2026.02.05

📰 News & Discussions

Local-First Conf 2026 announced

12th - 14th July 2026 in Berlin. Early bird tickets availability still to be announced.

Local-First Software: Taking Back Control of Our Data | a mini-doc

"In this mini-documentary, we talk to the builders and early-adopters of Local-First software about why it emerged, and what it changes about how applications are built. From synchronisation and conflict-free data types to privacy, encryption, and real-time collaboration, local-first represents both a technical shift and a shift in values."

Building the Colanode Sync Engine

"I wanted it boring and simple: a TypeScript monorepo with Node.js on the server, Electron + React + SQLite for the desktop app, Postgres for data, Redis for cache and background jobs, and S3 for file storage. The sync engine sits on top of this stack without introducing new dependencies."

Qwen3-Coder-Next: Pushing Small Hybrid Models on Agentic Coding

"We introduce Qwen3-Coder-Next, an open-weight language model designed specifically for coding agents and local development. Built on top of Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Base, which adopts a novel architecture with hybrid attention and MoE, Qwen3-Coder-Next has been agentically trained at scale on large-scale executable task synthesis, environment interaction, and reinforcement learning, obtaining strong coding and agentic capabilities with significantly lower inference costs." See also HN discussion

🛠️ Tools & Resources

Implementing local-first agentic AI: A practical guide

"We cover environment setup, a practical enterprise use case, and a simple testing approach to show that privacy-first agents are not just a theoretical ideal, but a deployable pattern. In that sense, this article serves as the final piece in the SLM trilogy."

PeerWeb: Decentralized Website Hosting via WebTorrent

"PeerWeb is a revolutionary way to host and share websites using WebTorrent technology. Instead of relying on centralized servers, websites are distributed across a peer-to-peer network, making them censorship-resistant and always available. 🌍✨" See also HN discussion

Deep dive into Turso, the "SQLite rewrite in Rust"

"What if we had other database engines that could understand [the SQLite] file format? This is exactly what Turso is: a new database engine that is (mostly, with very few exceptions such as the MVCC mode) compatible with the SQLite database file format but is completely different at the architectural level."

Account Optional Apps with PowerSync

"I’ll go over a brief intro of local-first and introduce PowerSync, a library that helps you build apps that don’t require a constant internet connection. I argue that in the spirit of local-first, you shouldn’t require an account from users. Once convinced, I’ll go through the implementation details to enable users to create data without an account and then transfer that into their account if they register or log in."

SochDB

"SochDB combines SQL, vector search, and context memory into a single embedded database for LLMs, agents, and RAG systems."

✨ Apps

Grid: Free, local-first, browser-based 3D printing/CNC/laser slicer

"Free, Privacy-First Digital Fabrication Tools for STEM Learning" "No software installations, no licenses to purchase, no accounts to manage. Students simply open a browser and start creating." See also HN discussion

Announcing msgvault: lightning fast private email archive and search system, with terminal UI and MCP server, powered by DuckDB

"TL;DR msgvault is a local-first storage and retrieval engine for slicing, dicing, and querying a lifetime of email and messaging data in milliseconds. It uses SQLite and DuckDB under the hood, and operates fully locally using Parquet metadata indexes, allowing you to query millions of emails at the speed of thought."

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