Local First Software Primer

Local-First Software Research & Development Overview

This collection represents a comprehensive survey of the emerging local-first software paradigm, which prioritizes keeping data and computation on users' devices while enabling seamless collaboration and synchronization. The documents span foundational research, practical implementations, and commercial developments in this space.

Core Technologies: The collection heavily focuses on Conflict-free Replicated Data Types (CRDTs) as the foundational technology enabling local-first applications. Multiple documents detail CRDT implementations (Automerge, Y.js, json-joy), performance benchmarks, and practical applications.

Key Players & Products: Several companies are actively building local-first solutions including ElectricSQL (Postgres sync), Anytype (knowledge management), Ditto (edge synchronization), and TinyBase (reactive data stores). Apple's on-device AI models represent a major tech company embracing local-first principles.

Strategic Implications: Local-first represents a fundamental architectural shift from cloud-first development, offering benefits like instant responsiveness, offline functionality, data ownership, and reduced infrastructure costs. However, it requires rethinking authentication, business logic placement, and data synchronization patterns.

Current State: The field is rapidly maturing with production-ready tools, established benchmarks, and real-world deployments across industries from airlines to collaborative software.