CodeSphere – Collaborative Coding Chat Platform

A real-time group collaboration platform designed specifically for developers. CodeSphere combines the power of collaborative coding, group chat, and custom version control — all within a cloud-based IDE.

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System Design

System Design Diagram

Key Components:

• Frontend: React, Monaco Editor, Xterm.js
• Backend: Node.js, Express, Socket.IO, Node-PTY
• Database: MongoDB (Cloud)
• Container Management: Docker (Per-project IDEs)
• Version Control Engine: Custom Git system built from scratch GitCustard

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Preview (Currently Implemented)

General Group Chat UI

Code Snippet Collaboration

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Features

General Group Chat (Implemented)

• Post messages and questions with editable code snippets (Monaco Editor)
• Add comments and commit-style history (Stack Overflow + Git behavior)
• Real-time code collaboration in chats using Socket.IO
• All code and comments stored in MongoDB
• Session management using JWT

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Project-Specific Groups (Planned/In Progress)

• Real-time cloud IDE per project
  • Monaco for code editing
  • Xterm.js + Node-PTY for live terminal
  • Docker container spins up when playground is opened
• Multi-file project structure saved in MongoDB
• Push/pull from user’s local machine using a custom Git implementation
• Optional plugin system to let users store code in their own private database

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Custom Git CLI (gitcustard) (In Progress)

A simulated version control tool tailored to CodeSphere’s environment:

• git init clone: creates CodeSphere repo structure
• cat-file -p <hash> to view Git object content
• Custom logic to store/read compressed blob, commit, and tree objects
• Supports parsing real .git/objects using Node.js and zlib

Separate GitHub repo for CLI: GitCustard

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