What causes "Outcome with canvas id "%{id}" not found" in instructure/canvas-lms?

Verify the canvas id exists (GET /api/v1/outcomes/:id) and correct the vendor_guid.

instructure/canvas-lms · error · InvalidDataError

Outcome with canvas id

Error message

Outcome with canvas id "%{id}" not found

What it means

find_prior_outcome resolves vendor_guids of the form 'canvas_outcome:<id>' to an existing LearningOutcome by primary key. If LearningOutcome.find raises ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound, the import converts it to this InvalidDataError. Note the message interpolates outcome[:canvas_id] rather than the matched canvas_id, so it can render blank; the guid in the row is the id to check.

Solutions

Verify the canvas id exists (GET /api/v1/outcomes/:id) and correct the vendor_guid.
If the outcome was deleted, remove the row or change to a new vendor_guid so the outcome is created fresh.
If migrating between instances, replace canvas_outcome:<id> refs with real vendor_guids instead of internal ids.

Example fix

// before
"vendor_guid": "canvas_outcome:99999"  // nonexistent
// after
"vendor_guid": "canvas_outcome:1234"   // existing outcome id

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Ruby: verify the canvas id exists before import
if (m = /canvas_outcome:(\d+)/.match(guid))
  raise 'missing outcome' unless LearningOutcome.where(id: m[1]).exists?
end

Try / catch

begin
  importer.import_object(...)
rescue Outcomes::Import::InvalidDataError => e
  raise unless e.message.include?('not found')
  # drop or recreate the row with a fresh vendor_guid
end

Prevention

Never reference internal canvas ids across Canvas instances/shards.
Re-verify canvas_outcome: ids after deletions or migrations.
Prefer stable external vendor_guids over canvas_outcome:<id> references.

When it happens

Trigger: A vendor_guid like 'canvas_outcome:12345' where no LearningOutcome with id 12345 exists (deleted outcome, wrong shard, or fabricated id); hit in find_prior_outcome (lib/outcomes/import.rb:245), called by import_outcome.

Common situations: Re-importing an export after the referenced outcome was deleted; exporting from one Canvas instance and importing into another where ids differ; hand-crafted import files with guessed ids.

Understand the failure class

Background: Record Not Found Errors: "not found", RecordNotFound, and "was not found" — what they mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of instructure/canvas-lms@1c9f0bb801 (2026-09-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/61a33579bf6fa2d9. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at lib/outcomes/import.rb:245

        prior
      else
        current
      end
    end

    def non_vendor_guid_changes?(model)
      model.has_changes_to_save? && !(model.changes_to_save.length == 1 &&
        model.changes_to_save.key?("vendor_guid"))
    end

    def find_prior_outcome(outcome)
      match = /canvas_outcome:(\d+)/.match(outcome[:vendor_guid])
      if match
        canvas_id = match[1]
        begin
          LearningOutcome.find(canvas_id)
        rescue ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound
          raise InvalidDataError, I18n.t(
            'Outcome with canvas id "%{id}" not found',
            id: outcome[:canvas_id]
          )
        end
      else
        vendor_guid = outcome[:vendor_guid]
        prior = LearningOutcome.where(vendor_guid:).active_first.first
        return prior if prior

        LearningOutcome.new(vendor_guid:)
      end
    end

    def find_prior_group(group, group_context)
      vendor_guid = group[:vendor_guid]
      prior = LearningOutcomeGroup.where(context: group_context).where(vendor_guid:).active_first.first
      return prior if prior

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