Get started - Get started with Liveblocks, Yjs, Tiptap, and React

Liveblocks is a real-time collaboration infrastructure for building performant collaborative experiences. Follow the following steps to start adding collaboration to your React application using the APIs from the @liveblocks/yjs package.

Quickstart

  1. Install Liveblocks, Yjs, and Tiptap

    $npm install @liveblocks/client @liveblocks/react @liveblocks/yjs yjs @tiptap/react @tiptap/pm @tiptap/starter-kit @tiptap/extension-collaboration @tiptap/extension-collaboration-cursor

  2. Initialize the liveblocks.config.ts file

    $npx create-liveblocks-app@latest --init --framework react

  3. Set up the Liveblocks client

    The first step in connecting to Liveblocks is creating a client which will be responsible for communicating with the back end. You can do this by modifying createClient in your config file, and passing your public API key.

    liveblocks.config.ts
    const client = createClient({  publicApiKey: "",});

  4. Join a Liveblocks room

    Liveblocks uses the concept of rooms, separate virtual spaces where people collaborate. To create a real-time experience, multiple users must be connected to the same room.

    index.tsx
    "use client";
    import { RoomProvider } from "./liveblocks.config";import { Editor } from "./Editor";import { ClientSideSuspense } from "@liveblocks/react";
    export default function Page() {  return (    <RoomProvider id="my-room" initialPresence={{}}>      <ClientSideSuspense fallback="Loading…">        {() => <Editor />}      </ClientSideSuspense>    </RoomProvider>  );}

  5. Set up the collaborative Tiptap text editor

    Now that we set up Liveblocks, we can start integrating Tiptap and Yjs in the Editor.tsx file. To make the editor collaborative, we can rely on Collaboration and CollaborationCursor from @tiptap/extension-collaboration and @tiptap/extension-collaboration-cursor.

    Editor.tsx
    "use client";
    import { useEffect, useState } from "react";import { useEditor, EditorContent } from "@tiptap/react";import StarterKit from "@tiptap/starter-kit";import Collaboration from "@tiptap/extension-collaboration";import CollaborationCursor from "@tiptap/extension-collaboration-cursor";import * as Y from "yjs";import LiveblocksProvider from "@liveblocks/yjs";import { useRoom } from "../liveblocks.config";
    type EditorProps = {  doc: Y.Doc,  provider: any;}
    function Editor() {  const room = useRoom();  const [doc, setDoc] = useState<Y.Doc>();  const [provider, setProvider] = useState<any>();
      // Set up Liveblocks Yjs provider  useEffect(() => {    const yDoc = new Y.Doc();    const yProvider = new LiveblocksProvider(room, yDoc);    setDoc(yDoc);    setProvider(yProvider);
        return () => {      yDoc?.destroy();      yProvider?.destroy();    };  }, [room]);
      if (!doc || !provider) {    return null;  }
      return <TiptapEditor doc={doc} provider={provider} />;}

    function TiptapEditor({ doc, provider }: EditorProps) {  const editor = useEditor({    extensions: [      StarterKit.configure({        // The Collaboration extension comes with its own history handling        history: false,      }),      // Register the Yjs document with Tiptap      Collaboration.configure({        document: doc,      }),      CollaborationCursor.configure({        provider: provider,      }),    ],  });
      return <EditorContent editor={editor} />;}

  6. Next: set up authentication

    By default, Liveblocks is configured to work without an authentication endpoint where everyone automatically has access to rooms. This approach is great for prototyping and marketing pages where setting up your own security isn’t always required. If you want to limit access to a room for certain users, you’ll need to set up an authentication endpoint to enable permissions.

    Set up authentication

What to read next

Congratulations! You now have set up the foundation for your collaborative Tiptap text editor inside your React application.

Examples using Tiptap