# Collaborative Text Editing with Eg-walker: Better, Faster, Smaller

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.14252 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.14252/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 21 Sep 2024.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [CodeCRDT: Observation-Driven Coordination for Multi-Agent LLM Code Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.18893/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Collaborative text editing algorithms allow several users to concurrently modify a text file, and automatically merge concurrent edits into a consistent state. Existing algorithms fall in two categories: Operational Transformation (OT) algorithms are slow to merge files that have diverged substantially due to offline editing; CRDTs are slow to load and consume a lot of memory. We introduce Eg-walker, a collaboration algorithm for text that avoids these weaknesses. Compared to existing CRDTs, it consumes an order of magnitude less memory in the steady state, and loading a document from disk is orders of magnitude faster. Compared to OT, merging long-running branches is orders of magnitude faster. In the worst case, the merging performance of Eg-walker is comparable with existing CRDT algorithms. Eg-walker can be used everywhere CRDTs are used, including peer-to-peer systems without a central server. By offering performance that is competitive with centralised algorithms, our result paves the way towards the widespread adoption of peer-to-peer collaboration software.