The 1978 word processor George R. R. Martin never gave up — in your browser, with the one feature it never had: other people.
A clean-room, browser-based reimplementation of WordStar for the modern era —
faithful to the original keyboard-first interface (the diamond cursor, ^K block
commands, ^Q quick commands), extended with always-saved documents and
real-time multiuser collaboration over WebSockets.
Two people, one document, zero mice: peer cursors with name tags, concurrent same-line typing that converges, and an undo that only ever reverts your own edits.
A Codespace installs the dependencies, starts the dev server, and opens the editor preview for you.
npm install && npm run dev # Node 22+Then open http://localhost:5273/demo — a seeded, private showcase document that teaches the keyboard as you read it. Copy the URL into a second window and type in both: that's the collaboration above. Everything auto-saves; there is no save command.
These interfaces were already correct. WordStar's keyboard-driven design let writers keep their hands on the keys and their attention on the words, and decades of muscle memory proved how well it worked. We're not replacing that design — we're bringing it forward, running natively in the browser. The full argument — what WordStar got right and why it's worth reviving — is in the WordStar retrospective.
- The real WordStar interface — the diamond (
^E/^X/^S/^D),^Qquick movement,^Kblocks,^Oonscreen format,^Pprint controls, self-revealing menus with help levels, insert/overtype, word wrap +^Breflow, multi-level undo/redo. Arrow keys work too; purists may ignore them. - The terminal look — blue status bar with
PAGE/LINE/COL, ruler line, flag column, blinking block cursor, dashed page-break rows from real pagination. - Layout dot commands —
.lm/.rm/.ls/.pl/.mt/.mb/.pa/.cp/.pn/.op/.he/.fo, folded positionally down the document exactly like 1979. - Real-time collaboration — server-authoritative edit intents with revisions and
positional transform; peer cursors with
USER nname tags; concurrent same-line edits converge; undo is scoped to your own edits. - Always saved — UUID document URLs over WebSocket + SQLite; no save command,
no
.BAKfiles. - Print/export — PDF, HTML, Markdown, plain text, and native WordStar text via
^K P, honouring^Pstyles and dot-command layout.
See the roadmap in CLAUDE.md and the CHANGELOG.md.
Documents in and out: GET /demo seeds a fresh, private feature-showcase document
and redirects you to it; ^K P can export the native WordStar-text format (W) in
addition to PDF/HTML/Markdown/plain text; ^K R opens a file picker to import a
document, including real WordStar 3.x/4 files (not just plain text or our own .ws).
npm install
npm run dev # Vite on http://localhost:5273 + the WebSocket server on :5274Open http://localhost:5273 — you'll be redirected to a document URL like
http://localhost:5273/?doc=<uuid>. That UUID is the document's identity: bookmark or
share the URL to return to the same document (sharing it is how you invite a
collaborator); open a fresh URL for a new one.
npm test # Vitest unit + integration
npx playwright test # Playwright end-to-end (browser)
npm run build # type-check + Vite production buildnpm run serve # vite build, then the Node server serves the assets + WebSocketIn production a single Node process serves both the static assets and the WebSocket
endpoint on port 5274 (set WS_PORT to override). Documents live in a SQLite
file under data/ (created on first run) — back up or persist that directory.
Because collaboration needs a long-lived WebSocket server and a local SQLite file,
host it on something with a persistent Node process and disk (a VPS, Fly.io,
Railway, …) — not a serverless/static platform.
Know the security model before hosting publicly: WebWordStar has no authentication. Documents are private-by-URL — the UUID in the URL is the only access control, and anyone with a document's URL can read and edit it. See SECURITY.md.
For a publicly reachable instance, set WWS_DEMO=1 to turn on abuse guards
(all off by default, so a private install behaves exactly as before):
| Variable | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|
WWS_DEMO |
unset | 1 enables demo mode (everything below) |
WWS_WIPE_HOURS |
24 |
Documents idle longer than this are deleted (checked every 15 min; documents with an open session are never touched) |
WWS_CREATE_PER_IP_PER_HOUR |
30 |
Per-IP hourly cap on document-creating requests (GET /demo, POST /import) |
WWS_MAX_CONN_PER_IP |
8 |
Max concurrent WebSocket connections per IP |
WWS_MSG_PER_10S |
400 |
Max WebSocket messages per connection per 10 s (exceeding closes the connection) |
Demo mode identifies clients by socket address, so run the Node process directly exposed or behind a TCP (layer-4) proxy; behind an HTTP reverse proxy all traffic appears to come from one IP and the per-IP limits will bite everyone at once.
WebWordStar binds commands to Ctrl+letter, exactly like WordStar. On non-QWERTY
layouts a few keys are physically displaced (e.g. ^A/^Q on AZERTY); arrow keys are
provided as a modern alternative for cursor movement.
The four movement keys sit in a diamond under your left hand — up is literally above down, left is literally left of right:
^E
^S ^D (^A word left · ^F word right)
^X
| Keys | Move | Alternate |
|---|---|---|
^E / ^X |
Up / down a line | ↑ / ↓ |
^S / ^D |
Left / right a character | ← / → |
^A / ^F |
Left / right a word |
| Keys | To |
|---|---|
^Q S / ^Q D |
Start / end of line |
^Q E / ^Q X |
Top / bottom of screen |
^Q R / ^Q C |
Start / end of document |
| Keys | Action |
|---|---|
^K B / ^K K |
Mark block begin / end (highlighted) |
^K C |
Copy the marked block to the cursor |
^K Y |
Delete the marked block |
^K H |
Hide / show the block highlight |
^K N |
Name the document (inline DOCUMENT NAME: prompt) |
^K P |
Export (prompt: P=PDF, H=HTML, T=Text, M=Markdown, W=WordStar) |
^K R |
Read (import) a file — opens a file picker |
| Keys | Action |
|---|---|
^V |
Toggle insert / overtype |
Enter |
Split the line |
Backspace / ^G |
Delete left / right (joins lines at edges) |
^B |
Reflow (word-wrap) the current paragraph |
^U |
Undo |
^Q U |
Redo |
^K V |
Move the marked block to the cursor |
| Keys | Action |
|---|---|
^O L / ^O R |
Set left / right margin (prompt) |
^O C |
Center the current line |
^O S |
Set line spacing (prompt) |
^O J |
Toggle justification |
^O W |
Toggle word wrap |
^O T |
Toggle the ruler line |
^O D |
Toggle print-control display |
^O I / ^O N |
Set / clear a tab stop |
^O X |
Release margins |
^O G |
Temporary paragraph indent |
| Keys | Style |
|---|---|
^P B |
Bold |
^P S |
Underline |
^P Y |
Italic |
^P D |
Double-strike |
^P X |
Strikeout |
^P T |
Superscript |
^P V |
Subscript |
^P O |
Non-break space |
| Keys | Action |
|---|---|
^J H |
Cycle help level (0–3, default 3) |
Lines starting with . are layout dot commands; they render dimmed with a . flag,
never wrap, and position-override the ^O ruler from that line down.
| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
.lm n |
Set left margin to column n |
.rm n |
Set right margin to column n |
.ls n |
Set line spacing |
.pl n |
Set page length (default 66) |
.mt n |
Set top margin (default 3) |
.mb n |
Set bottom margin (default 8) |
.pa |
Force a page break |
.cp n |
Conditional page break if fewer than n lines remain |
.pn n |
Renumber the page |
.op |
Omit page numbers |
.he text |
Set header text (used by the exporter) |
.fo text |
Set footer text (used by the exporter) |
- Browser — a pure keystroke reducer (
src/editor/state.ts) over a pure document model (src/shared/document.ts), an HTML renderer (src/editor/render.ts), and aWsClient(src/ws/WsClient.ts) that streams changes to the server. - Server — Node + WebSocket (
server/index.ts) with aDocumentSessionper connection over a SQLiteDocumentStore(better-sqlite3, WAL). - Shared — TypeScript types and the document model are shared between client and server.
See CLAUDE.md for the full architecture, command tables, and roadmap.
Node.js · WebSockets (ws) · SQLite (better-sqlite3) · TypeScript · Vite · Vitest · Playwright.
Contributions welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md for the branching model (GitFlow with milestone release branches) and the definition of done.
WebWordStar is an independent, clean-room reimplementation built for educational and software-preservation purposes, in the same spirit as projects like WordTsar. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to MicroPro International or any past or present holder of the WordStar trademark. The name "WordStar" appears here only to describe the historical program whose keyboard interface this project reimplements. No original WordStar code or documentation text is used: behavior is implemented from publicly documented interfaces and independent testing against files.
AGPL-3.0-only. Source files carry SPDX license headers.
Built by the same author as WebBaseIII, a dBASE III clone that runs in the browser. WebWordStar continues the same idea: bring forward the interfaces that were already right.