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  • This would be great if it evolved in a universal format/spec/feature supported by all major browsers. Only then you'd have to deal with cross web engine compatibilities. And if capsules need to do something non-trivial then you need to consider all the security aspects of having system, file or network level access. Just like any executable. Otherwise with custom app to run capsules it feels like something that can be vibe coded with electron/nw.js rather easily.

    But there is something compelling in the idea - there is need for an interactive smart document format that you can share around easily. Kind of like a next gen markdown derivative cross with jupyter notebook where you bundle data, live parametric visualizations, code, audio, video, asciicinema like playback, comments, metadata, file artifacts etc

    by zarrdoz
  • An idea for a killer feature: Make it so that auhors can expose their capsules to the internet, and the people whoe wants to use them(lets call them users) can type the name(lets call it address) of the caplsue into the app, and your program will pull that capsule in the the users device..
    by olaulailadila
  • wow, that sounds revolutionary.
    by derpyzza
  • nice. we should call it web, like spiders' web all connected.
    by saejox
  • Hear me out. Here is the name

    PWA : Probably Web Again

    by ligarota
  • I really like this idea. It will be useful for local first users for simple applications. Is it open source? If yes, can you share the link? if not, how can we send templates under our name? are there any template or app marketplace? @bashtian
    by soltanov
  • It kinda reminds me of MS Access, which ended up being a pain in the butt for IT departments, but also covered a need within some department with limited resources.

    Really curious to see where this goes. Do you plan to open-source the client, or simply make the file specification open when stabilized?

    by m-p-3
  • I'm currently 50/50 on open source the full app vs just the spec. Since I'm currently having a strong idea of what features and functionality is still missing I feel that open-sourcing right now would distract to much in this phase. But maybe when the main features are done it would make sense to have more people looking at and improving it.
    by bashtian
  • I love this idea! One of the fallouts from widespread AI adoption that I've seen: They're very good at creating visual artifacts, but if you ever have to provide data in those artifacts, you don't really have a great way to share it without hard coding it.

    > One downside with this approach is that multiple people working on it will create different copies. To make it possible to merge different copies of the same file, each data entry has a unique UUID and timestamp.

    This was the first thing that popped up in my mind: Changes stemming from two sources and reconciling them. I see that you have a statement about how to handle data entry from different sources, but I don't see exactly how those are reconciled? For instance, if two users have a copy of the .capsule and make changes, then want to share their changes with the other, you have two individual .capsules with different data.

    How do you merge them?

    by razerbeans
  • Git, html+css+svg and data in json.
    by wwn_se
  • Each document record is saved with UUID and timestamps. When deleting a record the data is removed but the record keeps a tombstone so only the ID remains. For conflicts currently the newest one is used, but there will be a merge like UI in the future to confirm which one to use.
    by bashtian
  • You can get a cheap approximation of this with chromium browsers + Filesystem API and a PWA manifest for that native-ish feel. AI has reignited my interest in building based 100% on browser native features.

    https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/File_System...

    by eleventen
  • If you want to distribute apps to many users this would probably be a better solution. The main benefit of Capsule is the personal document like app. You create a capsule, move it to an USB stick, save it in your cloud storage and it's still the same document. Nothing has changed, not the UI, not the data. The document will stay the same.
    by bashtian
  • I've been working on this exact idea, with sqlar as the "format specification". Works in the browser, and desktop + Android using Tauri.

    https://github.com/JoshTheDerf/uapp

    Demo apps and games: https://thederf.com/uapp/demo/

    by thederf
  • FYI requests from your demo are being blocked by CORS in Firefox and it never loads.
    by windsurfer
  • My take: If your app needs to update and preserve state (using SQLite or any other DB), it is probably not something you want to pass around as a bundled file.

    Or at least, it's extremely limiting, compared with hosting it somewhere on the web, which is not that hard to do these days.

    Think of the workflow: Any time the state changes, you need to email a new Capsule file to whoever else is using the app. And one would think the state would change at least occasionally, because otherwise there's little reason to use a DB.

    Alternatively, you can just host it on the web, the DB state dynamically updates, and it's automatically available to anyone with app access. Isn't that a lot simpler?

    by jawns
  • Why not on a shared drive like dropbox?

    Concurrent editing wouldn't work, though.

    by Reviving1514
  • theres still lots of programs where local is the main user. but as time goes on the user may want to portably move it just by emailing the file itself. i made like a very light clone of notepad++ using it for my macbook. as a side note: i think they missed an opportunity to call it .pdfv rather than .capsule
    by kaninricer
  • > Isn't that a lot simpler?

    You’re glossing over the recurring cost and annoyance of dealing with the hosting and having to secure the data. This way you just share and it’s local.

    Sure, if you have to share data between people, your points are valid. But this seems like a way to build apps geared for individual users, like a notes or recipes app.

    by latexr
  • > hosting it somewhere on the web, which is not that hard to do these days.

    Tell any non-tech person that.

    by bithammerthunde
  • Or the copies can go their own way. I could send someone an itinerary and they could change the dates or drop half the stops and add their own notes without needing to send an updated copy. Getting them to install another app just to open it might be a problem, especially if they only want to use it once.
    by lateatdesk
  • In a corporate context it's basically impossible for employees to host an app anywhere. So an app that works entirely locally and you can send to colleagues sounds useful.
    by benhurmarcel
  • I don't know, this seems like an idea that maybe works in a specific context being generalized past the point of the original idea making sense.

    If the user needs to download a specific application to run this these web apps, then why not just send them that initial application in the first place? Why jump through the hoops of using Capsule when the same hoops can be jumped through to get to the same endpoint?

    If this was a near-universally adopted application, then it'd make sense. But it's not, and the closest thing we have to that are browsers... which already do what you're describing?

    Bundling data with the application makes sense, but is also only appropriate in pretty narrow circumstances. If I'm willing to ship my data with the web app, then I'll just embed the data in the HTML file. If the expectation is that the user will modify this data, then I don't think I'd want to ship it like this.

    by nater5000
  • Seems pretty useful in an enterprise context to me. I see it as an alternative to 10 million vibe coded apps to dockerize and manage. You can put the runtime on everyone’s machine and provide a web version for really collaborative stuff.

    Bonus points for an intelligent way to manage these stored in OneDrive and other cloud folders. Easy to get corruption on SQLite files stored there.

    by pbronez
  • Yep, like Hyperclay. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49690814

    They're like lightweight versions of https://github.com/kem-a/AppManager which is for AppImages.

    Not a bad thing, but it's just another dependency and tied to an OS-specific base software install.

    They could work well pre-installed on the Mecha Comet with a bunch of app files ready to launch.

    Can the added layers guarantee a new level of security or privacy like zero telemetry or keyjacking? Protection from bad actors is a good thing while making things faster and easier overall. Browser extensions are a security risk, right?

    Java applets were a good idea in the sense that so long as you had Java installed, the applet was just sitting there on a webpage. Finding and managing the apps is the problem, and using browser bookmarks is a decent solution to it. The web page should demo the app, and there can be an 'install local' button next to it. But at some point all these local versions need to be updated and then not be messed with like browser extensions can be. FanFare would be a decent name.

    by adrianwaj
  • > but trying to save data required hosting it somewhere

    With the File System Access API, webpages nowadays can read and write local files just like desktop applications:

    https://developer.chrome.com/docs/capabilities/web-apis/file...

    Try this text editor for example:

    https://googlechromelabs.github.io/text-editor/

    It works nicely on Desktop and Mobile.

    by mg
  • Even better how about a fully functional VSCode: https://vscode.dev

    The File System Access API makes it possible.

    by darkvertex
  • My dream is that you could write to Google Drive or iCloud Drive transparently too if the browser allows you to
    by pspeter3
  • it's not only about saving data but easily sharing too. I think the capsule file is great for sharing one's work without the hassle of hosting.
    by rtvn83
  • *In Chrome.
    by emaro