Collabrix

A next-generation, AI-powered collaborative IDE built on VS Code — designed to eliminate the friction of distributed software development.

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The Problem

Distributed dev teams face a set of recurring, costly problems:

• "It works on my machine" — environment drift between teammates
• Slow onboarding — new devs spend days setting up environments
• Context loss — handoffs between teammates lose critical state
• Coordination overhead — tracking who's doing what, and what's broken
• Merge conflicts and diverging codebases during parallel work

Collabrix is built to solve all of these at once.

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What Collabrix Is

Collabrix is a VS Code fork that turns a solo IDE into a living, shared workspace. Every team member works in the same environment, sees the same state, and gets AI assistance throughout — from writing code to diagnosing failures to managing tasks.

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Core Architecture

Collabrix is organized around four pillars:

1. Real-Time Collaboration

• CRDT-based co-editing powered by Y.js — multiple users edit the same file simultaneously with zero conflicts
• Live cursor presence with per-user colors and name labels
• Room-based sessions — create or join a collaboration room via the Command Palette
• File and workspace awareness — see which files teammates have open

2. Shared Environment

• Per-room isolated Docker containers provisioned automatically (512 MB memory, 50% CPU quota)
• Shared live terminals — all room participants see the same terminal, run commands together, and hand off sessions with full checkpoint/restore
• Automatic dependency and devcontainer sync — environment drift is eliminated; everyone runs the same stack
• Intent Prefetcher — predicts likely dependencies based on current work and pre-builds them to accelerate CI and onboarding

3. AI-Powered Assistance

• Smart Terminal Emulator — understands single-sentence natural language and voice instructions, translates intent into safe, context-aware shell workflows, and fuzzy-resolves project paths
• Continuous build and deployment monitoring — captures per-user error context (commands, logs, environment snapshot) and presents AI-generated diagnoses with one-click fixes or PR suggestions
• Semantic merge and repair — AI-assisted conflict resolution that understands code intent, not just text diffs
• Command recipes — reusable, shareable shell workflows for common team tasks

4. Task Intelligence & Governance

• AI Task Dashboard — visual per-task progress tracking with both manual and AI-estimated percent-completion
• AI Task Router — intelligently assigns tasks to team members and forecasts delivery risk
• Administrator Console — fine-grained folder and command access policies, enforced at runtime
• Secure audit trail — every action is logged for compliance and accountability

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Key Features at a Glance

Feature	Description
Extensions Marketplace	Integrated with Open VSX for seamless module discovery
CRDT Co-editing	Conflict-free simultaneous editing via Y.js
Cursor Presence	Live remote cursors with colors and labels
Room Sessions	Create/join collaboration rooms instantly
Shared Terminals	Synchronized terminal with checkpoint & handoff
Docker Isolation	Auto-provisioned per-room dev containers
Smart Terminal	Natural language → safe shell commands
Intent Prefetcher	Pre-builds predicted dependencies
Auto Env Sync	Eliminates environment drift automatically
AI Diagnostics	Error context capture + one-click fixes
Task Dashboard	Manual + AI-estimated task completion
AI Task Router	Task assignment + risk forecasting
Admin Console	Access policies + full audit trail

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Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js v22+
• Docker Desktop (optional, for isolated devcontainers)

0. Quick Start (One Command)

We provide a specialized setup script that handles dependency installation, extension compilation, and server setup in one go:

chmod +x ./scripts/collabrix-setup.sh
./scripts/collabrix-setup.sh

1. Start the Collaboration Server

cd extensions/collab-edit/collab-server
npm install
npm run build
npm start
# Server runs on port 4000

2. Set Up the Extension

cd extensions/collab-edit
npm install
npm run compile

3. Launch Collabrix

From the repository root:

# Linux / macOS
./scripts/code.sh

# Windows
.\scripts\code.bat

Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) and type Collab to create or join a room.

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Extension Marketplace

Collabrix is migrated to the Open VSX Registry (https://open-vsx.org). This provides access to thousands of open-source extensions without proprietary Microsoft marketplace restrictions.

Note

We have implemented safety rails in the Extension Gallery Service to ensure stability even when official AI/Chat agent configurations are missing.

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Troubleshooting

Terminal fails to open

If the integrated terminal fails to launch with a "ptyHost terminated" error, the native modules likely need to be rebuilt for the Electron version:

export npm_config_runtime=electron
export npm_config_target=39.8.0
export npm_config_disturl=https://electronjs.org/headers
export VSCODE_FORCE_INSTALL=1
node build/npm/postinstall.ts

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Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
IDE Base	VS Code (open-source fork)
Language	TypeScript, Rust (CLI)
Real-time Sync	Y.js (CRDT)
Runtime	Electron, Node.js, Browser APIs
Containers	Docker
Build	npm, gulp, webpack
Testing	Mocha

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Project Structure

src/vs/
  base/          # Cross-platform utilities and abstractions
  platform/      # Injectable services (files, config, terminal, etc.)
  editor/        # Text editor core and language services
  workbench/     # Main app UI, contributions, extension host
  sessions/      # Agentic workflows layer
extensions/
  collab-edit/   # Collabrix collaboration extension + server
cli/             # Rust-based CLI
build/           # CI/CD and build tooling

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Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, coding guidelines, and how to submit changes.