Local-first is a boundary, not a slogan.

Where a product does not genuinely require a hosted authority, core state and essential guidance should remain usable locally.

What local-first means to RuleOak

• User-owned state should remain understandable and exportable.
• Essential Help, safety, privacy and operating guidance should not disappear when a website is unavailable.
• External AI, store, cloud, directory or data providers remain explicit dependencies with their own terms and availability.
• Credentials and secrets are kept outside public content and ordinary export paths.
• Offline operation does not imply that every feature is offline; network-dependent features should state the boundary clearly.

Why it matters

Local-first design reduces unnecessary account dependencies, improves failure isolation and keeps the user closer to the state that matters. It also makes the product's real network boundary easier to review.