I built a code editor from scratch that uses ~9 MB of RAM
I got tired of opening VS Code and seeing it use 500+ MB of RAM just to edit some files.
Then I'd open a TypeScript project, add a few extensions, node_modules would show up, and suddenly the editor was using over 1 GB.
So one day I thought:
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And that's how Astro Editor started.
It's built with Tauri 2 + Rust + React + TypeScript + Monaco.
Right now it uses around 9 MB of RAM in normal use, the executable is around 3.5 MB, and the MSI installer is about 1.75 MB.
Some of the things I've built so far:
- Native Windows 11 acrylic/blur effects
- Monaco Editor
- TypeScript/JavaScript IntelliSense
- Snippets and keyword completion for 14 languages
- Custom context menu with blur
- Command palette
- Integrated terminal using a real PTY
- Auto-save
- Workspace restoration
- 13 themes
- macOS-style window buttons
- 0% CPU usage while idle
One of the more annoying things I had to solve was Monaco's context menu.
I wanted a proper glass/blur effect, but Monaco renders its context menu inside a container with overflow: hidden, which basically kills the backdrop-filter effect.
So I disabled Monaco's context menu and built my own using a React Portal directly in <body>.
For TypeScript and JavaScript, I'm using Monaco's built-in TypeScript services for IntelliSense.
For other languages, I'm currently working on proper LSP support using Rust and JSON-RPC. That's one of the next things I want to improve.
I'm also planning:
- Better LSP support
- Git integration
- Extension API
- AI code completion
- Cloud sync
- Linux/macOS support
The editor itself will be open source under GPLv3. I'm planning to keep AI and cloud features as optional paid services.
I'm not trying to replace VS Code. I know the ecosystem it has is massive.
I just wanted to build something that feels fast, lightweight and doesn't need hundreds of megabytes of RAM just to show a text file.
If anyone wants to check it out, here's the repo:
I'd genuinely love some feedback, especially from people who have built editors, worked with Tauri/Rust, or have ideas for features I should add.
Roast it if you want
Built from Mexico