Hands-on with React, Supabase, and PowerSync
It’s not every day that a radically new architecture comes along, but here we are: in-browser SQLite, combined with reactive SQL and auto-syncing. The promise is instant interactivity on the front end, while maintaining data symmetry with the back end. As a direct challenger to the RESTful group-think that has dominated web development for a decade, it is well worth a look. Not really new, but improved This idea isn’t brand new. Developers have been doing this kind of thing in one fashion or another for years (think of how some apps work offline). But this new-generation stack feels different, and it’s starting to see broader appeal. It’s called local-first data. I recently covered the idea at a high level. Now it’s time for a look at the nitty gritty. The concept is simple. Instead of asking a remote server for permission to change a number, your app writes state directly to a local SQLite database running in the browser (via WebAssembly). A sophisticated background engine then hand
