iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Aaron Boodman @aaronboodman.com · 09/06/2026

These are all still on GitHub and running. See aaronboodman.com#projects.

aaronboodman.com

Aaron Boodman

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Aaron Boodman @aaronboodman.com · 27/03/2026

Yes, but offline is also a minor benefit of Zero. We're very focused on UI performance and programming simplicity. Read-only offline is a nice side benefit but it's not the core benefit.

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Aaron Boodman @aaronboodman.com · 27/03/2026

It would be nice for people to not worry about this though so I think we will change to memory default and have client storage be opt-in with an explanation. Thanks!

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Aaron Boodman @aaronboodman.com · 27/03/2026

If user B has access to computer and is malicious, user A is probably toast. I mean user B probably has all their passwords saved in Chrome. They are probably logged into gmail. Etc. The proper security boundary is the OS account, not browser profile. I agree there's a difference, but it's minor.

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We should change the marketing to really lean into this since it seems to bother people so much. Most zero apps could be memory-only and you could barely notice the difference.

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It's a minor optimization to store data client-side at all, and honestly we're considering flipping the default. What makes Zero fast is the query-based sync *to memory*. Not the persistent client-side storage.

However if this bothers you you can just use memory storage on the client. Client-side storage is not the killer feature of Zero. We only cache 5-10MB on the client, and Zero is designed to start instantly cold anyway.

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Sharing computers is *always* insecure. If you login to your bank on a computer that people you don't trust have access to you already have a very big problem. Zero doesn't introduce anything new.

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Projections are coming to ZQL soon and could be used to elegantly implement column permissions. Right now users just workaround by factoring user-private data into a related table and using row permissions. It's ugly but works.

Absurdly Fast Apps with Zero

Come for the fast UI, stay for the spontaneous dance party at 0:05: www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV6a...

youtube.com

YouTube video by Scott Tolinski

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Reposted by Aaron Boodman

This is a great question. Real-world permissions was a core motivation for Zero. The short answer is Zero security works just like traditional web app security. Reads flow through your server, and your server controls the queries that sync. See zero.rocicorp.dev/docs/auth#pe...

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No data ever reaches the client that user isn't authorized to access.

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Concurrent with this release we have also begun offering an SLA to the Pro and Managed levels of our hosted service. See zero.rocicorp.dev#pricing for information.

Instant Queries By Default

Zero

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Concurrent with this release we have also begun offering an SLA to the Pro and Managed levels of our hosted service. See zero.rocicorp.dev#pricing for information.

Instant Queries By Default

Zero

This does not mean that Zero is perfect or done. There is still so much to do. What it does mean is that we fully support Zero for appropriate workloads without caveat. See zero.rocicorp.dev/docs/when-to... for guidance on applications that are a good match for Zero.

And When Not To – A Quick Guide

When To Use Zero

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Aaron Boodman @aaronboodman.com · 18/12/2025

Zero to 1.0 After two years of work, 50+ releases, thousands of commits, and hundreds of bugfixes, we are officially declaring Zero stable and ready for production workloads. zero.rocicorp.dev/docs/release...

We are exceptionally proud of the work in 0.25. Totally reworked DX that feels so nice, and a real query planner – bringing the original "just do queries" vision of Zero to life.

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Aaron Boodman @aaronboodman.com · 18/12/2025

Sorry for the slow response! Need to check this site more often. SvelteKit is in the queue. We do use BetterAuth for ztunes so check that out: zero.rocicorp.dev/docs/samples...

Aaron Boodman @aaronboodman.com · 23/10/2025

Samples

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Find something you love the way this guy loves chord shapes: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa6t...

youtube.com

Play All Over The Ukulele Neck With Just Four Shapes

YouTube video by Phil Doleman

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Aaron Boodman @aaronboodman.com · 14/10/2025

Come see four different perspectives on sync duke it out live on stage.

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Aaron Boodman @aaronboodman.com · 11/09/2025

Oh sorry, only realized you were the materializedview Chris. You probably know about all of these.

Aaron Boodman @aaronboodman.com · 11/09/2025

TanStack DB offers IVM for a client-side data thing (there is also a corresponding JS library implementing differential dataflow which can be used alone).

Aaron Boodman @aaronboodman.com · 11/09/2025

IVM as in "incremental view maintenance" ? Or something else?

The advantages you brought are very real. It was a special and lucky moment in history. I am very thankful to have been part of it.

This was gnarly, grotty work. But it made a huge difference - if you're old you may remember the stability difference from Windows 3.1 to Window 95. This is the difference between cooperative and pre-emptive multitasking. And it's the same difference that Chrome brought to the web.

Chrome's innovations were almost all subsurface, but they added up to making the web a more reliable place to work. In order to make WebKit multiprocess and sandboxed was basically a massive refactor – all shared state like networking and cookies had to be pulled out into a supervisor process.

Previous browsers were single-process. Firefox and safari had tabs but those tabs all shared an OS process. This meant: - slow / hung tab affects all tabs - crashed tab crashes whole browser - exploit in one tab has access to all tabs

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Aaron Boodman @aaronboodman.com · 19/08/2025

People often bring up the open source tech, but by lines of code, complexity, innovation, or any pretty much any other metric Chrome was more than half new. It's easy to forget that building a MP browser had never been done and was non-trivial. On top of that Chrome shipped a brand new JS engine.

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> Those people have to choose to be in the relationship with free will. This is why I specifically added this. At the point that AI achieves consciousness, sure, fine – they are "people" for my purposes here. Similarly you can get connection with pets but cannot with friends you pay for.

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Aaron Boodman @aaronboodman.com · 19/08/2025

...and a couple million years of evolution won't be changed by a robot yes-man (or let's be honest here, yes-woman). We need relationships with other people. Those people have to choose to be in the relationship with free will.

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Aaron Boodman @aaronboodman.com · 19/08/2025

> As a millennial, I think it means knowing my neighbors, being married, healthy, gainfully employed, & using my time in a way I find meaningful+fulfilling. This basic recipe is as old as time and spans every culture. Happiness through connection and purpose wasn't invented by millennials 😂...

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I will very happily admit if I was wrong here. In the meantime my best guess is this will be super addictive technology that will hinder kids growing into happy, productive members of society, and will have very little positive use other than making money.

I read it as a kid but I don't remember much. Tried to get my boy to pick it up recently but it bounced off. Will try again some day. Ready Player One (and Two) cover similar ground though. Lots of sci fi has – probably all inspired by Dr Asimov.

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I think loneliness is at the root of a lot of drug abuse - especially opiates. And I fear AI friends are going to tap right into that vein with a far more direct administration: instead of simulating the feeling of connection, simulate the actual connection. But no less artificial or dangerous.

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The real life feeling most like morphine I can think of is in fact a big hug from my kids. But a hug that goes on for hours. Or the feeling after having some big adventure or experience w/ my family that brings us closer, relaxing together over dinner in the glow of togetherness.

I did use morphine once recently, at a hospital, after a surgery. The dose was low, so much less intense than what I'm sure H feels like. But I do remember the cozy comfort, nodding the hours away, in and out of sleep, problems far away. I do remember wanting more as it wore off.

I've never tried heroin but I sometimes reflect on descriptions I have read. Users do not describe the rush of euphoria that I know from, err, other substances but more of a warm, slow glow from within. I have heard it described as a "hug from inside"... 🧵

The very fact that it’s not a real person that chooses to spend time with you is the thing that makes it unsatisfying. You cannot solve loneliness this way, only create people even less able to connect.

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After food, water, and shelter, connection is the most basic human need. It underlies all other motivations. These bots are going to provide synthetic connection. Like sugar for the mind, they will feel amazing initially, but will never satisfy.

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These things are going to be insanely addictive. The most addictive products in history. I think this will lead to many more extremely lonely and sad people.

Aaron Boodman @aaronboodman.com · 17/08/2025

I want to believe the people running these companies are while perhaps conflicted, mostly good. But it is hard to see any good that comes out of this technology. In fact it seems insanely dangerous.

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Aaron Boodman @aaronboodman.com · 17/08/2025

Sigh. The "AI friends" thing on other networks is incredibly depressing. I cannot believe we're going there. I mean I can. It's where the money leads. But I can't.

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Aaron Boodman @aaronboodman.com · 04/08/2025

I would never aggressively push anyone to anything. But Replicache is already in support only mode and has been for some time: replicache.dev#status We are a small team and can only work on one thing at a time. Our plan is to make Zero best option for majority of current Replicache users.

replicache.dev

Replicache: Framework for local-first web apps.

Replicache is a client-side datastore and sync framework for building local-first web apps. It works with most backend stacks.