Chrome profiles let one Chrome installation hold separate browsing sessions for different accounts. If you have more than one Chrome profile and more than one of them is signed into a Canvas site, Canvas MCP needs to know which profile to read cookies from.
Listing available profiles
To see every Chrome profile Canvas MCP can find, along with the Canvas domains each profile has sessions for:
The output is JSON. Each entry includes the profile name, its path, any detected Canvas domains, and whether auth is currently verified for that profile.
Selecting a profile
Interactive selection
Run the command without arguments to choose interactively:
canvas settings choose-profile
~/.config/canvasmcp/settings.json and used for all future runs.
Interactive selection requires a terminal (TTY). In headless or scripted environments, pass the profile name as an argument instead.
Select by domain or name
Pass a Canvas domain or Chrome profile name to select without a prompt:
canvas settings choose-profile "terpmail.umd.edu"
Viewing current settings
This shows the saved profile selection alongside a live auth status check.
Resetting to defaults
This removes any saved profile selection. After clearing, Canvas MCP falls back to auto-detection (or uses environment variables if they are set).
Environment variable overrides
You can override the saved profile at any time using environment variables. These take precedence over anything saved with canvas settings choose-profile.
| Variable | Description |
|---|
CANVAS_CHROME_PROFILE | Chrome profile name (e.g. "terpmail.umd.edu" or "Default"). Canvas MCP matches this against the profile’s display name or directory name. |
CANVAS_CHROME_PROFILE_PATH | Absolute path to a Chrome profile directory. Use this when the name is ambiguous or when pointing to a non-standard Chrome installation. |
export CANVAS_CHROME_PROFILE="terpmail.umd.edu"
canvas auth-status
export CANVAS_CHROME_PROFILE_PATH="/home/user/.config/google-chrome/Profile 3"
canvas auth-status
If both CANVAS_CHROME_PROFILE and CANVAS_CHROME_PROFILE_PATH are set, CANVAS_CHROME_PROFILE_PATH takes precedence because it is an exact directory reference.
Settings persistence
| Method | Persists across runs? | Can be overridden? |
|---|
canvas settings choose-profile | Yes, saved to settings.json | Yes, by env vars |
CANVAS_CHROME_PROFILE env var | No, session only | — |
CANVAS_CHROME_PROFILE_PATH env var | No, session only | — |
