Realtime Collaboration (Liveblocks)

The workspace code editor supports multi-user realtime collaboration: when several collaborators open the same workspace at the same time, edits sync to each other's editors live and the toolbar shows how many people are online. Powered by Liveblocks cloud service — no self-hosted server required.

Enabling

Realtime collaboration needs one environment variable:

Variable	Description
`LIVEBLOCKS_SECRET_KEY`	Register at Liveblocks (free tier is enough for everyday use) → project settings → Secret Keys → copy the Secret key (starts with `sk_dev_`).

After configuring, redeploy (or restart the dev server locally) and open any workspace → Code tab to see the realtime status:

🟢 Green badge: Realtime on or N online — connection is healthy
⏳ "Connecting to realtime..." — establishing the connection (finishes within seconds)
(No badge) — LIVEBLOCKS_SECRET_KEY is not set, or the connection failed; the editor falls back to offline editing with no impact on functionality

Details

Live sync: when multiple collaborators are in the same workspace, file content changes broadcast to everyone in real time (Liveblocks Storage)
Active-file following: the file path you are editing syncs to collaborators so everyone can see what the others are looking at
Read-only collaborators also see live updates, but cannot edit or save
Each workspace maps to its own Liveblocks Room (cfos-ws-<workspaceId>), so workspaces never interfere with each other

Permissions

Authentication for realtime collaboration is handled by this app (/api/liveblocks/auth):

Only the workspace owner and invited collaborators can join the workspace room; everyone else gets no token
Tokens are HS256-signed JWTs whose lifetime matches the login session; Liveblocks refreshes them automatically through the callback
Signed-out users cannot join any room

Failures & degradation

Scenario	Behavior
`LIVEBLOCKS_SECRET_KEY` not set	Code tab shows no realtime badge; purely offline editing
Invalid secret key / network blocked	Gives up after ~5 seconds, degrades to offline editing, editor keeps working
Connection drops mid-session	Peer count drops to zero, local edits are never lost; the next page visit retries

Realtime sync is a best-effort collaboration enhancement and does not replace saving. Always click Save (or Ctrl/Cmd+S) to persist changes to the server — file history/rollback always uses the server-saved version.

Privacy

Realtime content is transmitted over Liveblocks' encrypted WebSocket; room IDs contain no file content, and only authorized users can obtain an ID token to join. If you have concerns about data leaving your region, simply leave LIVEBLOCKS_SECRET_KEY unset — the app stays in pure offline collaboration mode.