Why I Built Locademy: A Local-First Video Learning Hub

Shahriar Swim — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 06:01:55 +0000

I have a confession: my "Downloads" folder is a graveyard of tutorial series, conference talks, and screen recordings. Navigating through nested folders to find the next video in a sequence is a friction point that often kills my motivation to learn.

I wanted something that felt like a premium LMS (Learning Management System) but lived entirely on my machine—no accounts, no subscriptions, and no "cloud sync" privacy concerns.

So, I built Locademy.

The Goal: From Messy Folders to Clean Modules
Locademy is a desktop app that turns any local folder into an organized course library. You point it at a directory, and it automatically parses the structure into modules and lessons.

Key Features:
Auto-Detect Structure: Whether your files are flat or nested in sub-folders, Locademy figures it out.

Progress Tracking: Mark videos as completed and see your progress bars fill up.

Tauri-Powered Performance: Built with Tauri v2, so it's incredibly lightweight and uses your system's native webview.

Privacy First: Everything stays as a simple JSON file on your disk. No database, no tracking.

The Tech Stack
I chose this stack to keep the app fast, type-safe, and modern:

Tauri v2: For the Rust-based backend (handling file system scanning) and a tiny binary size.

React 19 & TypeScript: For a snappy, reliable UI.

Tailwind CSS v4: For rapid styling and a clean "System Theme" look.

Handling the "Offline" Challenge
One of the biggest hurdles was ensuring a smooth video experience across different formats. While the built-in browser-based player handles mp4 and webm perfectly, I implemented a System Player Fallback. If you have a file the webview can't handle (like an .mkv or .avi), Locademy can trigger your OS's native player.

Development Workflow
Building with Tauri v2 was a breeze. One of my favorite parts of the workflow is how easily it handles cross-platform builds via GitHub Actions. Pushing a version tag automatically generates installers for macOS, Windows, and Linux.

# How easy it is to get started
git clone https://github.com/swimshahriar/locademy.git
npm install
npm run tauri dev

What's Next?
Locademy is open-source and currently under the MIT license. I'm looking to add features like:

Global search across all added folders.
Notes/Bookmarks for specific video.
Support for more metadata (reading local .txt or .md files as lesson descriptions).

Get Started
You can download the latest version for Windows, macOS, or Linux directly from the site.

Website: locademy.swimshahriar.dev

GitHub: swimshahriar/locademy

If you’re a fan of local-first software or just want a cleaner way to watch your downloaded courses, I’d love for you to give it a try!

If you find this project helpful, a ⭐ on GitHub would mean a lot!

DEV Community: Shahriar Swim

Why I Built Locademy: A Local-First Video Learning Hub