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UPAS
Blog
January 15, 2026

Introducing UPAS: Offline-First Procedural Guidance

UPAS brings browser-based, offline-capable procedural guidance to humanitarian responders operating under pressure.

UPAS Product Team
UPAS Product Team
2 mins read

The Challenge

Humanitarian responders regularly face situations where they need to apply the right procedures, standards, and best practices—often in disconnected areas, under time pressure, with limited cognitive bandwidth available.

Traditional approaches rely on paper manuals, static PDFs, or cloud-connected applications. Each has limitations:

  • Paper: Bulky, hard to search, difficult to update
  • PDFs: Better searchability, but still static and connectivity-dependent for updates
  • Cloud apps: Powerful, but fail when network connectivity is unavailable

A Different Approach

UPAS takes a fundamentally different approach: browser-based, offline-first, with on-device AI inference.

Once procedure packs are cached, UPAS operates entirely locally:

  • No server APIs
  • No API keys
  • No network dependency
  • No data leaving the device

Responders can query guidance naturally and receive stepwise actions with explicit source attribution.

How It Works

UPAS uses a Progressive Web App (PWA) architecture:

  1. First load: Downloads and caches the application shell, AI model, and procedure packs
  2. Subsequent loads: Serves everything from cache—works offline
  3. Query time: On-device inference returns guidance with provenance
  4. Sync: When connectivity returns, updates are fetched and verified

The AI inference uses WebGPU for GPU-accelerated performance, with automatic fallback to WASM for devices without GPU support.

Provenance at Point of Use

Every response includes explicit source metadata:

  • Publisher and document identity
  • Version and effective date
  • Integrity hash for verification

Responders know where guidance comes from. Decisions can be reviewed and audited.

What's Next

UPAS is currently in prototype development, with a pilot programme planned for Q3 2026. We are preparing to work with humanitarian partners to:

  • Validate the user experience under real operational conditions
  • Refine the procedure pack curation workflow
  • Document device constraints and deployment patterns

If you're interested in exploring a pilot deployment, register your interest for the Q3 2026 cohort.

Open Source

UPAS is released under the MIT licence and developed in the open on GitHub.

Contributions are welcome—whether code, documentation, or feedback from field operations.

Wrap-up

Operational guidance shouldn't require constant connectivity. UPAS aims to work seamlessly — whether you're in a well-connected office or a remote field location.

If that sounds like the kind of tooling you want to explore — register your pilot interest or join the discussion on GitHub.