instructure/canvas-lms · error · RuntimeError

Assessment type required for assessing

Error message

Assessment type required for assessing

What it means

RubricAssociation#assess requires params[:assessment_type] (the assessment hash inside opts). This guard fires when the assessment type — e.g. 'grading', 'peer_review', or 'summary' — is missing, so Canvas cannot determine what kind of rubric assessment to record. It is a fail-fast contract check before assessment processing begins.

Solutions

1. Include assessment_type in the assessment hash: assessment: {assessment_type: 'grading', ...criterion scores}
2. Use a supported type: 'grading', 'peer_review', or 'summary' — an unsupported value will fail downstream
3. Validate params before calling: raise 'assessment_type missing' unless params[:assessment_type]

Example fix

// before
rubric_association.assess(
  user: student, assessor: assessor, artifact: submission,
  assessment: { score: 8 }
)
// after
rubric_association.assess(
  user: student, assessor: assessor, artifact: submission,
  assessment: { assessment_type: 'grading', score: 8 }
)

raise 'assessment_type missing' unless params[:assessment_type].in?(%w[grading peer_review summary])

valid = %w[grading peer_review summary].include?(params[:assessment_type])

begin
  rubric_association.assess(opts)
rescue RuntimeError => e
  handle_missing_type if e.message == 'Assessment type required for assessing'
end

When it happens

Trigger: Calling rubric_association.assess(user:, assessor:, artifact:) with an :assessment hash lacking the :assessment_type key; API/controller callers forwarding only score/criterion params without assessment_type; assessment params built dynamically and the type key dropped.

Common situations: Custom grading tools that copy example payloads missing assessment_type; version changes/integrations using old param names; peer-review automation scripts that set other assessment fields but forget the type.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• Artifact required for assessing
• Assessor required for assessing
• assessor and assessee required
• association required
• Cannot find # for ID: #

AI-assisted analysis of instructure/canvas-lms@1c9f0bb801 (2026-09-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/86d5498fb8a3a751. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at app/models/rubric_association.rb:311

  def assessment_points(criterion, data)
    if criterion.learning_outcome_id && !context.feature_enabled?(:outcome_extra_credit)
      [criterion.points, data[:points].to_f].min
    else
      data[:points].to_f
    end
  end
  protected :assessment_points

  def assess(opts = {})
    # TODO: what if this is for a group assignment?  Seems like it should
    # give all students for the group assignment the same rubric assessment
    # results.
    association = self
    params = opts[:assessment]
    raise "User required for assessing" unless opts[:user]
    raise "Assessor required for assessing" unless opts[:assessor]
    raise "Artifact required for assessing" unless opts[:artifact]
    raise "Assessment type required for assessing" unless params[:assessment_type]

    if opts[:artifact].is_a?(Quizzes::QuizSubmission)
      opts[:artifact] = association_object.find_or_create_submission(opts[:artifact].user)
    end

    if association_object.is_a?(Assignment) && !association_object.grade_group_students_individually
      group, students_to_assess = association_object.group_students(opts[:artifact].student)
      if group
        provisional_grader = opts[:artifact].is_a?(ModeratedGrading::ProvisionalGrade) && opts[:assessor]
        artifacts_to_assess = students_to_assess.map do |student|
          association_object.find_asset_for_assessment(self, student, provisional_grader:).first
        end
      else
        artifacts_to_assess = [opts[:artifact]]
      end
    else
      artifacts_to_assess = [opts[:artifact]]
    end

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