Local-First, sync engines, CRDTs

Automerge is a mature library for building local first applications by enabling version control for structured data. The strategy is to capture all edits to data at a very fine grain (e.g. per keystroke when editing text) and then present a good API for managing concurrently edited versions of this data.

The version control approach to collaboration makes working concurrently feasible and makes servers fungible - it increases user autonomy, but it introduces problems as you can't rely on access control on the network boundary. Keyhive is a local first access control architecture which we think is a compelling point in the design space which solves these problems.

In this talk we will give a high level overview of the motivation, design, problems, and future directions of the broader Automerge ecosystem.