hocuspocus-rs

A Rust implementation of the Hocuspocus protocol (Yjs over WebSockets).

This crate provides a thread-safe handler for Yjs documents that follows the Hocuspocus V2 protocol, allowing Rust-based servers to synchronize with Hocuspocus and y-websocket clients.

Features

• Hocuspocus V2 Protocol: Full support for document-name prefixed messages.
• Yjs Sync: Seamless synchronization using the yrs library.
• Optional Persistence: Built-in SQLite persistence with debounced saving (via sqlite feature).
• Awareness: Forwarding of awareness/presence messages.
• Axum Integration: Built-in WebSocket handlers for the Axum web framework (via server feature).
• Resilient: Mutex poison-recovery and graceful error handling — malformed client messages are rejected without crashing the server.

Installation

Add this to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
# For most users, 'server' is required to get the built-in sync server logic.
hocuspocus-rs = { version = "0.1.4", features = ["server"] }

Feature Flags

• server (Recommended): Enables axum integration and provides built-in WebSocket handlers for synchronization.
• sqlite: Enables rusqlite persistence layer to store document updates.

Performance Profile and Intended Use

This crate is designed for high performance in low-concurrency environments.

• It is single-threaded by design for document persistence, because SQLite is single-threaded in this architecture.
• It is ideal for a handful of users collaborating across multiple devices (low concurrent load).
• It is especially well-suited for embedding collaborative sync into applications.
• It is currently used both as a standalone personal server deployment and embedded inside a Tauri desktop app.

If you need to support many users concurrently, prefer the hocuspocus-rs-ws crate: https://github.com/albireo3754/hocuspocus-rs-ws

Client Compatibility

This server implementation is designed to connect with the Hocuspocus JavaScript client and Dart/Flutter y-crdt clients.

In your frontend project, you can use the @hocuspocus/provider to connect:

import { HocuspocusProvider } from '@hocuspocus/provider'
import * as Y from 'yjs'

const ydoc = new Y.Doc()

const provider = new HocuspocusProvider({
  // The 'url' should point to your Rust server's sync endpoint.
  // The default Axum router maps this to '/sync/:room_name'.
  url: 'ws://127.0.0.1:1234/sync',
  name: 'my-document-name',
  document: ydoc,
})

Usage

Using with Axum

The server feature provides a create_router function that returns an axum::Router. You can mount this router at any path you choose.

use hocuspocus_rs::{AppState, Database, create_router};
use std::sync::Arc;
use axum::Router;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() {
    // 1. (Optional) Initialize database if using 'sqlite' feature
    let db = Database::init("sync.db").expect("Failed to init DB");
    
    // 2. Create shared state
    // If 'sqlite' is enabled, pass the db. Otherwise use AppState::new().
    let state = Arc::new(AppState::new(db));
    
    // 3. Create the sync router
    // This provides routes for /sync and /sync/:room_name by default.
    let hocuspocus_router = create_router(state);
    
    // 4. Nest it into your main application router at any endpoint
    let app = Router::new()
        .nest("/", hocuspocus_router); // Result: ws://localhost:1234/sync/...
    
    // 5. Run the server on your desired port
    let port = "127.0.0.1:1234";
    let listener = tokio::net::TcpListener::bind(port).await.unwrap();
    println!("Hocuspocus server listening on {}", port);
    axum::serve(listener, app).await.unwrap();
}

Configuration Details

• Endpoint: The built-in router handles GET /sync (for multiplexed connections) and GET /sync/:room_name (for room-specific connections). You can change the base path by using .nest("/my-custom-path", hocuspocus_router) in your Axum setup.
• Port: Control the port by changing the address passed to TcpListener::bind.
• Database: If the sqlite feature is enabled, AppState::new(db) accepts a Database instance. If disabled, AppState::new() takes no arguments.

Manual Integration (No Axum)

If you're using a different web framework, you can use the DocHandler directly:

use hocuspocus_rs::DocHandler;

async fn my_websocket_handler(data: &[u8], handler: &DocHandler) {
    // This will parse Hocuspocus V2 messages and return responses
    let responses = handler.handle_message(data).await;
    for resp in responses {
        // Send 'resp' back to client over your WebSocket connection
    }
}

Protocol Details

Hocuspocus V2 protocol prefixes every message with the document name as a VarString. This implementation handles that automatically, allowing multiple documents to be multiplexed over the same connection if needed.

License

BSD-3-Clause - Copyright (c) 2026, Jagtesh Chadha.