FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

What open-source license is Canvas released under?

We have released Canvas under the AGPLv3. Note that we sell commercial licenses as well.

Can I contribute back?

Sure! However, you will need to sign a Contributor License Agreement before we will pull your code in to Canvas.

Does Canvas support any extensions?

Yes! In fact, there are a number of proprietary extensions already developed for Canvas by Instructure. You are more than welcome to write your own plugins in the same vein.

If you are interested in finding out more about plugins for Canvas by Instructure, please contact us.

How to I get professional services and support?

You will need to buy a commercial license. See our website for more information on pricing.

I'd like to contribute to Canvas.

Great! Please fork the Canvas project on Github, create your changes against our master branch, and then send a pull request.

Before we accept your pull request, we will need to have a signed contributor agreement on file for you.

What? A contributor agreement? Why?

Canvas, unlike many projects hosted by GitHub, is commercially dual-licensed. We license Canvas via the AGPLv3 to the open source community, but we also license Canvas via commercial license to many of our clients. For this to work, Instructure needs to retain copyright over the Canvas project. The contributor agreement is the legal step we must go through so we are able to continue to dual-license and serve our clients without fracturing the codebase.

If you want to contribute, as soon as we have a copy of contributor agreement on file for you, we will be happy to accept your pull requests.

Rest assured, if we accept a pull request from you, your code will remain licensed via the AGPLv3.

Where do I send the contributor agreement to?

Please see the contact section on the About Us page on our website.

I have some other question.

Please read our Getting Help section, and if all else fails, please ask your question on our user mailing list.