Local-First From Scratch

I wanted to write a book about local-first software. Instead of doing a survey of all the libraries available, I took a first principles approach. That meant doing a lot of explaining CRDTs, syncing, and the like, but I had a ton of fun with it.

As of March 2025, I had the introduction and first chapter done, and was working on the implementation that would end up being built up throughout the book.

I already had one false start where I made a time tracker. This turned out to not cover enough ground to be useful: when I tried to make a usergroup presentation on CRDTs using what I had done already, I found pretty big gaps. That meant a shift in approach. If you're interested in where I got, you can get the WIP software at bytes-zone/beeps on GitHub.

My interest level in this project fell of over time as a I realized how in-flux the local-first ecosystem was. Someone could totally write a book on it! It just couldn't be me at that time.

Updates

2025

LFFS update, June 2025, June 15, 2025

a dilemma, or is it a conundrum? Maybe it's a dilendrum!, February 27, 2025

some time tracking results, January 29, 2025

early thoughts on using beeps, January 7, 2025

2024

LFFS: Simplicity vs Efficiency, December 26, 2024

Local-First From Scratch, part 1, December 17, 2024