Optimise Development Team Collaboration With Eclipse Open Collaboration Tools

Collaboration in modern software development remains technically challenging. Existing tools often miss the mark: they lack extensibility, enforce vendor lock-in, or compromise security by forcing teams to work outside their trusted infrastructure.

The Eclipse Open Collaboration Tools (OCT) project was created to address these challenges. This open source initiative — contributed by TypeFox and now hosted under the Eclipse Cloud DevTools Working Group — provides libraries and tools for real-time collaboration in development environments, filling critical gaps for teams working remotely.

Key elements of the project — which is currently in incubation — include:

• Flexible IDE support: Integrate with popular IDEs such as Eclipse Theia, VS Code, or extend it to your own tools.

• Extensibility: Support plain text editors right out of the box and add custom editors such as visual editors and diagramming editors for more complex use cases.

• On-premise hosting: Run the Open Collaboration Server on your own infrastructure for complete control over data security and meeting compliance requirements.

• Open standards: Avoid lock-in with a permissive MIT License and the Open Collaboration Protocol.

• Web integration: Enable collaboration between desktop-based and browser-based applications seamlessly.

The result: a practical, secure, and customisable collaboration toolkit for modern software teams.

Centralised and Synchronised Sharing and Communication

The Open Collaboration Protocol underpins Eclipse OCT, enabling real-time communication for shared editing and navigation. Users first log in using an authentication process that is server-specific and customisable. The public instance — available for demonstration purposes — currently supports GitHub and Google OAuth, and is available at api.open-collab.tools. No user data (authentication nor communication) is ever stored on the server; instead, JSON Web Tokens (JWT) are used to securely manage authentication on the client side.

The collaboration begins when one user starts a session and invites others to join. Files from the host’s development workspace are shared in real time with all participants, allowing smooth access and interaction. Cursor positions, selections, and edits are synchronised instantly among all users, providing an intuitive and dynamic collaboration experience. To ensure privacy and data integrity, all communications are end-to-end encrypted. In addition, the protocol is highly flexible, enabling developers to extend its capabilities to synchronise other types of content, such as graphical editors or specialised tools.

OCT uses a centralised message brokering server to handle communication. The server is message-agnostic, making it easy to extend and integrate OCT into different tools and workflows, for example.

Core Elements Available in First Release

The initial version of OCT includes:

• Eclipse Theia integration: Collaborative editing for Theia-based applications, including Theia IDE.

• VS Code extension: Available on Open VSX and the VS Code Marketplace.

• Open Collaboration Server: Manages session authentication and message brokering. A public instance is hosted at api.open-collab.tools.

• TypeScript libraries: Simplify the integration of OCT into additional tools and applications.

• Security by design: Built-in end-to-end encryption and extensible user authentication.

These elements ensure developers can access the core capabilities and value offerings of the OCT project right away. Users can create and run sessions, share and edit content, extend the utility of the protocol with custom editors or IDEs to support specific use cases, and do so without compromising the privacy or security of their data. And they can do so quickly and easily by leveraging native integration support for the Eclipse Theia IDE. 

But while this release delivers on the core promise of the OCT project, there is, of course, much more in the works as well. 

Next Targets to Improve Offline Support and Web Integration

Currently, there are two primary goals for improving the OCT project: to enhance support for non-web platforms and to improve web integrations. 

Enhancing Integration With Non-Web-Based Platforms

To simplify support for non-web platforms, we are extracting parts of the existing integration with Eclipse Theia and VS Code into a separate TypeScript package. This package will be usable both as a library for TypeScript-based client integrations and as an executable program to be run as a background service. This service is designed to simplify the integration with browser-based applications, such as the Eclipse IDE.

We plan to implement a dedicated Eclipse plugin that takes care of Eclipse IDE-specific functionality, such as displaying multiple cursors in the editor. The service process itself will centralise the common collaboration logic for all IDEs, handling tasks such as exchanging messages via the Open Collaboration Server, managing end-to-end encryption, and synchronising text changes with the local state. Once the Eclipse IDE integration is complete, this approach can be extended to support additional platforms, such as IntelliJ IDEA, demonstrating the flexibility and scalability of this solution.

Building IDE and Web App Interoperability

We are working on an integration with the Monaco Editor, the code editor that powers VS Code. Monaco Editor is available as a library package so you can integrate it into any webpage, providing a simple and powerful text editing experience. Combining this with Open Collaboration Tools means that live, synchronised collaborative editing becomes possible in your web application, whether users are working within the app itself or collaborating with others using IDEs like Eclipse Theia or VS Code. 

To showcase these capabilities, we are also building an online playground page on the Open Collaboration Tools website. This playground will enable users to try out live collaboration right from their web browser. The interoperability between a web app and a desktop IDE is an exciting feature that sets OCT apart from other collaboration tools and highlights its potential to unify development workflows across environments.

Collaborate With Us to Improve OCT 

OCT is designed to make collaborative development more effective, secure, customisable, and vendor neutral. With its extensibility and open standards, it addresses gaps that existing tools cannot fill. In 2025, with the Open Collaboration Service and expanded web integrations, we aim to bridge the gap between desktop IDEs and browser-based applications. Our goal is to deliver seamless collaboration in any environment.

Eclipse OCT is an open project, and we welcome contributions and feedback from the community. To get started, you can install the extension into either VS Code or Theia and explore the collaboration features. If you’d like to contribute, visit the GitHub repository to report issues, suggest features, or submit code.