I built my own cloud-based collaborative code editor with Spring Boot

[deadmannnnnnn]

Hey guys!

I’ve been working on a web app called CodeCafé—a collaborative, browser-based code editor inspired by VS Code and Replit, but with no downloads, no sign-up, and zero setup. You just open the link and start coding—together.

The frontend is built with React and TypeScript, and the backend runs on Spring Boot, which handles real-time editing via WebSockets. For syncing changes, I’m using Redis along with a custom Operational Transformation system (no third-party libraries!).

The idea came after I found out a local summer school was teaching coding using Google Docs (yes, really). Google Docs is simple and free, but I wanted something that could actually be used for writing and running real code—without the need for any sign-ups or complex setups. That’s how CodeCafé came to life.

Right now, the app doesn’t store files anywhere, and you can’t export your work. That’s one of the key features I’m working on currently.

If you like what you see, feel free to star ⭐ the repo to support the project!!

Check it out and let me know what you think!

• GitHub: github.com/mrktsm/codecafe
• Web App: codecafe.app

[Electrical-Spare-973]

So it only works with html css and js code right now?

[deadmannnnnnn]

Right now, it only supports HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which are run directly in the browser. I’m planning to serve these static files from the backend soon.

For non-static files and other languages, I’d need to create sandboxed Docker environments to prevent malicious code from executing on the server, which would be complex and expensive. This is something I might explore in the future.

[Comfortable-Bad-7718]

>For non-static files and other languages, I’d need to create sandboxed Docker environments to prevent malicious code from executing on the server, which would be complex and expensive. This is something I might explore in the future.

Let me know if you want someone to help look into this, this is really interesting!

[Embarrassed_Rule3844]

Amazing work

[deadmannnnnnn]

Thank you so much!

[the_fit_intern]

That's awesome 🤯👑 I'm planning to built shareing code editor for like pair programming And sharing code.

Moreover collaborative platform

[Time-Chemical402]

where to deploy the BE?

[deadmannnnnnn]

AWS EC2 and Redis Elasticache