Nextcloud Playground

Run a full Nextcloud server in the browser — no server required.

Live demo · Documentation · Blueprints

Nextcloud Playground runs Nextcloud entirely in the browser using WebAssembly, powered by WordPress Playground's @php-wasm runtime. Every page load boots a fresh Nextcloud instance backed by an in-browser SQLite database — nothing is stored on a server and nothing leaves your browser.

It is a sibling of the Moodle, Omeka S, and FacturaScripts playgrounds, and the first known port of Nextcloud to php-wasm. See docs/feasibility-spike.md for how that was proven.

Getting started

Try it online

Open the live playground — no install needed: https://ateeducacion.github.io/nextcloud-playground/

It boots a fresh Nextcloud and signs you in automatically as admin.

Run it locally

git clone https://github.com/ateeducacion/nextcloud-playground.git
cd nextcloud-playground
make up

Then open http://localhost:8085.

Default credentials: username admin, password admin.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• npm
• PHP 8.3 (used by the build to read the bundled release version)
• Python 3 (for the docs site, optional)

How it works

index.html          Shell UI (toolbar, address bar, log panel)
  └─ remote.html    Runtime host — registers the Service Worker
       ├─ sw.js     Intercepts requests → routes to the PHP worker
       └─ php-worker.js
            └─ @php-wasm (WebAssembly, PHP 8.3 + intl)
                 ├─ Nextcloud core in writable MEMFS  (extracted from a ZIP bundle)
                 └─ In-memory state                   (SQLite + data dir in MEMFS)

On boot the PHP worker extracts the Nextcloud bundle into MEMFS, installs a posix polyfill (auto_prepend_file), and runs occ maintenance:install against SQLite. A handful of PHP_SAPI === 'wasm'-gated source patches make Nextcloud's posix, file-locking, and avatar code paths WASM-safe — see docs/feasibility-spike.md.

State is ephemeral by design (MEMFS resets when you close the tab), matching the sibling playgrounds.

Supported versions

Multi-version: Nextcloud 30 / 31 / 32 / 33 on PHP 8.3 (default 33). Versions are declared in src/shared/nextcloud-versions.js.

Blueprints

Blueprints are JSON files that provision an instance at boot, translated to occ commands. Override the default with ?blueprint-url=<url> or ?blueprint=<inline-json-or-base64>.

{
  "landingPage": "/index.php/apps/dashboard",
  "admin": { "username": "admin", "password": "admin" },
  "apps": ["activity", "text"],
  "steps": [
    { "step": "createGroup", "group": "staff" },
    { "step": "createUser", "username": "alice", "password": "alicepass", "groups": ["staff"] },
    { "step": "setConfig", "key": "default_language", "value": "en" }
  ]
}

See docs/blueprint-json.md for all step types and assets/blueprints/default.blueprint.json.

Development

make prepare     # sync browser deps + build the worker bundle
make bundle      # build one Nextcloud bundle (default NC 33)
make bundle-all  # build NC 30, 31, 32 and 33
make serve       # serve at http://localhost:8085
make test        # unit tests
make test-e2e    # Playwright browser tests
make lint        # Biome

The build downloads a Nextcloud release tarball (pre-built, no composer/npm), applies the WASM patches, trims it (~807 MB → ~345 MB), and zips it per version into assets/nextcloud/. See docs/development.md.

Known limitations

Preview generation, office/collaborative editing, antivirus, and anything using proc_open/exec do not work under WASM; letter avatars fall back to a solid colour; cron is AJAX-only; storage is ephemeral. See docs/KNOWN-ISSUES.md.

License

AGPL-3.0-or-later.