June 10, 2026 · The Organizer team
Most apps you use every day keep your data on someone else's computer. You sign in, you type, and your notes, drawings, and files live on a server you'll never see. That's useful right up until the company pivots, raises its prices, gets acquired, or quietly shuts the service down. Local-first software flips that default: your data lives on your device first, and the network, if it's involved at all, is an enhancement rather than a dependency.
Organizer is built this way on purpose. Before I get to how it stores your data, it's worth looking at a few apps that have made local-first work well, because they shaped a lot of the thinking here.
A few local-first apps worth knowing
Excalidraw is the one most people meet first. It's a virtual whiteboard for hand-drawn-style diagrams, and you can open it and start drawing without an account. Your scene lives in the browser, and a "save" is really an export to a .excalidraw file (which is just JSON) that you keep wherever you like. Sharing is opt-in and end-to-end encrypted. The default is private and local; the cloud is something you reach for, not something you're signed into.
draw.io / diagrams.net takes a similar stance for more structured diagramming: flowcharts, network diagrams, org charts. It's pointedly storage-agnostic: it'll happily read and write a diagram straight to a local file, and the diagram format is open XML. There's no lock-in because there's nothing to lock you into; the file is yours.
Obsidian is probably the purest example. Your entire knowledge base is just a folder of plain Markdown files on your disk. No database you can't open, no proprietary format. If Obsidian disappeared tomorrow, every note would still be a readable .md file. Sync is an optional paid add-on, but you're free to use Dropbox, git, or anything else instead, because it's just files.
Logseq sits right next to Obsidian: an open-source, outliner-style notebook that also stores everything as local Markdown (or org-mode) files. Same core promise: the files are the source of truth, and they're yours.
Actual Budget is a nice example outside the note-taking world. It's open-source budgeting software that runs entirely on your device, with optional self-hosted sync if you want your numbers on more than one machine. Personal finance is exactly the kind of data you don't want sitting on a startup's servers, so local-first fits it perfectly.
The thread running through all of these: the app is a lens over data you own, not a window into data the vendor owns. That's the bar I wanted Organizer to clear.
The question every local-first app has to answer
Deciding to be local-first is the easy part. The hard part is the very next question: if there's no server, where does the data physically go? Organizer runs as a static site (a single-page app with no backend of its own), which narrows the realistic options to a handful. Here's what I considered.
remoteStorage
remoteStorage is an open protocol that lets an app read and write to a storage account the user controls, completely decoupled from the app. Philosophically it's lovely. It's exactly the "your data, your storage" spirit local-first is about, and I genuinely wanted to like it.
In practice I passed on it for two reasons. First, support is thin: there aren't many providers, so in reality most users would have to find or self-host one, which is a big ask. Second, the setup is technical enough that it becomes a wall in front of the app for anyone who isn't already comfortable with this corner of the web. A storage option that most people can't easily use isn't really an option.
Dropbox (and similar file integrations)
Wiring up Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive directly would be more convenient for a lot of people: they already have an account, and sync across devices comes almost for free. It's a tempting shortcut.
I avoided it for two reasons. The first is principle: I wanted to keep third parties out of the loop wherever possible. The whole point is that your data doesn't depend on a company's continued goodwill, and routing everything through Dropbox quietly reintroduces exactly that dependency. The second is practical: third-party file integrations on a static SPA tend to be janky. You're juggling OAuth pop-ups, token refreshes, and API quirks from inside a page that has no backend to hold the credentials or smooth over the rough edges. It's a lot of fragile moving parts for something that's supposed to feel simple.
What I landed on: browser storage and folder storage
Organizer offers two storage modes, and neither one involves a third party or a server:
Browser storage keeps your timelines inside the browser itself, using IndexedDB. There's nothing to set up; you open the app and start writing. It works fully offline. The trade-off is that it's tied to that one browser on that one device, so it leans on Export as a safety net.
Folder storage writes your data as real files into a folder you pick, using your browser's File System Access support. This is the one closest in spirit to Obsidian: your data is just files you can see, back up, and sync with whatever tools you already trust. Want it on two machines? Point a peer-to-peer sync tool like Syncthing at the folder — no cloud middleman required.
Between them you get the best of both ends of the spectrum: zero-friction to start, and full ownership when you want it. Critically, both options are 100% yours. There's no account, no server, and no third party sitting between you and your own writing.
That's the heart of what local-first means to me, and why Organizer is built the way it is. If a tool is going to hold a record of your projects, your journal, or your follow-ups, the least it can do is let you keep that record on your own terms.
Want to see where your data lives, or move it around? The Storage & backup guide walks through both modes, exports, and syncing folders across devices.