The past, present, and future of local-first - Martin Kleppmann (Local-First Conf)
Why Hacker News recommends it
Cited in sync-engine and local-first threads for Kleppmann's argument for a generic, standardised sync protocol or service.
What it is
Martin Kleppmann's Local-First Conf talk reviewing where the local-first idea came from, where it stands five years after the essay, and what the community should work toward. He argues for generic sync infrastructure.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2025 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Recommends rapnie · 2025-05 · on “Reverse engineering of Linear's sync engine”
There is a proliferation of sync tools and little standardization. Here some in local-first space [0]. Martin Kleppmann in his talk last year spoke [1] the need for a generic sync protocol, which was very interesting. [0] [LINK] [1] [this video]
Cites rapnie · 2025-03 · on “Sync Engines Are the Future”
Martin Kleppmann in one of his recent talks about the future of local-first, mentions the need for a generic sync service for the 'local-first end-game' [0] as he calls it. Standardization is needed. Right now everyone and their mother is doing sync differently and building production platforms around their own protocols and mechanisms. [0] [this video]
Cites sorrythanks · 2025-04 · on “Atuin Desktop: Runbooks That Run”
I see, I hear you. That isn't what local-first means, though. This is what local-first means: • [LINK] • [this video]
Cites samwillis · 2025-07 · on “Local-first software (2019)”
> This is trying to solve a business problem (I can't trust cloud-providers) with a technical trade-off (avoid centralized architecture). I don't think that's quite correct. I think the authors fully acknowledge that the business case for local-first is not complexly solved and is a closely related problem. These issues need both a business and technical solution, and the paper proposes a set of characteristics of what a solution could look like. It's also incorrect to suggest that local-first is an argument for decentralisation - Martin Kleppmann has explicitly stated that he doesn't think decentralised tech solves these issues in a way that could become mass market. He is a proponent of ce