Chronological Record of Local-First Software (2018–2026)
An unbroken chronicle recording every seminal research milestone, algorithm formulation, paper publication, and conference proceedings in local-first data systems.
Ink & Switch Founded / Early Explorations
Ink & Switch established as an independent research lab focusing on tools for thought, dynamic media, and peer-to-peer data architectures.
PixelPusher Project Published
Ink & Switch releases PixelPusher, an early exploratory project utilizing Conflict-free Replicated Data Types (CRDTs) to power real-time collaborative pixel art drawing.
"Slow Software" Essay Published
Ink & Switch publishes "Slow Software: Observations on Latency," detailing network latency degradation in cloud apps and proposing local data execution.
"Local-First Software" Paper Released
Martin Kleppmann, Adam Wiggins, Peter van Hardenberg, and Mark McGranaghan publish the foundational essay "Local-first software: You own your data, in spite of the cloud," defining the 7 core ideals.
Muse / Capstone Research
Research on tablet-based spatial canvas tools yields Capstone and Muse (later renamed Allume), demonstrating local storage performance for creative thinking.
PushPin P2P Collaboration
Ink & Switch completes PushPin, exploring commercial-grade peer-to-peer collaboration without central cloud server dependencies.
Cambria Schema Translation
Release of Cambria, introducing bidirectional lenses to translate distributed data across different schema versions without central migration scripts.
Peritext Rich-Text CRDT
Ink & Switch publishes Peritext, formulating an algorithm for collaborative rich-text editing that preserves intent across concurrent formatting operations.
Backchannel Digital Identity
Publication of Backchannel, a relationship-based digital identity architecture engineered to prevent impersonation in distributed local-first systems.
Inkbase & Potluck Dynamic Docs
Ink & Switch releases Inkbase (programmable ink) and Potluck (dynamic text documents as personal software), expanding local-first into malleable computing.
Automerge 1.0 Stable Release
Automerge reaches 1.0, consolidating JSON-like CRDT data structures in JavaScript and Rust for production adoption.
Upwelling & Embark Essays
Ink & Switch publishes Upwelling (combining real-time editing with version control) and Embark (dynamic documents for planning).
ElectricSQL v0.6 Released
ElectricSQL introduces v0.6, establishing an open-source sync layer bringing local-first reactivity to Postgres and client-side SQLite.
Princeton GEO Paper Submitted
Aggarwal et al. (Princeton, Georgia Tech, IIT Delhi) submit the first paper defining Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) on arXiv (arXiv:2311.09735).
Inaugural Local-First Conference
The world's first dedicated Local-First Conference convenes in Berlin, uniting researchers, database engineers, and application creators.
Princeton GEO Accepted at KDD '24
The Princeton GEO paper is officially accepted and presented at the 30th ACM SIGKDD Conference in Barcelona, introducing GEO-bench.
Rocicorp Announces Zero (Alpha)
Rocicorp introduces Zero, a general-purpose sync engine utilizing ZQL and zero-cache to deliver sub-millisecond query performance over Postgres.
llms.txt Standard Proposed
Jeremy Howard (Answer.AI) proposes the /llms.txt standard format to structure website documentation cleanly for LLMs.
Gigabugs Released by Rocicorp
Rocicorp launches Gigabugs, an issue tracker managing 1.2 million rows with Zero and Neon Postgres to prove real-time local sync at scale.
Malleable Software Essay
Ink & Switch publishes "Malleable Software: Restoring user agency in a world of locked-down apps," bridging local storage with end-user modification.
Local-First Conf 2025 (Berlin)
Second annual Local-First Conference in Berlin, featuring research on access control, sync performance, and local AI integration.
Perplexity Bot Evasion Exposed
Cloudflare exposes undeclared Perplexity crawlers rotating user-agents, prompting standard user-agent configurations for AI transparency.
Keyhive & Patchwork Lab Notes
Ink & Switch releases lab notes for Keyhive (capability-based local-first encryption) and Patchwork (malleable collaborative substrate).
GEO-SFE Hierarchy Paper Released
Publication of arXiv:2603.29979 (GEO-SFE), establishing how document macro-structure, meso-chunking, and micro-styling drive AI citations.
Canonical 150-Term GEO Glossary
Digital Applied releases the comprehensive 150-term GEO vocabulary defining platforms, RAG retrieval mechanics, and citation metrics.
Smashing Magazine Local-First Feature
Publication of "Architecture for Local-First Web Development," establishing production guidelines for SQLite WASM, Zero, and sync layers.
Rocicorp Ships Zero 1.0 Stable
Rocicorp officially tags Zero 1.0, marking the first stable release of its general-purpose sync engine with full API guarantees and Supabase hooks.
Local-First Conference 2026
The 2026 Local-First Conference opens, gathering global engineering teams building offline-first, CRDT-driven production applications.