Getting Started with TimeBack Platform

The TimeBack Platform is a unified platform that enables learning apps to provide coaching insights, seamless authentication, and unified progress tracking without building this infrastructure themselves.

Introduction

Welcome to the TimeBack Platform documentation.

We have a mission: to enable learning app developers to launch sophisticated educational experiences with minimal backend complexity and no specialized learning science infrastructure.

The TimeBack Platform is being built to provide comprehensive learning infrastructure including curriculum management and sequencing, content publishing and distribution, learning algorithms, student authentication, behavior analytics, and AI-powered coaching. This documentation focuses on the initial integration levels available now, with additional capabilities being added over time.

Whether you're building a new learning app or integrating an existing one, our documentation will guide you through each integration level—from basic app catalog listing to deep analytics integration.

Note: These integration guides cover common patterns and best practices. For complete endpoint documentation, all parameters, and example requests, see the API Reference.

Integration Levels

TimeBack offers progressive integration—start with app catalog registration, then add deeper capabilities as needed.

Level	Capability	What You Get
Level 0: Registration	App catalog listing + automatic session tracking	Students discover your app in TimeBack's catalog. When launched from TimeBack App, we automatically track session time, detect time waste, and provide coaching insights—no implementation required. If we have student credentials on file, we can auto-login students with minimal work on your side. If your app is linked from another TimeBack app, auto-login and session attribution happen automatically.
Level 1: Student Onboarding	Roster management	Programmatically create and manage students, users, and agent relationships (parents, guardians) in TimeBack's roster via API.
Level 2: LTI Launch	Seamless authentication	Students auto-login to your app via LTI 1.3—no credentials needed, no login screens. Improves user experience by eliminating authentication friction.
Level 3: Caliper Events	Deep analytics + unified reporting	Send structured learning events (questions, answers, mastery) to get richer coaching insights and unified progress analytics across the TimeBack ecosystem. Powers cross-app intelligence and detailed behavior analysis.
Level 4: Insights API	Coaching insights read access	Access TimeBack-generated coaching insights programmatically. Build custom dashboards showing student time-on-task, waste patterns, session analytics, and trend data.

Important: All automatic tracking and insights require students to use the TimeBack App (Electron-based desktop container). TimeBack App handles screen recording permissions, launches your app in an embedded browser, and captures session data automatically.

Additional capabilities: TimeBack also offers curriculum management (defining competency frameworks via the CASE 1.1 API), competency tracking (outcomes-based mastery credentials), and content ingestion (QTI and Common Cartridge upload). Further capabilities for content distribution and built-in learning algorithms are in development.

Developer Journey

The end-to-end developer journey on TimeBack is self-serve:

1. Sign in to platform.timeback.com/mcps/developer-platform with your Google account.
2. Register your App via the MCP tool or REST endpoint (see Level 0: Register Your App). You receive an App ID, App URN, and OAuth client credentials in the same response.
3. Integrate against sandbox at sandbox.platform.timeback.com — a shared playground with a canonical roster, isolated from production. See Sandbox Environment.
4. Promote your App from draft to active once your integration is stable. Your production credential is stable across promotion; only its scope set expands. See App Lifecycle.

The full self-serve flow is shipping incrementally; pages above flag any legs still in flight with explicit "coming soon" markers.

Getting Started

To start using the TimeBack Platform:

1. Sign in and register your App via the Level 0 MCP or REST flow. You receive your clientId, clientSecret, and App ID in the registration response.
2. Build against the sandbox — a shared playground with a canonical roster, isolated from production. Your prod-tier App stays in read-only draft until you're ready.
3. Layer in integration levels as you need them: roster (Level 1), LTI launch (Level 2), Caliper events (Level 3), insights (Level 4).
4. Promote your App from draft to active once your integration is stable. See App Lifecycle — credentials are stable across promotion.

Our documentation includes detailed guides, complete code examples, and references to help you integrate TimeBack into your learning app quickly and effectively.

1EdTech Standards

TimeBack is built on 1EdTech standards to maximize interoperability:

• OneRoster: Student roster management for creating and managing users
• LTI 1.3: Industry-standard launch protocol used by learning management systems
• Caliper Analytics: Standardized learning event vocabulary
• CASE: Competency and Academic Standards Exchange for curriculum frameworks

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LLM-Friendly Docs

We provide this exact same documentation in LLM-friendly format for usage with any AI:

• Navigation index (links with descriptions): https://docs.platform.timeback.com/llms.txt
• Full documentation (all content in one file): https://docs.platform.timeback.com/llms-full.txt

Next Steps

Level 0: Register Your App

Submit your app details to get listed in TimeBack's app catalog. This is the required first step for all integrations.

Level 1: Student Onboarding

Programmatically create and manage students, users, and agent relationships in TimeBack's roster.

Level 2: Implement LTI Launch

Add seamless authentication so students can access your app without managing separate credentials.

Level 3: Send Caliper Events

Send structured learning activity events to unlock coaching insights and unified analytics.

Level 4: Access Insights API

Access TimeBack-generated coaching insights to build custom dashboards and analytics.

Curriculum Management

Define and manage curriculum structures — subjects, documents, competency items, and hierarchies — using the CASE 1.1 API.

Session Management

Understand how the platform tracks learning sessions, choose between auto-attach and explicit session control, and integrate with session APIs.