Start here¶

Passnote lets a small group of devices share a live dataset: a shopping list, a household inventory, a team logbook. Every device keeps a full copy, works offline, and syncs directly with the others. There is no server and no account, and everything is encrypted end to end.

Two terms this site uses a lot:

Local-first means each device owns a complete, always-usable copy of the data; the network only keeps copies in step.
A CRDT (conflict-free replicated data type) is a data structure that devices can edit independently and still merge to the same result, in any order, without coordination.

Is it a fit?¶

A good fit when you want:

Shared data for a household or a small team, on their own devices.
Offline-first behaviour with automatic merging on reconnect.
Privacy by construction: no third party can read the data, because no third party ever has it.
Nothing to deploy, nothing to pay for, nothing to breach centrally.

Not a fit when you need:

A central source of truth, server-side logic, or access from thousands of users.
Data too large for every device to hold in full.
Fields where merging is wrong and a human must resolve conflicts by hand.

Four nouns¶

Noun	What it is
`Passnote`	The app-level handle. One per app; owns the transport.
`Database`	One shared, encrypted dataset, unlocked by a passphrase.
`Collection<T>`	A typed set of documents inside a database.
Document	One record of your model type `T`, identified by a stable id.

Where next¶

Tutorial: from an empty Flutter app to two devices syncing, in eight short steps.
Concepts: how the data model, the clocks, the sync protocol, and the device identity work.
Security: what is protected, and the boundaries.