How to Host StackEdit Locally and Run Multiple Instances

To host StackEdit on your own machine, the historical StackEdit 4.0 method is to clone its repository, install its dependencies, and start server.js. To keep separate instances from sharing documents, open them under different hostnames that resolve to the same local address. If you instead disable StackEdit’s single-instance check, the tabs share local state and can interfere with each other’s open documents and navigation.

What local hosting changes

StackEdit is an open-source, browser-based Markdown editor based on PageDown, the Markdown library used by Stack Overflow and other Stack Exchange sites. You run the application locally, but use it through a browser. That distinction matters: document data is stored by the browser under the page’s origin, rather than automatically shared among every copy of the app you run.

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The official StackEdit repository currently documents npm commands for development and builds, as well as a Helm chart for Kubernetes deployment. The more specific server.js procedure below comes from a 2014 StackEdit 4.0 setup; its dependencies may need adapting for current Node.js versions.

Start a historical StackEdit 4.0 local instance

Bruno Skvorc’s SitePoint walkthrough installed StackEdit in a Homestead Improved virtual machine. Its commands are:

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cd ~/Code
git clone https://github.com/benweet/stackedit
cd stackedit
npm install --no-bin-link
bower install
(export PORT=5000 && node server.js)

After the server starts, the article opens the instance at http://homestead.app:5000. The --no-bin-link option addressed symlink problems in the author’s Windows/Vagrant setup; it is not a universal requirement. Because these commands date from the StackEdit 4.0 period, older dependency tooling may not install or run unchanged with a current Node.js environment.

Use the current repository’s documented development commands

For the maintained project files, the official repository lists these npm commands:

• npm install installs dependencies.
• npm start starts the hot-reload development server at localhost:8080.
• npm run build builds the application.
• npm run build --report builds with a report.

These repository commands describe the current development/build workflow; they are not the same procedure as running the historical StackEdit 4.0 server.js command. For a managed deployment, the repository also documents a Helm chart for Kubernetes, with optional ingress and cert-manager configuration and provider credentials for Dropbox, Google, GitHub, and WordPress.

Keep multiple instances isolated with different hostnames

Browser localStorage is scoped to an origin: the combination of scheme, hostname, and port. Different hostnames can therefore provide separate browser storage even when each name points to the same local server. Add host aliases to the machine’s hosts file, for example:

127.0.0.1 test.app
127.0.0.1 test2.app
127.0.0.1 test3.app

With the local server listening on port 5000, open http://test.app:5000, http://test2.app:5000, and http://test3.app:5000. These are three distinct origins, so each gets a separate localStorage cache and document database. One instance does not automatically read the localStorage belonging to another; moving documents between them requires an explicit export or another synchronization method.

This approach is useful when you want independent copies without changing StackEdit’s code. The trade-off is that isolation also means the copies do not automatically stay in sync. Prefer local loopback aliases or a managed DNS/reverse-proxy setup for a current deployment. Skvorc’s alternative of aliasing the hosted service depended on its IP address, which can change; the article’s historical IP example should not be reused.

Disable the single-instance check only if shared state is acceptable

The SitePoint workaround identifies a call to checkWindowUnique() in public/res/core.js as the mechanism that prevents multiple instances. To use that approach, the article’s steps are to comment out the call, open pages with ?debug so StackEdit serves unminified files, and rebuild with grunt. It notes that grunt --force may be needed because of the cited JSHint warning. These are historical instructions for that version of the project, not a guarantee that the same file or build process applies to current code.

Unlike the different-hostname method, disabling the check allows instances on the same origin to share localStorage. That shared state can produce two kinds of cross-tab surprises:

• If the same file is open in two tabs, changes from the last-used tab are the version seen when the other tab is refreshed.
• If one tab switches from file X to file Y, refreshing another tab can take it to file Y too, because StackEdit stores location and open-file state in localStorage.

Skvorc’s practical recommendation was to limit this workaround to reading one document while writing another; using it for more complex simultaneous work can quickly become chaotic.

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