The Local-First SDK

Philosophy

There is no cloud, it's just someone else's computer.

The Local-First SDK offers a stack to write applications as productively as when using state-of-the-art cloud-based architectures, while providing the Seven Ideals for Local-First Software 0 -- basically for free:

• Software can respond near-instantaneously to user input. (No waiting on server round-trips, no spinners.)
• Cross-device synchronization. (Pick up work on your mobile device just where you left off with your laptop.)
• "Offline-First" as a subset of Local-First. (Connectivity is irrelevant when interacting with the application>0
• Seamless collaboration with other peers. (Edit and sync shared data without fear of conflicts.)
• Full data agency. (Do what you want with your data, it's yours only.)
• Secure and private data management. (Everything is encrypted, only you have the keys.)
• Full ownership and control over the application's data. (No one can take away a service from you.)

Components

The Local-First SDK comprises the following components:

1. User and Access Control: ... (key management, acl)
2. Multi-Device Support and Collaboration: ... (device auth, p2p, peer discovery (mdns and via cloud peer))
3. Data Persistence ... (cloud peer or self-hosted)
4. Multi device support and interoperability ... (browser, native, android/ios?)

Artifacts

The Local-First SDK comes in three flavours:

1. An opinionated Javascript package (with Typescript bindings) to write Local-First applications targeting the browser.
2. A library which can be embedded into other applications, either as a rust library or a C-compatible FFI.
3. A native, permanent process shepherding the user's data. Applications can interface with this daemon via HTTP.

The Local-First Javascript SDK

As the browser's API guarantees are weak, its environment has to be considered ephemeral[^1]. This is why the optional Cloud-Peer supplemental services complement the browser environment very well (data persistence, peer discovery).

As of now, the SDK is just offered as an ES module, requiring asynchronous import:

import * as localFirst from 'local-first';

await localFirst.init();

[..]

[^1]: Most notably this is about persistence of user data (key material and application data). However, it's easy to lose one's browsing data by switching to another browser profile/container, etc.

Under the hood

Rust, libp2p, crdts, cambria, .. --> INSERT AWESOMENESS HERE <--

License

Licensed under either of

• Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
• MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)

at your option.

Contributing

Be respectful. Check out our Contribution Guidelines for specifics. Any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.