Magic Patterns is an AI-powered design platform that helps product teams move
from idea to production within hours, rather than weeks. The platform allows
users to turn natural language into fully functioning prototypes, which makes it
possible to move from concept to working design in minutes. Product managers,
designers, and website builders use Magic Patterns to explore ideas, share work
with teammates, and iterate quickly.
As the product expanded, teams expected the same realtime collaboration they
experienced in tools like Figma and Google Docs. Users needed to work within the
same canvas, see changes appear instantly, and review prototypes together.
Delivering that experience, while also supporting AI-driven updates across the
product, required a reliable multiplayer foundation.
Generating a digital events page in Magic Patterns (in fast-forward).
To deliver a modern collaborative design tool, Magic Patterns needed realtime
editing state in a multiplayer document, live cursor presence, instant updates
between their AI system and the front end, consistent syncing across multiple
tabs, and inline comments for design review.
“Building software is collaborative. If you want to be part of that process,
your product needs to support collaboration, and Liveblocks powers that for us.”
Alexander DanilowiczCo-founder & CEO, Magic Patterns
Building this required specialized infrastructure work including WebSockets,
conflict-free data management, connection handling, retries, and observability.
It also created long term operational overhead that would slow product
development and pull the team away from their core focus of building an AI
driven design experience.
The logic behind Liveblocks’ WebSocket connection manager.
Magic Patterns needed a multiplayer foundation that integrated cleanly with
their stack and allowed their small team to move quickly.
Magic Patterns chose Liveblocks because it provided the fastest and most
reliable way to deliver realtime collaboration for both their infinite canvas
and their AI powered workflows.
“Liveblocks is a game-changing developer tool. It abstracts away realtime
infrastructure we never want to think about.”
The team’s first goal was to build a collaborative infinite canvas. Teddy
expected features like shared cursors and live updates to take weeks, but
discovered that Liveblocks abstracts away the complexity into simple React
hooks. After downloading a live cursors example, he
had a full working version in three to four hours.
“That was the moment it clicked. Something I thought would be complicated was
immediately smooth.”
Liveblocks powers the communication path between Magic Patterns’ AI system and
the front end. When a user submits a prompt, every open tab updates instantly
and stays in sync.
Magic Patterns’ AI chat updating in realtime across tabs.
Liveblocks also creates a “wow moment” in sales demos. When prospects see
multiple cursors moving in realtime and AI updates appearing instantly, they
immediately understand the value of the product. The collaborative experience
feels familiar, which helps Magic Patterns demonstrate the power of their AI
tools much more effectively.
By removing the need to build and maintain realtime infrastructure and
WebSockets, Liveblocks has made the Magic Patterns engineering team
significantly faster and allowed them to stay focused on product innovation.
“The developer experience is amazing. It sped up our engineering team by 5X and
saved us hundreds of hours of building from scratch and maintaining.”
With Liveblocks, Magic Patterns delivers a fast and intuitive realtime design
experience. Teddy shipped the first version of their collaborative infinite
canvas in only a few hours, and that early success shaped how the team
approached collaboration across the entire product. The same foundation now
keeps AI generated updates in sync for every user, which creates a strong “wow
moment” in demos and helps teams understand the product immediately.
Relying on Liveblocks allows Magic Patterns to focus on building their AI design
platform rather than maintaining multiplayer infrastructure. Collaboration has
become a defining part of the product and a key reason customers choose Magic
Patterns.
Realtime avatars and share menu in Magic Patterns.
To finish up, we have some final advice from Teddy Ni, Co-founder & CTO:
At some point your customers will ask for collaboration, so it is better to
build it into the experience early rather than bolting it on later.
Putting realtime experiences into your codebase adds a lot of weight. If you
build in-house keeping things in sync across tabs and AI updates becomes
something you have to think about constantly.
Using the Liveblocks examples to get
started (and then Liveblocks) will save you a tremendous amount of
development time.
“If my co-founder, Teddy, says that it is a great developer product, it
is a really damn good developer product. We do not use bad developer products.”
Alexander DanilowiczCo-founder & CEO, Magic Patterns