If you've ever needed to embed a code editor inside a React application — for a playground, an admin panel, a low-code tool, a documentation site with runnable examples — you've probably run into the same problem.
Building one from scratch is a substantial undertaking. The feature list alone is daunting: syntax highlighting for multiple languages, line numbers, indentation handling, autocomplete, themes, keyboard shortcuts. Ace Editor is a mature, battle-tested solution to this problem. The react-ace package wraps it for use in React applications. This guide covers how to get it running, how to configure the properties that matter most, and how to handle the events you'll inevitably need.
Key Takeaways
react-ace is the React wrapper around Ace Editor — it exposes Ace's functionality through React props rather than direct DOM manipulation.
Syntax highlighting is per-language and requires importing the language mode separately. Same for themes. Neither ships bundled by default.
