devtools.fm: Developer Tools, Open Source, Software Development Peter van Hardenberg - Ink and Switch, Automerge
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Jan 12, 2026 Peter van Hardenberg, Director of the Ink and Switch research lab and co-author of the Local First Software paper, shares his unique journey from oceanography to tech innovation. He discusses the birth of local-first software, sparked by a train ride revelation, and delves into Automerge, a powerful sync engine that enables offline collaboration. Peter highlights the significance of user ownership, the technical challenges behind distributed systems, and his vision for a future where interoperability and decentralization are standard.
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Train Commute Sparked Local-First Idea
- Peter van Hardenberg describes a train commute moment when losing offline access exposed cloud dependence.
- That experience plus disappearing Heroku apps sparked his local-first realization and research focus.
Apps Disappeared Despite Source Code
- Peter recalls Heroku-hosted hobby apps (like eggnog.heroku) disappearing when infrastructure costs changed.
- The loss highlighted how web-hosted presentations can vanish even when source code persists.
Local-First Means Ownership And Offline First
- Local-first means software runs on your computer while preserving cloud benefits like sync and sharing.
- The core value is ownership: if someone can take it away, it's not really yours.