course-dl 0.2.0

Download Blackboard course exports from Curtin University's LMS

course-dl

Download Blackboard course exports from Curtin University's LMS.

Installation

uv tool install course-dl
playwright install chromium

Or install from source:

git clone https://github.com/michael-borck/course-dl.git
cd course-dl
uv sync
uv run playwright install chromium

Usage

Basic usage

# Search by unit code (fuzzy matched against course titles)
course-dl COMP1000 ISAD1000

# Search by partial name
course-dl "Data Structures" "Linear Algebra"

# Mix codes and names
course-dl COMP1000 "Application Development"

# Interactive picker — no args, just select from a list
course-dl

# Export all available courses
course-dl --all

Options

course-dl [SEARCH...] [OPTIONS]

Positional:
  SEARCH                Search terms to fuzzy-match against course titles.
                        If omitted, an interactive picker is shown.

Options:
  -f, --file PATH       File with search terms (one per line or comma-separated)
  -u, --username STR    Curtin username
  -p, --password STR    Curtin password
  -o, --output-dir PATH Output directory (default: ./exports/)
  --all                 Download all courses visible in Blackboard
  --overwrite           Re-download courses that already exist locally
  --match-threshold INT Fuzzy match score 0-100 (default: 60)
  --visible             Show the browser window (default: headless)
  --timeout INT         Navigation timeout in ms (default: 60000)

Fuzzy matching

Course titles in Blackboard are often long and include extra metadata (e.g. COMP1000 - Unix and C Programming - S1 2026 - Bentley (AUTO_CREATED_123)). You don't need the full title — just provide enough to uniquely identify it:

course-dl COMP1000              # matches by unit code anywhere in title
course-dl "Unix and C"          # matches by partial name
course-dl "Data Structures"     # matches by topic

Adjust --match-threshold (default 60) if matches are too loose or too strict.

Interactive picker

When no search terms are provided, an interactive checkbox list is shown after login. Use arrow keys to move, space to toggle selection, and enter to confirm.

Skip / overwrite behaviour

By default, course-dl skips courses that already have a .zip file in the output directory matching the course name. Use --overwrite to force re-download.

Credentials

Credentials are resolved in order:

1. CLI flags (-u, -p)
2. Environment variables (CDL_USERNAME, CDL_PASSWORD)
3. .env file (searched in order):
   • ~/.config/course-dl/.env
   • ~/.course-dl.env
   • ./.env
4. Interactive prompt

Copy .env.example to one of the above locations:

cp .env.example ~/.config/course-dl/.env

License

MIT