instructure/canvas-lms · warning

Canvas Career permission overrides failed: #

Error message

Canvas Career permission overrides failed: #{e.message}

What it means

A fallback warning in lib/permissions.rb when applying Canvas Career permission overrides raises any exception. The code rescues the error, logs it with e.message, and returns the un-overridden permissions, so Canvas Career-specific permission customization silently degrades to base permissions.

Solutions

1. Check the Rails log for the full exception (use the timestamp to find the backtrace; the warning only shows e.message).
2. Verify Canvas Career feature flag / account settings match the career data present; disable the flag if career data is not provisioned.
3. Fix the raising code path in the career permission override block (nil-guard missing associations or malformed permission defs).
4. If permissions are wrong in behavior, note that this rescue swallows overrides — confirm base permissions are safe before ignoring the warning.

Example fix

// before
rescue => e
  Rails.logger.warn("Canvas Career permission overrides failed: #{e.message}")
// after
rescue => e
  Rails.logger.warn("Canvas Career permission overrides failed: #{e.message}")
  Rails.logger.warn(e.backtrace.join("\n")) if Rails.env.development?
  Canvas::Errors.capture(e)

if @context.respond_to?(:career_data?) && @context.career_data?
  # safe to attempt career overrides
end

def career_permission_context?(context)
  context.is_a?(Account) && context.career_learning? && context.respond_to?(:career_roles)
rescue NoMethodError
  false
end

begin
  permissions_with_overrides = apply_career_overrides(permissions)
rescue NoMethodError, ActiveRecord::StatementInvalid => e
  Rails.logger.warn("Canvas Career permission overrides failed: #{e.class}: #{e.message}")
  Canvas::Errors.capture(e)
  permissions # fall back to base permissions
end

When it happens

Trigger: Computing permissions for a Canvas Career (K5/Career Learning) context where the override-apply block raises — e.g. a career account/course object missing expected attributes, a bad permission definition shape, or a database error while loading career role/override records.

Common situations: Environments where the Canvas Career feature flag is on but career data is partially migrated or inconsistent; plugins/gems defining career permissions with unexpected structures; exceptions inside custom career permission override hooks.

Related errors

• Canvas Career permission group overrides failed: #
• ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound
• Cannot change locked status on granular permission
• Cannot import to other courses
• Cannot modify outcome from another context

AI-assisted analysis of instructure/canvas-lms@1c9f0bb801 (2026-09-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e1990e7d82b857a4. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at lib/permissions.rb:87

      begin
        label_overrides = CanvasCareer::LabelOverrides.permission_label_overrides(context)
        if label_overrides.any?
          permissions_with_overrides = @permissions.transform_values do |permission_def|
            permission_key = @permissions.key(permission_def)
            override = label_overrides[permission_key] || {}

            if override.any?
              new_permission_def = permission_def.dup
              new_permission_def = new_permission_def.merge(label: override[:label]) if override[:label]
              new_permission_def
            else
              permission_def
            end
          end
          return permissions_with_overrides
        end
      rescue => e
        Rails.logger.warn("Canvas Career permission overrides failed: #{e.message}")
      end
    end

    @permissions
  end

  def self.non_masquerading_permissions
    return [] unless @permissions.frozen?

    @non_masquerading_permissions ||= Set.new(@permissions.keys.select { |perm| @permissions.dig(perm, :not_for_masquerading) })
  end

  def self.not_for_masquerading?(permission)
    if permission.is_a?(Array)
      non_masquerading_permissions.intersect?(permission)
    else
      non_masquerading_permissions.include?(permission)
    end

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