Local vs Remote
First things first: understanding the difference between local and remote.
Local means your computer. The one you’re sitting at right now. When you save a file to your Desktop, that’s local. When you install an app, that’s local. Your laptop, your files, your programs — all local.
Think of local as your home. Everything inside your house is yours, you control it, and you can access it anytime without asking permission.
Remote
Section titled “Remote”Remote means someone else’s computer. When you visit a website, you’re connecting to a remote server — a computer sitting in a data center somewhere, probably thousands of miles away. When you use Google Docs, your files live on Google’s remote servers. When you deploy an app, you’re putting it on a remote server so others can access it.
Think of remote as a public library or a storage locker. It’s not in your house, but you can access it when you need to.
Why This Matters for AI Coding
Section titled “Why This Matters for AI Coding”When working with AI coding tools like Claude Code or Cursor, most of the work happens locally. The AI generates code, and that code runs on your machine first.
But eventually, you’ll want to:
- Push to GitHub (remote) — so your code is backed up and shareable
- Deploy your app (remote) — so others can use it on the internet
- Use APIs (remote) — to connect to services like databases, payment processors, or AI models
Understanding this distinction helps you:
- Know where your files actually live
- Understand why you need internet to deploy but not to code
- Debug when something works locally but breaks when deployed
- Keep your secrets safe (API keys should stay local, not pushed remote)
A Simple Mental Model
Section titled “A Simple Mental Model”| Action | Local or Remote? |
|---|---|
| Writing code in your editor | Local |
| Running your app to test it | Local |
| Saving files to your computer | Local |
| Pushing to GitHub | Remote |
| Deploying to Vercel/Netlify | Remote |
| Calling an API (OpenAI, Stripe, etc.) | Remote |
| Browsing a website | Remote |
When something goes wrong, one of the first questions to ask is: “Is this a local problem or a remote problem?” That distinction will save you hours of debugging.