the MCP starts and at most once daily while it remains running. A visibly labeled Windows beta-test installation checks the signed beta channel instead until you switch it to stable. CanvasCtrl accepts only signed, checksum-matched releases, validates them before atomic activation, and keeps the previous runtime for rollback. New code loads the next time your AI client starts the MCP; Canvas login, profiles, vault files, and client configuration stay unchanged. Installations from before the updater need to run the same one-line installer once more.

PATs and captured Canvas sessions are stored in macOS Keychain or encrypted for the current Windows user with DPAPI. The MCP never returns them, and Canvas authentication is stripped from off-origin downloads. Your AI client can still receive course data you ask tools to read, so connect only clients you trust.

CanvasCtrl is designed for standard Canvas LMS installations. During setup you point it at your school's HTTPS Canvas origin. Compatibility can still vary with institution policy, roles, feature flags, session behavior, and undocumented APIs, so the built-in doctor and capability checks report what is actually available.

Only when you explicitly enable confirmed writes. File, text-entry, and URL submissions each need an exact preview and separate device-owner authentication. macOS uses Touch ID or the Mac account password; Windows uses Windows Hello face, fingerprint, or PIN. Cancel or failure denies the action. Uploading a file does not submit coursework; a file submission requires its own later authentication. Grading, enrollment, SIS, and administrative generic writes require another locally approved privileged capability, then still require per-write authentication. Classic Quiz attempts use the bounded one-approval workflow described below.

Do not retry the write. Run canvasctrl doctor, then the harmless canvasctrl test-approval-dialog. The test invokes the same macOS Touch ID/password or Windows Hello policy but never contacts Canvas or authorizes a later action. On Windows, reads remain available if Hello is not configured, but writes fail closed until it is ready. If the test works but your AI client still does not prompt, check canvas_get_runtime_info; an absent tool or old version usually means the client needs the installed platform launcher and a full restart.

Yes, for documented Classic Quizzes when Canvas authorizes the student. CanvasCtrl previews the exact quiz, asks you to say “Yes, I want you to attempt this quiz.”, and requires one fresh device-owner authentication before start—Touch ID/password on macOS or Windows Hello on Windows. That short-lived session covers start, answer saves, and final submission without prompting on every question; it cannot be reused for another quiz or attempt. New Quizzes exposes public authoring APIs but no documented student start/answer/submit lifecycle, so CanvasCtrl does not imitate its browser-only flow.

No. Remote mode is optional and every installer supplies their own Cloudflare hostname, tunnel, Access policy, and identity. The project never ships the maintainer's endpoint or gives another installation access to it.

In ~/canvas-vault/ as plain JSON — metadata, a change log, and any files you pull. It's yours to grep, back up, or delete. Remove the folder and every trace of your synced data is gone.