Enable sending Canvas Live Events to Atomic Search

Why enabling Live Events is important

When the Live Events integration is enabled, Canvas notifies Atomic Search each time course content is changed. When Atomic Search receives those notifications, it begins updating its index for that content immediately. If the integration is not enabled, the index for courses that have already been indexed are only updated when a user manually requests it.

Prior to August 1, 2026, Atomic Search periodically called Canvas REST APIs to see if content had changed in active courses. It did this every 10 hours. This approach involved making many API calls in order to keep the index current.

Starting August 1, 2026, Atomic Search will make changes needed to implement Canvas API call limits. Changes relevant to Canvas Live Events include:

By default Atomic Search will stop calling Canvas REST APIs periodically (polling) to check for updates.
Optionally, for at least August 2026, customers will be allowed to turn polling back on:

Check for new courses and changes in course status, dates, and other metadata every 24 hours.
Check for updates to content in courses that are already in its index.

If polling is turned off, in order to update the index for a course that has already been indexed, you must go to Atomic Search in the course and choose Update Index from the three dot menu.
If you enable sending Canvas Live Events to Canvas, there is no advantage to enabling polling.

To enable sending Canvas Live Events to Atomic Search, follow the steps below.

1. Install Canvas Data Services (if not already installed):

•Login into Canvas with an account that is a root Administrator.

•Go to the Canvas root account and select Developer Keys in the account navigation menu.

•Go to the Inherited tab. Scroll to the bottom and select Show all keys.

•Find Canvas Data Services on the page.

•Enable Canvas Data Services using the toggle in the State column.

•Copy the Client ID from the ID column.

•Go to Canvas root account account and select Settings > Apps > View App Configurations.

•Select +App.

•Set Configuration Type to By Client ID.

•Enter the Canvas Data Services Client ID that you copied.

•Reload Canvas in your web browser. You should now see an account menu named "Data Services."

For more information, see the Canvas KB article: How do I install Canvas Data Services using Live Events in my account?

2. Add a Canvas Live Events Data Stream for Atomic Search

•Select the +Add button to create a new Data Stream.

•Use the following settings:

•Name: Atomic Search

•Delivery Method: SQS

•URL: Select the SQS URL corresponding to your region:

•US / Canada / Central & South America:

https://sqs.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/318936073860/canvas-live-events-AJ-ACT

•Europe / Africa:

https://sqs.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/318936073860/canvas-live-events-AJ-ACT

•Australia / Asia:

https://sqs.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/318936073860/canvas-live-events-AJ-ACT

•Authentication: None

•Message Type: Canvas

•Application Type: Data Streaming

For more information, see the Canvas KB article: How do I use Live Events with the Data Services Portal?

3. Enable the following Canvas live events

Enable the following events for both User Generated and System Generated events (both columns)

•Assignment:

•assignment_created

•assignment_updated

•Attachment:

•attachment_created

•attachment_deleted

•attachment_updated

•Course:

•course_created

•course_updated

•Discussion Topic:

•discussion_topic_created

•discussion_topic_updated

•Module:

•module_created

•module_updated

•Module Item:

•module_item_created

•module_item_updated

•Syllabus:

•syllabus_updated

•Wiki Page:

•wiki_page_created

•wiki_page_deleted

•wiki_page_updated

Select Save & Exit when finished.

4. Verify Canvas Live Events are being sent

Once you have enabled sending Canvas Live Events to Atomic Search, you can verify that it is working by editing a page to add unique text and then searching your course for that text. If it is configured correctly, the updated content should appear in search results within a few minutes.

Enable sending Canvas Live Events to Atomic Search