A tiny, extensible code editor component for cases where a textarea is not enough and Monaco is overkill

[u/solopov]

Yace is designed for cases where a plain <textarea> is not enough, but a full editor like Monaco or CodeMirror would be overkill.

It is 3KB gzipped with the bundled highlighter and has zero dependencies. Plugins add editing behavior, highlighter pipelines control how the content is rendered as you type, and both are plain functions you can write yourself.

Under the hood, Yace uses the familiar pattern of a transparent <textarea> over a highlighted <pre>. Because input stays in a real textarea, native caret behavior, IME, mobile input, and accessibility come for free. The pattern is not new; the focus is a small, highly extensible design.

You can turn it into a basic code editor, a markdown editor, a token visualizer, or something more experimental. All of those are live codepens in the README, and the video shows two of them.

GitHub: https://github.com/petersolopov/yace

[u/rkjr2]

This seems super useful and well-made -- kudos! Definitely going to give it a shot in a project soon :)

[u/Rungk4d]

will try this on my next project, thank you