Local-first apps that write to files you own.
Your data lives on your machine as plain Markdown and SQLite: grep it, version it, open it in Obsidian. When an app stops mattering, your files don't.
Start with Whispering in the browser, or run it as a native surface inside Epicenter.
Run the apps freely under AGPL-3.0; build on the developer toolkit freely under MIT. What that means.
Whispering | Toolkit | How It Works | Status | Trust | Repo Map | Development | License
--- ## Whispering [Whispering](apps/whispering) is a speech-to-text SPA with two hosts. Open the [hosted browser app](https://whispering.epicenter.so), or run the same source as a native surface inside [Epicenter](apps/epicenter). Press record, speak, optionally transform the transcript, and copy or deliver the result. Both hosts support cloud providers and self-hosted endpoints. Epicenter adds system-global shortcuts, native paste delivery, and local GGUF transcription. [Open Whispering](https://whispering.epicenter.so) | [Read the app architecture](apps/whispering) ## Build With The Toolkit The developer toolkit is MIT: build anything on it, including closed-source and commercial products, and you own what you build, with no obligation back to Epicenter. [`@epicenter/lens`](packages/lens), [`@epicenter/field`](packages/field), and [`@epicenter/ui`](packages/ui) are the packages meant to leave this repo. They are pre-1.0 and tuned for our own apps, so treat them as fork-and-own rather than a stability-guaranteed SDK for now. The hard problem with local-first apps is synchronization. If each device has its own SQLite file or Markdown folder, how do you keep them in sync? Epicenter's answer is that a person has one Epicenter, replicated on every device, and applications never own storage. A row holds bounded JSON fields in runtime-native SQLite, and may also own one lazy Yjs document for collaborative rich content and one write-once blob for bytes. An application declares a *Lens*: a pure JSON interpretation of one durable namespace, which creates no storage and no lifecycle of its own. ```typescript import { defineLens, defineTable, optional } from '@epicenter/data'; import { field } from '@epicenter/field'; const notesLens = defineLens({ namespace: 'com.example.notes', tables: { notes: defineTable({ fields: { title: field.string(), body: field.string(), pinned: optional(field.boolean()), }, }), }, values: {}, }); const data = epicenter.bind({ notes: notesLens }); await data.notes.tables.notes.create({ title: 'Hello', body: 'Follow up on the README framing.', }); ``` Two Lenses may interpret the same namespace differently, and neither becomes authoritative. That is what lets one application read another's data without depending on its build. [Read the data package docs](packages/data/README.md) ## How It Works One person has one Epicenter: a single body of rows and values, replicated completely onto every device they sign in on. Applications do not own storage. They bind a Lens over the shared data, and Epicenter Home is the shell that launches them. ```txt one Epicenter |-- rows bounded JSON fields in runtime-native SQLite |-- values typed singletons |-- documents zero or one lazy Yjs document per row, for collaborative content `-- blobs zero or one write-once immutable byte stream per row ``` Each plane converges on its own terms. Scalar rows and values synchronize through the account authority. Row documents publish over HTTP automatically and pull remote state explicitly when a handle is open. Blobs upload once and download on demand. There is no distributed transaction across them, and applications receive no SQL: relational inspection belongs to Home. Matter keeps a disposable `matter.sqlite` mirror of each Markdown folder you own, so agents and scripts can query your Markdown as SQL: ```bash sqlite3 matter.sqlite 'select "name" from "journal" limit 5;' ``` ## Status Whispering is independently deployable as a browser SPA and is also mounted inside the Epicenter desktop host. Epicenter is the only native runtime; Whispering no longer ships a standalone desktop shell. The shared data model for tabs, notes, drafts, and publishing is being built in public around `@epicenter/data`. [Matter](apps/matter) is an early app for user-owned Markdown folders: it edits ordinary Markdown directly and keeps `matter.sqlite` as a query mirror. Other app folders are public research and prototypes. ## Trust Boundaries Pick the trust model you want. | Path | What leaves your device | | --- | --- | | Whispering in Epicenter with local GGUF transcription | Audio stays on your device. Transcripts and settings use Epicenter's local desktop storage. | | Whispering with a cloud transcription provider | Audio goes from your device to the provider you choose. Epicenter servers are not in that transcription path. | | Whispering transformations | Transcript text goes to the LLM provider you choose when you enable that step. | | Hosted Epicenter API or sync | Workspace updates, account/session data, and enabled hosted feature requests go to Epicenter servers. | | Self-hosted deployable | You control the server, secrets, deployment, and infrastructure boundary. | Signed-in sync sends your data to a trusted server that reads it in plaintext. On hosted Epicenter the relay is ours, so that data sits inside our trust boundary; self-hosting puts the relay on infrastructure you control, so Epicenter never holds it. See the [trust model](docs/trust-model.md) for the details, including where this is heading with the anchor. The detailed privacy notes for Whispering live in [apps/whispering](apps/whispering). ## Repo Map ### Product And Workspace Surfaces | Surface | Status | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | | [Whispering](apps/whispering) | Browser and Epicenter surface | One speech-to-text SPA with browser-safe providers and Epicenter-only native capabilities. | | [Epicenter](apps/epicenter) | Desktop host | The only Tauri runtime. Serves trusted app surfaces, including Whispering, under one native shell. | | [Matter](apps/matter) | WIP product work | Typed grid for user-owned Markdown folders. It edits ordinary `.md` files directly; `matter.sqlite` is a disposable query mirror. | | [API](apps/api) | Hosted infrastructure | Personal cloud Worker for hosted Epicenter services. Includes hosted-only billing and dashboard code. | | [Self-host](apps/self-host) | Reference deployable | Community-supported single-partition instance without hosted billing. | | Other app folders | Research and prototypes | Useful history and experiments, not the current product lineup. | ### Packages These packages carry the main architecture. | Package | Role | License | | --- | --- | --- | | [`@epicenter/data`](packages/data) | The row-owned SQLite replica: scalar row protocol, admission, deterministic folding, exact-retry digests, sync supervision, and relational inspection. | MIT | | [`@epicenter/lens`](packages/lens) | Lens, table, and value definitions plus structured addresses and canonical JSON. | MIT | | [`@epicenter/sqlite`](packages/sqlite) | Neutral embedded-SQLite driver and Browser, Bun, and Durable Object adapters. It owns no product schema. | MIT | | [`@epicenter/document-sync`](packages/document-sync) | Row-document HTTP publication and pull, separate from scalar row synchronization. | MIT | | [`@epicenter/ui`](packages/ui) | Shared Svelte component library used by multiple app surfaces. | MIT | | [`@epicenter/server`](packages/server) | Shared Hono server library composed by the hosted API and self-host reference deployable. | AGPL-3.0-or-later | ## Architecture The server side is split into one shared library and two deployable folders: ```txt packages/server shared Hono library route composition for auth, sessions, rooms, assets, and provider-backed APIs apps/api hosted personal Cloudflare Worker composes packages/server with a Better Auth principal resolver owns hosted-only dashboard and billing code apps/self-host self-hosted single-partition instance reference deployable composes packages/server with the instance principal resolver community-supported no hosted billing surface ``` [Full architecture walkthrough](docs/architecture.md) | [Trust model](docs/trust-model.md) ## Development Use Bun in this repo. ```bash git clone https://github.com/EpicenterHQ/epicenter.git cd epicenter bun install ``` Every app starts from the repo root. `bun dev:Contact: github@bradenwong.com | Discord | @braden_wong_
When an app stops mattering, your files don't. Local-first, open source, built on Yjs.