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Moving a frontend project from Replit to NitroIDE.

Let's get the important part out of the way first: there is no automatic Replit importer in NitroIDE. No OAuth handshake, no "connect your Replit account" button, no sync. If you came here looking for a one-click migration, this page will not give you one — because that feature doesn't exist.

That isn't a bug; it's the architecture. Replit runs your code on cloud servers. NitroIDE is a 100% client-side editor: your code lives in your browser's own storage, the preview renders in an iframe on your machine, and nothing you type leaves your computer unless you export it.

The good news: for a frontend project — plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript — the manual process takes about five minutes. This guide walks you through exactly that, nothing more.

Before you start: the checklist

Have these ready and the move goes smoothly: your repl open in a tab, a list of the files it actually needs, a note of any libraries it used (check for npm packages or CDN <script> tags), and five minutes.

If your repl runs a server — Node.js, Express, Flask, Django, a database, or anything behind Replit Deployments — stop here and read "What NitroIDE doesn't do" below first. This guide is for frontend projects only.

Step 1: Copy your files out of Replit

Open your repl on Replit. Open each file one at a time, select everything (Ctrl/Cmd + A), and copy it (Ctrl/Cmd + C). Paste each file's contents into a temporary text document on your computer, keeping the filename attached, so you don't lose track of which content belongs to which file.

Step 2: Recreate the file structure in NitroIDE

Open NitroIDE Codebox. In the file sidebar, create a new file for each one you copied from Replit, using the exact same filenames — index.html, style.css, script.js, or whatever your project uses. NitroIDE stores these in your browser's local storage as a virtual file system, so your project persists between visits on this device.

Step 3: Paste each file's contents

Open each new file in NitroIDE and paste in the contents you copied from Replit. Double-check the references in index.html match the filenames you created:

The preview updates live as you paste, so you'll see the project take shape file by file.

Step 4: Replace npm packages with CDN links

This is the one real translation step. NitroIDE has no package manager, so anything your repl pulled in with npm needs a CDN instead. Use the CDN panel's one-click buttons — + Tailwind, + jQuery, + GSAP — or add the script tag manually:

Remove the old import ... from 'package-name' / require(...) lines from your JavaScript, since those assume a bundler and a node_modules folder that don't exist here. Libraries loaded from a CDN expose themselves as globals (like _ or THREE), so your code can use them directly.

Step 5: Preview, then Export to ZIP

Click through your preview and test everything: buttons, animations, form behavior. When it works, use Export → Download ZIP in Codebox to save the finished project to your computer. That's your backup, your shareable copy, and your way of moving the project to another machine — your files live in this browser's storage, so the ZIP is how they leave it.

A concrete example: a countdown timer in ~5 minutes

Take a typical Replit "HTML, CSS, JS" repl: a countdown timer with index.html, style.css, script.js, and Tailwind via npm. Here's the real timeline:

• Minute 1: Copy all three files out of Replit into a scratch document.
• Minute 2: Open Codebox, create index.html, style.css, script.js, paste each in.
• Minute 3: Hit + Tailwind in the CDN panel, delete the old import lines. The preview renders the styled timer.
• Minute 4: Test the timer, fix any filename mismatches.
• Minute 5: Export → Download ZIP. Done — the project is yours, offline, no account needed.

What NitroIDE doesn't do

Honesty requires the other half of the picture. NitroIDE is an editor for frontend code that runs in your browser. It does not:

• Run npm or any package manager. There is no npm install, no node_modules, no lockfiles. Dependencies come from CDNs.
• Run a build step. No Webpack, Vite, Parcel, or bundlers; TypeScript and JSX are not compiled in-browser.
• Run server-side code. Node.js, Express, Python, Flask, Django, Ruby, PHP, databases, cron jobs, and Replit Deployments or "always-on" repls simply have nowhere to execute. Your backend stays on Replit (or moves to a host that runs servers).
• Import Replit projects automatically. No OAuth connection, no account linking, no one-click sync — the copy-paste steps above are the entire migration path.
• Offer multiplayer or real-time collaboration. It's a single-player editor on your machine.

Is the manual move worth it?

For a static site, portfolio, landing page, or client-side tool — yes. Five minutes of copy-paste buys you an editor that opens instantly, costs nothing, and keeps your code on your machine. If that trade sounds fair, the steps above are all you need.