etherpad-go

Etherpad-Go-EXPERIMENTAL

A fast, modern, real-time collaborative editor written in Go

Etherpad-Go is a performance-focused, 1:1(currently partial) rewrite of Etherpad in Go. The original implementation was written in Node.js (CommonJS). Rewriting Etherpad in Go allows us to leverage Go’s concurrency model, static typing, fast startup times, and lower memory usage however there are trade offs and this is an experimental branch so YMMV!

Etherpad is a real-time collaborative editor scalable to thousands of simultaneous users and supports full data export.

Quick Start (Binary)

The easiest way to run Etherpad-Go:

1. Download the binary for your platform from the
   Releases page
2. Run it:

./etherpad-go

Etherpad-Go starts in under a second and uses an in-memory database by default, which is sufficient for many use cases.

Open your browser at:
http://localhost:9001

Configuration

All configuration options are self-documented in the binary.

Show global options:

./etherpad-go --help

Show all configuration values:

./etherpad-go config show

Get a specific configuration value:

./etherpad-go config get <key>

For customization, copy:

settings.json.template → settings.json

and adjust it to your needs.

Docker

You can run Etherpad-Go using Docker.

Docker Compose (recommended)

Start Etherpad-Go with PostgreSQL:

docker compose up -d

Etherpad will be available at:
http://localhost:9001

The compose file can be found here:
docker-compose.yml

Build your own image

docker build -t etherpad-go .

Prebuilt images

Prebuilt images are available via GitHub Container Registry:

ghcr.io/ether/etherpad-go:<version>

Building from Source

Requirements

• Go 1.25+
• Node.js 22+
• pnpm

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/ether/etherpad-go.git
   cd etherpad-go
   

2. Build etherpad-go:

   go run main.go prepare
   

3. Run the server. The server path is printed after a successful build:

   ./<your-built-binary>
   

Etherpad should start in less than a second.

Migration from Etherpad-Lite

You can migrate existing pads from Etherpad-Lite using the migration command:

migration 192.28.91.4:5432 \
  --type postgres \
  --username myOldEtherpadDBUser \
  --database myoldEtherpadDB

This connects to the old Etherpad-Lite database and migrates all pads to the Etherpad-Go database configured in settings.json or via environment variables.

Plugins

Etherpad-Go ships with 15 built-in plugins ported from the original Etherpad ecosystem. All plugins are disabled by default and can be enabled individually.

Available Plugins

Enabling Plugins

Via settings.json:

{
  "plugins": {
    "ep_align": { "enabled": true },
    "ep_cursortrace": { "enabled": true },
    "ep_font_color": { "enabled": true }
  }
}

Or via environment variables:

ETHERPAD_PLUGINS_EP_ALIGN_ENABLED=true
ETHERPAD_PLUGINS_EP_CURSORTRACE_ENABLED=true

Status

Etherpad-Go is under active development. Feedback, issues, and contributions are welcome.