PowerSync
by alexander-opalic
A Postgres-based sync engine with offline support, designed for mobile and web apps that need reliable local-first data access.
by alexander-opalic
A Postgres-based sync engine with offline support, designed for mobile and web apps that need reliable local-first data access.
by jan-lehnardt
The strongest argument for local-first isn't developer experience — it's that offline-capable sync kept Ebola contact tracing running, COVID vaccinations documented, and humanitarian convoys navigating when no other architecture could.
by alexander-opalic
Outline for a talk tracing the journey from manual DOM manipulation to reactive frameworks to offline-first to local-first, with practical Vue examples and sync engine comparisons.
by dev-agrawal
Most offline conflicts never happen in practice — non-overlapping writes and orthogonal field edits cover the majority of cases, so the real engineering challenge is choosing the right escalation strategy for the conflicts that do.
by tom-redman
Offline writes destroy serializability — it's a mathematical fact, not an engineering limitation. Reconciliation is a product design exercise, not a computer science problem, and you should start with strong consistency guarantees and intentionally weaken them.
A comprehensive map of local-first software — from foundational philosophy and CRDTs to sync engines, tooling, and real-world production stories.
by alexander-opalic
Not everything that caches locally is local-first. The real test: does the app still work if the company disappears? A categorized directory of real apps across the spectrum.
by eileen-wagner
The tech for local-first has matured but the UX hasn't — four unsolved design challenges stand between us and mainstream adoption, and they require collective agreement, not individual solutions.
by alexander-opalic
Vue already syncs your refs to the DOM. Sync engines extend that same idea to databases — keeping client state and server state in harmony. Here's how Replicache, Zero, Convex, PowerSync, LiveStore, Jazz, and Dexie each approach this differently.
by adam-wiggins, martin-kleppmann, aaron-boodman, peter-van-hardenberg
The original local-first essayists and a pragmatic sync-engine builder clash on whether offline writes should ship today or wait for version-control UX — revealing that the real fault line isn't technical but philosophical: who does the tool serve first?
by martin-kleppmann, adam-wiggins, peter-van-hardenberg, mark-mcgranaghan
A foundational essay proposing that data ownership and real-time collaboration are not mutually exclusive, introducing CRDTs as the enabling technology for local-first software.
by alexander-opalic
An introduction to local-first web development, a paradigm shift that prioritizes storing data on users' devices first, enabling offline functionality, instant access, and greater user control over their data.
by alexander-thiele
When your users spend entire days in forests with zero connectivity, local-first isn't a nice-to-have — it's the only architecture that works. OCELL's sync queue proves the pattern, but cascading failures from a single invalid GeoJSON reveal sync's hardest unsolved problem.