LTI Forge — LTI over an anvil

An Apereo Foundation Project

LTI Forge

Building LTI apps to fill LMS gaps.

A collaborative open-source community developing high-quality, LMS-agnostic LTI tools — empowering universities to move faster than vendor roadmaps and address custom teaching and learning needs together.

Why LTI Forge?

The enterprise LMS has become monolithic — mission-critical, yet difficult to modify. Innovation around niche teaching needs has shifted toward LTI app development. But institutions often work in silos, building solutions that already exist elsewhere. LTI Forge connects those teams, providing a shared space to collaborate in a standards-based environment.

Bridge the Gap

Production-ready tools for features missing or under-optimized in platforms like Canvas, Blackboard, Brightspace, Moodle, and Sakai.

Standards-First

Strict adherence to 1EdTech LTI standards ensures cross-platform compatibility — no vendor lock-in, works wherever LTI is supported.

Collective Stewardship

One university builds a solution, others contribute and sustain it — reducing duplicated effort and turning siloed code into shared infrastructure.

Projects

Type
Language
Runtime
Framework
Repo Description Type Language Runtime Frameworks Year License
lti-forge.github.io Central hub and project directory for the LTI Forge community. Hub TypeScript Deno Lume 2026 MIT
canvas-api Java library for interacting with the Canvas LMS API. Library Java JVM 2026 LGPL-3.0
spring-security-lti13 A LTI 1.3 implementation for Spring Security that builds on the OAuth2 support. Library Java JVM Spring 2026 Apache-2.0
spring-security-lti13-demo Demo application showing the spring-security-lti13 library in action. Example Java JVM Spring 2026 Apache-2.0
canvas-spring-oauth2 Supporting classes for using Spring Security OAuth2 with Canvas. Library Java JVM Spring 2026 Apache-2.0
lti-launch Spring Security support to authenticate using LTI Launch (1.1), primarily for Canvas. Library Java JVM Spring 2026 LGPL-3.0
lti-demo Demo use of the lti-launch project. Example Java JVM Spring 2026 None
tool-support An LTI Launch server and JWT-authenticated proxy server, with OAuth2 token management to Canvas. Tool Java JVM Spring 2026 MIT
calendar-import LTI tool that allows Calendar Events to be imported into a Canvas calendar. Tool Java JavaScript JVM Node Spring React 2026 MIT
account-reports Presents links to useful Canvas reports. Tool JavaScript Node React 2026 MIT
visit-subaccount Presents links to a course's parent subaccount. Tool JavaScript Node React 2026 MIT
sub-account-browse React frontend for viewing Canvas sub-accounts. Tool JavaScript Node React 2026 None
ui-lti LTI components for Instructure UI. Library TypeScript JavaScript Node React 2026 MIT
lti-auto-configuration A set of scripts to auto-provision LTI tools to Canvas. Library JavaScript Node 2026 MIT
lti-13-example Sample LTI 1.3 tool that requires a server to handle the LTI launch. Example JavaScript Node React 2026 MIT

How to Join

Participation is open to any educational institution or developer committed to the mission. Whether contributing code, documentation, or simply adopting a tool — we want to hear from you. Contact the LTI Forge PMC or Community Manager to request access.

Guiding Principles

  • Open by Default — All code released under an OSI Approved Open Source License.
  • Vendor Neutral — Tools designed to work across any LMS that supports LTI standards.
  • Documentation is Code — A tool isn't finished until it has clear deployment guides a non-dev admin can follow.
  • Institutional Privacy — FERPA/GDPR compliance by design, in every tool.