Nördnytt! 🤓Show HN: Lightwave – Real-time notes app, 3.5 years of hand-rolled JavaScript
I've been building this solo for about three and a half years. I kept trying every new project/notes tool (Notion, Asana, Trello, etc.) and always ended up back in a plain text file. I wanted something that felt like a text editor on first touch but could grow into real structure when you needed it.
The tech stack is Laravel, MySQL, Redis, and hand-rolled JavaScript on the client. No frameworks like React/Vue/etc. ~270 lines of jQuery (out of 80k+ total LOC) for a few legacy DOM utilities, plus IndexedDB for local persistence. Real-time collaboration uses a hybrid approach: HTTP/2 POST for resilient ops + WebSockets via Laravel Reverb for live cursors, presence, and edits.
This is a pre-release stress test, not a launch. Lightwave will be a paid product. Right now I'm opening it up because no amount of solo testing replicates getting punched in the mouth by real traffic.
The link above has a button to create a test account in 1 click.
Known rough edges: the cursor and selection system are built from scratch (like VS Code, not a contenteditable wrapper), so there's a lot of surface area. Some keyboard shortcuts may be missing. Desktop only, accessibility not yet implemented. I'm shipping fixes in real time.
There's a "Submit Bug or Feedback" button inside the app if something breaks. Happy to answer any questions about the architecture, or anything else.
Some highlights:
- Paste markdown in, get native blocks. Copy blocks out, get markdown back.
- Hierarchical document, structure. Hierarchichal file manager.
- Live collab with shared cursors, selection, and presence.
- Code blocks with syntax highlighting. LaTeX math blocks.
- Full data export: markdown, JSON, and attachments. No lock-in.
- Full undo/redo with cursor restoration.
- johnfn - 6257 sekunder sedanThis looks neat! I suppose I might ask the hard questions - how does this compare to Obsidian, which is my go-to "real time notes app that roughly feels like dealing with a plain text file but better"?
I would also make a small suggestion, which is that there is really no need to emphasize the fact that it's hand-written or without React or etc. While I suppose a small segment of users do truly care that you didn't use React, I think the primary consideration for most users will be how the app works. I would suggest mentioning how your technical decisions affect the user experience: is the performance better - and if so, can you quantify that?
- artemavv - 6309 sekunder sedan"Create Account" button leads to /undefined, both in Chrome and Firefox.
- purplecats - 6244 sekunder sedandoesnt work. https://lightwave.so/undefined