Building a Real-Time Collaborative Code Editor from Scratch (With Almost No Experience)

I'm starting a new project: building a real-time collaborative code editor, similar to how multiple people can edit the same document at once.

The catch?

I have no experience with WebSockets, CRDTs, collaborative systems, or distributed synchronization.

Instead of following a YouTube tutorial and copying code I don't understand, I'm going to learn every concept from the ground up—even if it means getting stuck, making mistakes, and rebuilding things multiple times.

My goal isn't just to finish the project. It's to understand why it works.

I'll be documenting the entire journey here:

What I'm learning
The problems I run into
The mistakes I make
How I solve them
Things I wish I'd known earlier

I'm not trying to build this as fast as possible. I'm trying to build it in a way that I'll actually be able to explain every decision I make.

If you've built collaborative apps before, I'd love your advice. And if you're learning alongside me, I hope these posts help you too.

Day 0 starts today....