Years ago, apps were offline only. Nowadays, they’re mostly dependent on internet connections, but some allow you to work offline. When developing a

Cool frontend arts of local-first: storage, sync, conflicts

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2023-03-22 12:00:02

Years ago, apps were offline only. Nowadays, they’re mostly dependent on internet connections, but some allow you to work offline. When developing a “local-first” app, even if it relies on data stored online, it should still work. But, for frontend engineers, when it comes to the big 3 “local-first” tasks: storage, synchronization, and conflict resolution, actually implementing them with grace is almost like a fine art (or even a lost art, in some cases). Let’s go digging.

We helped develop HTTPie, an API testing tool who wanted to be the canonical app in their field. Read that “local-first” success:

Within their niche, every developer has one or two “perfect” applications they’ve pretty much mentally canonized as “the cream of the crop” inside their field. Take your pick, Linear, Figma, whatever. (And, I’d say, most engineers place the same few collections of apps in their mental canons.)

So, here’s a natural question: what exactly is it that you like about [insert your canonized app here]? For me, it’s all about how we communicate with an app, in particular, the data inside it.