Building offline-first for Philippine connectivity

Offline-first is not a feature you add. It is a decision about where truth lives, made on day one and difficult to reverse.

Truth on the device

For the BHW patient records system, the health worker's tablet is authoritative until it syncs. That is uncomfortable for anyone from a web background, but the alternative — a form that fails to submit in a barangay with no signal — is worse than any conflict we have had to resolve.

Design for the worst connection your user will ever have, not the average one.

Conflict rules, written before code

• Appends never conflict — new records always win
• Edits use last-write-wins per field, not per record
• Deletions are soft and require a supervisor to confirm
• Every conflict is logged and visible, never silently resolved