Add article: The State of Local-First Sync Engines in 2026

[pubkey]

What

Adds a new content page docs-src/docs/articles/local-first-sync-engines-2026.md and registers it in the Articles sidebar.

The article is a vendor-neutral, deeply researched comparison of the local-first sync engine space as of June 2026, written to perform on Hacker News (follows the pattern of the previous high-scoring rxdb.info comparison articles):

• Engines covered: ElectricSQL (+PGlite/TanStack DB), PowerSync, Zero, InstantDB, Triplit, RxDB, PouchDB/CouchDB, Couchbase Lite, WatermelonDB, Automerge, Yjs, Jazz, Evolu, TinyBase, cr-sqlite, LiveStore, Ditto, Firestore offline persistence
• Structure: five architecture families (read-path replication, server-authoritative client DB, query-driven server reconciliation, client DB + replication protocol, CRDT-native) plus event sourcing and P2P mesh
• 2025/2026 events anchored with dates: Realm/Atlas Device Sync EOL (Sept 30, 2025), Triplit acqui-hire by Supabase (Oct 2025), Electric 1.0 + agents pivot (Apr 2026), Zero 1.0 (June 2026), Jazz v2 rewrite away from CRDT/E2EE (Apr 2026), PouchDB Apache incubation, Automerge 3, PowerSync Sync Streams GA
• Full comparison table, unsolved problems section (permissions + partial sync, schema migration with offline clients, browser scale, vendor durability), decision guidance, FAQ in <details> blocks
• RxDB is presented as one row among many with its weaknesses listed; author bias is disclosed upfront

All version numbers, dates, licenses and point counts were verified against npm, GitHub, vendor announcements and the HN Algolia API during research (June 11, 2026).

Notes for review

• The frontmatter references /headers/local-first-sync-engines-2026.jpg following the existing convention; the header image still needs to be created/uploaded like for the other articles.
• Docs style rules from CLAUDE.md applied: no em dashes, no banned words (flagged words appear only inside verbatim quotes), FAQ uses <details>/<summary>.
• npm run lint / npm run test:fast:memory fail in this container due to missing node_modules (@eslint/compat, nconf not installed); unrelated to this docs-only change.

https://claude.ai/code/session_01WUTw5SJFU5c8LZs6RdCmTW

---

Generated by Claude Code