edstem files lists and downloads files Ed hosts itself — PDF lesson slides and files embedded in lesson or thread content. It does not follow external links.

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Targets

Both files list and files get take one <target>:
A bare number is a lesson ID. Prefix a thread reference with thread: — it accepts the same forms as everywhere else in the CLI: a global thread ID, or <unit>#<number>. See Units for how that reference resolves.

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List files

For a lesson target, this collects the lesson’s outline content, every slide’s PDF (file_url), and every file embedded in a slide’s content. For a thread target, it collects files from the thread body, every answer, and every comment, walking nested comment replies recursively.

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Download files

--slide on a thread target is a usage error — slides belong to lessons. Existing files are protected by default: a name collision with --force unset fails with a usage error naming the file, instead of silently overwriting your copy. Each file downloads to a temporary path first and is only linked into place once the download completes, so a failed or interrupted download never leaves a truncated file at the final name. The saved filename comes from what Ed reports for the file where available, falling back to the name recorded in Ed’s content; a second file with the same name in one run gets a -2, -3, and so on, suffix instead of overwriting the first.

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What counts as downloadable

Only HTTPS files hosted on edusercontent.com (or a subdomain of it) are treated as downloadable Ed files. Any other URL in lesson or thread content — a link to an external site, a YouTube embed, a Google Doc — stays visible wherever you’re reading the content, but files list/files get don’t surface or fetch it. This isn’t a filter you can loosen: files get refuses to fetch any URL outside edusercontent.com, even if you construct one by hand.

Command reference: files

Full syntax for files list and files get.