CouchDB Digest — February 2026

This month’s round-up, much like February itself, is short and sweet. In this edition we have some beginner-friendly resources, and ACMattos’ CouchDB DevOps series is especially worth a read if you want to see how others tweak their CouchDB stack. 

There are a couple general updates from the CouchDB ecosystem to take note of:

  • Discussion around CouchDB 4.0 is underway if you’re keen to know what’s on the horizon. 
  • And if it’s been on your list to find a way to contribute, the bi-weekly PouchDB triage sessions in the #pouchdb channel are helping CouchDB’s sibling technology make great progress. We’d love to see you there:
    • March 16, 2026 from 3-4pm UTC
    • March 30, 2026 from 8-9am UTC
    • April 13, 2026 from 3-4pm UTC

Enjoy, and as always, let us know in the comments if we missed anything.

Blog Articles

  • Osama shares a beginner-friendly intro to CouchDB including data storage, what makes it special, and how to create a database and a doc using cURL [Osama Haider on Medium]
  • In a 4-part series (so far), ACMattos shares their CouchDB DevOps learnings and why they went all-in with Apache Camel instead of Logstash for their local Elastic Stack [ACMattos Blog]
  • @nawazdhandala shares tips for running CouchDB in Docker and setting up replication, including a backup strategy [@nawazdhandala on OneUptime blog]

Videos

  • This mini-doc about local-first software explains why local tools offers both a better user experience and represents a shift in values around data ownership [CultRepo on YouTube]

Misc

  • The Local First Conf has opened the second conference edition’s call for papers. In 2025, both PouchDB and CouchDB were incredibly well-received in the workshop session and main stage respectively [Local First Conf] 

Tools

That’s a wrap on February! Thank you for keeping up with CouchDB, we’ll see you here next month. 

CouchDB Digest — December ’25 + January ’26 Omnibus 

Hello and welcome to 2026 and the first CouchDB Digest of the year! This is a bumper edition that includes December’s highlights too. First things first: have you taken part in the 2025–2026 Annual Apache CouchDB User Survey? Share it far and wide: we can’t wait to hear from you!

This month there’s also a very special update about CouchDB’s sibling technology:

Count yourself among the amazing volunteer team that brings PouchDB to the world, and join the bi-weekly triage sessions to help prune, prioritise and work through the PouchDB backlog! 

It all happens in the #pouchdb channel in the CouchDB community Slack — come participate:

  • February 9, 2026 from 8-9am UTC
  • February 16, 2026 from 3-4pm UTC
  • March 2, 2026 from 8-9am UTC

In the last active session, contributors closed 15 issues and 3 PRs! 🙌 

These are the biggest updates in the CouchDB community. Read on for a video-packed edition that covers why local first is the future and where CouchDB fits in, plus setup tutorials, deployment options and more.

Blog Articles

  • Local-first home assistants demonstrate the benefits of skipping the cloud, and Andrea Griffiths explains why local first is the future of software [Andrea Griffiths on Github Blog]
  • Steven Deobald introduces the local first spectrum and why FOSS is the natural fit when it comes to owning your own data [Steven Deobald]

Videos

  • Recordings from the 2026 edition of Sync Conf are up! Topics include conflicts, sync engines, persistence and more [Local-First Conf on YouTube]

Tools

Thank you for keeping up with the CouchDB ecosystem; see you here next month!