How to Build a Real-Time Google Docs for Code
What happens when two developers edit the EXACT same line of code at the EXACT same millisecond? Race conditions, overwritten data, and a crashed server. Today, we’re tearing down the magic behind Figma and Google Docs to build a real-time collaborative code editor using Next.js 16 and CRDTs ⏱️ CHAPTER 1: The Collaborative Text Editing Trap "Building a single-user code editor is simple: a React…
Building a real-time collaborative code editor is no easy task. If two developers edit the same line of code at the exact same millisecond, you'll encounter race conditions, overwritten data, and crashed servers. Platforms like Google Docs, Figma and Replit achieve seamless real-time editing by using Operational Transformation (OT) or Conflict-free Replicated Data Types (CRDTs).
In this article, we'll explore how to build a real-time collaborative code editor using Next.js 16 and CRDTs with Yjs. We'll compare OT vs CRDTs, implement WebSocket edge routing, and discuss the architecture of our Next.js 16 application.
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