Craaft - AI Coding Assistant for Your Favorite IDE

The Cloud Trap

It's 2025 and everything wants to be in the cloud. Your IDE syncs to the cloud. Your AI assistant proxies through the cloud. Your clipboard syncs to the cloud. Your dotfiles sync to the cloud.

At some point, we stopped asking: "Wait, why does this need my data?"

The Real Cost of Cloud

When you use a cloud-based coding tool, you're implicitly agreeing to:

Data exposure: Your code, prompts, and context travel through third-party servers

Vendor lock-in: Your history, settings, and workflows are trapped

Availability dependency: No internet? No coding assistant.

Compliance risk: Many industries have strict data residency requirements

What "Local-First" Actually Means

For Craaft, local-first means:

Your code never leaves your machine

When you chat with Claude through Craaft, the flow is:

Your machine → Claude API (direct)

Not:

Your machine → Craaft servers → Claude API

We don't see your code. We CAN'T see your code. The architecture makes it impossible.

Your conversations are yours

AI conversation history? Stored locally. Session data? Local. Prompt history? Local.

The only thing we store on our servers is your account info (email, subscription status). That's it.

Offline-capable

Lose internet? Craaft keeps working for what it can. Your history is still there. Your settings are still there. Obviously the AI needs internet, but the app doesn't crash.

The Technical Implementation

Here's how we achieve this:

The Bridge Architecture

Craaft has a "Bridge" component that runs on your Mac. It handles:

Communication with the Chrome extension

Spawning and managing CLI processes

File operations and git integration

Session management

The Bridge talks directly to AI providers using YOUR API key. We never proxy, intercept, or log these calls.

Licence Verification

"But you must check licences somehow!"

Yes, once per session, the Bridge pings our API: "Is this licence valid?" We get back yes/no. That's the only server communication.

No code. No prompts. No context. Just a licence check.

Why Others Don't Do This

Cloud is easier. Proxying requests means:

Simpler architecture

Usage tracking for billing

Data collection for model improvement

Easier updates and feature flags

We chose the harder path because we believe developer privacy matters.

Enterprise Implications

For companies, local-first means:

✅ SOC2 compliance is easier (less data in transit)
✅ GDPR is simpler (data stays in-region)
✅ Security audits are faster (smaller surface area)
✅ Air-gapped networks are possible
✅ No vendor data breach can expose your code

The Trade-offs

Local-first isn't without costs:

Initial setup: You need to install the Bridge

Updates: You need to update the Bridge periodically

Resources: Uses some local CPU/memory

We think these trade-offs are worth it. Your code is your most valuable asset. It deserves protection.

Try Local-First AI Coding

Experience the difference. Use AI coding assistance without giving up your data.

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Local-First Development: Why Your Code Should Never Leave Your Machine