Why Offline-First Matters for Field Operations

The Connectivity Reality

In humanitarian operations, network connectivity is:

• Intermittent: Available sometimes, absent others
• Unreliable: Drops at critical moments
• Expensive: Satellite bandwidth is costly
• Overloaded: Many users, limited capacity

Applications that assume persistent connectivity fail in these environments—often at the worst possible moments.

Offline-First as Architecture

Offline-first isn't a feature added later. It's a fundamental architectural decision that shapes every design choice:

Data Locality

All critical data lives on the device:

• Procedure packs are cached locally
• AI models run on-device
• No round-trips to servers for core functionality

Sync as Enhancement

Network connectivity becomes an enhancement, not a requirement:

• Updates download when available
• Integrity verification happens locally
• Rollback targets are preserved

Graceful Degradation

When resources are unavailable:

• Show what's cached
• Indicate limitations clearly
• Never block on network

Technical Implementation

UPAS implements offline-first through:

Service Workers

The service worker intercepts all network requests:

self.addEventListener('fetch', (event) => {
  event.respondWith(
    caches.match(event.request).then((cached) => {
      return cached || fetch(event.request);
    })
  );
});

Cache-First Strategy

Model artefacts and procedure packs use cache-first:

• Check cache before network
• Update cache in background
• Serve immediately from local storage

Progressive Loading

The app shell loads first, then heavier assets:

1. Render interface immediately
2. Load AI model in background
3. Show progress clearly
4. Enable features as they become available

The Payoff

Offline-first architecture delivers:

• Reliability: Works when you need it most
• Speed: No network latency for cached content
• Privacy: Data stays on device
• Resilience: Survives connectivity loss gracefully

For humanitarian operations, these aren't nice-to-haves. They're essential.

Learn More

• UPAS Documentation
• Architecture Overview
• GitHub Repository