Etherpad

This is a repackaged open source software product wherein additional charges apply for cloudimg support services.

Overview

Etherpad is a highly customisable open source online editor providing collaborative editing of documents in real time. Multiple people can work on the same pad simultaneously, each with their own colour, seeing every keystroke as it happens, with a built in chat, full revision history and a timeslider that replays how a document was written. This image delivers Etherpad fully installed and configured as a system service, so a production grade collaborative editor is running within minutes of launch.

Application Stack

Etherpad installed under /opt/etherpad on Node.js 24 LTS and run by a dedicated unprivileged service account. The pad database, holding every pad, revision and chat message, stored as an embedded SQLite database on a dedicated data disk so it is independently resizable and survives instance replacement. A systemd service that starts Etherpad on boot and restarts it on failure. A WebSocket-aware nginx reverse proxy that publishes the editor and the admin panel on port 80.

Real-Time Collaboration

Share a pad URL and start writing together. Every participant sees the others type live, with coloured authorship highlighting that shows who wrote what. The timeslider replays the full edit history of a pad, the built in chat keeps the conversation next to the document, and pads import and export to HTML, plain text, Markdown and more. The plugin manager in the admin panel installs hundreds of community plugins for authentication, export formats, formatting and integrations.

Secure First Boot

On the first boot of your instance a one shot service generates a fresh admin password, unique to that instance, writes it into the Etherpad settings and writes the password to a root only file. Etherpad itself binds to loopback only and the admin settings panel is never exposed without authentication. No shared or default credentials ship in the image.

Ready To Use

The pad editor is served on port 80 through nginx with full WebSocket support for live collaboration. Open the site to create a pad and start editing immediately. Sign in to the admin panel with the generated administrator credentials to manage settings and install plugins.

cloudimg Support

24/7 technical support by email and chat. Help with deployment, plugin installation, authentication and access control, export formats, database tuning, TLS and reverse proxy configuration.

Use Cases

Real-time collaborative note taking and minute keeping. Shared drafting of documents and proposals. Classroom and workshop collaboration. Pair programming notes and brainstorming. A self-hosted alternative to hosted collaborative editors where your documents stay on your own infrastructure.

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