Blog: AI agents as CRDT peers — collaborative AI editor post#4093
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Blog: AI agents as CRDT peers — collaborative AI editor post#4093
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Draft outline for a post walking through how to build a collaborative AI editor using Durable Streams for both Yjs document sync and TanStack AI chat sessions. Published: false. Made-with: Cursor
- Fix CRDT streaming description (Yjs handles per-char fine) - Expand document tools section with full search/place/edit flow - Add software engineers angle to situation - Add OT → CRDT evolution context - Correct to three durable streams (doc, presence, chat) - Reframe markdown as deliberate IR choice - Simplify relative positions to focus on Yjs Made-with: Cursor
- Fix tool names to match actual code (insert_text, set_format, etc.) - Promote streaming edit routing to its own subsection - Trim tool list to focus on read → locate → edit flow - Add tech stack mention (TanStack Start, ProseMirror) - Correct repo URL to electric-sql/collaborative-ai-editor - Fix published: false - Resolve open questions (YouTube, async tease, repo URL) Made-with: Cursor
Title: "AI agents as CRDT peers: building a collaborative AI editor with Yjs". Image brief with shared prompt and three "twin cursors in a data stream" variations for ChatGPT DALL-E generation. Made-with: Cursor
Generated "twin cursors in a data stream" header image and added imageWidth/imageHeight to frontmatter. Made-with: Cursor
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thruflo
reviewed
Apr 6, 2026
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| I've spent years in the collaborative editing space, it's how I discovered sync engines. Since AI agents became part of my daily workflow, I've had an ear worm: what would it look like to integrate an AI agent into a Yjs rich text editing flow — not as a sidebar that dumps text, but as a real participant with its own cursor, presence, and streaming edits? | ||
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| This post walks through how I built a [Collaborative AI Editor](https://collaborative-ai-editor.examples.electric-sql.com) demo — a TanStack Start app with a ProseMirror/Yjs editor and an AI chat sidebar — using [Durable Streams](https://durablestreams.com) as the single transport layer for both [Yjs](https://yjs.dev) document collaboration and [TanStack AI](https://tanstack.com/ai) chat sessions. Two integrations, one primitive, and the AI becomes a genuine CRDT peer. |
| This post walks through how I built a [Collaborative AI Editor](https://collaborative-ai-editor.examples.electric-sql.com) demo — a TanStack Start app with a ProseMirror/Yjs editor and an AI chat sidebar — using [Durable Streams](https://durablestreams.com) as the single transport layer for both [Yjs](https://yjs.dev) document collaboration and [TanStack AI](https://tanstack.com/ai) chat sessions. Two integrations, one primitive, and the AI becomes a genuine CRDT peer. | ||
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| > [!Warning] Collaborative AI Editor demo | ||
| > Try the [live demo](https://collaborative-ai-editor.examples.electric-sql.com) and browse the [source code](https://github.com/electric-sql/collaborative-ai-editor). |
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I know it adds noise but perhaps also links to docs for yjs and ts ai on the ds docs site?
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| - Try the [live demo](https://collaborative-ai-editor.examples.electric-sql.com) and browse the [source code](https://github.com/electric-sql/collaborative-ai-editor) | ||
| - Read the [Durable Streams + Yjs docs](https://durablestreams.com/yjs) and [Durable Streams + TanStack AI docs](https://durablestreams.com/tanstack-ai) | ||
| - Check out [Durable Streams Cloud](https://durablestreams.com) for hosted infrastructure |
| excerpt: >- | ||
| ... | ||
| authors: [samwillis] | ||
| image: /img/blog/building-a-collaborative-ai-editor/header.jpg |
Contributor
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Just with this image, I wonder if using more of the playful "elephant in a sandbox" / "durable sessions" reference images and having a more playful character editing could be an alternative approach? This image is a bit in the StreamDB / Transports vein which I think could perhaps be more for base primitives, whereas this is more application level, pulling things together?
Fill in description and excerpt, fix published flag, apply non-breaking spaces consistently, tighten 'Why server-side matters' overlap, fix typos (earworm, YjsProvider doubling), and simplify the start_streaming_edit explanation. Made-with: Cursor
…eholders Add four code snippets verified against demo source: agent session setup, document tool definitions, relative anchor encode/decode, and durable chat connection. Add ASCII architecture diagram showing three Durable Streams. Add visible blockquote placeholders for remaining assets (video, screenshots, gifs). Made-with: Cursor
…, rename to Apr 8 Replace ASCII diagram with SVG, add visible placeholder blocks for video/screenshot assets, add cross-links to Yjs, TanStack AI, ProseMirror, TanStack Start, Durable Streams integration docs, and related blog posts. Rename post from April 6 to April 8. Made-with: Cursor
…teps, remove planning meta - Fix comma splice in conclusion, split long opening sentence - Add async to createServerAgentSession snippet - Rewrite conclusion to synthesize rather than restate - Fix link text to match actual post title - Vary repeated word choices, remove redundancy in markdown section - Restructure Next Steps with hierarchy (Try / Learn / Build) - Tighten Ink & Switch tangent, compress streaming markdown subsection - Add inline CTAs linking to Cloud and source code - Soften "survives everything" heading - Set published: false, remove planning meta section Made-with: Cursor
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Preview: https://deploy-preview-4093--electric-next.netlify.app/blog/2026/04/08/building-a-collaborative-ai-editor
Summary
published: false— outline only, needs prose-upNext steps
/blog-reviewMade with Cursor