localStorage Is My Database (For Now): The Patterns That Work, the Limits That Bite, and When to Graduate
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NitroIDE has no server and no database. Your projects still survive a browser restart, a closed tab, and a Monday morning. The entire persistence layer is localStorage — one API, string keys, string values, about 5 MB per origin. That sounds like a toy. It has carried a real product for months. It has also taught me exactly where it breaks, because I have hit every wall myself. Here is the honest version: the patterns that work, the limits that bite, and the line where you graduate to something