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title: How&#x27;s Linear so fast? A technical breakdown | daily.dev
description: A deep technical breakdown of how Linear achieves near-instant performance in a client-side rendered web app. Key techniques include: storing the database in...
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# How's Linear so fast? A technical breakdown

**[Ido Shamun](https://daily.dev/sources/28849d86070e4c099c877ab6837c61f0)** · [@idoshamun](https://daily.dev/idoshamun) · 107 upvotes · 16 comments

## Summary

A deep technical breakdown of how Linear achieves near-instant performance in a client-side rendered web app. Key techniques include: storing the database in the browser via IndexedDB with a local-first sync engine, MobX observables enabling granular per-property re-renders, aggressive code splitting with module preloading and service worker precaching, inlined critical CSS and JavaScript in the app shell for zero-flash first paint, optimistic mutations that never wait on the network, keyboard-first design with a command palette backed by in-memory data, and GPU-only animations with sub-100ms durations. The article also provides practical takeaways like using SWR/TanStack Query optimistic updates, proper font preloading with matching CORS attributes, and avoiding layout-triggering CSS animations.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://performance.dev/how-is-linear-so-fast-a-technical-breakdown>

## Community discussion

Top comments from developers on daily.dev.

**@eliasaliche** · 5 upvotes

> Browsers are basically becoming OS's.
>
> 2GB of RAM on for three tabs suddenly don't sound that bad

**@georgeongoro** · 0 upvotes

> A reminder that performance is often a matter of clever architecture and design, not just code optimization, i personally use IndexedDB for offline first applications whose data is not required to be synced to the cloud, this way i avoid unnecessary server usage, and the app becomes fast. I love this approach

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---

Tags: [#webdev](https://daily.dev/tags/webdev), [#react](https://daily.dev/tags/react), [#local-first](https://daily.dev/tags/local-first)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/uuupb6zie)

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