plain files / live collaboration

Your folder,
now multiplayer.

Turn any Obsidian vault, docs repo, or Markdown folder into a realtime workspace without moving a single file.

Open live demo Star on GitHub
CollabMD live demo workspace: markdown editor with embedded Mermaid, PlantUML, Excalidraw, and draw.io files, rendered diagram preview, and six collaborators online.
Captured from the live public demo. Six collaborators are online, and no signup is required.

~/features

Built like a dev tool,
not a document silo.

No migration. Files stay files.

Point CollabMD at an existing Obsidian vault, docs repo, or plain folder. It reads and writes supported files in place instead of importing them into a proprietary content store. Edits made in Obsidian, your editor, or by git pull reconcile straight back into open sessions and the file explorer.

  • Markdown and diagram sources remain ordinary files on disk
  • Opening a file does not rewrite its source content
  • Ignores .obsidian, .git, node_modules

Everyone on the same line, live.

Yjs merges concurrent edits without locks or conflict dialogs. See who's online, follow a collaborator's cursor across files, and hash things out in room chat without leaving the workspace.

  • Presence, follow mode, and room chat built in
  • Edits stream over WebSocket and persist continuously
  • Opt-in Vim keybindings for keyboard-first editing

Feedback pinned to words and shapes.

Comment on a line, selected phrase, or Excalidraw element. Threads stay beside the source or canvas, and the workspace overview keeps every review in one place.

  • Inline markers, preview bubbles, and canvas pins
  • Workspace-wide comment overview grouped by file
  • Reply, resolve, and reopen without leaving the workspace

Diagrams and PDFs stay in context.

Edit Mermaid, PlantUML, and Structurizr DSL beside their previews. Open Excalidraw and draw.io canvases, or read PDFs without leaving the vault.

  • Interactive Structurizr C4 navigation from context to component
  • Excalidraw and draw.io canvases with visual git diffs
  • Readonly PDFs with search, outline, links, zoom, and password support

upload --multiple

Bring the whole vault

Import Markdown, Base, diagram, image, and PDF files in one pass.

rg / pdf

Find anything faster

Search text files with ripgrep. PDFs appear in file search and have in-document search.

git diff

Review visual changes

Compare images, Excalidraw, and draw.io before committing or publishing.

Watch it once.
Then edit it live.

The recording and public demo use the same shared vault. Join as a guest, type, and watch the preview update.

demo.collabmd.app Start in the guided README. No signup; join as a guest.

Three steps.
The middle one is a browser.

  1. 1

    Point at a folder

    Any Markdown directory works: an Obsidian vault, a docs repo, or a pile of notes.

    npx collabmd@latest ~/my-vault
  2. 2

    Open the browser

    Explorer, editor, live preview, comments, and chat are waiting at localhost:1234.

    open http://localhost:1234
  3. 3

    Share the link

    Add a password and let the quick tunnel print a URL your collaborators can open.

    collabmd ~/my-vault --auth password

Choose how to run it.

macOS, Linux, or Windows via WSL2. Requires Node.js 24 for the npx path; ripgrep powers global search.

npx collabmd@latest ~/my-vault --no-tunnel

Then open http://localhost:1234. No global install required.

--auth

Control access

Use a LAN, shared password, or Google OIDC with per-user identity.

docker run

Deploy your way

Run the published image, Compose stack, or Helm chart.

cloudflared

Share a link

An optional quick tunnel exposes HTTP and WebSocket together.

Stop migrating your docs.
Start collaborating on them.

Open live demo View on GitHub