Liveblocks best practices

When to use this skill

Use this skill when implementing features using any Liveblocks packages, for example @liveblocks/react or @liveblocks/node. This could be related to features like realtime multiplayer, commenting, notifications, cursors, avatar stacks, AI, and more. This also includes technologies like Liveblocks Storage, Yjs, Tiptap, BlockNote, Lexical, React Flow, tldraw, and more.

Quick reference

A number of reference files are available in the references/ directory. You must read the list below, and load relevant files as needed. For example, add-user-information is available in the references/add-user-information.md file.

References

add-user-information: Add user information to your application, such as name, avatar, color, and more. Users will no longer be anonymous. Useful for displaying user info in comments, comments mention suggestions, notifications, cursors, avatar stacks.
ai-as-a-collaborator: Use agentic workflows to allow AI to collaborate like a human inside your Liveblocks application.
ai-chats-with-tools-knowledge-components: Set up and troubleshoot chats with RAG, knowledge, custom components, tool calling, custom models. Different to AI as a collaborator, as it is NOT workflow based.
auth-endpoint-callback: Use a callback function to authenticate users, instead of passing a string to authEndpoint. Useful for passing custom headers to your back end, and for preventing automatic reconnection when the token is invalid.
authenticating-with-access-tokens: Alternative method for authenticating users with their ID and info, best for very simple permissions.
authenticating-with-id-tokens: Recommended method for authenticating users with their ID and info, best for complex permissions.
avoid-hitting-user-limit-in-rooms: How to avoid rooms filling up with users.
compartmentalize-resources-with-organizations: Use organizations to create workspaces/tenants and compartmentalize resources, such as rooms, notifications, comment threads, and more. You can filter by organization when listing rooms and more.
create-custom-comment-composer: Build your own commenting composer (advanced use cases only).
create-custom-realtime-multiplayer: Use Liveblocks Storage to build fully custom conflict-resolved multiplayer apps, like Figma, Pitch, Spline. Helpful for one-off realtime features too, like simple properties in a document.
create-custom-text-editor-toolbar: Set up a styled toolbar, static or floating next to your selection, in Tiptap and Lexical.
create-rooms-manually: Always create rooms yourself in production applications, setting permissions, organization, metadata.
customize-thread-components: Use slots to customize comments inside of threads, and their different parts.
dark-mode-styles: You can import CSS styling for dark mode themes.
develop-and-test-locally: Set up a local dev server, and use it for Continuous Integration (CI) and End-to-End (E2E) testing. Connect to your app not online.
devtools-extension: Inspect Liveblocks Storage, Yjs, presence, events, and connected users with DevTools extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Edge.
edit-component-text-strings: Override strings in default components, such as button values, tooltip text, error text, more. Also helpful for setting other languages.
exhaustive-deps-with-usemutation: Prevent and fix stale-closure bugs with useMutation by configuring the react-hooks/exhaustive-deps ESLint rule.
handling-connection-errors: Handle problems joining rooms because of permissions, authentication, changed room IDs.
handling-full-rooms: Handle problems caused by joining full rooms.
handling-hook-and-component-errors: Handle errors caused by hooks and pre-built components.
handling-unstable-connections: Implement fallbacks and error messages when users have poor network conditions.
log-out-of-liveblocks: Rarely useful, but helpful in specific SPA situations where you cannot navigate the page to log out.
multiplayer-react-flow: Use the Liveblocks React Flow package to create multiplayer diagrams with cursors and more.
multiple-text-editors: Add multiple Tiptap or BlockNote editors to the same page. Optionally use Storage to hold their field IDs.
offline-support-in-text-editors: Give your text editors the illusion of a quicker load time.
override-css-variables: Add custom styles to the default components by overriding Liveblocks CSS variables.
performant-others-and-presence: Prevent unnecessary presence renders by using useOtherConnectionIds, useOthersMapped, useOther, and shallow to update components only when necessary.
performant-storage-with-selectors: Prevent unnecessary storage renders by using useStorage selectors and shallow.
prevent-unsaved-changes-being-lost: Stop losing unsynched or unsaved changes.
primitive-component-parts: Use primitives to create custom components or to merge components from your design system into Liveblocks UI.
remove-liveblocks-branding: A Liveblocks logo badge appears in the bottom right of the screen, this is how to remove it.
rendering-error-components: Use ErrorBoundary to structure your app with error fallbacks.
rendering-loading-components: Use ClientSideSuspense to performantly structure your app with loading skeletons and spinners.
send-comment-notification-emails: Send email notifications to users when they have unread comments. These comments are sent via webhooks, and are triggered when a user is mentioned, or has participated in a thread.
smoother-realtime-updates: Make presence and storage run at a higher frame rate, appearing more smooth. Using this option, updates can be received more frequently.
suspense-vs-regular-hooks: You must read this when using any Liveblocks hooks. React suspense uses ErrorBoundary and ClientSideSuspense components. Regular hooks use { error, isLoading } values.
tiptap-best-practices: Server-side rendering, starter kit extensions, initial content, unsaved changes, more.
trigger-custom-notifications: Trigger any kind of notification in your inbox, even those unrelated to commenting.
type-liveblocks-correctly: Always use TypeScript to type Liveblocks where available. Presence, others, user info, storage, metadata, room info, notifications activities, can all be automatically typed.
url-params-in-room-id: Use URL params in room IDs to create rooms, and incorporate document titles in the URL.
utility-components: Import a ready-made emoji picker, or human-readable timestamps, durations, file sizes.
yjs-best-practices: YKeyValue, subdocuments, V2 encoding, double imports, getYjsProviderForRoom. NOT relevant if you're using Tiptap, BlockNote, or Lexical.
z-index-issues: Fix z-index problems by targeting portaled elements.

Note

Some files link to markdown files in the Liveblocks docs, for example:

https://liveblocks.io/docs/concepts.md

When linking users to these pages, remove .md from the link, so they can view the full content:

https://liveblocks.io/docs/concepts

Liveblocks packages

Always check if we provide a package for your technology. For example, if you're using React Flow, you should use @liveblocks/react-flow.

@liveblocks/client: JavaScript client. Can use with any framework, e.g. Vue, Svelte, vanilla JS.
@liveblocks/react: React client. Contains hooks and components..
@liveblocks/react-ui: Pre-built React UI components and primitives. @liveblocks/react for data and hooks.
@liveblocks/react-tiptap: Collaborative Tiptap integration for React.
@liveblocks/react-blocknote: Collaborative BlockNote integration for React.
@liveblocks/react-lexical: Collaborative Lexical integration for React.
@liveblocks/node-lexical: Server-side Lexical utilities for Node.js.
@liveblocks/node-prosemirror: Server-side ProseMirror utilities For Node.js. Also works with Tiptap and BlockNote.
@liveblocks/react-flow: Multiplayer React Flow.
@liveblocks/yjs: Yjs provider backed by Liveblocks rooms.
@liveblocks/redux: Sync Liveblocks room state with a Redux store.
@liveblocks/zustand: Sync Liveblocks room state with Zustand.
@liveblocks/node: Node.js server SDK. Use for auth and lots more.
@liveblocks/emails: Build notification emails more easily.
@liveblocks/chat-sdk-adapter: Make multi-platform (Liveblocks, Slack, Discord, etc.) chat bots.
Python SDK: Python server SDK. Use for auth and lots more.
REST API: HTTP API. Use for auth and lots more.

If a technology is not listed here

If the users want to set up a new technology, first check the following resources to see if a package exists:

Learn more

Learn more in Liveblocks docs.

liveblocks-best-practices