Teamtype is a peer-to-peer, editor-agnostic collaboration tool that keeps real-time editing of local text files in sync across multiple people and multiple text editors, aimed at developers, writers, and note-takers who want live collaboration without hosting a server or giving up ownership of their files.

What it is

Teamtype is a Rust command-line program distributed under the AGPL-3.0 licence. It connects two or more machines directly to each other and synchronizes edits to files and whole directories that already exist on each participant's disk. Each person keeps using their own editor — Neovim, VS Code or Codium, or any other editor for which a plugin exists — and the synchronization runs underneath, driven by CRDT and local-first techniques and published under the topics automerge, crdt, local-first, and peer-to-peer. The project was known as "Ethersync" until October 2025 and was renamed in pull request #436.

The concrete problem it solves is that live collaborative editing has historically required a hosted service: a shared document account, an upload step, or a cloud workspace that owns the canonical copy. Teamtype removes that middle layer by connecting peers directly over encrypted connections, so no server has to be run and no account has to be created. It sits inside the broader text-editing and version-control ecosystem as the real-time complement to Git, covering the simultaneous-editing case that a commit-and-push workflow cannot address, while leaving version history to Git itself.

Key capabilities

• Concurrent editing of the same files by several users who are running different text editors.
• Live presence: peers' cursors, selections, and edits are visible as they happen.
• Collaboration over complete directories rather than one file at a time.
• Encrypted peer-to-peer connections, so no server is required to relay traffic.
• Local-first storage model that keeps all content on disk, including while offline.
• Editor plugin development through a simple JSON-RPC protocol.
• Command-line sharing: teamtype share prints a join code such as 5-hamburger-endorse, which the other side passes to teamtype join, with peer addresses and settings written to .teamtype/config.

Who uses it and how

• Pair programming sessions in which two developers work in the same repository from different editors, for example one in Neovim and one in VS Code.
• Brainstorming and note-taking, where a directory of plain text files is shared for the duration of a session.
• Remote collaborators who want shared access to a working directory without standing up a server, creating accounts, or handing data to a third party.
• Offline-tolerant workflows: because the model is local-first, content remains on disk and available when the connection drops.
• Users on Linux, macOS, Android through a terminal emulator such as Termux, and Windows Subsystem for Linux, plus plugin authors extending editor support through the JSON-RPC interface and the existing teamtype-nvim and VS Code extensions.

Getting started

Install the teamtype binary, either from the precompiled static release assets (x86_64-linux-static, universal-apple-darwin, or aarch64-aarch64-linux-static), through a package manager (sudo pacman -S teamtype, brew install teamtype, nix shell nixpkgs#teamtype), or with Cargo (cargo install --locked teamtype, or cargo binstall teamtype for a precompiled binary), then add an editor plugin. In the directory to be shared, run teamtype share and pass the printed join code to the other participant, who runs teamtype join .

How it compares

No list of paid products that Teamtype replaces is provided in these facts, and no comparable tools are named here either, so it stands alone in this registry. The project does maintain its own list of other collaborative text-editing software on its documentation site, but none of those projects are identified in the material available for this page.

When to use it — and when not to

A self-hoster needs to place the teamtype binary in PATH for every editor that will use it and to exchange join codes out of band; no database, object storage, or mail service is required, which keeps the operational surface small. Users who cannot accept the AGPL-3.0 copyleft terms, who need native Windows support rather than Windows Subsystem for Linux, or who require central administration, managed hosting, and audit controls should look elsewhere. The honest weakness is maturity: the maintainers state that they work on Teamtype in their free time, that it is used for their own pair programming, and that there are still bugs to be aware of, with 113 open issues at the time of writing.

sudo pacman -S teamtype

brew install teamtype

nix shell nixpkgs#teamtype

cargo install --locked teamtype

cargo binstall teamtype

$ teamtype share

    To connect to you, another person can run:

    teamtype join 5-hamburger-endorse

Peer connected: adfa90edd932732ddf242f24dc2dcd6156779e69966d432fcb3b9fe3ae9831ab

$ teamtype join 5-hamburger-endorse

Derived peer from join code. Storing in config (overwriting previous config).
Storing peer's address in .teamtype/config.
Connected to peer: 5e6b787fff79074735eb9b56939269100de1e37bc7f7a4d29c277cc24f7ee53d