← Deskside

Deskside for schools

For IT, Canvas and Google Workspace admins

Deskside is a free dashboard students use to see their grades, assignments, schedule and teacher announcements from Canvas and Google Classroom in one place. It's made by a student developer. Students choose to connect their own accounts; Deskside never receives rosters or bulk exports from a school.

Students at your school are asking to use it. This page explains exactly what Deskside can access, and the three separate things you can do to allow it. Each one is optional and can be undone at any time.

What Deskside can and can't do

• Read-only. Deskside reads a student's own courses and current grades, assignments and due dates, calendar events, announcements and unread Canvas inbox messages. It can't submit work, post, change grades or send messages, in Canvas or in Google Classroom.
• Only the student's own data, and only after that student signs in and approves it on your Canvas or Google sign-in page.
• Grades and assignments aren't stored. They're fetched when the student opens Deskside and sent straight to them. What is stored: the student's email address, their encrypted sign-in to Canvas or Google, and settings they make in Deskside (their class schedule, colors, which to-dos they checked off).
• Security: HTTPS everywhere; sign-ins encrypted with AES-256-GCM before they're saved; the database only lets each student's own session read their rows; no ads, trackers or analytics; data is never sold or shared. Accounts are for students 13 and older. Hosting: Vercel (app) and Supabase (database).
• Full details: privacy policy and terms. Security contact: security.txt.

1. Allow Deskside through your web filter

If students see a block page (for example from Cisco Umbrella or a Palo Alto firewall), please allow these two domains. Deskside is newly registered, which is why some filters flag it.

• deskside.me (and www.deskside.me): the app
• jihgaaoaczrjuvglkifc.supabase.co: Deskside's login and database

2. Canvas: turn on "Sign in with Canvas"

Instructure's API policy asks apps like Deskside to use Canvas's own sign-in (OAuth) instead of having students create access tokens. That needs a developer key from your Canvas admin. Once it's on, students tap Sign in with Canvas, log in on your Canvas, see what Deskside is asking for, and approve it.

1. In Canvas, go to Admin → your account → Developer Keys → + Developer Key → + API Key.
2. Key Name: Deskside. Owner Email: yours.
3. Redirect URIs: https://deskside.me/api/integrations/canvas-oauth/callback
4. Optional but recommended: turn on Enforce Scopes and allow only these (all read-only):
   • url:GET|/api/v1/users/:id
   • url:GET|/api/v1/courses
   • url:GET|/api/v1/calendar_events
   • url:GET|/api/v1/users/:user_id/missing_submissions
   • url:GET|/api/v1/announcements
   • url:GET|/api/v1/conversations
5. Save, then set the key's State to ON.
6. Send the Client ID (the number in the Details column) and the key (click Show Key) to matthiasjgarzon@gmail.com using your usual secure method for sharing credentials, such as a password manager share or an expiring one-time link. Please don't post the key anywhere public.

You stay in control: setting the key's State to OFF immediately stops Deskside's access for every student, and each student can remove Deskside themselves under Account → Settings → Approved Integrations.

3. Google Workspace: approve Deskside for Classroom

If students see "Access blocked: Your institution's admin needs to review Deskside," Deskside isn't on your list of approved third-party apps yet.

1. In the Google Admin console, go to Security → Access and data control → API controls → Manage Third-Party App Access.
2. Click Configure new app and search by this Client ID:
   861923640697-4tfgrucqdq3b4gb6aboqaopna2p8j8rn.apps.googleusercontent.com
3. Choose Deskside, pick the students' organizational unit, and set access to Trusted (or Limited, if that allows Google Classroom at your school).

Deskside asks Google for read-only access to a student's class list, their own coursework and announcements, and their email address. Nothing else.

Questions, or a data privacy agreement?

If your district needs a student data privacy agreement or a security questionnaire before approving an app, or has any other questions, email matthiasjgarzon@gmail.com. Happy to walk through anything on a call.