dap snapshot

Download complete snapshot of tables.

The dap snapshot command downloads full snapshots of datasets at a specific point in time. This is ideal for creating an initial full copy of the dataset or performing occasional full updates. Snapshots are useful for comprehensive analyses, audits, and backups.

Regular use of snapshots is not recommended, as they are resource-intensive for the API and costly to process on the client side.

Usage

dap [arguments] snapshot [flags]

Options

--namespace <string> Specifies the data source (namespace). Available options: {canvas, canvas_logs, catalog, new_quizzes}.

--table <string> Specifies the table(s) to fetch data from. Can be a single table name, a comma separated list of table names or the special all keyword to fetch all tables in the namespace.

--format <string> (default: JSONL) Defines the output format. Available options: {CSV, JSONL, Parquet, TSV}.

--output-directory <string> Specifies the absolute or relative path to the output directory where the snapshot will be stored.

Global options

--client-id <string> Client ID obtained from the Identity Service. Skip, if DAP_CLIENT_ID environment variable is set.

--client-secret <string> Client Secret obtained from the Identity Service. Skip, if DAP_CLIENT_SECRET environment variable is set.

-h, --help Displays help information for the command.

Output

Data files are written as gzipped files inside a job_<uuid>/ subdirectory of the output directory. Nothing is printed to stdout.

downloads/job_9783c06d-00c1-431e-acec-9eee41c8ca1e/
  part-00000-a5f7a08d-4d2e-4674-910b-5557f8b56e5a-c000.json.gz

Each decompressed line (in JSONL format) is a JSON object with key, value, and meta fields:

{"key":{"id":1358},"value":{"name":"Default Term","created_at":"2024-04-18T08:19:36.120Z","updated_at":"2024-04-18T08:19:36.120Z","workflow_state":"active"},"meta":{"ts":"2026-02-09T20:27:52.099Z"}}

• meta.ts is the CDC timestamp for the record (ISO 8601, UTC).

• In snapshot data, meta.action is absent (it only appears in incremental results for deletes).

• Files are always gzipped regardless of --format.

• Large tables may produce multiple part-* files.

Error handling

Scenario	Exit code	Error output
Invalid table name	5	ERROR - Operation snapshot failed. Reason: The table name '<name>' specified in the request is not valid.
Invalid namespace	5	ERROR - The namespace '<name>' specified in the request is not valid.
Missing required flag	2	Error: Missing option '--table'.

Examples

Get a snapshot of the courses table from the canvas namespace: $ dap snapshot --namespace canvas --table courses

Get a snapshot of multiple tables or all tables of the canvas namespace: $ dap snapshot --namespace canvas --table courses,users,wikis $ dap snapshot --namespace canvas --table all

Get a snapshot of the web_logs table from canvas_logs namespace in CSV format: $ dap snapshot --namespace canvas_logs --table web_logs --format csv

Get a snapshot to a specific directory for scripting: $ dap --non-interactive --loglevel warning snapshot --namespace canvas --table accounts --output-directory ./data

Related Resources

Key Concepts

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Rate Limits & Policies

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Datasets

Discover the available namespaces and tables.