Offline-first

Native Field is built so a technician can keep working when the radio drops. That is not a second source of truth. After a successful login and first sync, you can open cached jobs. New jobs, first login, and workspace download still need the company server.

Screen path: Sync tab · banner Offline — showing cached data when the server is unreachable. Native Field is not the Field PWA.

server
   ↓ pull / bootstrap
local Drift database
   ↓
technician works
   ↓
local changes
   ↓
outbox
   ↓ push
server authority
   ↓
pull reconciles local state

Pull into Drift, work locally, push the outbox, pull again. The backend remains the business authority.

Preconditions

A session, shell preferences, and the local database already exist. First launch with no cache: No offline data yet / No offline data available yet. Connect to your company server first.

Loop

1. Before you lose signal — sign in, select the workspace, Sync → Sync now. Confirm today’s assigned jobs are on the device.
2. During the visit — open cached jobs, execute, fill forms, take JPEG/PNG photos, capture signatures, add findings, consume van stock.
3. After you have a signal — open the app (foreground) or tap Sync now. There is no guaranteed “Wi-Fi came back” auto-run.
4. Before Log out / reinstall — if Status is not Up to date, do not uninstall.

You do not need to know Flutter. You do need to open Sync before you assume the office received a completion.

There is no periodic killed-app background synchronization. See Killed-app behavior.

What works / does not work

	Works	Does not work
Cached jobs	Yes	New office assignments until pull
Unreachable server	Stay signed in	Treating local Complete as final
Uninstall / clear data	Drops local-only work	Reconstructing pending photos from the server

Related: Offline capability matrix.