Canvas Sync Bridge

Canvas Sync Bridge

Seamlessly sync Canvas LMS courses, modules, assignments, discussions, grades, files, and calendars directly into your Obsidian knowledge vault as clean, structured, and cross-linked Markdown notes.

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✨ Key Features & Hybrid Ingestion

Canvas Sync provides two flexible sync workflows depending on your institutional setup:

1. 🎓 Direct Canvas REST API (Primary / Mobile Compatible)

• Direct connection from Obsidian using your Canvas API token.
• Interactive course selector modal with multi-course batch syncing and in-modal auto-sync interval selection.
• Scheduled Background Sync: Automatically resyncs active courses on a schedule (15m, 30m, 1h, 2h, 4h, 6h, 12h, 24h) with course selection filters and silent background operation.
• Supports active and completed/concluded courses.
• Fully compatible with Obsidian Desktop and Obsidian Mobile.

2. 🌐 Companion Browser Extension (Zero-Token Bridge)

• Operates in Google Chrome, Brave, Edge, Arc, Opera, and Mozilla Firefox.
• Uses your logged-in browser session cookies — no API token required (ideal for institutions locking down student API tokens).
• Granular extraction toggles in the extension popup.
• Bridges securely to Obsidian over localhost (127.0.0.1).

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📊 Comprehensive Course Synchronization

Both ingestion pathways feed into a unified rendering engine:

• Course & Home: Course overview, home page banners/navigation, and full syllabus formatting.
• 📢 Course Announcements: Ingests instructor announcements, timestamps, and full multi-tier reply trees into a dedicated Announcements.md hub with formatted Obsidian callouts (> [!NOTE]).
• 🏷️ YAML Frontmatter Metadata: Generates structured, typed YAML frontmatter for all assignments, pages, and announcements — fully compatible with Obsidian Dataview, Tasks, and Canvas cards.
• Modules: Hierarchical module folders, lecture wiki pages, readings, and embedded assets.
• Assignments & Rubrics: Due dates, points possible, submission instructions, and structured rubric criteria tables.
• Student Submissions & Grades: Live gradebook standing (Grades.md), score breakdowns, submitted files, and instructor feedback comments.
• Discussions: Full discussion topics and complete multi-tier student reply trees (Discussions.md).
• Calendar & Milestones: Schedule events, assignment due date milestones, and Zoom meeting links (Calendar.md).
• 🔍 Capability Probing & Diagnostics: Built-in diagnostics tab to test token permissions, verify module file downloads, and perform automatic fallback discovery for institutions with locked API endpoints.
• 📝 Student Personal Notes Preservation: Type student notes and annotations freely under ## 📝 Personal Notes on any course note — personal content is automatically preserved across all future syncs without tag clutter.
• ⏱️ Per-Page "Last Synced" Timestamps: Every generated note and hub displays a localized timestamp showing exactly when the note was fetched.
• 🛡️ Safe Filename Capping: Automatically sanitizes and caps oversized module item titles (up to 100 chars) while preserving extensions to prevent OS ENAMETOOLONG errors.
• Internal Obsidian Wikilinks: Automatically cross-links notes into native Obsidian [[wikilinks]] with pipe escaping ([[path|alias]]).
• Local File & Asset Downloader: Downloads embedded images, assignment attachments, and course documents (.pdf, .docx, .pptx, .xlsx, .zip) with configurable size and extension filters.
• 100% Local-First & Private: Zero cloud relays, zero analytics, zero tracking.

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📸 Screenshots

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🚀 Quick Start & Installation

Step 1: Install the Obsidian Plugin

Method A: Community Plugins (Recommended)

1. In Obsidian, open Settings > Community Plugins.
2. Turn off Restricted mode if prompted.
3. Search for Canvas Sync Bridge, click Install, and then Enable.

Method B: Obsidian BRAT (Beta Releases)

1. Install the BRAT Plugin in Obsidian.
2. In BRAT settings, click Add Beta plugin and enter: https://github.com/SixFiveMil/obsidian-canvas-sync.

Method C: Manual Installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the Latest GitHub Release.
2. Extract into <Vault>/.obsidian/plugins/canvas-sync-bridge/ and restart Obsidian.

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Step 2: Choose Your Sync Method

Option A: Direct REST API (Recommended)

1. In Canvas, go to Account > Settings > Approved Integrations > + New Access Token.
2. Copy the generated token string.
3. In Obsidian settings (Canvas Sync), enter your Canvas Base URL and API Token.
4. Press Ctrl/Cmd + P and run Canvas Sync: Select & sync courses (or click the 🎓 ribbon icon) to sync.

Option B: Browser Extension Bridge (Zero-Token Session Sync)

1. In Obsidian settings (Canvas Sync), toggle on Enable browser bridge listener.
2. Install the extension:
   • Chrome / Brave / Edge / Arc: Chrome Web Store
   • Firefox: Firefox Add-ons (AMO)
3. Navigate to any Canvas course tab in your browser, click the extension icon, test the bridge connection, select your extraction options, and click Sync Active Course.

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🗂️ Generated Vault Structure

Courses are written to your vault using the configured template (default: {{courseCode}} - {{courseName}}):

Canvas/
└── CS-101 - Introduction to Computer Science/
    ├── Course.md         # Master course index, metadata, and quick navigation
    ├── Home.md           # Course home page with banner and graphic links
    ├── Syllabus.md       # Complete course syllabus and policies
    ├── Announcements.md  # Course announcements hub with callouts and replies
    ├── Tasks.md          # Assignment checklists, due dates, points, and submissions
    ├── Grades.md         # Gradebook table with scores, percentages, and status
    ├── Discussions.md    # Discussion board topics with full student reply trees
    ├── Calendar.md       # Course events, milestones, and Zoom meeting links
    ├── Modules/
    │   ├── 01 - Week 1 - Foundations & Architecture/
    │   │   ├── 01 - Page - Lecture Overview.md
    │   │   ├── 02 - Assignment - Lab 1 Analysis.md
    │   │   └── 03 - Discussion - Class Introductions.md
    │   └── 02 - Week 2 - Algorithms & Data Structures/
    │       ├── 01 - Page - Algorithm Complexity.md
    │       └── 02 - Assignment - Problem Set 2.md
    ├── Files/            # Downloaded PDFs, DOCX, slides, spreadsheets, and archives
    └── Attachments/      # Embedded images, course banners, and diagrams

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🛠️ Building from Source

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/SixFiveMil/obsidian-canvas-sync.git
cd obsidian-canvas-sync

# Install dependencies (Node.js 20+ required)
npm install

# Run unit tests
npm test

# Type-check TypeScript files
npm run typecheck

# Build Obsidian plugin
npm run build

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🌐 Companion Browser Extension

The browser extension source code, pre-packaged .zip release files, and store deployment pipelines are maintained in a dedicated repository:

• Repository: SixFiveMil/canvas-to-obsidian-extension
• Latest Extension Release (.zip downloads): Extension Releases on GitHub
• Chrome Web Store: Canvas to Obsidian Sync
• Firefox Add-ons: Canvas to Obsidian Sync

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🔒 Security & Privacy

• Closed by Default: The local loopback listener (127.0.0.1:27125) only runs when explicitly toggled on in Obsidian settings.
• Origin & Header Guards: Inbound requests verify trusted extension origins (chrome-extension://, moz-extension://) and custom application headers.
• Local Storage: API tokens are stored strictly within .obsidian/plugins/canvas-sync-bridge/data.json inside your local vault.
• Read our full Security Policy and Privacy Policy.

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📄 License & Author

Developed and maintained by Joshua A. Wortz (SixFiveMil).

Licensed under the MIT License.