A computing device requests access to an application object from a remote storage system in order to locally execute application functionality without hosting application resources. An accessed object is associated with an intent in the storage system and locked. Locking an object in combination with an intent prevents computing devices that are not performing the intent from accessing the object. An intent defines one or more operations to be performed with the requested object, which are serialized as intent steps and stored in the storage system. Upon executing an intent step, the computing device stores a log entry at the storage system signifying the step's completion. A locked object remains locked until the log entries indicate every intent step as complete. Different computing devices can unlock a locked object by executing any incomplete steps of an intent associated with the locked object.