A few months ago I started looking for a development setup that felt fast, lightweight, and easy to access remotely.
I really like Zed.
It feels fast, modern, and much less bloated than Electron-based editors.
But I kept running into one problem:
I wanted something I could open from anywhere through the browser.
Not a full cloud platform.
Not a heavy VSCode-in-the-browser setup.
Just a lightweight remote-first IDE that I could run on my VPS or homelab server.
So I started building my own.
The project is called 9ed.
What is 9ed?
9ed is a browser-based IDE built with:
- Go backend
- Monaco Editor
- PTY terminal sessions
- Git integration
- AI chat support through ACP
- Built-in tunnel support
The goal is simple:
Make remote development feel lightweight again.
Why not just use VSCode Server?
I tried.
It works well, but on smaller VPS instances it started feeling heavy pretty quickly.
Especially when:
- multiple extensions are installed
- several workspaces are open
- AI tooling is running
- browser tabs pile up
I wanted something:
- simpler
- faster to boot
- easier to deploy
- more focused on remote workflows
Not necessarily a replacement for VSCode, but something optimized for a different use case.
The Architecture
The backend is written in Go.
Main reasons:
- easy static deployment
- lightweight runtime
- PTY handling
- concurrency
- cross-platform support
The frontend uses:
- React
- Monaco Editor
- Zustand
- xterm.js
The terminal is PTY-backed, so commands behave like a real shell instead of a fake terminal emulator.
That means things like:
- interactive CLI apps
- vim
- tmux
- git tools
- AI coding agents
all work properly.
AI Agent Support
One thing I wanted from the beginning was proper AI agent integration.
Not just “send prompt → receive text”.
9ed uses ACP (Agent Client Protocol), which is basically structured JSON-RPC communication between the editor and coding agents.
Right now it supports:
- OpenCode
- Claude Code
- Codex CLI
- Gemini
- Amp
- Pi
- GitHub Copilot CLI
There’s also PTY fallback support for tools that don’t implement ACP yet.
One feature I ended up liking a lot is permission handling.
When an AI agent wants to:
- edit files
- run commands
- search the project
9ed can show approval dialogs before execution.
It makes the whole thing feel less “black box”.
Built-in Tunnel Support
This was another thing that annoyed me with most remote IDE setups.
Usually the process goes like this:
- install editor
- setup nginx
- setup SSL
- configure reverse proxy
- expose ports
- deal with firewall rules
I wanted something simpler.
So 9ed can automatically start a tunnel using:
- Bore
- Cloudflare Tunnel
Which means you can run it and immediately access it remotely without additional setup.
Still rough in some places, but surprisingly useful already.
Git Integration
I didn’t want Git to feel like an afterthought.
So I added:
- staging
- commit
- stash
- branch switching
- diff view
- gutter decorations
- discard changes
The diff viewer uses Monaco DiffEditor, which turned out to work really well.
Responsive Layout
One unexpected challenge was mobile support.
Most browser IDEs technically “work” on mobile, but usability is painful.
So 9ed changes layout depending on screen size:
- desktop → multi-panel
- tablet → overlays
- mobile → single-panel navigation
It’s still obviously not ideal for serious coding on a phone, but it became much more usable than I initially expected.
Things That Were Harder Than Expected
A few things became surprisingly complicated:
File synchronization
Handling:
- external file changes
- deleted files
- unsaved changes
- overwrite conflicts
without destroying editor state took more work than I expected.
ACP integration
Different AI agents behave very differently.
Some stream responses.
Some don’t.
Some expose tools differently.
Some require adapters.
Making all of them work through a unified interface was messy.
Terminal lifecycle
PTY management across platforms is full of edge cases.
Especially:
- Windows shells
- WSL
- process cleanup
- zombie sessions
Current State
It’s still evolving pretty fast, but already usable for:
- remote development
- homelab coding
- VPS editing
- AI-assisted workflows
- browser-based access
There are still many rough edges, but I’m happy with the direction so far.
Screenshots
- Explorer
- Git diff
- AI chat
- Mobile layout
GitHub
If you want to try it:
Would love feedback, especially from people doing remote/self-hosted development setups.
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