CodeAlive

Paste code. Share files. No friction, no login required.

CodeAlive is a developer tool for sharing code snippets and files instantly — with syntax highlighting, live file previews, password protection, and shareable links that just work.

🌐 Live: codealive.onrender.com

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Features

Code Snippets

• Zero-friction sharing — paste, hit share, get a permanent link. No account required.
• Custom or random URLs — pick your own slug (e.g. /my-bug) or get a generated short one.
• 30+ language auto-detection — detects language as you type with 1s debounce, instant on paste.
• Syntax highlighting — powered by CodeMirror 6 with a custom dark theme.
• Line highlighting — mark specific lines; the highlight travels with the link.
• Code + images together — attach screenshots or error logs inline with your snippet.
• Password-protected snippets — brute-force protected, with optional expiry.
• Download & copy — one-click copy or download with correct file extension.

File Sharing

• 19+ file formats — PDF, DOCX, XLSX, images (JPG, PNG, SVG, GIF, WebP), video (MP4, WebM, OGG), and audio (MP3).
• Live in-browser preview — no download, no external viewer:
  • PDF: page-by-page rendering via PDF.js
  • Word documents (DOCX): extracted via mammoth.js
  • Excel/spreadsheets (XLSX): rendered as tables via SheetJS
  • Images: native inline preview
  • Video: native HTML5 video player
  • Audio: custom glassmorphic audio player with seek bar, play/pause, time display, and mute
• Size limits by type: Docs & images: 500 KB · Video: 5 MB · Audio: 10 MB
• Password protection — optional password lock on shared file links.
• Expiry control — set a time-to-live on shared files.
• Download tracking — download count badge shown per file.
• Instant shareable link — same short-link system as code snippets (/f/{id}).

Workspace (Authenticated Users)

• My Files dashboard — view all uploaded files with category icons, size, download counts, and expiry progress.
• File management — delete files (removes from R2 storage + DB), change password, extend expiry.
• My Snippets — manage all previously shared code snippets.

Collaboration (Coming Soon 🚀)

• Real-time shared rooms — create a room, share the link, code together live.
• Live cursors — see who's editing where in real time.
• Persistent room URLs — rejoin any session by the same link.
• Join the waitlist at codealive.onrender.com/waitlist.

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Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	HTML5, Vanilla CSS, JavaScript (ES Modules)
Code Editor	CodeMirror 6 (vendor-bundled, no build step)
File Previews	PDF.js, mammoth.js, SheetJS (xlsx)
Backend	Python 3.10+, FastAPI, Uvicorn (ASGI)
Database	PostgreSQL (Neon) via asyncpg
File Storage	Cloudflare R2 (S3-compatible object storage)
In-Memory Store	Redis (session management, rolling TTL)
NoSQL	MongoDB Atlas (waitlist & image metadata)
Email	Gmail SMTP (async via FastAPI BackgroundTasks)
Fonts	JetBrains Mono, Fraunces (Google Fonts)
Hosting	Render

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Project Structure

codeAlive/
├── app.py                    # FastAPI entry point, routing, reserved slugs
├── api/
│   ├── api_snippets.py       # Snippet CRUD & verification
│   ├── auth_router.py        # Login / Signup / Logout
│   ├── file_router.py        # File upload, share, preview endpoints
│   ├── profile_router.py     # User profile API
│   └── workspace_router.py   # Workspace dashboard & file management API
├── db/                       # PostgreSQL Data Access Layer (asyncpg)
├── services/
│   ├── file_service.py       # File validation, type detection, R2 upload
│   ├── image_service.py      # Snippet image attachment handling
│   ├── language_detector.py  # Language auto-detection
│   └── mail_service_v2.py    # Email sending helpers
├── core/
│   ├── config.py             # Environment config & secrets
│   └── r2_client.py          # Cloudflare R2 S3 client
├── ot_collab/                # Real-time OT collaboration engine (rooms)
├── static/
│   ├── css/                  # Theme, home, auth, workspace, file-viewer styles
│   ├── import.js             # File import modal, preview rendering, audio player
│   ├── workspace.js          # Workspace dashboard & file cards
│   ├── file-viewer.js        # Shared file view & unlock flow
│   ├── error-service.js      # Centralized error toast system
│   └── vendor/               # Bundled CodeMirror 6 & language packages
├── templates/                # Jinja2 HTML templates
│   ├── home.html             # Marketing homepage
│   ├── import.html           # File import & preview page
│   ├── workspace.html        # Authenticated workspace dashboard
│   ├── profile.html          # User profile
│   └── waitlist.html         # Collaboration waitlist
├── tests/                    # Pytest test suite
├── robots.txt                # SEO crawler config
├── sitemap.xml               # Canonical sitemap
└── requirements.txt          # Python dependencies

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Running Locally

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+
• PostgreSQL 14+
• Redis (on localhost:6379 or via REDIS_URL)
• Cloudflare R2 bucket (for file uploads)
• MongoDB Atlas account (for waitlist/image metadata)
• Gmail App Password (for email notifications)

Setup

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/garvjain7/codeAlive.git
cd codeAlive

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Create a .env file and fill in the required values (see below)
cp .env.example .env

# Start the server
uvicorn app:app --reload

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
DB_URL	PostgreSQL connection string (Neon or local)
REDIS_URL	Redis connection string
MONGO_URI	MongoDB Atlas connection string
R2_ACCOUNT_ID	Cloudflare R2 account ID
R2_ACCESS_KEY	Cloudflare R2 access key
R2_SECRET_KEY	Cloudflare R2 secret key
R2_BUCKET_NAME	R2 bucket name for file uploads
R2_PUBLIC_URL	Public URL prefix for R2 files
MAIL_EMAIL	Gmail address for sending notifications
MAIL_PASSWORD	Gmail App Password
SECRET_KEY	FastAPI session secret key

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SEO & Accessibility

• Sitemap — sitemap.xml listing all public pages for search engine discovery.
• Robots.txt — crawl rules disallowing private routes (/workspace, /profile, /api/) and explicitly allowing public ones.
• Open Graph — og:title, og:description, og:url meta tags on all pages including dynamic file share pages.
• Google Analytics — gtag.js integration on all pages.
• Responsive — fully optimized for mobile, tablet, and desktop.

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Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
Tab	Insert 2 spaces in editor
Escape	Close share modal / dismiss popups

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Tests

python -m pytest -q

10 tests covering file validation, snippet API, editor import, and vendor routes.

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License

MIT © 2026 Garv Jain