Documentation

Everything here compiles against the current release. If a snippet on this site does not work, that is a bug: tell us.

Save something, now

One call opens a store that owns the data. Five lines and a working app, before any decision about where it lives.

Get the UI for free

One element mounts the whole storage journey: the first-run question, then the panel. You assign the store and stop there.

Look something up

Every method, option and error code of the published API, read from the types that ship.

Or browse everything:

Start

Quick start

From npm install to a persisted, synced, backed-up browser app in about five minutes, with no server, using the selfstore simple store.

Tutorial - an encrypted notes app

Build a real notes app step by step - from an empty file to offline notes, a home the user controls, end-to-end encryption and cross-device sync - one call at a time, with no server.

Concepts

The selfstore mental model - the simple store, snapshots, durable homes, backups, sync and the headless status - in one page.

Destinations

Disk file home

Back up to a file on the user's own disk with one call - store.connectFile() - the truly zero-backend durable home.

Google Drive home

Back up a browser app to the user's own Google Drive with one call - store.connectDrive - no backend, and the honest token trade-off.

WebDAV home

Back up to Nextcloud, ownCloud or any WebDAV server the user controls with one call - store.connectWebdav - self-hosted durable storage.

Back up to any S3-compatible bucket the user controls - Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2, MinIO - with one call, store.connectS3. The browser signs each request itself; no serverless function, no SDK.

Desktop shell (Tauri)

Packaging a web app as a desktop app used to lose the disk file home. Hand the shell its filesystem and dialog calls once - useDesktopFiles - and every file destination writes a real path.

Widgets

Widgets overview

One element mounts the whole storage journey; the rest of the section is for apps that place the pieces themselves. Framework-free custom elements you theme with CSS and reword for your locale.

selfstore-storage

One element for the whole storage journey. Assign the store and it decides what to show - the first-run question, or the panel once there is a home.

Styling the widgets

The complete CSS surface of selfstore's widgets - fifteen custom properties with their defaults, every ::part() name, how theming crosses shadow boundaries, container queries, and the one place ::part() cannot reach.

Wording and localization

How selfstore's widgets resolve their copy - shipped English and French packs, the page's lang attribute, per-key overrides, placeholder interpolation, and the empty-string trick that removes a heading.

Using the widgets in a framework

Mounting selfstore's custom elements in React, Vue, Svelte, Angular and plain HTML - the property-versus-attribute rule, the boolean trap that silently keeps a knob on, listening to events, and server rendering.

selfstore-gate

Reference for the first-run gate: properties, attributes, slots, events, parts and every label key. It decides on its own whether to be on screen, from the engine's status rather than a flag you maintain.

selfstore-connect

Reference for the connect widget: properties, attributes, events, parts and all 58 label keys. It renders the whole "where does my data live" journey, from picking a destination to resolving an existing backup.

selfstore-destination

The panel for a store that already has a home - where it saves, when it last wrote, and the gestures to export a copy, change destination or stop saving there.

selfstore-account

A header-sized answer to "where is my data" - two gestures, not four, and it hands the rest to the settings page the app already has.

selfstore-status

Reference for the status widget - one line or one dot telling the user whether their data is saved and where, with the action that fixes it when it is not.

selfstore-backups

Reference for the backups panel - list, create, rename, open and delete named backups on a connected home, plus shared silos, the backup copy journey, and a host veto on every destructive gesture.

selfstore-share

Reference for the share panel - create view and edit links, list who has access, revoke and stop sharing, with an optional QR code and a host veto on every destructive gesture.

selfstore-join

Reference for the join widget - preview an invitation, join on an explicit yes, and get named outcomes for a spent invite or a device already following another share.

Every label key

The full list of strings the widgets render, per element, with their English defaults. A lookup table - how overriding and language selection work is on the wording page.

Guides

Multi-device sync

Deterministic serverless sync between one person's devices - how it converges, choosing strategies, the conflict journal, and the honest limits.

Encryption and backups

End-to-end encryption in one call, portable backup files the user owns, and the fluent backup-file API that needs no store.

Resilience (a backup copy)

Keep a second synced copy of the backup on another destination - same bytes, same key, written after every save. A revoked token or a deleted bucket then costs you nothing.

Peers and groups

Share a store between people over read-only links, and passwordless groups with per-member keys - built on the advanced store.

Sensitive apps (the hardening kit)

Configure selfstore for data whose leak is serious - health, legal, personal. Make encryption and a strong password non-optional, lock the local cache behind a secret, and offer only the destinations you allow. No fork required.

Framework bindings

React, Svelte and Vue in a few lines each - there is deliberately no adapter package to install.

Testing your integration

Drive the full save, sync and restore loop in plain vitest - the simple store falls back to memory on its own, and a target is fifteen lines.

Advanced

Advanced (the pull-model store)

When your state lives in its own reactive model, or you are writing a destination - createLocalStore, custom BackupTargets and the subpath imports.

How sync works

The clock and the merge, explained - why serverless convergence needs more than wall time, what a tombstone is for, and the properties the fuzz suite pins down.