Code Collab

The problem

Setting up a development environment eats hours: the wrong Node version, missing packages, “works on my machine”. For students, workshops and quick collaborations, setup often takes longer than the actual work.

The insight

Every workspace can be a small, disposable container. Give each user their own, stream it to the browser, and save their files when they leave.

What we built

A self-hostable, browser-based IDE. Each workspace runs in its own isolated Docker container, with a VS Code-style editor, a real terminal streamed over WebSockets, a file tree, live preview, sign-in and workspaces saved to S3-compatible storage.

Under the hood

• React
• TypeScript
• Vite
• Monaco Editor
• xterm.js
• Express
• Dockerode
• WebSockets
• Prisma
• PostgreSQL
• S3
• Better-Auth

What it proves

We can build complex, real-time infrastructure products: containers, live terminals and persistent state.