Development Blog

Building OffTheGridVault

Follow along as we build a plug-and-play offline knowledge vault - maps, AI, Wikipedia & survival guides on a USB-C drive.

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One Search Bar to Rule Them All

One Search Bar to Rule Them All

OffTheGridVault used to run separate search indexes for Wikipedia and guides - each one fetched and rebuilt in the browser every time you opened a tab. We replaced all of it with a single search database built ahead of time. Now one search bar on the home screen finds Wikipedia articles, guide sections, and place names from 33,000 cities worldwide. Click a place and the map flies straight to it - no internet required.

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Assistant MVP: Local Qwen in the Browser With Vault Context

Assistant MVP: Local Qwen in the Browser With Vault Context

OffTheGridVault now includes an LLM Assistant: a Qwen 2.5 3B model that runs entirely in the browser via WebLLM, with optional context pulled from the same Lunr indexes that power Wikipedia and Survival Guides. No connection, no account-just load the model once per tab and chat.

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Guides MVP: Offline Field Manuals With Search and PDFs

Guides MVP: Offline Field Manuals With Search and PDFs

The third content module of OffTheGridVault is in place: offline survival guides. FM 21-76, FM 4-25.11, and Nuclear War Survival Skills are now searchable, browsable, and readable cover-to-cover, with PDFs for when you need the diagrams. No connection required.

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Maps MVP: Offline Maps in the Dashboard

Maps MVP: Offline Maps in the Dashboard

The second slice of OffTheGridVault is in place: offline maps in the same app as Wikipedia-pan and zoom while the data stays on the drive, not in the cloud. Here’s what shipped and how it works.

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Why I'm Building OffTheGridVault

Almost everything we rely on assumes you’re online-until you aren’t. I’m building OffTheGridVault to see how much of that (maps, Wikipedia, guides, and more) can live on one USB drive with no installs and no connection.

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