The OpenJS Foundation and HackMD are partnering to support maintainers through open source Markdown collaboration. HackMD, known for enabling seamless real-time collaboration in Markdown, uses multiple OpenJS projects to scale performance, improve reliability, and enrich user features. In turn, HackMD is providing free services to these projects, giving maintainers and contributors powerful tools to create, share, and collaborate on documentation.

By donating services, HackMD reduces overhead for OpenJS projects and helps maintainers focus on innovation. In return, HackMD benefits from the OpenJS ecosystem, which powers key parts of its collaborative Markdown platform.

HackMD’s contribution of services enables OpenJS projects to:

• Collaborate in real time on proposals, documentation, and community resources
• Simplify workflows for distributed teams
• Spend more time building and less time on overhead

This partnership directly supports the success of our projects and their contributors. HackMD’s support gives our projects the resources to thrive, while HackMD continues to grow on top of the technologies stewarded by OpenJS.

At the core of HackMD’s platform is Express.js, one of the most widely used projects under the OpenJS Foundation. Express.js powers HackMD’s web server, providing a fast, unopinionated, and flexible foundation for handling everything from user authentication to note management and API requests.

By leveraging Express.js, HackMD can:

• Handle real-time collaboration at scale: Express routes efficiently process thousands of requests from users editing notes simultaneously.
• Maintain reliability: A middleware-based architecture ensures the smooth integration of features such as session management, rate limiting, and error handling.
• Adapt quickly to new needs: Express’s flexibility allows HackMD to experiment, iterate, and deploy new features without overhauling core systems.
• Integrate with other OpenJS projects: Express provides the backbone that ties into additional OpenJS tooling used by HackMD for scaling and performance.

Express.js is not just a technical choice, but a direct connection to the broader open-source community. HackMD benefits from its reliability and extensibility while contributing back by offering free access to its collaboration platform for OpenJS projects.

To learn more about participating in the evolution of the OpenJS Foundation:

• OpenJS Membership
• OpenJS Partners
• OpenJS Latest News and Blogs