A lot happened this month in CouchDB land: setting up an instance with Google Cloud got easier, we discover how CouchDB syncs conflicts without CRDTs and learn how CouchDB solves a hygiene safety use-case in hospitals.

Do you have a source or article I missed? Let me know in the comments. 

Blog Articles

• Stephan H. Wissel covers CouchDB authentication using JWKS in-depth on their blog [shared in the CouchDB Slack]

• Though not strictly CouchDB-focused, this article examines why offline-first architecture is a pre-requisite to providing last-mile digital healthcare effectively, and why connectivity assumptions are not the only downfall of always-online solutions [Kaumudi Tiwari on Next Billion]

• If CouchDB is new to you, take a look at some tips on using it with different file systems depending on the OS you use [Neighbourhoodie Blog]

• Get your database started right with a small collection of tips for data modelling and indexing [Neighbourhoodie on DEV]

Videos

• Zixuan Liu & Ahlam Aatif presented offline-first architecture at the Nordic Developer Conference in Oslo this past May; recordings are now up [NDC Conferences on YouTube] 

• DevNami provides a walkthrough to create a CouchDB instance in Google Cloud if you want to preview the steps before starting [DevNami on YouTube]

• This past week Jan Lehnardt showed the local-first community How to Sync Anything while managing conflicts along the way and avoiding CRDTs [Local First Meetups]

• 🇩🇪 Jan was also an invited guest on the German-language Working Draft podcast this month and discussed how CouchDB is suited for local-first and offline-first scenarios; catch the episode on YouTube for auto-generated subtitles [Jan Lehnardt on the Working Draft Podcast]

Misc

• Semra Tebrizcik and their co-authors implement CouchDB as the preferred database to address traceability in hospital hygiene using a distributed ledger [originally published in Applied Sciences; full article available via Research Gate] 

Tools

• Excitingly, the Google Cloud ↔ CouchDB connector received some updates this past month, making it even easier to put CouchDB behind production projects [Google Cloud Integrations Documentation]

I hope August’s developments mean you get even more out of CouchDB. See you here next month!

We’re officially more than halfway through the year! You might be preparing to emerge from a frosty winter, or crossing off the last of your todos before summer holidays. There’s even a chance this month’s digest is already greeting you from a train seat or beneath a beach umbrella. Enjoy July’s roundup, and if I missed anything, let me know in the comments.

Blog Articles 

• Alessio Marinelli shares their experience deploying a CouchDB Operator in OpenServerless with Taskfire [Alessio Marinelli on Medium]

• Accompany Royan as they build PouchDB-inspired offline sync [Royan Daliska on DEV]

• Vladimir captures how to build a local-first password manager with Bun, React, Tailwind CSS, PouchDB and CouchDB, including source code [Vladimir Lazarev on Medium]

• Can AI help you build faster with Vue.js and CouchDB? Ivan Rocha Cardoso shares their story [Ivan Rocha Cardoso on DEV]

• If you or someone you know is new to CouchDB, check out or pass on part 2 of Neighbourhoodies’ “What is CouchDB?” [Neighbourhoodie on DEV]

• If initially loading data in your local-first app is causing problems, see how partial data fetching on initial load is done with CouchDB and PouchDB [Neighbourhoodie Blog]

Videos 

• Get an introduction to CouchDB sharding, learn how to set up PouchDB and TypeScript and discover more real-time patterns with the `_changes` feed  [Neighbourhoodie YouTube]

Misc 

• Daniel Ferenczi and Melinda Tóth evaluate the dependency complexity of  CouchDB and other Erlang-based projects in their academic paper, “Towards Correct Dependency Orders in Erlang Upgrades” [originally published in Acta Cybernetica; full article accessible via Research Gate]

• Both CouchDB and PouchDB are now fixtures on the Local-First Landscape [by localfirst.fm]  

Tools

• If you’re working on an AI use case with CouchDB, check out this CouchDB Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server [CData]

• Walter M. Rafelsberger shared Eddo: an offline-first todo and time-tracking app based on a Minihosted CouchDB and integrated MCP server (see it shared on Bluesky) [walterra on GitHub, @walterra.dev on Bluesky]
  • It didn’t come out in July, but this app makes use of CouchDB Minihosting [Neighbourhoodie Blog] 

• Free your (human) memory from syntax conversions with an AI generated CouchDB to SQL query converter [AI2SQL]

That’s it for now, catch you next month!