Canvas to Todoist Sync

Automatically sync your Canvas LMS assignments to Todoist tasks. This tool:

• Fetches assignments from your Canvas calendar feed (ICS format)
• Creates Todoist tasks with proper due dates
• Organizes assignments with labels by course name
• Sets priority based on how soon assignments are due
• Adds reminders 1 day before each due date
• Auto-completes tasks when you submit assignments in Canvas
• Runs automatically every 5 minutes via GitHub Actions
• Tracks synced assignments to prevent duplicates

Quick Start (GitHub Actions)

1. Fork or Clone This Repository

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/canvas-todoist-sync.git
cd canvas-todoist-sync

Or click "Use this template" / "Fork" on GitHub.

2. Get Your Canvas Calendar URL

1. Log into Canvas
2. Go to Calendar (left sidebar)
3. Click Calendar Feed (right side of the page)
4. Copy the URL - it looks like:

   https://your-school.instructure.com/feeds/calendars/user_XXXXXX.ics
   

3. Get Your Todoist API Token

1. Go to Todoist Integrations Settings
2. Scroll down to API token
3. Copy the token

4. Add Secrets to GitHub

1. Go to your repository on GitHub

2. Click Settings -> Secrets and variables -> Actions

3. Click New repository secret and add:

   Name	Value
   TODOIST_API_TOKEN	Your Todoist API token
   CANVAS_ICS_URL	Your Canvas calendar feed URL

5. Enable GitHub Actions

1. Go to the Actions tab in your repository
2. Click I understand my workflows, go ahead and enable them
3. The sync will now run automatically every 5 minutes

6. Test It

1. Go to Actions tab
2. Select Canvas to Todoist Sync
3. Click Run workflow -> Run workflow
4. Check your Todoist for new tasks!

How It Works

Task Organization

• All assignments go into a "Canvas Assignments" project in Todoist
• Each course gets its own label (e.g., CHEM_350, MATH_241)
• You can filter by label to see assignments for specific courses

Priority System

Tasks are automatically prioritized based on due date:

Due Date	Todoist Priority
Within 1 day	P1 (Urgent/Red)
Within 3 days	P2 (High/Orange)
Within 7 days	P3 (Medium/Yellow)
Later	P4 (Normal)

Deduplication

The sync tracks assignments by their unique Canvas ID to prevent duplicates:

• New assignments are created as tasks
• Changed assignments (title, due date, description) are updated
• Already-synced, unchanged assignments are skipped
• Past assignments are ignored

Auto-Reminders

Every task automatically gets a Todoist reminder 1 day before the due date. This ensures you get notified before assignments are due.

• Reminders are only added if the reminder time is in the future
• Configurable via REMINDER_DAYS_BEFORE environment variable

Auto-Complete Detection

When you submit an assignment in Canvas, it disappears from your calendar feed. The sync detects this and automatically marks the corresponding Todoist task as complete.

How it works:

1. Assignment is synced to Todoist
2. You submit the assignment in Canvas
3. Assignment disappears from Canvas calendar feed
4. Next sync detects it's missing (but due date is still future)
5. Todoist task is automatically completed

Local Development

Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/canvas-todoist-sync.git
cd canvas-todoist-sync

# Create virtual environment
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Copy and edit environment file
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your actual values

Run Manually

# With .env file
source venv/bin/activate
export $(cat .env | xargs)
python sync.py

# Or set environment variables directly
TODOIST_API_TOKEN="your_token" CANVAS_ICS_URL="your_url" python sync.py

Configuration Options

Set these as environment variables or GitHub secrets:

Variable	Required	Default	Description
TODOIST_API_TOKEN	Yes	-	Your Todoist API token
CANVAS_ICS_URL	Yes	-	Your Canvas calendar feed URL
TODOIST_PROJECT_NAME	No	Canvas Assignments	Name of Todoist project
REMINDER_DAYS_BEFORE	No	1	Days before due date to set reminder (0 to disable)
STATE_FILE	No	sync_state.json	Path to state tracking file

Customization

Change Sync Frequency

Edit .github/workflows/sync.yml and modify the cron schedule:

schedule:
  # Every 30 minutes
  - cron: '*/30 * * * *'

  # Every 2 hours
  - cron: '0 */2 * * *'

  # Every 6 hours
  - cron: '0 */6 * * *'

  # Once daily at 8 AM UTC
  - cron: '0 8 * * *'

Change Priority Thresholds

Edit sync.py and modify the PRIORITY_THRESHOLDS dictionary:

PRIORITY_THRESHOLDS = {
    1: 4,   # Due within 1 day -> urgent
    3: 3,   # Due within 3 days -> high
    7: 2,   # Due within 7 days -> medium
}

Troubleshooting

Tasks Not Appearing

1. Check that your secrets are correctly set in GitHub
2. Look at the Actions tab for error logs
3. Verify your Canvas calendar URL works by opening it in a browser
4. Make sure there are future assignments in Canvas

Duplicate Tasks

The sync state is cached between runs. If you see duplicates:

1. Go to Actions -> Clear all caches
2. Manually delete duplicate tasks in Todoist
3. Run the workflow again

Wrong Course Labels

Course names are extracted from Canvas event titles. If they look wrong:

1. Check how assignments appear in your Canvas calendar
2. You may need to adjust the parse_course_name() function in sync.py

Security Notes

• Never commit your API tokens - always use GitHub Secrets or environment variables
• Your Canvas ICS URL contains a private token - keep it confidential
• The .gitignore file prevents accidental commits of .env files

License

MIT License - feel free to modify and share!