Offline-first app for people who work in basements
A field app that behaves the same with no signal, and syncs without asking the technician to think about it.
- Area
- Mobile apps and connected machines
- Written
- 2026
- Built with
- React Native
- SQLite
- TypeScript
- Node.js
Inside this project
The problem
Field technicians work in plant rooms, lift shafts and warehouses — the exact places mobile data does not reach. Most field apps are a thin shell over an API, so they stall on a spinner, lose a half-filled form, and teach the team to write on paper and enter it later. At which point the software has made the job slower.
The concept
Treat the phone as the primary database and the server as a replica that eventually catches up.
1. Local first
Every job, checklist, photo and signature is written to an on-device database immediately. The interface never waits on a network call to show the result of a tap.
2. A sync engine with visible state
One clear indicator: synced, pending, or needs attention. Each record carries a client-generated id, so a retry cannot create a duplicate job, and conflicts surface as a choice rather than a silent overwrite.
3. Media that respects a data cap
Photographs are compressed and queued on device, uploaded when the connection is real, and the job can be closed before they finish.
4. Built for gloves and bad light
Large hit targets, high-contrast type, one-handed reach, and a checklist that remembers where the technician stopped.
What a first version covers
- Today’s job list, available with the phone in airplane mode
- Structured checklists with photo and signature capture
- Background sync with an honest status per record
- A dispatcher view of what has actually been completed
Status
Concept work — an internal build we use to test our own sync and conflict-handling approach. It has not been deployed for a client.
Typical architecture