Chrome's window.showDirectoryPicker API Enables Local-First Web Apps with Direct File System Access
By
steveharrison
Summary
Chrome's new window.showDirectoryPicker() API allows websites to request read/write access to a user-selected directory on their computer, enabling local-first web applications where users own their data instead of storing it in the cloud. The article highlights use cases like local-first notes apps for Markdown files, and the author shares a personal experiment using Claude AI to recreate Apple's Aperture UI with this API.
Source
Hacker NewsChrome's window.showDirectoryPicker API Enables Local-First Web Apps with Direct File System Accesssteveharrison.devKey quotes
· 3 pulledwindow.showDirectoryPicker() allows the user to grant access to a directory on their computer and allow a website to read/write everything inside.
a local-first notes app, where you can grant it access to a folder full of Markdown notes, and you own the data rather than it being squirrelled away in some cloud service.
I was getting nostalgic about Apple's Aperture UI and wondered whether Claude could create a similarly-themed UI.
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