Remote

Ethersync

@ethersync@fosstodon.org

mastodon 4.7.3

Multiplayer mode for your text editor!

Ethersync enables real-time collaborative editing of local text files. You can use it for pair programming or note-taking, for example. It's the missing real-time complement to Git!

A project by @blinry@chaos.social and @zormit@chaos.social, funded by @nlnet@social.nlnet.nl and @PrototypeFund@mastodon.social.

20 Followers

5 Following

17 Posts

Joined January 14, 2025

Documentation:

https://ethersync.github.io/

Source code:

https://github.com/ethersync/ethersync

Funding:

https://nlnet.nl/project/Ethersync/ + https://www.prototypefund.de/en/projects/ethersync

Ethersync @ethersync@fosstodon.org

· 11mo ago

Hey all! Just a heads up: We're going rename this project to ✨ Teamtype ✨ this week! This involves renaming the repositories, and also this account!

We think the new name is:

- More self-descriptive
- Highlights the collaborative aspect
- Easier to pronounce
- Avoids the association with "Ethereum"
- We got a nice domain :)
- And it's already crowd-validated by y'all (was in the top 5 in our poll last year: https://pol.is/report/r74mttmj5vrbh6c7hm64h)

We hope you'll like it as much as we do!

pol.is

pol.is report

Ethersync @ethersync@fosstodon.org

· 12mo ago

We made a fun experiment this week: What happens if, in addition to "regular files", we also sync the contents of .git in real time?

The result is surprising: If one person creates a commit, the other peers will immediately have it. You can even write the commit message together (because it's just the file .git/COMMIT_EDITMSG).

You can also switch branches together, have the same #Git index, etc. – great for pair programming!

We will probably offer a `--sync-vcs` flag in the next release!

fosstodon.org

Fosstodon

Ethersync @ethersync@fosstodon.org

· 13mo ago

The last two weeks we worked on interoperable editor plugins. 🤝 It's now possible to use our plugins with other collaborative text editing software such as https://braid.org or @hedgedoc@fosstodon.org!

This "just" needs a bridge that understands our protocol. We have some prototype bridges ready, so if you're curious to try reach out to us. Also we'll have more user testing sessions planned end of September.

braid.org

Ethersync @ethersync@fosstodon.org

· 12mo ago

Replying to

There are now *official packages* for @archlinux (maintained by @svenstaro and @alerque) and in the nixpkgs for @nixos_org (maintained by the @ngi team). Thanks! These should make it easier to install Ethersync: sudo pacman -S ethersync nix shell nixpkgs#ethersync (You might need to wait a couple of days for 0.8.0 to arrive in these channels!)

Ethersync @ethersync@fosstodon.org

· 12mo ago

With 0.8.0 just around the corner, it's time for the second Ethersync Community Call: September 24th. That's *today*!

This month's topics:

- What would be "good first issues", to start contributing to Ethersync?
- How could you build your own editor plugin (for Emacs, Eclipse, or Obsidian, for example)?
- And anything else you're curious about or would like to discuss. :)

Where? https://meet.jit.si/ethersync

When? 2025-09-24 21:00-22:00 UTC+2 https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20250924T19

meet.jit.si

Ethersync @ethersync@fosstodon.org

· 12mo ago

Replying to

We updated https://automerge.org (the library that we use for synchronizing edits without a central server) to *version 1.0.0*! This brings (as their own announcement puts it) some dramatic reduction in memory-usage, in an entirely backwards-compatible way. In our tests, memory usage went down from ~1 GB to 180 MB, in one case, and document loading times are also improved by about half!

automerge.org

Ethersync @ethersync@fosstodon.org

· 13mo ago

We're still pondering whether we could find a name that's "friendlier", easier to pronounce, and avoids the association with cryptocurrencies…

Here's the best alternative we could come up with:

"Teamtype"!

Internally, over the past weeks, we've been experimenting with renaming our source code directory and the command line tool, and it feels like a good fit.

We'd be curious to hear what you think about it! What upsides/downsides do you see?

Ethersync @ethersync@fosstodon.org

· 12mo ago

Replying to

Ethersync now will also *sync binary files* that are in a project. This allows you to collaborate on projects that involve image files, for example, so you could do web or game development together! While you could now use Ethersync synchronize your photo galleries between computers (and in our tests, synchronizing video files that are over 1 GB large seemed to work), note that this is definitely not our main use case (check out https://syncthing.net for an alternative).

syncthing.net

Ethersync @ethersync@fosstodon.org

· 12mo ago

Replying to

@daniel_bohrer @rudi Hm yes, that might give weird effects... This mode is probably only suited to be used in situations where the people using it are talking about what they're doing at the same time.

Ethersync @ethersync@fosstodon.org

· 12mo ago

Replying to

@chrysn Yeah, it's possible that it would be good to have more "syncing safeguards" in a later iteration. We were surprised how well it worked ourselves, without that domain-specific knowledge. We also tried it with #jujutsu 's .jj directory, and that also seemed to "just work"! :O If you can think of a "bad outcome" of the naive approach, that would be super interesting to us!

Ethersync @ethersync@fosstodon.org

· 12mo ago

Replying to

@mjd Oh, we'll try that! Our expectation is that it *will* be weird, but maybe in a good way :D We should note that this mode is designed for situations where the people using it are actively talking about what they're doing. So during pair programming, they might decide "Let's do a rebase!" and then do that, together. Both can help fix merge conflicts, and so on :)

Ethersync @ethersync@fosstodon.org

· 12mo ago

Replying to

Michael contributed a *follow mode* for the Neovim plugin: You can run :EthersyncFollow to follow another person, and see what they're editing – even if they're switching files, you will follow them. Run :EthersyncUnfollow to stop following them. These are super convenient, and we'd recommend creating mappings for them (see https://github.com/ethersync/ethersync-nvim for examples).

github.com

Ethersync @ethersync@fosstodon.org

· 12mo ago

Replying to

Once you've established a connection to another peer (by using ethersync join), Ethersync will now automatically try to keep this connection active. This means that, if the peer temporarily goes offline (for example because they're in a train that's going through a tunnel), the connection will be re-established once they are reachable again.

This allows a better "launch once and forget" usage.

Ethersync @ethersync@fosstodon.org

· 13mo ago

Replying to

@okennedy not sure what an LSP bridge is, but since I don't know, I'd say we don't have it. Can you talk more about the use-case and maybe the editor you have in mind?

Ethersync @ethersync@fosstodon.org

· 12mo ago

Replying to

@rudi Do you remember how it went wrong/what the symptom was?

Ethersync @ethersync@fosstodon.org

· 12mo ago

Replying to

@Profpatsch Kind of! Our experiments combines the aspects of a VCS (clearly defined version history & tools to manipulate it) with the real-time collaborative editing. So there's no need to push/pull commits. I think it might be hard to imagine, maybe we can record a live demo of it!