Realtime — WebSocket Communication
Sails provides two tiers of realtime support via sails-hook-sockets: low-level room-based messaging (sails.sockets) and high-level model-centric notifications (Resourceful PubSub). Both use Socket.IO under the hood and integrate seamlessly with Sails' request lifecycle.
When to Use
Use this skill when:
- Building chat, messaging, or collaborative features
- Sending live notifications to specific users or groups
- Broadcasting model changes (created, updated, destroyed) to subscribers
- Tracking online presence or user status
- Creating live dashboards with auto-updating data
- Configuring WebSocket security, Redis adapters, or multi-server deployment
- Integrating sails.io.js with React, Vue, or Svelte frontends
Rules
Read individual rule files for detailed explanations and code examples:
- rules/getting-started.md - What realtime means in Sails, two-tier architecture, setup
- rules/sails-sockets.md - Low-level
sails.socketsAPI: rooms, broadcast, blast - rules/resourceful-pubsub.md - High-level model API: subscribe, publish, unsubscribe
- rules/client-side.md - sails.io.js client library and frontend integration
- rules/configuration.md -
config/sockets.js, Redis adapter, security, lifecycle - rules/patterns.md - Chat rooms, notifications, presence, live dashboards