Rollback Patterns in Offline-First PWAs

Short summary

Rollback in offline-first PWAs is fundamentally different from stateless systems because local state (IndexedDB, queued writes, attachments) persists across redeployments. Safe rollback requires designing for version coexistence with reversible or additive migrations, idempotent queue replay, data backups, and honest error messaging—not just redeploying old code and hoping clients don't notice.

• •Offline-first apps must handle version overlap where old and new code coexist; rollback cannot be atomic across all clients simultaneously
• •Design migrations upfront as additive or destructive; ensure each version tolerates the other's data format for at least one release window
• •Protect critical local data with snapshots and recovery paths; prevent silent corruption through idempotent operations and honest failure messaging

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