canvas_sak - canvas Swiss-Army-Knife

a command-line python based tool for teachers who use canvas.

you can download from Pypi. just pip install canvas-sak.

you will need to grab a "token" from your canvas account. go to the canvas webpage -> click on Account in the upper left -> click Settings -> scroll down and click the New Access Token button. you will need to put the token in a configuration file. canvas-sak help-me-setup will tell you how and where to create that configuration file.

some of the major functions:

code-similarity: download program submissions and run them through stanford MOSS.
collect-reference-info: collect high level information about student for when they later ask for letters of recommendation.
download-submissions: the the submissions of an assignment.
download/upload-course-content: download and upload course content as markdown files for easily reusing past courses in a way that is easy to change.
message-students: send a canvas messages to students from the commandline
list/set-due-dates: list and set due dates for assignments all at once
update-quiz: view and update quiz settings (attempts, view responses, show correct answers, quiz type)

update-quiz

View and update quiz settings for one or more quizzes in a course.

Options

--active/--inactive: search active (default) or inactive courses
--all: process all matching quizzes instead of requiring a single match
--attempts INTEGER: number of attempts allowed (-1 for unlimited)
--view-responses [always|once|until_after_last_attempt|never]: when students can view their responses
--show-correct-answers/--hide-correct-answers: whether to show correct answers after submission
--quiz-type [practice_quiz|assignment|graded_survey|survey]: the type of quiz

Examples

# List all quizzes in a course
canvas-sak update-quiz "My Course" --inactive

# View settings for a specific quiz
canvas-sak update-quiz "My Course" "Midterm"

# Set attempts to 2 for a quiz
canvas-sak update-quiz "My Course" "Midterm" --attempts 2

# Hide correct answers
canvas-sak update-quiz "My Course" "Final" --hide-correct-answers

# Update all quizzes containing "Quiz" in the title
canvas-sak update-quiz "My Course" "Quiz" --all --attempts 2

# Make a quiz a practice quiz with unlimited attempts
canvas-sak update-quiz "My Course" "Practice" --quiz-type practice_quiz --attempts -1

Ignore files pattern

canvas_sak will search for ignore patterns from the canvas_sak configuration file in the [IGNORE] section.
if there is a canvas-sak-ignore.lst file in the current directory, it will use patterns in that file as well.
canvas_sak will avoid processing files that match the ignore patterns.
the patterns are the same format at gitignore patterns.

Assignment Group files

ASSIGNMENT_GROUP_NAME: WEIGHT_PERCENTAGE
ASSIGNMENT_NAME
ASSIGNMENT_NAME

Example Group File

Assignments: 10%
Assignment1
Hard Assignment
Easy Assignment
LastAssignment

Test1: 30%
Test1

Test2: 30%

Test3: 30%
Test3

Validations

Make sure the the weights add up to 100%. Halt with an error if it does not
If the Assignment group does not exist, create the group
If the Assignment doesn't exist, print an error
Print what would happen, but don't actually do it if the --no-dryrun is not used

Metadata

Release files for canvas-sak 1.1.0

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

Source distribution (sdist)

Source distribution for canvas-sak 1.1.0
File	Size	Uploaded
canvas_sak-1.1.0.tar.gz	66.8 kB	Jul 11, 2026	Details

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for canvas-sak 1.1.0
File	Interpreter	ABI	Platform	Reset
canvas_sak-1.1.0-py3-none-any.whl 65.2 kB Jul 11, 2026	Python 3	none	any	Details

Total release size: 132.0 kB

Release files / canvas_sak-1.1.0.tar.gz

Download URL	canvas_sak-1.1.0.tar.gz
Size	66.8 kB
Tags	Source
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`f3d421b69726346a2d597dee00b9cd20e6e129c9a5ca89961263a2989f4ec53c`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`13e3155a3a611dac117e9d355d10f6dce49a9cf7e1ac49ffa37655d72efad1df`
Upload date	Jul 11, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`twine/6.2.0 CPython/3.14.4`

Release files / canvas_sak-1.1.0-py3-none-any.whl

Download URL	canvas_sak-1.1.0-py3-none-any.whl
Size	65.2 kB
Tags	Python 3
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`eb3c2e1c3ed55530eb84b27159c6d529fcc515fd845be92d27cb212d1a8e4e73`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`9e1518ac1f81398b8a5c65586bfb274a8bcc24dcccac2dcf5332f590883e4d9d`
Upload date	Jul 11, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`twine/6.2.0 CPython/3.14.4`