Show HN: Lightwave – Real-time notes app, 3.5 years of hand-rolled JavaScript

A lone developer has just thrown open the doors to a bold new collaborative workspace after three and a half years of solitary labor—and the result is already making waves in the productivity software world. Lightwave, the brainchild of an indie coder, is a web-based editor that promises to blend the simplicity of a plain text file with the power of structured, real-time collaboration.

The project began, as so many do, from frustration. The creator found themselves cycling through every major project and note-taking tool—Notion, Asana, Trello, and others—only to return, time and again, to a humble text file. What was missing? A tool that felt instantly familiar, like a text editor on first touch, but could grow into something more sophisticated when the need arose. That insight became the seed for Lightwave.

Under the hood, Lightwave is built on a classic stack: Laravel for the backend, MySQL for data storage, and Redis for caching. The client side is a hand-rolled JavaScript affair—no React, Vue, or other frameworks in sight. The entire codebase clocks in at over 80,000 lines, with only about 270 lines of jQuery for legacy DOM utilities, plus IndexedDB for local persistence. Real-time collaboration is powered by a hybrid approach: HTTP/2 POST requests for resilient operational transformations, and WebSockets (via Laravel Reverb) for live cursors, presence, and edits.

This isn’t a traditional launch, though. The developer describes it as a “pre-release stress test,” opening the doors to real users because, as they put it, “no amount of solo testing replicates getting punched in the mouth by real traffic.” Lightwave will eventually be a paid product, but for now, the focus is on ironing out the kinks under genuine load.

Interested users can head to the website and create a test account with a single click. However, the developer is upfront about the current limitations: the cursor and selection system is built from scratch (akin to VS Code, not a contenteditable wrapper), so there’s a lot of surface area for bugs. Some keyboard shortcuts may be missing, it’s desktop-only for now, and accessibility features haven’t yet been implemented. Fixes are being shipped in real time, and users are encouraged to report bugs or feedback directly within the app.

So what sets Lightwave apart? For starters, it’s deeply integrated with markdown. Paste markdown in, and it becomes native blocks; copy blocks out, and you get markdown back. The document structure is hierarchical, as is the file manager, allowing for intuitive organization. Live collaboration is a centerpiece: shared cursors, selections, and presence make it feel like you’re working side by side with your teammates. Code blocks come with syntax highlighting, and there’s even support for LaTeX math blocks.

Data portability is another key feature. Users can export their work in markdown, JSON, or with attachments—no lock-in, no walled garden. And if you make a mistake, full undo/redo with cursor restoration means you can experiment without fear.

The developer is eager to discuss the architecture and answer questions, signaling a commitment to transparency and community engagement. As the first wave of users begins to explore Lightwave, it’s clear that this indie project has the potential to disrupt the crowded field of productivity tools—by offering something both familiar and refreshingly different.

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