We want our users to share their knowledge in multiple languages, but we need to ensure compatibility with existing ActivityPub servers. I'm considering several approaches:
Creating separate posts for each language with clear language indicators, linking them through inReplyTo relationships (so translations appear as replies to the original post)
Using the primary language in content while storing translations in contentMap
Adding "View in other languages" links at the bottom of each post
Implementing inline language dividers that degrade gracefully on non-supporting servers, for example:
<div lang="en"> <h3>English</h3> <p>This is the English content…</p></div><hr><div lang="ko"> <h3>한국어</h3> <p>한국어 내용입니다…</p></div>
I'm leaning toward a hybrid approach—showing content in the user's preferred language when possible while providing easy access to other language versions.
Has anyone tackled this problem effectively? I'd love to hear about your experiences or ideas for making multilingual content work well in the fediverse, especially when dealing with server implementations that don't fully support ActivityPub's multilingual features.
I'm exploring a new idea called FediOTP (codename): an authentication system that uses #ActivityPub DMs to deliver one-time passwords, allowing any #fediverse account to authenticate with web services. Unlike current solutions that rely on specific APIs (#Mastodon, #Misskey), this would work with any ActivityPub-compatible server, increasing interoperability across the fediverse. Would love to hear your thoughts on potential challenges or use cases for this approach.
I'm exploring a new idea called FediOTP (codename): an authentication system that uses #ActivityPub DMs to deliver one-time passwords, allowing any #fediverse account to authenticate with web services. Unlike current solutions that rely on specific APIs (#Mastodon, #Misskey), this would work with any ActivityPub-compatible server, increasing interoperability across the fediverse. Would love to hear your thoughts on potential challenges or use cases for this approach.
I'm exploring a new idea called FediOTP (codename): an authentication system that uses #ActivityPub DMs to deliver one-time passwords, allowing any #fediverse account to authenticate with web services. Unlike current solutions that rely on specific APIs (#Mastodon, #Misskey), this would work with any ActivityPub-compatible server, increasing interoperability across the fediverse. Would love to hear your thoughts on potential challenges or use cases for this approach.
I'm exploring a new idea called FediOTP (codename): an authentication system that uses #ActivityPub DMs to deliver one-time passwords, allowing any #fediverse account to authenticate with web services. Unlike current solutions that rely on specific APIs (#Mastodon, #Misskey), this would work with any ActivityPub-compatible server, increasing interoperability across the fediverse. Would love to hear your thoughts on potential challenges or use cases for this approach.
I'm exploring a new idea called FediOTP (codename): an authentication system that uses #ActivityPub DMs to deliver one-time passwords, allowing any #fediverse account to authenticate with web services. Unlike current solutions that rely on specific APIs (#Mastodon, #Misskey), this would work with any ActivityPub-compatible server, increasing interoperability across the fediverse. Would love to hear your thoughts on potential challenges or use cases for this approach.
I'm exploring a new idea called FediOTP (codename): an authentication system that uses #ActivityPub DMs to deliver one-time passwords, allowing any #fediverse account to authenticate with web services. Unlike current solutions that rely on specific APIs (#Mastodon, #Misskey), this would work with any ActivityPub-compatible server, increasing interoperability across the fediverse. Would love to hear your thoughts on potential challenges or use cases for this approach.
I'm exploring a new idea called FediOTP (codename): an authentication system that uses #ActivityPub DMs to deliver one-time passwords, allowing any #fediverse account to authenticate with web services. Unlike current solutions that rely on specific APIs (#Mastodon, #Misskey), this would work with any ActivityPub-compatible server, increasing interoperability across the fediverse. Would love to hear your thoughts on potential challenges or use cases for this approach.
I'm exploring a new idea called FediOTP (codename): an authentication system that uses #ActivityPub DMs to deliver one-time passwords, allowing any #fediverse account to authenticate with web services. Unlike current solutions that rely on specific APIs (#Mastodon, #Misskey), this would work with any ActivityPub-compatible server, increasing interoperability across the fediverse. Would love to hear your thoughts on potential challenges or use cases for this approach.
I'm exploring a new idea called FediOTP (codename): an authentication system that uses #ActivityPub DMs to deliver one-time passwords, allowing any #fediverse account to authenticate with web services. Unlike current solutions that rely on specific APIs (#Mastodon, #Misskey), this would work with any ActivityPub-compatible server, increasing interoperability across the fediverse. Would love to hear your thoughts on potential challenges or use cases for this approach.
For those skeptical of DMs in #ActivityPub: I'm also considering an alternative verification approach using ActivityPub's Question feature. Instead of sending numeric codes, the system could send a poll with several emoji options, and the user would select the one that matches what's displayed on their login screen. This visual authentication method might offer better security against certain automated attacks while still leveraging federation rather than platform-specific APIs. Would this approach address some of the privacy concerns around DM-based verification?
I'm exploring a new idea called FediOTP (codename): an authentication system that uses #ActivityPub DMs to deliver one-time passwords, allowing any #fediverse account to authenticate with web services. Unlike current solutions that rely on specific APIs (#Mastodon, #Misskey), this would work with any ActivityPub-compatible server, increasing interoperability across the fediverse. Would love to hear your thoughts on potential challenges or use cases for this approach.
For those skeptical of DMs in #ActivityPub: I'm also considering an alternative verification approach using ActivityPub's Question feature. Instead of sending numeric codes, the system could send a poll with several emoji options, and the user would select the one that matches what's displayed on their login screen. This visual authentication method might offer better security against certain automated attacks while still leveraging federation rather than platform-specific APIs. Would this approach address some of the privacy concerns around DM-based verification?
I'm exploring a new idea called FediOTP (codename): an authentication system that uses #ActivityPub DMs to deliver one-time passwords, allowing any #fediverse account to authenticate with web services. Unlike current solutions that rely on specific APIs (#Mastodon, #Misskey), this would work with any ActivityPub-compatible server, increasing interoperability across the fediverse. Would love to hear your thoughts on potential challenges or use cases for this approach.
I'm exploring a new idea called FediOTP (codename): an authentication system that uses #ActivityPub DMs to deliver one-time passwords, allowing any #fediverse account to authenticate with web services. Unlike current solutions that rely on specific APIs (#Mastodon, #Misskey), this would work with any ActivityPub-compatible server, increasing interoperability across the fediverse. Would love to hear your thoughts on potential challenges or use cases for this approach.
I'm exploring a new idea called FediOTP (codename): an authentication system that uses #ActivityPub DMs to deliver one-time passwords, allowing any #fediverse account to authenticate with web services. Unlike current solutions that rely on specific APIs (#Mastodon, #Misskey), this would work with any ActivityPub-compatible server, increasing interoperability across the fediverse. Would love to hear your thoughts on potential challenges or use cases for this approach.
We're pleased to announce the release of BotKit 0.2.0! For those new to our project, #BotKit is a #TypeScript framework for creating standalone #ActivityPub bots that can interact with Mastodon, Misskey, and other #fediverse platforms without the constraints of these existing platforms.
This release marks an important step in our journey to make fediverse bot development more accessible and powerful, introducing several features that our community has been requesting.
The Journey to Better Bot Interactions
In building BotKit, we've always focused on making bots more expressive and interactive. With version 0.2.0, we're taking this to the next level by bringing the social aspects of the fediverse to your bots.
Expressing Your Bot's Personality with Custom Emojis
One of the most requested features has been #custom_emoji support. Now your bots can truly express their personality with unique visuals that make their messages stand out.
// Define custom emojis for your bot
const emojis = bot.addCustomEmojis({
botkit: {
file: `${import.meta.dirname}/images/botkit.png`,
type: "image/png"
},
fedify: {
url: "https://fedify.dev/logo.png",
type: "image/png"
}
});
// Use these custom emojis in your messages
await session.publish(
text`BotKit ${customEmoji(emojis.botkit)} is powered by Fedify ${customEmoji(emojis.fedify)}`
);
With this new API, you can:
Add custom emojis to your bot with Bot.addCustomEmojis()
Include these emojis in messages with the customEmoji() function
Communication isn't just about posting messages—it's also about responding to others. The new reaction system creates natural interaction points between your bot and its followers:
// React to a message with a standard Unicode emoji
await message.react(emoji`👍`);
// Or use one of your custom emojis as a reaction
await message.react(emojis.botkit);
// Create a responsive bot that acknowledges reactions
bot.onReact = async (session, reaction) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for reacting with ${reaction.emoji} to my message, ${reaction.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
Discussions often involve referencing what others have said. Our new #quote support enables more cohesive conversation threads:
// Quote another message in your bot's post
await session.publish(
text`Responding to this interesting point...`,
{ quoteTarget: originalMessage }
);
// Handle when users quote your bot's messages
bot.onQuote = async (session, quoteMessage) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for sharing my thoughts, ${quoteMessage.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
With these simple steps, you're ready to create or upgrade your fediverse bot with our latest features.
Looking Forward
BotKit 0.2.0 represents our ongoing commitment to making fediverse bot development accessible, powerful, and enjoyable. We believe these new features will help your bots become more engaging and interactive members of the fediverse community.
For complete docs and more examples, visit our docs site.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this release through feedback, feature requests, and code contributions. The BotKit community continues to grow, and we're excited to see what you'll create!
BotKit is powered by Fedify, a lower-level framework for creating ActivityPub server applications.
BotKit 0.2.0 버전이 릴리스되었습니다! BotKit을 처음 접하시는 분들을 위해 간단히 소개하자면, BotKit은 TypeScript로 개발된 독립형 #ActivityPub 봇 프레임워크입니다. Mastodon, Misskey 등 다양한 #연합우주(#fediverse) 플랫폼과 상호작용할 수 있으며, 기존 플랫폼의 제약에서 벗어나 자유롭게 봇을 만들 수 있습니다.
이번 릴리스는 연합우주 봇 개발을 더 쉽고 강력하게 만들기 위한 여정에서 중요한 발걸음입니다. 커뮤니티에서 요청해 왔던 여러 기능들을 새롭게 선보입니다.
더 나은 봇 상호작용을 위한 여정
BotKit을 개발하면서 우리는 항상 봇이 더 표현력 있고 상호작용이 풍부하도록 만드는 데 집중해 왔습니다. 0.2.0 버전에서는 연합우주의 사회적 측면을 봇에 접목시켜 한 단계 더 발전시켰습니다.
커스텀 에모지로 봇의 개성 표현하기
가장 많이 요청받았던 기능 중 하나가 #커스텀_에모지 지원입니다. 이제 봇은 독특한 시각적 요소로 메시지를 돋보이게 하며 자신만의 개성을 표현할 수 있습니다.
We're pleased to announce the release of BotKit 0.2.0! For those new to our project, #BotKit is a #TypeScript framework for creating standalone #ActivityPub bots that can interact with Mastodon, Misskey, and other #fediverse platforms without the constraints of these existing platforms.
This release marks an important step in our journey to make fediverse bot development more accessible and powerful, introducing several features that our community has been requesting.
The Journey to Better Bot Interactions
In building BotKit, we've always focused on making bots more expressive and interactive. With version 0.2.0, we're taking this to the next level by bringing the social aspects of the fediverse to your bots.
Expressing Your Bot's Personality with Custom Emojis
One of the most requested features has been #custom_emoji support. Now your bots can truly express their personality with unique visuals that make their messages stand out.
// Define custom emojis for your bot
const emojis = bot.addCustomEmojis({
botkit: {
file: `${import.meta.dirname}/images/botkit.png`,
type: "image/png"
},
fedify: {
url: "https://fedify.dev/logo.png",
type: "image/png"
}
});
// Use these custom emojis in your messages
await session.publish(
text`BotKit ${customEmoji(emojis.botkit)} is powered by Fedify ${customEmoji(emojis.fedify)}`
);
With this new API, you can:
Add custom emojis to your bot with Bot.addCustomEmojis()
Include these emojis in messages with the customEmoji() function
Communication isn't just about posting messages—it's also about responding to others. The new reaction system creates natural interaction points between your bot and its followers:
// React to a message with a standard Unicode emoji
await message.react(emoji`👍`);
// Or use one of your custom emojis as a reaction
await message.react(emojis.botkit);
// Create a responsive bot that acknowledges reactions
bot.onReact = async (session, reaction) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for reacting with ${reaction.emoji} to my message, ${reaction.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
Discussions often involve referencing what others have said. Our new #quote support enables more cohesive conversation threads:
// Quote another message in your bot's post
await session.publish(
text`Responding to this interesting point...`,
{ quoteTarget: originalMessage }
);
// Handle when users quote your bot's messages
bot.onQuote = async (session, quoteMessage) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for sharing my thoughts, ${quoteMessage.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
With these simple steps, you're ready to create or upgrade your fediverse bot with our latest features.
Looking Forward
BotKit 0.2.0 represents our ongoing commitment to making fediverse bot development accessible, powerful, and enjoyable. We believe these new features will help your bots become more engaging and interactive members of the fediverse community.
For complete docs and more examples, visit our docs site.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this release through feedback, feature requests, and code contributions. The BotKit community continues to grow, and we're excited to see what you'll create!
BotKit is powered by Fedify, a lower-level framework for creating ActivityPub server applications.
Hey folks! We're excited to share a preview of a new API coming in #Fedify 1.6 that should make structuring larger federated apps much cleaner: FederationBuilder.
As your Fedify applications grow, you might encounter circular dependency issues when registering dispatchers and listeners across multiple files. The new FederationBuilder pattern helps solve this by separating the configuration phase from instantiation.
Instead of this:
// federation.ts
import { createFederation } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const federation = createFederation<AppContext>({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
// Now we need to import this federation instance in other files
// to register dispatchers and listeners...
You can now do this:
// builder.ts
import { createFederationBuilder } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const builder = createFederationBuilder<AppContext>();
// other files can import and configure this builder...
// actors.ts
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
import { Person } from "@fedify/fedify";
builder.setActorDispatcher("/users/{handle}", async (ctx, handle) => {
// Actor implementation
});
// main.ts — Only create the Federation instance at startup
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
// Build the Federation object with actual dependencies
export const federation = await builder.build({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
This pattern helps avoid circular dependencies and makes your code more modular. Each part of your app can configure the builder without needing the actual Federation instance.
The full documentation will be available when 1.6 is released, but we wanted to share this early with our community. Looking forward to your feedback when it lands!
Want to try it right now? You can install the development version from JSR or npm:
# Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777+1206cb01
# Node.js
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
# Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
My stance on #ActivityPub's adoption of JSON-LD: Since we've already decided to use JSON-LD, I hope we do it properly. However, if we hadn't used JSON-LD from the beginning, things would have been much less complicated.
My stance on #ActivityPub's adoption of JSON-LD: Since we've already decided to use JSON-LD, I hope we do it properly. However, if we hadn't used JSON-LD from the beginning, things would have been much less complicated.
My stance on #ActivityPub's adoption of JSON-LD: Since we've already decided to use JSON-LD, I hope we do it properly. However, if we hadn't used JSON-LD from the beginning, things would have been much less complicated.
My stance on #ActivityPub's adoption of JSON-LD: Since we've already decided to use JSON-LD, I hope we do it properly. However, if we hadn't used JSON-LD from the beginning, things would have been much less complicated.
My stance on #ActivityPub's adoption of JSON-LD: Since we've already decided to use JSON-LD, I hope we do it properly. However, if we hadn't used JSON-LD from the beginning, things would have been much less complicated.
Hey folks! We're excited to share a preview of a new API coming in #Fedify 1.6 that should make structuring larger federated apps much cleaner: FederationBuilder.
As your Fedify applications grow, you might encounter circular dependency issues when registering dispatchers and listeners across multiple files. The new FederationBuilder pattern helps solve this by separating the configuration phase from instantiation.
Instead of this:
// federation.ts
import { createFederation } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const federation = createFederation<AppContext>({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
// Now we need to import this federation instance in other files
// to register dispatchers and listeners...
You can now do this:
// builder.ts
import { createFederationBuilder } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const builder = createFederationBuilder<AppContext>();
// other files can import and configure this builder...
// actors.ts
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
import { Person } from "@fedify/fedify";
builder.setActorDispatcher("/users/{handle}", async (ctx, handle) => {
// Actor implementation
});
// main.ts — Only create the Federation instance at startup
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
// Build the Federation object with actual dependencies
export const federation = await builder.build({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
This pattern helps avoid circular dependencies and makes your code more modular. Each part of your app can configure the builder without needing the actual Federation instance.
The full documentation will be available when 1.6 is released, but we wanted to share this early with our community. Looking forward to your feedback when it lands!
Want to try it right now? You can install the development version from JSR or npm:
# Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777+1206cb01
# Node.js
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
# Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
I've been reflecting lately on projects like @fedify, @hollo, and @botkit. Sometimes I wonder if I'm solving problems that very few people actually need solved. How many developers truly want to build their own #ActivityPub server from scratch?
It feels a bit like inventing shoes that let people walk on their hands all day. Would there be a viable market? How many would actually buy them?
That's the sense I get with these projects. They do have users who find them tremendously valuable, but the total user base is inherently limited. The tools serve an important function for a small audience of specialized developers.
There are moments when my motivation wavers. When the user community consists of just a handful of enthusiastic supporters, it's sometimes difficult to maintain momentum and justify the ongoing investment of time and energy.
And yet, there's something meaningful about creating specialized tools that solve complex problems well, even if they're only used by a few. Perhaps that's enough.
Hey folks! We're excited to share a preview of a new API coming in #Fedify 1.6 that should make structuring larger federated apps much cleaner: FederationBuilder.
As your Fedify applications grow, you might encounter circular dependency issues when registering dispatchers and listeners across multiple files. The new FederationBuilder pattern helps solve this by separating the configuration phase from instantiation.
Instead of this:
// federation.ts
import { createFederation } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const federation = createFederation<AppContext>({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
// Now we need to import this federation instance in other files
// to register dispatchers and listeners...
You can now do this:
// builder.ts
import { createFederationBuilder } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const builder = createFederationBuilder<AppContext>();
// other files can import and configure this builder...
// actors.ts
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
import { Person } from "@fedify/fedify";
builder.setActorDispatcher("/users/{handle}", async (ctx, handle) => {
// Actor implementation
});
// main.ts — Only create the Federation instance at startup
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
// Build the Federation object with actual dependencies
export const federation = await builder.build({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
This pattern helps avoid circular dependencies and makes your code more modular. Each part of your app can configure the builder without needing the actual Federation instance.
The full documentation will be available when 1.6 is released, but we wanted to share this early with our community. Looking forward to your feedback when it lands!
Want to try it right now? You can install the development version from JSR or npm:
# Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777+1206cb01
# Node.js
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
# Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
Hey folks! We're excited to share a preview of a new API coming in #Fedify 1.6 that should make structuring larger federated apps much cleaner: FederationBuilder.
As your Fedify applications grow, you might encounter circular dependency issues when registering dispatchers and listeners across multiple files. The new FederationBuilder pattern helps solve this by separating the configuration phase from instantiation.
Instead of this:
// federation.ts
import { createFederation } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const federation = createFederation<AppContext>({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
// Now we need to import this federation instance in other files
// to register dispatchers and listeners...
You can now do this:
// builder.ts
import { createFederationBuilder } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const builder = createFederationBuilder<AppContext>();
// other files can import and configure this builder...
// actors.ts
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
import { Person } from "@fedify/fedify";
builder.setActorDispatcher("/users/{handle}", async (ctx, handle) => {
// Actor implementation
});
// main.ts — Only create the Federation instance at startup
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
// Build the Federation object with actual dependencies
export const federation = await builder.build({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
This pattern helps avoid circular dependencies and makes your code more modular. Each part of your app can configure the builder without needing the actual Federation instance.
The full documentation will be available when 1.6 is released, but we wanted to share this early with our community. Looking forward to your feedback when it lands!
Want to try it right now? You can install the development version from JSR or npm:
# Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777+1206cb01
# Node.js
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
# Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
Hey folks! We're excited to share a preview of a new API coming in #Fedify 1.6 that should make structuring larger federated apps much cleaner: FederationBuilder.
As your Fedify applications grow, you might encounter circular dependency issues when registering dispatchers and listeners across multiple files. The new FederationBuilder pattern helps solve this by separating the configuration phase from instantiation.
Instead of this:
// federation.ts
import { createFederation } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const federation = createFederation<AppContext>({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
// Now we need to import this federation instance in other files
// to register dispatchers and listeners...
You can now do this:
// builder.ts
import { createFederationBuilder } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const builder = createFederationBuilder<AppContext>();
// other files can import and configure this builder...
// actors.ts
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
import { Person } from "@fedify/fedify";
builder.setActorDispatcher("/users/{handle}", async (ctx, handle) => {
// Actor implementation
});
// main.ts — Only create the Federation instance at startup
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
// Build the Federation object with actual dependencies
export const federation = await builder.build({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
This pattern helps avoid circular dependencies and makes your code more modular. Each part of your app can configure the builder without needing the actual Federation instance.
The full documentation will be available when 1.6 is released, but we wanted to share this early with our community. Looking forward to your feedback when it lands!
Want to try it right now? You can install the development version from JSR or npm:
# Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777+1206cb01
# Node.js
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
# Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
Hey folks! We're excited to share a preview of a new API coming in #Fedify 1.6 that should make structuring larger federated apps much cleaner: FederationBuilder.
As your Fedify applications grow, you might encounter circular dependency issues when registering dispatchers and listeners across multiple files. The new FederationBuilder pattern helps solve this by separating the configuration phase from instantiation.
Instead of this:
// federation.ts
import { createFederation } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const federation = createFederation<AppContext>({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
// Now we need to import this federation instance in other files
// to register dispatchers and listeners...
You can now do this:
// builder.ts
import { createFederationBuilder } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const builder = createFederationBuilder<AppContext>();
// other files can import and configure this builder...
// actors.ts
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
import { Person } from "@fedify/fedify";
builder.setActorDispatcher("/users/{handle}", async (ctx, handle) => {
// Actor implementation
});
// main.ts — Only create the Federation instance at startup
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
// Build the Federation object with actual dependencies
export const federation = await builder.build({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
This pattern helps avoid circular dependencies and makes your code more modular. Each part of your app can configure the builder without needing the actual Federation instance.
The full documentation will be available when 1.6 is released, but we wanted to share this early with our community. Looking forward to your feedback when it lands!
Want to try it right now? You can install the development version from JSR or npm:
# Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777+1206cb01
# Node.js
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
# Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
Hey folks! We're excited to share a preview of a new API coming in #Fedify 1.6 that should make structuring larger federated apps much cleaner: FederationBuilder.
As your Fedify applications grow, you might encounter circular dependency issues when registering dispatchers and listeners across multiple files. The new FederationBuilder pattern helps solve this by separating the configuration phase from instantiation.
Instead of this:
// federation.ts
import { createFederation } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const federation = createFederation<AppContext>({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
// Now we need to import this federation instance in other files
// to register dispatchers and listeners...
You can now do this:
// builder.ts
import { createFederationBuilder } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const builder = createFederationBuilder<AppContext>();
// other files can import and configure this builder...
// actors.ts
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
import { Person } from "@fedify/fedify";
builder.setActorDispatcher("/users/{handle}", async (ctx, handle) => {
// Actor implementation
});
// main.ts — Only create the Federation instance at startup
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
// Build the Federation object with actual dependencies
export const federation = await builder.build({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
This pattern helps avoid circular dependencies and makes your code more modular. Each part of your app can configure the builder without needing the actual Federation instance.
The full documentation will be available when 1.6 is released, but we wanted to share this early with our community. Looking forward to your feedback when it lands!
Want to try it right now? You can install the development version from JSR or npm:
# Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777+1206cb01
# Node.js
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
# Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
Hey folks! We're excited to share a preview of a new API coming in #Fedify 1.6 that should make structuring larger federated apps much cleaner: FederationBuilder.
As your Fedify applications grow, you might encounter circular dependency issues when registering dispatchers and listeners across multiple files. The new FederationBuilder pattern helps solve this by separating the configuration phase from instantiation.
Instead of this:
// federation.ts
import { createFederation } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const federation = createFederation<AppContext>({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
// Now we need to import this federation instance in other files
// to register dispatchers and listeners...
You can now do this:
// builder.ts
import { createFederationBuilder } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const builder = createFederationBuilder<AppContext>();
// other files can import and configure this builder...
// actors.ts
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
import { Person } from "@fedify/fedify";
builder.setActorDispatcher("/users/{handle}", async (ctx, handle) => {
// Actor implementation
});
// main.ts — Only create the Federation instance at startup
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
// Build the Federation object with actual dependencies
export const federation = await builder.build({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
This pattern helps avoid circular dependencies and makes your code more modular. Each part of your app can configure the builder without needing the actual Federation instance.
The full documentation will be available when 1.6 is released, but we wanted to share this early with our community. Looking forward to your feedback when it lands!
Want to try it right now? You can install the development version from JSR or npm:
# Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777+1206cb01
# Node.js
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
# Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
Hey folks! We're excited to share a preview of a new API coming in #Fedify 1.6 that should make structuring larger federated apps much cleaner: FederationBuilder.
As your Fedify applications grow, you might encounter circular dependency issues when registering dispatchers and listeners across multiple files. The new FederationBuilder pattern helps solve this by separating the configuration phase from instantiation.
Instead of this:
// federation.ts
import { createFederation } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const federation = createFederation<AppContext>({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
// Now we need to import this federation instance in other files
// to register dispatchers and listeners...
You can now do this:
// builder.ts
import { createFederationBuilder } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const builder = createFederationBuilder<AppContext>();
// other files can import and configure this builder...
// actors.ts
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
import { Person } from "@fedify/fedify";
builder.setActorDispatcher("/users/{handle}", async (ctx, handle) => {
// Actor implementation
});
// main.ts — Only create the Federation instance at startup
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
// Build the Federation object with actual dependencies
export const federation = await builder.build({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
This pattern helps avoid circular dependencies and makes your code more modular. Each part of your app can configure the builder without needing the actual Federation instance.
The full documentation will be available when 1.6 is released, but we wanted to share this early with our community. Looking forward to your feedback when it lands!
Want to try it right now? You can install the development version from JSR or npm:
# Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777+1206cb01
# Node.js
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
# Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
Hey folks! We're excited to share a preview of a new API coming in #Fedify 1.6 that should make structuring larger federated apps much cleaner: FederationBuilder.
As your Fedify applications grow, you might encounter circular dependency issues when registering dispatchers and listeners across multiple files. The new FederationBuilder pattern helps solve this by separating the configuration phase from instantiation.
Instead of this:
// federation.ts
import { createFederation } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const federation = createFederation<AppContext>({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
// Now we need to import this federation instance in other files
// to register dispatchers and listeners...
You can now do this:
// builder.ts
import { createFederationBuilder } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const builder = createFederationBuilder<AppContext>();
// other files can import and configure this builder...
// actors.ts
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
import { Person } from "@fedify/fedify";
builder.setActorDispatcher("/users/{handle}", async (ctx, handle) => {
// Actor implementation
});
// main.ts — Only create the Federation instance at startup
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
// Build the Federation object with actual dependencies
export const federation = await builder.build({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
This pattern helps avoid circular dependencies and makes your code more modular. Each part of your app can configure the builder without needing the actual Federation instance.
The full documentation will be available when 1.6 is released, but we wanted to share this early with our community. Looking forward to your feedback when it lands!
Want to try it right now? You can install the development version from JSR or npm:
# Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777+1206cb01
# Node.js
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
# Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
First, there's no standardization. ActivityPub specifications don't define how custom emoji should work, leading to inconsistent implementations across different servers like Mastodon and Misskey.
Rendering is particularly problematic. Emojis must display properly across different contexts (in text, as reactions, in emoji pickers) while maintaining quality at various sizes. Animated emojis add another layer of complexity.
Perhaps most concerning is the poor #accessibility. Most implementations simply use the emoji code (like :party_blob:) as the alt text, which provides no meaningful information to screen reader users (in particular, non-English speakers) about what the emoji actually depicts or means.
What really dampens my motivation to implement this feature is knowing I'm investing significant effort into something that ultimately creates accessibility barriers. It's disheartening to work hard on a feature that excludes part of the community.
Hey folks! We're excited to share a preview of a new API coming in #Fedify 1.6 that should make structuring larger federated apps much cleaner: FederationBuilder.
As your Fedify applications grow, you might encounter circular dependency issues when registering dispatchers and listeners across multiple files. The new FederationBuilder pattern helps solve this by separating the configuration phase from instantiation.
Instead of this:
// federation.ts
import { createFederation } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const federation = createFederation<AppContext>({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
// Now we need to import this federation instance in other files
// to register dispatchers and listeners...
You can now do this:
// builder.ts
import { createFederationBuilder } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const builder = createFederationBuilder<AppContext>();
// other files can import and configure this builder...
// actors.ts
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
import { Person } from "@fedify/fedify";
builder.setActorDispatcher("/users/{handle}", async (ctx, handle) => {
// Actor implementation
});
// main.ts — Only create the Federation instance at startup
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
// Build the Federation object with actual dependencies
export const federation = await builder.build({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
This pattern helps avoid circular dependencies and makes your code more modular. Each part of your app can configure the builder without needing the actual Federation instance.
The full documentation will be available when 1.6 is released, but we wanted to share this early with our community. Looking forward to your feedback when it lands!
Want to try it right now? You can install the development version from JSR or npm:
# Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777+1206cb01
# Node.js
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
# Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
Hey folks! We're excited to share a preview of a new API coming in #Fedify 1.6 that should make structuring larger federated apps much cleaner: FederationBuilder.
As your Fedify applications grow, you might encounter circular dependency issues when registering dispatchers and listeners across multiple files. The new FederationBuilder pattern helps solve this by separating the configuration phase from instantiation.
Instead of this:
// federation.ts
import { createFederation } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const federation = createFederation<AppContext>({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
// Now we need to import this federation instance in other files
// to register dispatchers and listeners...
You can now do this:
// builder.ts
import { createFederationBuilder } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const builder = createFederationBuilder<AppContext>();
// other files can import and configure this builder...
// actors.ts
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
import { Person } from "@fedify/fedify";
builder.setActorDispatcher("/users/{handle}", async (ctx, handle) => {
// Actor implementation
});
// main.ts — Only create the Federation instance at startup
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
// Build the Federation object with actual dependencies
export const federation = await builder.build({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
This pattern helps avoid circular dependencies and makes your code more modular. Each part of your app can configure the builder without needing the actual Federation instance.
The full documentation will be available when 1.6 is released, but we wanted to share this early with our community. Looking forward to your feedback when it lands!
Want to try it right now? You can install the development version from JSR or npm:
# Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777+1206cb01
# Node.js
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
# Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
Hey folks! We're excited to share a preview of a new API coming in #Fedify 1.6 that should make structuring larger federated apps much cleaner: FederationBuilder.
As your Fedify applications grow, you might encounter circular dependency issues when registering dispatchers and listeners across multiple files. The new FederationBuilder pattern helps solve this by separating the configuration phase from instantiation.
Instead of this:
// federation.ts
import { createFederation } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const federation = createFederation<AppContext>({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
// Now we need to import this federation instance in other files
// to register dispatchers and listeners...
You can now do this:
// builder.ts
import { createFederationBuilder } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const builder = createFederationBuilder<AppContext>();
// other files can import and configure this builder...
// actors.ts
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
import { Person } from "@fedify/fedify";
builder.setActorDispatcher("/users/{handle}", async (ctx, handle) => {
// Actor implementation
});
// main.ts — Only create the Federation instance at startup
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
// Build the Federation object with actual dependencies
export const federation = await builder.build({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
This pattern helps avoid circular dependencies and makes your code more modular. Each part of your app can configure the builder without needing the actual Federation instance.
The full documentation will be available when 1.6 is released, but we wanted to share this early with our community. Looking forward to your feedback when it lands!
Want to try it right now? You can install the development version from JSR or npm:
# Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777+1206cb01
# Node.js
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
# Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
Hey folks! We're excited to share a preview of a new API coming in #Fedify 1.6 that should make structuring larger federated apps much cleaner: FederationBuilder.
As your Fedify applications grow, you might encounter circular dependency issues when registering dispatchers and listeners across multiple files. The new FederationBuilder pattern helps solve this by separating the configuration phase from instantiation.
Instead of this:
// federation.ts
import { createFederation } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const federation = createFederation<AppContext>({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
// Now we need to import this federation instance in other files
// to register dispatchers and listeners...
You can now do this:
// builder.ts
import { createFederationBuilder } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const builder = createFederationBuilder<AppContext>();
// other files can import and configure this builder...
// actors.ts
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
import { Person } from "@fedify/fedify";
builder.setActorDispatcher("/users/{handle}", async (ctx, handle) => {
// Actor implementation
});
// main.ts — Only create the Federation instance at startup
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
// Build the Federation object with actual dependencies
export const federation = await builder.build({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
This pattern helps avoid circular dependencies and makes your code more modular. Each part of your app can configure the builder without needing the actual Federation instance.
The full documentation will be available when 1.6 is released, but we wanted to share this early with our community. Looking forward to your feedback when it lands!
Want to try it right now? You can install the development version from JSR or npm:
# Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777+1206cb01
# Node.js
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
# Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
Hey folks! We're excited to share a preview of a new API coming in #Fedify 1.6 that should make structuring larger federated apps much cleaner: FederationBuilder.
As your Fedify applications grow, you might encounter circular dependency issues when registering dispatchers and listeners across multiple files. The new FederationBuilder pattern helps solve this by separating the configuration phase from instantiation.
Instead of this:
// federation.ts
import { createFederation } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const federation = createFederation<AppContext>({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
// Now we need to import this federation instance in other files
// to register dispatchers and listeners...
You can now do this:
// builder.ts
import { createFederationBuilder } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const builder = createFederationBuilder<AppContext>();
// other files can import and configure this builder...
// actors.ts
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
import { Person } from "@fedify/fedify";
builder.setActorDispatcher("/users/{handle}", async (ctx, handle) => {
// Actor implementation
});
// main.ts — Only create the Federation instance at startup
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
// Build the Federation object with actual dependencies
export const federation = await builder.build({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
This pattern helps avoid circular dependencies and makes your code more modular. Each part of your app can configure the builder without needing the actual Federation instance.
The full documentation will be available when 1.6 is released, but we wanted to share this early with our community. Looking forward to your feedback when it lands!
Want to try it right now? You can install the development version from JSR or npm:
# Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777+1206cb01
# Node.js
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
# Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
Hey folks! We're excited to share a preview of a new API coming in #Fedify 1.6 that should make structuring larger federated apps much cleaner: FederationBuilder.
As your Fedify applications grow, you might encounter circular dependency issues when registering dispatchers and listeners across multiple files. The new FederationBuilder pattern helps solve this by separating the configuration phase from instantiation.
Instead of this:
// federation.ts
import { createFederation } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const federation = createFederation<AppContext>({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
// Now we need to import this federation instance in other files
// to register dispatchers and listeners...
You can now do this:
// builder.ts
import { createFederationBuilder } from "@fedify/fedify";
export const builder = createFederationBuilder<AppContext>();
// other files can import and configure this builder...
// actors.ts
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
import { Person } from "@fedify/fedify";
builder.setActorDispatcher("/users/{handle}", async (ctx, handle) => {
// Actor implementation
});
// main.ts — Only create the Federation instance at startup
import { builder } from "./builder.ts";
// Build the Federation object with actual dependencies
export const federation = await builder.build({
kv: new DbKvStore(),
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(),
// Other options...
});
This pattern helps avoid circular dependencies and makes your code more modular. Each part of your app can configure the builder without needing the actual Federation instance.
The full documentation will be available when 1.6 is released, but we wanted to share this early with our community. Looking forward to your feedback when it lands!
Want to try it right now? You can install the development version from JSR or npm:
# Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777+1206cb01
# Node.js
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
# Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.6.0-dev.777
First, there's no standardization. ActivityPub specifications don't define how custom emoji should work, leading to inconsistent implementations across different servers like Mastodon and Misskey.
Rendering is particularly problematic. Emojis must display properly across different contexts (in text, as reactions, in emoji pickers) while maintaining quality at various sizes. Animated emojis add another layer of complexity.
Perhaps most concerning is the poor #accessibility. Most implementations simply use the emoji code (like :party_blob:) as the alt text, which provides no meaningful information to screen reader users (in particular, non-English speakers) about what the emoji actually depicts or means.
What really dampens my motivation to implement this feature is knowing I'm investing significant effort into something that ultimately creates accessibility barriers. It's disheartening to work hard on a feature that excludes part of the community.
I've been reflecting lately on projects like @fedify, @hollo, and @botkit. Sometimes I wonder if I'm solving problems that very few people actually need solved. How many developers truly want to build their own #ActivityPub server from scratch?
It feels a bit like inventing shoes that let people walk on their hands all day. Would there be a viable market? How many would actually buy them?
That's the sense I get with these projects. They do have users who find them tremendously valuable, but the total user base is inherently limited. The tools serve an important function for a small audience of specialized developers.
There are moments when my motivation wavers. When the user community consists of just a handful of enthusiastic supporters, it's sometimes difficult to maintain momentum and justify the ongoing investment of time and energy.
And yet, there's something meaningful about creating specialized tools that solve complex problems well, even if they're only used by a few. Perhaps that's enough.
First, there's no standardization. ActivityPub specifications don't define how custom emoji should work, leading to inconsistent implementations across different servers like Mastodon and Misskey.
Rendering is particularly problematic. Emojis must display properly across different contexts (in text, as reactions, in emoji pickers) while maintaining quality at various sizes. Animated emojis add another layer of complexity.
Perhaps most concerning is the poor #accessibility. Most implementations simply use the emoji code (like :party_blob:) as the alt text, which provides no meaningful information to screen reader users (in particular, non-English speakers) about what the emoji actually depicts or means.
What really dampens my motivation to implement this feature is knowing I'm investing significant effort into something that ultimately creates accessibility barriers. It's disheartening to work hard on a feature that excludes part of the community.
I've been reflecting lately on projects like @fedify, @hollo, and @botkit. Sometimes I wonder if I'm solving problems that very few people actually need solved. How many developers truly want to build their own #ActivityPub server from scratch?
It feels a bit like inventing shoes that let people walk on their hands all day. Would there be a viable market? How many would actually buy them?
That's the sense I get with these projects. They do have users who find them tremendously valuable, but the total user base is inherently limited. The tools serve an important function for a small audience of specialized developers.
There are moments when my motivation wavers. When the user community consists of just a handful of enthusiastic supporters, it's sometimes difficult to maintain momentum and justify the ongoing investment of time and energy.
And yet, there's something meaningful about creating specialized tools that solve complex problems well, even if they're only used by a few. Perhaps that's enough.
I've been reflecting lately on projects like @fedify, @hollo, and @botkit. Sometimes I wonder if I'm solving problems that very few people actually need solved. How many developers truly want to build their own #ActivityPub server from scratch?
It feels a bit like inventing shoes that let people walk on their hands all day. Would there be a viable market? How many would actually buy them?
That's the sense I get with these projects. They do have users who find them tremendously valuable, but the total user base is inherently limited. The tools serve an important function for a small audience of specialized developers.
There are moments when my motivation wavers. When the user community consists of just a handful of enthusiastic supporters, it's sometimes difficult to maintain momentum and justify the ongoing investment of time and energy.
And yet, there's something meaningful about creating specialized tools that solve complex problems well, even if they're only used by a few. Perhaps that's enough.
I've been reflecting lately on projects like @fedify, @hollo, and @botkit. Sometimes I wonder if I'm solving problems that very few people actually need solved. How many developers truly want to build their own #ActivityPub server from scratch?
It feels a bit like inventing shoes that let people walk on their hands all day. Would there be a viable market? How many would actually buy them?
That's the sense I get with these projects. They do have users who find them tremendously valuable, but the total user base is inherently limited. The tools serve an important function for a small audience of specialized developers.
There are moments when my motivation wavers. When the user community consists of just a handful of enthusiastic supporters, it's sometimes difficult to maintain momentum and justify the ongoing investment of time and energy.
And yet, there's something meaningful about creating specialized tools that solve complex problems well, even if they're only used by a few. Perhaps that's enough.
• the web-server is up, • the database connection is fine, • maybe query one or more important tables to make sure that still works, • make sure any 3rd party APIs are working, • etc.
If any of those things has a problem, then it would return "500 Internal Server Error".
Else (if everything was fine then) it would return "200 OK".
We're pleased to announce the release of BotKit 0.2.0! For those new to our project, #BotKit is a #TypeScript framework for creating standalone #ActivityPub bots that can interact with Mastodon, Misskey, and other #fediverse platforms without the constraints of these existing platforms.
This release marks an important step in our journey to make fediverse bot development more accessible and powerful, introducing several features that our community has been requesting.
The Journey to Better Bot Interactions
In building BotKit, we've always focused on making bots more expressive and interactive. With version 0.2.0, we're taking this to the next level by bringing the social aspects of the fediverse to your bots.
Expressing Your Bot's Personality with Custom Emojis
One of the most requested features has been #custom_emoji support. Now your bots can truly express their personality with unique visuals that make their messages stand out.
// Define custom emojis for your bot
const emojis = bot.addCustomEmojis({
botkit: {
file: `${import.meta.dirname}/images/botkit.png`,
type: "image/png"
},
fedify: {
url: "https://fedify.dev/logo.png",
type: "image/png"
}
});
// Use these custom emojis in your messages
await session.publish(
text`BotKit ${customEmoji(emojis.botkit)} is powered by Fedify ${customEmoji(emojis.fedify)}`
);
With this new API, you can:
Add custom emojis to your bot with Bot.addCustomEmojis()
Include these emojis in messages with the customEmoji() function
Communication isn't just about posting messages—it's also about responding to others. The new reaction system creates natural interaction points between your bot and its followers:
// React to a message with a standard Unicode emoji
await message.react(emoji`👍`);
// Or use one of your custom emojis as a reaction
await message.react(emojis.botkit);
// Create a responsive bot that acknowledges reactions
bot.onReact = async (session, reaction) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for reacting with ${reaction.emoji} to my message, ${reaction.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
Discussions often involve referencing what others have said. Our new #quote support enables more cohesive conversation threads:
// Quote another message in your bot's post
await session.publish(
text`Responding to this interesting point...`,
{ quoteTarget: originalMessage }
);
// Handle when users quote your bot's messages
bot.onQuote = async (session, quoteMessage) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for sharing my thoughts, ${quoteMessage.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
With these simple steps, you're ready to create or upgrade your fediverse bot with our latest features.
Looking Forward
BotKit 0.2.0 represents our ongoing commitment to making fediverse bot development accessible, powerful, and enjoyable. We believe these new features will help your bots become more engaging and interactive members of the fediverse community.
For complete docs and more examples, visit our docs site.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this release through feedback, feature requests, and code contributions. The BotKit community continues to grow, and we're excited to see what you'll create!
BotKit is powered by Fedify, a lower-level framework for creating ActivityPub server applications.
We're pleased to announce the release of BotKit 0.2.0! For those new to our project, #BotKit is a #TypeScript framework for creating standalone #ActivityPub bots that can interact with Mastodon, Misskey, and other #fediverse platforms without the constraints of these existing platforms.
This release marks an important step in our journey to make fediverse bot development more accessible and powerful, introducing several features that our community has been requesting.
The Journey to Better Bot Interactions
In building BotKit, we've always focused on making bots more expressive and interactive. With version 0.2.0, we're taking this to the next level by bringing the social aspects of the fediverse to your bots.
Expressing Your Bot's Personality with Custom Emojis
One of the most requested features has been #custom_emoji support. Now your bots can truly express their personality with unique visuals that make their messages stand out.
// Define custom emojis for your bot
const emojis = bot.addCustomEmojis({
botkit: {
file: `${import.meta.dirname}/images/botkit.png`,
type: "image/png"
},
fedify: {
url: "https://fedify.dev/logo.png",
type: "image/png"
}
});
// Use these custom emojis in your messages
await session.publish(
text`BotKit ${customEmoji(emojis.botkit)} is powered by Fedify ${customEmoji(emojis.fedify)}`
);
With this new API, you can:
Add custom emojis to your bot with Bot.addCustomEmojis()
Include these emojis in messages with the customEmoji() function
Communication isn't just about posting messages—it's also about responding to others. The new reaction system creates natural interaction points between your bot and its followers:
// React to a message with a standard Unicode emoji
await message.react(emoji`👍`);
// Or use one of your custom emojis as a reaction
await message.react(emojis.botkit);
// Create a responsive bot that acknowledges reactions
bot.onReact = async (session, reaction) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for reacting with ${reaction.emoji} to my message, ${reaction.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
Discussions often involve referencing what others have said. Our new #quote support enables more cohesive conversation threads:
// Quote another message in your bot's post
await session.publish(
text`Responding to this interesting point...`,
{ quoteTarget: originalMessage }
);
// Handle when users quote your bot's messages
bot.onQuote = async (session, quoteMessage) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for sharing my thoughts, ${quoteMessage.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
With these simple steps, you're ready to create or upgrade your fediverse bot with our latest features.
Looking Forward
BotKit 0.2.0 represents our ongoing commitment to making fediverse bot development accessible, powerful, and enjoyable. We believe these new features will help your bots become more engaging and interactive members of the fediverse community.
For complete docs and more examples, visit our docs site.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this release through feedback, feature requests, and code contributions. The BotKit community continues to grow, and we're excited to see what you'll create!
BotKit is powered by Fedify, a lower-level framework for creating ActivityPub server applications.
• the web-server is up, • the database connection is fine, • maybe query one or more important tables to make sure that still works, • make sure any 3rd party APIs are working, • etc.
If any of those things has a problem, then it would return "500 Internal Server Error".
Else (if everything was fine then) it would return "200 OK".
We're pleased to announce the release of BotKit 0.2.0! For those new to our project, #BotKit is a #TypeScript framework for creating standalone #ActivityPub bots that can interact with Mastodon, Misskey, and other #fediverse platforms without the constraints of these existing platforms.
This release marks an important step in our journey to make fediverse bot development more accessible and powerful, introducing several features that our community has been requesting.
The Journey to Better Bot Interactions
In building BotKit, we've always focused on making bots more expressive and interactive. With version 0.2.0, we're taking this to the next level by bringing the social aspects of the fediverse to your bots.
Expressing Your Bot's Personality with Custom Emojis
One of the most requested features has been #custom_emoji support. Now your bots can truly express their personality with unique visuals that make their messages stand out.
// Define custom emojis for your bot
const emojis = bot.addCustomEmojis({
botkit: {
file: `${import.meta.dirname}/images/botkit.png`,
type: "image/png"
},
fedify: {
url: "https://fedify.dev/logo.png",
type: "image/png"
}
});
// Use these custom emojis in your messages
await session.publish(
text`BotKit ${customEmoji(emojis.botkit)} is powered by Fedify ${customEmoji(emojis.fedify)}`
);
With this new API, you can:
Add custom emojis to your bot with Bot.addCustomEmojis()
Include these emojis in messages with the customEmoji() function
Communication isn't just about posting messages—it's also about responding to others. The new reaction system creates natural interaction points between your bot and its followers:
// React to a message with a standard Unicode emoji
await message.react(emoji`👍`);
// Or use one of your custom emojis as a reaction
await message.react(emojis.botkit);
// Create a responsive bot that acknowledges reactions
bot.onReact = async (session, reaction) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for reacting with ${reaction.emoji} to my message, ${reaction.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
Discussions often involve referencing what others have said. Our new #quote support enables more cohesive conversation threads:
// Quote another message in your bot's post
await session.publish(
text`Responding to this interesting point...`,
{ quoteTarget: originalMessage }
);
// Handle when users quote your bot's messages
bot.onQuote = async (session, quoteMessage) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for sharing my thoughts, ${quoteMessage.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
With these simple steps, you're ready to create or upgrade your fediverse bot with our latest features.
Looking Forward
BotKit 0.2.0 represents our ongoing commitment to making fediverse bot development accessible, powerful, and enjoyable. We believe these new features will help your bots become more engaging and interactive members of the fediverse community.
For complete docs and more examples, visit our docs site.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this release through feedback, feature requests, and code contributions. The BotKit community continues to grow, and we're excited to see what you'll create!
BotKit is powered by Fedify, a lower-level framework for creating ActivityPub server applications.
We're pleased to announce the release of BotKit 0.2.0! For those new to our project, #BotKit is a #TypeScript framework for creating standalone #ActivityPub bots that can interact with Mastodon, Misskey, and other #fediverse platforms without the constraints of these existing platforms.
This release marks an important step in our journey to make fediverse bot development more accessible and powerful, introducing several features that our community has been requesting.
The Journey to Better Bot Interactions
In building BotKit, we've always focused on making bots more expressive and interactive. With version 0.2.0, we're taking this to the next level by bringing the social aspects of the fediverse to your bots.
Expressing Your Bot's Personality with Custom Emojis
One of the most requested features has been #custom_emoji support. Now your bots can truly express their personality with unique visuals that make their messages stand out.
// Define custom emojis for your bot
const emojis = bot.addCustomEmojis({
botkit: {
file: `${import.meta.dirname}/images/botkit.png`,
type: "image/png"
},
fedify: {
url: "https://fedify.dev/logo.png",
type: "image/png"
}
});
// Use these custom emojis in your messages
await session.publish(
text`BotKit ${customEmoji(emojis.botkit)} is powered by Fedify ${customEmoji(emojis.fedify)}`
);
With this new API, you can:
Add custom emojis to your bot with Bot.addCustomEmojis()
Include these emojis in messages with the customEmoji() function
Communication isn't just about posting messages—it's also about responding to others. The new reaction system creates natural interaction points between your bot and its followers:
// React to a message with a standard Unicode emoji
await message.react(emoji`👍`);
// Or use one of your custom emojis as a reaction
await message.react(emojis.botkit);
// Create a responsive bot that acknowledges reactions
bot.onReact = async (session, reaction) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for reacting with ${reaction.emoji} to my message, ${reaction.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
Discussions often involve referencing what others have said. Our new #quote support enables more cohesive conversation threads:
// Quote another message in your bot's post
await session.publish(
text`Responding to this interesting point...`,
{ quoteTarget: originalMessage }
);
// Handle when users quote your bot's messages
bot.onQuote = async (session, quoteMessage) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for sharing my thoughts, ${quoteMessage.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
With these simple steps, you're ready to create or upgrade your fediverse bot with our latest features.
Looking Forward
BotKit 0.2.0 represents our ongoing commitment to making fediverse bot development accessible, powerful, and enjoyable. We believe these new features will help your bots become more engaging and interactive members of the fediverse community.
For complete docs and more examples, visit our docs site.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this release through feedback, feature requests, and code contributions. The BotKit community continues to grow, and we're excited to see what you'll create!
BotKit is powered by Fedify, a lower-level framework for creating ActivityPub server applications.
We're pleased to announce the release of BotKit 0.2.0! For those new to our project, #BotKit is a #TypeScript framework for creating standalone #ActivityPub bots that can interact with Mastodon, Misskey, and other #fediverse platforms without the constraints of these existing platforms.
This release marks an important step in our journey to make fediverse bot development more accessible and powerful, introducing several features that our community has been requesting.
The Journey to Better Bot Interactions
In building BotKit, we've always focused on making bots more expressive and interactive. With version 0.2.0, we're taking this to the next level by bringing the social aspects of the fediverse to your bots.
Expressing Your Bot's Personality with Custom Emojis
One of the most requested features has been #custom_emoji support. Now your bots can truly express their personality with unique visuals that make their messages stand out.
// Define custom emojis for your bot
const emojis = bot.addCustomEmojis({
botkit: {
file: `${import.meta.dirname}/images/botkit.png`,
type: "image/png"
},
fedify: {
url: "https://fedify.dev/logo.png",
type: "image/png"
}
});
// Use these custom emojis in your messages
await session.publish(
text`BotKit ${customEmoji(emojis.botkit)} is powered by Fedify ${customEmoji(emojis.fedify)}`
);
With this new API, you can:
Add custom emojis to your bot with Bot.addCustomEmojis()
Include these emojis in messages with the customEmoji() function
Communication isn't just about posting messages—it's also about responding to others. The new reaction system creates natural interaction points between your bot and its followers:
// React to a message with a standard Unicode emoji
await message.react(emoji`👍`);
// Or use one of your custom emojis as a reaction
await message.react(emojis.botkit);
// Create a responsive bot that acknowledges reactions
bot.onReact = async (session, reaction) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for reacting with ${reaction.emoji} to my message, ${reaction.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
Discussions often involve referencing what others have said. Our new #quote support enables more cohesive conversation threads:
// Quote another message in your bot's post
await session.publish(
text`Responding to this interesting point...`,
{ quoteTarget: originalMessage }
);
// Handle when users quote your bot's messages
bot.onQuote = async (session, quoteMessage) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for sharing my thoughts, ${quoteMessage.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
With these simple steps, you're ready to create or upgrade your fediverse bot with our latest features.
Looking Forward
BotKit 0.2.0 represents our ongoing commitment to making fediverse bot development accessible, powerful, and enjoyable. We believe these new features will help your bots become more engaging and interactive members of the fediverse community.
For complete docs and more examples, visit our docs site.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this release through feedback, feature requests, and code contributions. The BotKit community continues to grow, and we're excited to see what you'll create!
BotKit is powered by Fedify, a lower-level framework for creating ActivityPub server applications.
BotKit 0.2.0 버전이 릴리스되었습니다! BotKit을 처음 접하시는 분들을 위해 간단히 소개하자면, BotKit은 TypeScript로 개발된 독립형 #ActivityPub 봇 프레임워크입니다. Mastodon, Misskey 등 다양한 #연합우주(#fediverse) 플랫폼과 상호작용할 수 있으며, 기존 플랫폼의 제약에서 벗어나 자유롭게 봇을 만들 수 있습니다.
이번 릴리스는 연합우주 봇 개발을 더 쉽고 강력하게 만들기 위한 여정에서 중요한 발걸음입니다. 커뮤니티에서 요청해 왔던 여러 기능들을 새롭게 선보입니다.
더 나은 봇 상호작용을 위한 여정
BotKit을 개발하면서 우리는 항상 봇이 더 표현력 있고 상호작용이 풍부하도록 만드는 데 집중해 왔습니다. 0.2.0 버전에서는 연합우주의 사회적 측면을 봇에 접목시켜 한 단계 더 발전시켰습니다.
커스텀 에모지로 봇의 개성 표현하기
가장 많이 요청받았던 기능 중 하나가 #커스텀_에모지 지원입니다. 이제 봇은 독특한 시각적 요소로 메시지를 돋보이게 하며 자신만의 개성을 표현할 수 있습니다.
We're pleased to announce the release of BotKit 0.2.0! For those new to our project, #BotKit is a #TypeScript framework for creating standalone #ActivityPub bots that can interact with Mastodon, Misskey, and other #fediverse platforms without the constraints of these existing platforms.
This release marks an important step in our journey to make fediverse bot development more accessible and powerful, introducing several features that our community has been requesting.
The Journey to Better Bot Interactions
In building BotKit, we've always focused on making bots more expressive and interactive. With version 0.2.0, we're taking this to the next level by bringing the social aspects of the fediverse to your bots.
Expressing Your Bot's Personality with Custom Emojis
One of the most requested features has been #custom_emoji support. Now your bots can truly express their personality with unique visuals that make their messages stand out.
// Define custom emojis for your bot
const emojis = bot.addCustomEmojis({
botkit: {
file: `${import.meta.dirname}/images/botkit.png`,
type: "image/png"
},
fedify: {
url: "https://fedify.dev/logo.png",
type: "image/png"
}
});
// Use these custom emojis in your messages
await session.publish(
text`BotKit ${customEmoji(emojis.botkit)} is powered by Fedify ${customEmoji(emojis.fedify)}`
);
With this new API, you can:
Add custom emojis to your bot with Bot.addCustomEmojis()
Include these emojis in messages with the customEmoji() function
Communication isn't just about posting messages—it's also about responding to others. The new reaction system creates natural interaction points between your bot and its followers:
// React to a message with a standard Unicode emoji
await message.react(emoji`👍`);
// Or use one of your custom emojis as a reaction
await message.react(emojis.botkit);
// Create a responsive bot that acknowledges reactions
bot.onReact = async (session, reaction) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for reacting with ${reaction.emoji} to my message, ${reaction.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
Discussions often involve referencing what others have said. Our new #quote support enables more cohesive conversation threads:
// Quote another message in your bot's post
await session.publish(
text`Responding to this interesting point...`,
{ quoteTarget: originalMessage }
);
// Handle when users quote your bot's messages
bot.onQuote = async (session, quoteMessage) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for sharing my thoughts, ${quoteMessage.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
With these simple steps, you're ready to create or upgrade your fediverse bot with our latest features.
Looking Forward
BotKit 0.2.0 represents our ongoing commitment to making fediverse bot development accessible, powerful, and enjoyable. We believe these new features will help your bots become more engaging and interactive members of the fediverse community.
For complete docs and more examples, visit our docs site.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this release through feedback, feature requests, and code contributions. The BotKit community continues to grow, and we're excited to see what you'll create!
BotKit is powered by Fedify, a lower-level framework for creating ActivityPub server applications.
We're pleased to announce the release of BotKit 0.2.0! For those new to our project, #BotKit is a #TypeScript framework for creating standalone #ActivityPub bots that can interact with Mastodon, Misskey, and other #fediverse platforms without the constraints of these existing platforms.
This release marks an important step in our journey to make fediverse bot development more accessible and powerful, introducing several features that our community has been requesting.
The Journey to Better Bot Interactions
In building BotKit, we've always focused on making bots more expressive and interactive. With version 0.2.0, we're taking this to the next level by bringing the social aspects of the fediverse to your bots.
Expressing Your Bot's Personality with Custom Emojis
One of the most requested features has been #custom_emoji support. Now your bots can truly express their personality with unique visuals that make their messages stand out.
// Define custom emojis for your bot
const emojis = bot.addCustomEmojis({
botkit: {
file: `${import.meta.dirname}/images/botkit.png`,
type: "image/png"
},
fedify: {
url: "https://fedify.dev/logo.png",
type: "image/png"
}
});
// Use these custom emojis in your messages
await session.publish(
text`BotKit ${customEmoji(emojis.botkit)} is powered by Fedify ${customEmoji(emojis.fedify)}`
);
With this new API, you can:
Add custom emojis to your bot with Bot.addCustomEmojis()
Include these emojis in messages with the customEmoji() function
Communication isn't just about posting messages—it's also about responding to others. The new reaction system creates natural interaction points between your bot and its followers:
// React to a message with a standard Unicode emoji
await message.react(emoji`👍`);
// Or use one of your custom emojis as a reaction
await message.react(emojis.botkit);
// Create a responsive bot that acknowledges reactions
bot.onReact = async (session, reaction) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for reacting with ${reaction.emoji} to my message, ${reaction.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
Discussions often involve referencing what others have said. Our new #quote support enables more cohesive conversation threads:
// Quote another message in your bot's post
await session.publish(
text`Responding to this interesting point...`,
{ quoteTarget: originalMessage }
);
// Handle when users quote your bot's messages
bot.onQuote = async (session, quoteMessage) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for sharing my thoughts, ${quoteMessage.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
With these simple steps, you're ready to create or upgrade your fediverse bot with our latest features.
Looking Forward
BotKit 0.2.0 represents our ongoing commitment to making fediverse bot development accessible, powerful, and enjoyable. We believe these new features will help your bots become more engaging and interactive members of the fediverse community.
For complete docs and more examples, visit our docs site.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this release through feedback, feature requests, and code contributions. The BotKit community continues to grow, and we're excited to see what you'll create!
BotKit is powered by Fedify, a lower-level framework for creating ActivityPub server applications.
Coming soon in #BotKit 0.2.0: Native #quote post support!
We're excited to share a preview of the upcoming quoting features in BotKit 0.2.0. This update will make it easier for your bots to engage with quoted content across the fediverse.
The quoting feature set includes:
Detecting when someone quotes your bot's posts with the new Bot.onQuote event handler
Here's a quick example of how you can use the quote detection:
bot.onQuote = async (session, quote) => {
// The quote parameter is a Message object representing the post that quoted your bot
await quote.reply(text`Thanks for quoting my post, ${quote.actor}!`);
// You can access the original quoted message
const originalPost = quote.quoteTarget;
console.log(`Original message: ${originalPost?.text}`);
};
And creating quote posts is just as simple:
// Quote in a new post
await session.publish(
text`I'm quoting this interesting message!`,
{ quoteTarget: someMessage }
);
// Or quote in a reply
await message.reply(
text`Interesting point! I'm quoting another relevant post here.`,
{ quoteTarget: anotherMessage }
);
Remember that quoting behavior may vary across different #ActivityPub implementations—some platforms like Misskey display quotes prominently, while others like Mastodon might implement them differently.
Want to try these features right now? You can install the development version from JSR:
deno add jsr:@fedify/botkit@0.2.0-dev.90+d6ab4bdc
We're looking forward to seeing how you use these quoting capabilities in your bots!
In case you weren't aware, #Fedify has both #Discord and #Matrix communities where you can get help, discuss features, or just chat about #ActivityPub and federated social networks.
We're pleased to announce the release of BotKit 0.2.0! For those new to our project, #BotKit is a #TypeScript framework for creating standalone #ActivityPub bots that can interact with Mastodon, Misskey, and other #fediverse platforms without the constraints of these existing platforms.
This release marks an important step in our journey to make fediverse bot development more accessible and powerful, introducing several features that our community has been requesting.
The Journey to Better Bot Interactions
In building BotKit, we've always focused on making bots more expressive and interactive. With version 0.2.0, we're taking this to the next level by bringing the social aspects of the fediverse to your bots.
Expressing Your Bot's Personality with Custom Emojis
One of the most requested features has been #custom_emoji support. Now your bots can truly express their personality with unique visuals that make their messages stand out.
// Define custom emojis for your bot
const emojis = bot.addCustomEmojis({
botkit: {
file: `${import.meta.dirname}/images/botkit.png`,
type: "image/png"
},
fedify: {
url: "https://fedify.dev/logo.png",
type: "image/png"
}
});
// Use these custom emojis in your messages
await session.publish(
text`BotKit ${customEmoji(emojis.botkit)} is powered by Fedify ${customEmoji(emojis.fedify)}`
);
With this new API, you can:
Add custom emojis to your bot with Bot.addCustomEmojis()
Include these emojis in messages with the customEmoji() function
Communication isn't just about posting messages—it's also about responding to others. The new reaction system creates natural interaction points between your bot and its followers:
// React to a message with a standard Unicode emoji
await message.react(emoji`👍`);
// Or use one of your custom emojis as a reaction
await message.react(emojis.botkit);
// Create a responsive bot that acknowledges reactions
bot.onReact = async (session, reaction) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for reacting with ${reaction.emoji} to my message, ${reaction.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
Discussions often involve referencing what others have said. Our new #quote support enables more cohesive conversation threads:
// Quote another message in your bot's post
await session.publish(
text`Responding to this interesting point...`,
{ quoteTarget: originalMessage }
);
// Handle when users quote your bot's messages
bot.onQuote = async (session, quoteMessage) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for sharing my thoughts, ${quoteMessage.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
With these simple steps, you're ready to create or upgrade your fediverse bot with our latest features.
Looking Forward
BotKit 0.2.0 represents our ongoing commitment to making fediverse bot development accessible, powerful, and enjoyable. We believe these new features will help your bots become more engaging and interactive members of the fediverse community.
For complete docs and more examples, visit our docs site.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this release through feedback, feature requests, and code contributions. The BotKit community continues to grow, and we're excited to see what you'll create!
BotKit is powered by Fedify, a lower-level framework for creating ActivityPub server applications.
BotKit 0.2.0 버전이 릴리스되었습니다! BotKit을 처음 접하시는 분들을 위해 간단히 소개하자면, BotKit은 TypeScript로 개발된 독립형 #ActivityPub 봇 프레임워크입니다. Mastodon, Misskey 등 다양한 #연합우주(#fediverse) 플랫폼과 상호작용할 수 있으며, 기존 플랫폼의 제약에서 벗어나 자유롭게 봇을 만들 수 있습니다.
이번 릴리스는 연합우주 봇 개발을 더 쉽고 강력하게 만들기 위한 여정에서 중요한 발걸음입니다. 커뮤니티에서 요청해 왔던 여러 기능들을 새롭게 선보입니다.
더 나은 봇 상호작용을 위한 여정
BotKit을 개발하면서 우리는 항상 봇이 더 표현력 있고 상호작용이 풍부하도록 만드는 데 집중해 왔습니다. 0.2.0 버전에서는 연합우주의 사회적 측면을 봇에 접목시켜 한 단계 더 발전시켰습니다.
커스텀 에모지로 봇의 개성 표현하기
가장 많이 요청받았던 기능 중 하나가 #커스텀_에모지 지원입니다. 이제 봇은 독특한 시각적 요소로 메시지를 돋보이게 하며 자신만의 개성을 표현할 수 있습니다.
We're pleased to announce the release of BotKit 0.2.0! For those new to our project, #BotKit is a #TypeScript framework for creating standalone #ActivityPub bots that can interact with Mastodon, Misskey, and other #fediverse platforms without the constraints of these existing platforms.
This release marks an important step in our journey to make fediverse bot development more accessible and powerful, introducing several features that our community has been requesting.
The Journey to Better Bot Interactions
In building BotKit, we've always focused on making bots more expressive and interactive. With version 0.2.0, we're taking this to the next level by bringing the social aspects of the fediverse to your bots.
Expressing Your Bot's Personality with Custom Emojis
One of the most requested features has been #custom_emoji support. Now your bots can truly express their personality with unique visuals that make their messages stand out.
// Define custom emojis for your bot
const emojis = bot.addCustomEmojis({
botkit: {
file: `${import.meta.dirname}/images/botkit.png`,
type: "image/png"
},
fedify: {
url: "https://fedify.dev/logo.png",
type: "image/png"
}
});
// Use these custom emojis in your messages
await session.publish(
text`BotKit ${customEmoji(emojis.botkit)} is powered by Fedify ${customEmoji(emojis.fedify)}`
);
With this new API, you can:
Add custom emojis to your bot with Bot.addCustomEmojis()
Include these emojis in messages with the customEmoji() function
Communication isn't just about posting messages—it's also about responding to others. The new reaction system creates natural interaction points between your bot and its followers:
// React to a message with a standard Unicode emoji
await message.react(emoji`👍`);
// Or use one of your custom emojis as a reaction
await message.react(emojis.botkit);
// Create a responsive bot that acknowledges reactions
bot.onReact = async (session, reaction) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for reacting with ${reaction.emoji} to my message, ${reaction.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
Discussions often involve referencing what others have said. Our new #quote support enables more cohesive conversation threads:
// Quote another message in your bot's post
await session.publish(
text`Responding to this interesting point...`,
{ quoteTarget: originalMessage }
);
// Handle when users quote your bot's messages
bot.onQuote = async (session, quoteMessage) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for sharing my thoughts, ${quoteMessage.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
With these simple steps, you're ready to create or upgrade your fediverse bot with our latest features.
Looking Forward
BotKit 0.2.0 represents our ongoing commitment to making fediverse bot development accessible, powerful, and enjoyable. We believe these new features will help your bots become more engaging and interactive members of the fediverse community.
For complete docs and more examples, visit our docs site.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this release through feedback, feature requests, and code contributions. The BotKit community continues to grow, and we're excited to see what you'll create!
BotKit is powered by Fedify, a lower-level framework for creating ActivityPub server applications.
We're pleased to announce the release of BotKit 0.2.0! For those new to our project, #BotKit is a #TypeScript framework for creating standalone #ActivityPub bots that can interact with Mastodon, Misskey, and other #fediverse platforms without the constraints of these existing platforms.
This release marks an important step in our journey to make fediverse bot development more accessible and powerful, introducing several features that our community has been requesting.
The Journey to Better Bot Interactions
In building BotKit, we've always focused on making bots more expressive and interactive. With version 0.2.0, we're taking this to the next level by bringing the social aspects of the fediverse to your bots.
Expressing Your Bot's Personality with Custom Emojis
One of the most requested features has been #custom_emoji support. Now your bots can truly express their personality with unique visuals that make their messages stand out.
// Define custom emojis for your bot
const emojis = bot.addCustomEmojis({
botkit: {
file: `${import.meta.dirname}/images/botkit.png`,
type: "image/png"
},
fedify: {
url: "https://fedify.dev/logo.png",
type: "image/png"
}
});
// Use these custom emojis in your messages
await session.publish(
text`BotKit ${customEmoji(emojis.botkit)} is powered by Fedify ${customEmoji(emojis.fedify)}`
);
With this new API, you can:
Add custom emojis to your bot with Bot.addCustomEmojis()
Include these emojis in messages with the customEmoji() function
Communication isn't just about posting messages—it's also about responding to others. The new reaction system creates natural interaction points between your bot and its followers:
// React to a message with a standard Unicode emoji
await message.react(emoji`👍`);
// Or use one of your custom emojis as a reaction
await message.react(emojis.botkit);
// Create a responsive bot that acknowledges reactions
bot.onReact = async (session, reaction) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for reacting with ${reaction.emoji} to my message, ${reaction.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
Discussions often involve referencing what others have said. Our new #quote support enables more cohesive conversation threads:
// Quote another message in your bot's post
await session.publish(
text`Responding to this interesting point...`,
{ quoteTarget: originalMessage }
);
// Handle when users quote your bot's messages
bot.onQuote = async (session, quoteMessage) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for sharing my thoughts, ${quoteMessage.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
With these simple steps, you're ready to create or upgrade your fediverse bot with our latest features.
Looking Forward
BotKit 0.2.0 represents our ongoing commitment to making fediverse bot development accessible, powerful, and enjoyable. We believe these new features will help your bots become more engaging and interactive members of the fediverse community.
For complete docs and more examples, visit our docs site.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this release through feedback, feature requests, and code contributions. The BotKit community continues to grow, and we're excited to see what you'll create!
BotKit is powered by Fedify, a lower-level framework for creating ActivityPub server applications.
We're pleased to announce the release of BotKit 0.2.0! For those new to our project, #BotKit is a #TypeScript framework for creating standalone #ActivityPub bots that can interact with Mastodon, Misskey, and other #fediverse platforms without the constraints of these existing platforms.
This release marks an important step in our journey to make fediverse bot development more accessible and powerful, introducing several features that our community has been requesting.
The Journey to Better Bot Interactions
In building BotKit, we've always focused on making bots more expressive and interactive. With version 0.2.0, we're taking this to the next level by bringing the social aspects of the fediverse to your bots.
Expressing Your Bot's Personality with Custom Emojis
One of the most requested features has been #custom_emoji support. Now your bots can truly express their personality with unique visuals that make their messages stand out.
// Define custom emojis for your bot
const emojis = bot.addCustomEmojis({
botkit: {
file: `${import.meta.dirname}/images/botkit.png`,
type: "image/png"
},
fedify: {
url: "https://fedify.dev/logo.png",
type: "image/png"
}
});
// Use these custom emojis in your messages
await session.publish(
text`BotKit ${customEmoji(emojis.botkit)} is powered by Fedify ${customEmoji(emojis.fedify)}`
);
With this new API, you can:
Add custom emojis to your bot with Bot.addCustomEmojis()
Include these emojis in messages with the customEmoji() function
Communication isn't just about posting messages—it's also about responding to others. The new reaction system creates natural interaction points between your bot and its followers:
// React to a message with a standard Unicode emoji
await message.react(emoji`👍`);
// Or use one of your custom emojis as a reaction
await message.react(emojis.botkit);
// Create a responsive bot that acknowledges reactions
bot.onReact = async (session, reaction) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for reacting with ${reaction.emoji} to my message, ${reaction.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
Discussions often involve referencing what others have said. Our new #quote support enables more cohesive conversation threads:
// Quote another message in your bot's post
await session.publish(
text`Responding to this interesting point...`,
{ quoteTarget: originalMessage }
);
// Handle when users quote your bot's messages
bot.onQuote = async (session, quoteMessage) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for sharing my thoughts, ${quoteMessage.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
With these simple steps, you're ready to create or upgrade your fediverse bot with our latest features.
Looking Forward
BotKit 0.2.0 represents our ongoing commitment to making fediverse bot development accessible, powerful, and enjoyable. We believe these new features will help your bots become more engaging and interactive members of the fediverse community.
For complete docs and more examples, visit our docs site.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this release through feedback, feature requests, and code contributions. The BotKit community continues to grow, and we're excited to see what you'll create!
BotKit is powered by Fedify, a lower-level framework for creating ActivityPub server applications.
BotKit 0.2.0 버전이 릴리스되었습니다! BotKit을 처음 접하시는 분들을 위해 간단히 소개하자면, BotKit은 TypeScript로 개발된 독립형 #ActivityPub 봇 프레임워크입니다. Mastodon, Misskey 등 다양한 #연합우주(#fediverse) 플랫폼과 상호작용할 수 있으며, 기존 플랫폼의 제약에서 벗어나 자유롭게 봇을 만들 수 있습니다.
이번 릴리스는 연합우주 봇 개발을 더 쉽고 강력하게 만들기 위한 여정에서 중요한 발걸음입니다. 커뮤니티에서 요청해 왔던 여러 기능들을 새롭게 선보입니다.
더 나은 봇 상호작용을 위한 여정
BotKit을 개발하면서 우리는 항상 봇이 더 표현력 있고 상호작용이 풍부하도록 만드는 데 집중해 왔습니다. 0.2.0 버전에서는 연합우주의 사회적 측면을 봇에 접목시켜 한 단계 더 발전시켰습니다.
커스텀 에모지로 봇의 개성 표현하기
가장 많이 요청받았던 기능 중 하나가 #커스텀_에모지 지원입니다. 이제 봇은 독특한 시각적 요소로 메시지를 돋보이게 하며 자신만의 개성을 표현할 수 있습니다.
We're pleased to announce the release of BotKit 0.2.0! For those new to our project, #BotKit is a #TypeScript framework for creating standalone #ActivityPub bots that can interact with Mastodon, Misskey, and other #fediverse platforms without the constraints of these existing platforms.
This release marks an important step in our journey to make fediverse bot development more accessible and powerful, introducing several features that our community has been requesting.
The Journey to Better Bot Interactions
In building BotKit, we've always focused on making bots more expressive and interactive. With version 0.2.0, we're taking this to the next level by bringing the social aspects of the fediverse to your bots.
Expressing Your Bot's Personality with Custom Emojis
One of the most requested features has been #custom_emoji support. Now your bots can truly express their personality with unique visuals that make their messages stand out.
// Define custom emojis for your bot
const emojis = bot.addCustomEmojis({
botkit: {
file: `${import.meta.dirname}/images/botkit.png`,
type: "image/png"
},
fedify: {
url: "https://fedify.dev/logo.png",
type: "image/png"
}
});
// Use these custom emojis in your messages
await session.publish(
text`BotKit ${customEmoji(emojis.botkit)} is powered by Fedify ${customEmoji(emojis.fedify)}`
);
With this new API, you can:
Add custom emojis to your bot with Bot.addCustomEmojis()
Include these emojis in messages with the customEmoji() function
Communication isn't just about posting messages—it's also about responding to others. The new reaction system creates natural interaction points between your bot and its followers:
// React to a message with a standard Unicode emoji
await message.react(emoji`👍`);
// Or use one of your custom emojis as a reaction
await message.react(emojis.botkit);
// Create a responsive bot that acknowledges reactions
bot.onReact = async (session, reaction) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for reacting with ${reaction.emoji} to my message, ${reaction.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
Discussions often involve referencing what others have said. Our new #quote support enables more cohesive conversation threads:
// Quote another message in your bot's post
await session.publish(
text`Responding to this interesting point...`,
{ quoteTarget: originalMessage }
);
// Handle when users quote your bot's messages
bot.onQuote = async (session, quoteMessage) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for sharing my thoughts, ${quoteMessage.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
With these simple steps, you're ready to create or upgrade your fediverse bot with our latest features.
Looking Forward
BotKit 0.2.0 represents our ongoing commitment to making fediverse bot development accessible, powerful, and enjoyable. We believe these new features will help your bots become more engaging and interactive members of the fediverse community.
For complete docs and more examples, visit our docs site.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this release through feedback, feature requests, and code contributions. The BotKit community continues to grow, and we're excited to see what you'll create!
BotKit is powered by Fedify, a lower-level framework for creating ActivityPub server applications.
BotKit 0.2.0 버전이 릴리스되었습니다! BotKit을 처음 접하시는 분들을 위해 간단히 소개하자면, BotKit은 TypeScript로 개발된 독립형 #ActivityPub 봇 프레임워크입니다. Mastodon, Misskey 등 다양한 #연합우주(#fediverse) 플랫폼과 상호작용할 수 있으며, 기존 플랫폼의 제약에서 벗어나 자유롭게 봇을 만들 수 있습니다.
이번 릴리스는 연합우주 봇 개발을 더 쉽고 강력하게 만들기 위한 여정에서 중요한 발걸음입니다. 커뮤니티에서 요청해 왔던 여러 기능들을 새롭게 선보입니다.
더 나은 봇 상호작용을 위한 여정
BotKit을 개발하면서 우리는 항상 봇이 더 표현력 있고 상호작용이 풍부하도록 만드는 데 집중해 왔습니다. 0.2.0 버전에서는 연합우주의 사회적 측면을 봇에 접목시켜 한 단계 더 발전시켰습니다.
커스텀 에모지로 봇의 개성 표현하기
가장 많이 요청받았던 기능 중 하나가 #커스텀_에모지 지원입니다. 이제 봇은 독특한 시각적 요소로 메시지를 돋보이게 하며 자신만의 개성을 표현할 수 있습니다.
We're pleased to announce the release of BotKit 0.2.0! For those new to our project, #BotKit is a #TypeScript framework for creating standalone #ActivityPub bots that can interact with Mastodon, Misskey, and other #fediverse platforms without the constraints of these existing platforms.
This release marks an important step in our journey to make fediverse bot development more accessible and powerful, introducing several features that our community has been requesting.
The Journey to Better Bot Interactions
In building BotKit, we've always focused on making bots more expressive and interactive. With version 0.2.0, we're taking this to the next level by bringing the social aspects of the fediverse to your bots.
Expressing Your Bot's Personality with Custom Emojis
One of the most requested features has been #custom_emoji support. Now your bots can truly express their personality with unique visuals that make their messages stand out.
// Define custom emojis for your bot
const emojis = bot.addCustomEmojis({
botkit: {
file: `${import.meta.dirname}/images/botkit.png`,
type: "image/png"
},
fedify: {
url: "https://fedify.dev/logo.png",
type: "image/png"
}
});
// Use these custom emojis in your messages
await session.publish(
text`BotKit ${customEmoji(emojis.botkit)} is powered by Fedify ${customEmoji(emojis.fedify)}`
);
With this new API, you can:
Add custom emojis to your bot with Bot.addCustomEmojis()
Include these emojis in messages with the customEmoji() function
Communication isn't just about posting messages—it's also about responding to others. The new reaction system creates natural interaction points between your bot and its followers:
// React to a message with a standard Unicode emoji
await message.react(emoji`👍`);
// Or use one of your custom emojis as a reaction
await message.react(emojis.botkit);
// Create a responsive bot that acknowledges reactions
bot.onReact = async (session, reaction) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for reacting with ${reaction.emoji} to my message, ${reaction.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
Discussions often involve referencing what others have said. Our new #quote support enables more cohesive conversation threads:
// Quote another message in your bot's post
await session.publish(
text`Responding to this interesting point...`,
{ quoteTarget: originalMessage }
);
// Handle when users quote your bot's messages
bot.onQuote = async (session, quoteMessage) => {
await session.publish(
text`Thanks for sharing my thoughts, ${quoteMessage.actor}!`,
{ visibility: "direct" }
);
};
With these simple steps, you're ready to create or upgrade your fediverse bot with our latest features.
Looking Forward
BotKit 0.2.0 represents our ongoing commitment to making fediverse bot development accessible, powerful, and enjoyable. We believe these new features will help your bots become more engaging and interactive members of the fediverse community.
For complete docs and more examples, visit our docs site.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this release through feedback, feature requests, and code contributions. The BotKit community continues to grow, and we're excited to see what you'll create!
BotKit is powered by Fedify, a lower-level framework for creating ActivityPub server applications.
Coming soon in #BotKit 0.2.0: Native #quote post support!
We're excited to share a preview of the upcoming quoting features in BotKit 0.2.0. This update will make it easier for your bots to engage with quoted content across the fediverse.
The quoting feature set includes:
Detecting when someone quotes your bot's posts with the new Bot.onQuote event handler
Here's a quick example of how you can use the quote detection:
bot.onQuote = async (session, quote) => {
// The quote parameter is a Message object representing the post that quoted your bot
await quote.reply(text`Thanks for quoting my post, ${quote.actor}!`);
// You can access the original quoted message
const originalPost = quote.quoteTarget;
console.log(`Original message: ${originalPost?.text}`);
};
And creating quote posts is just as simple:
// Quote in a new post
await session.publish(
text`I'm quoting this interesting message!`,
{ quoteTarget: someMessage }
);
// Or quote in a reply
await message.reply(
text`Interesting point! I'm quoting another relevant post here.`,
{ quoteTarget: anotherMessage }
);
Remember that quoting behavior may vary across different #ActivityPub implementations—some platforms like Misskey display quotes prominently, while others like Mastodon might implement them differently.
Want to try these features right now? You can install the development version from JSR:
deno add jsr:@fedify/botkit@0.2.0-dev.90+d6ab4bdc
We're looking forward to seeing how you use these quoting capabilities in your bots!
Coming soon in #BotKit 0.2.0: Native #quote post support!
We're excited to share a preview of the upcoming quoting features in BotKit 0.2.0. This update will make it easier for your bots to engage with quoted content across the fediverse.
The quoting feature set includes:
Detecting when someone quotes your bot's posts with the new Bot.onQuote event handler
Here's a quick example of how you can use the quote detection:
bot.onQuote = async (session, quote) => {
// The quote parameter is a Message object representing the post that quoted your bot
await quote.reply(text`Thanks for quoting my post, ${quote.actor}!`);
// You can access the original quoted message
const originalPost = quote.quoteTarget;
console.log(`Original message: ${originalPost?.text}`);
};
And creating quote posts is just as simple:
// Quote in a new post
await session.publish(
text`I'm quoting this interesting message!`,
{ quoteTarget: someMessage }
);
// Or quote in a reply
await message.reply(
text`Interesting point! I'm quoting another relevant post here.`,
{ quoteTarget: anotherMessage }
);
Remember that quoting behavior may vary across different #ActivityPub implementations—some platforms like Misskey display quotes prominently, while others like Mastodon might implement them differently.
Want to try these features right now? You can install the development version from JSR:
deno add jsr:@fedify/botkit@0.2.0-dev.90+d6ab4bdc
We're looking forward to seeing how you use these quoting capabilities in your bots!
Coming soon in #BotKit 0.2.0: Native #quote post support!
We're excited to share a preview of the upcoming quoting features in BotKit 0.2.0. This update will make it easier for your bots to engage with quoted content across the fediverse.
The quoting feature set includes:
Detecting when someone quotes your bot's posts with the new Bot.onQuote event handler
Here's a quick example of how you can use the quote detection:
bot.onQuote = async (session, quote) => {
// The quote parameter is a Message object representing the post that quoted your bot
await quote.reply(text`Thanks for quoting my post, ${quote.actor}!`);
// You can access the original quoted message
const originalPost = quote.quoteTarget;
console.log(`Original message: ${originalPost?.text}`);
};
And creating quote posts is just as simple:
// Quote in a new post
await session.publish(
text`I'm quoting this interesting message!`,
{ quoteTarget: someMessage }
);
// Or quote in a reply
await message.reply(
text`Interesting point! I'm quoting another relevant post here.`,
{ quoteTarget: anotherMessage }
);
Remember that quoting behavior may vary across different #ActivityPub implementations—some platforms like Misskey display quotes prominently, while others like Mastodon might implement them differently.
Want to try these features right now? You can install the development version from JSR:
deno add jsr:@fedify/botkit@0.2.0-dev.90+d6ab4bdc
We're looking forward to seeing how you use these quoting capabilities in your bots!
Coming soon in #BotKit 0.2.0: Native #quote post support!
We're excited to share a preview of the upcoming quoting features in BotKit 0.2.0. This update will make it easier for your bots to engage with quoted content across the fediverse.
The quoting feature set includes:
Detecting when someone quotes your bot's posts with the new Bot.onQuote event handler
Here's a quick example of how you can use the quote detection:
bot.onQuote = async (session, quote) => {
// The quote parameter is a Message object representing the post that quoted your bot
await quote.reply(text`Thanks for quoting my post, ${quote.actor}!`);
// You can access the original quoted message
const originalPost = quote.quoteTarget;
console.log(`Original message: ${originalPost?.text}`);
};
And creating quote posts is just as simple:
// Quote in a new post
await session.publish(
text`I'm quoting this interesting message!`,
{ quoteTarget: someMessage }
);
// Or quote in a reply
await message.reply(
text`Interesting point! I'm quoting another relevant post here.`,
{ quoteTarget: anotherMessage }
);
Remember that quoting behavior may vary across different #ActivityPub implementations—some platforms like Misskey display quotes prominently, while others like Mastodon might implement them differently.
Want to try these features right now? You can install the development version from JSR:
deno add jsr:@fedify/botkit@0.2.0-dev.90+d6ab4bdc
We're looking forward to seeing how you use these quoting capabilities in your bots!
Coming soon in #BotKit 0.2.0: Native #quote post support!
We're excited to share a preview of the upcoming quoting features in BotKit 0.2.0. This update will make it easier for your bots to engage with quoted content across the fediverse.
The quoting feature set includes:
Detecting when someone quotes your bot's posts with the new Bot.onQuote event handler
Here's a quick example of how you can use the quote detection:
bot.onQuote = async (session, quote) => {
// The quote parameter is a Message object representing the post that quoted your bot
await quote.reply(text`Thanks for quoting my post, ${quote.actor}!`);
// You can access the original quoted message
const originalPost = quote.quoteTarget;
console.log(`Original message: ${originalPost?.text}`);
};
And creating quote posts is just as simple:
// Quote in a new post
await session.publish(
text`I'm quoting this interesting message!`,
{ quoteTarget: someMessage }
);
// Or quote in a reply
await message.reply(
text`Interesting point! I'm quoting another relevant post here.`,
{ quoteTarget: anotherMessage }
);
Remember that quoting behavior may vary across different #ActivityPub implementations—some platforms like Misskey display quotes prominently, while others like Mastodon might implement them differently.
Want to try these features right now? You can install the development version from JSR:
deno add jsr:@fedify/botkit@0.2.0-dev.90+d6ab4bdc
We're looking forward to seeing how you use these quoting capabilities in your bots!
I've been considering what to add in the next version of BotKit (v0.2.0) and wanted to share my current plans. After reviewing feedback and examining the #ActivityPub ecosystem, I've identified three key features that would significantly enhance the framework's capabilities:
Custom emoji support. This would allow bots to use server-defined custom emojis in their messages, making communication more expressive and allowing better integration with instance culture.
Emoji reactions. I plan to implement both sending and receiving emoji reactions to messages. This provides a lightweight interaction model that many users prefer for simple acknowledgments or responses. This would manifest as new event handlers (like Bot.onReaction) and methods (like Message.react()).
Quote posts. The ability to reference other posts with commentary is an important discourse feature in the fediverse. Supporting both sending quotes and detecting when bot posts have been quoted would enable more sophisticated conversational patterns.
These additions should make #BotKit more capable while maintaining its simple, developer-friendly API. I expect implementation to involve extending the Message class and adding new Text processing capabilities, all while keeping backward compatibility with existing bots. Having built both Hollo and Hackers' Pub, I already have deep familiarity with how various ActivityPub implementations handle these features across the fediverse. I welcome any community feedback on priorities or implementation details before I begin coding.
First, there's no standardization. ActivityPub specifications don't define how custom emoji should work, leading to inconsistent implementations across different servers like Mastodon and Misskey.
Rendering is particularly problematic. Emojis must display properly across different contexts (in text, as reactions, in emoji pickers) while maintaining quality at various sizes. Animated emojis add another layer of complexity.
Perhaps most concerning is the poor #accessibility. Most implementations simply use the emoji code (like :party_blob:) as the alt text, which provides no meaningful information to screen reader users (in particular, non-English speakers) about what the emoji actually depicts or means.
What really dampens my motivation to implement this feature is knowing I'm investing significant effort into something that ultimately creates accessibility barriers. It's disheartening to work hard on a feature that excludes part of the community.
I've been considering what to add in the next version of BotKit (v0.2.0) and wanted to share my current plans. After reviewing feedback and examining the #ActivityPub ecosystem, I've identified three key features that would significantly enhance the framework's capabilities:
Custom emoji support. This would allow bots to use server-defined custom emojis in their messages, making communication more expressive and allowing better integration with instance culture.
Emoji reactions. I plan to implement both sending and receiving emoji reactions to messages. This provides a lightweight interaction model that many users prefer for simple acknowledgments or responses. This would manifest as new event handlers (like Bot.onReaction) and methods (like Message.react()).
Quote posts. The ability to reference other posts with commentary is an important discourse feature in the fediverse. Supporting both sending quotes and detecting when bot posts have been quoted would enable more sophisticated conversational patterns.
These additions should make #BotKit more capable while maintaining its simple, developer-friendly API. I expect implementation to involve extending the Message class and adding new Text processing capabilities, all while keeping backward compatibility with existing bots. Having built both Hollo and Hackers' Pub, I already have deep familiarity with how various ActivityPub implementations handle these features across the fediverse. I welcome any community feedback on priorities or implementation details before I begin coding.
In case you weren't aware, #Fedify has both #Discord and #Matrix communities where you can get help, discuss features, or just chat about #ActivityPub and federated social networks.
I've been considering what to add in the next version of BotKit (v0.2.0) and wanted to share my current plans. After reviewing feedback and examining the #ActivityPub ecosystem, I've identified three key features that would significantly enhance the framework's capabilities:
Custom emoji support. This would allow bots to use server-defined custom emojis in their messages, making communication more expressive and allowing better integration with instance culture.
Emoji reactions. I plan to implement both sending and receiving emoji reactions to messages. This provides a lightweight interaction model that many users prefer for simple acknowledgments or responses. This would manifest as new event handlers (like Bot.onReaction) and methods (like Message.react()).
Quote posts. The ability to reference other posts with commentary is an important discourse feature in the fediverse. Supporting both sending quotes and detecting when bot posts have been quoted would enable more sophisticated conversational patterns.
These additions should make #BotKit more capable while maintaining its simple, developer-friendly API. I expect implementation to involve extending the Message class and adding new Text processing capabilities, all while keeping backward compatibility with existing bots. Having built both Hollo and Hackers' Pub, I already have deep familiarity with how various ActivityPub implementations handle these features across the fediverse. I welcome any community feedback on priorities or implementation details before I begin coding.
I've been considering what to add in the next version of BotKit (v0.2.0) and wanted to share my current plans. After reviewing feedback and examining the #ActivityPub ecosystem, I've identified three key features that would significantly enhance the framework's capabilities:
Custom emoji support. This would allow bots to use server-defined custom emojis in their messages, making communication more expressive and allowing better integration with instance culture.
Emoji reactions. I plan to implement both sending and receiving emoji reactions to messages. This provides a lightweight interaction model that many users prefer for simple acknowledgments or responses. This would manifest as new event handlers (like Bot.onReaction) and methods (like Message.react()).
Quote posts. The ability to reference other posts with commentary is an important discourse feature in the fediverse. Supporting both sending quotes and detecting when bot posts have been quoted would enable more sophisticated conversational patterns.
These additions should make #BotKit more capable while maintaining its simple, developer-friendly API. I expect implementation to involve extending the Message class and adding new Text processing capabilities, all while keeping backward compatibility with existing bots. Having built both Hollo and Hackers' Pub, I already have deep familiarity with how various ActivityPub implementations handle these features across the fediverse. I welcome any community feedback on priorities or implementation details before I begin coding.
I've been considering what to add in the next version of BotKit (v0.2.0) and wanted to share my current plans. After reviewing feedback and examining the #ActivityPub ecosystem, I've identified three key features that would significantly enhance the framework's capabilities:
Custom emoji support. This would allow bots to use server-defined custom emojis in their messages, making communication more expressive and allowing better integration with instance culture.
Emoji reactions. I plan to implement both sending and receiving emoji reactions to messages. This provides a lightweight interaction model that many users prefer for simple acknowledgments or responses. This would manifest as new event handlers (like Bot.onReaction) and methods (like Message.react()).
Quote posts. The ability to reference other posts with commentary is an important discourse feature in the fediverse. Supporting both sending quotes and detecting when bot posts have been quoted would enable more sophisticated conversational patterns.
These additions should make #BotKit more capable while maintaining its simple, developer-friendly API. I expect implementation to involve extending the Message class and adding new Text processing capabilities, all while keeping backward compatibility with existing bots. Having built both Hollo and Hackers' Pub, I already have deep familiarity with how various ActivityPub implementations handle these features across the fediverse. I welcome any community feedback on priorities or implementation details before I begin coding.
I've been considering what to add in the next version of BotKit (v0.2.0) and wanted to share my current plans. After reviewing feedback and examining the #ActivityPub ecosystem, I've identified three key features that would significantly enhance the framework's capabilities:
Custom emoji support. This would allow bots to use server-defined custom emojis in their messages, making communication more expressive and allowing better integration with instance culture.
Emoji reactions. I plan to implement both sending and receiving emoji reactions to messages. This provides a lightweight interaction model that many users prefer for simple acknowledgments or responses. This would manifest as new event handlers (like Bot.onReaction) and methods (like Message.react()).
Quote posts. The ability to reference other posts with commentary is an important discourse feature in the fediverse. Supporting both sending quotes and detecting when bot posts have been quoted would enable more sophisticated conversational patterns.
These additions should make #BotKit more capable while maintaining its simple, developer-friendly API. I expect implementation to involve extending the Message class and adding new Text processing capabilities, all while keeping backward compatibility with existing bots. Having built both Hollo and Hackers' Pub, I already have deep familiarity with how various ActivityPub implementations handle these features across the fediverse. I welcome any community feedback on priorities or implementation details before I begin coding.
We're excited to announce that #BotKit 0.2.0 will introduce custom emoji support! This feature allows your bots to express themselves with more personality and engagement.
What's included:
Add custom emojis to your bot with Bot.addCustomEmojis()
Use emoji in messages with the customEmoji() function
Support for both local image files and remote URLs as emoji sources
We're excited to announce that #BotKit 0.2.0 will introduce custom emoji support! This feature allows your bots to express themselves with more personality and engagement.
What's included:
Add custom emojis to your bot with Bot.addCustomEmojis()
Use emoji in messages with the customEmoji() function
Support for both local image files and remote URLs as emoji sources
We're excited to announce that #BotKit 0.2.0 will introduce custom emoji support! This feature allows your bots to express themselves with more personality and engagement.
What's included:
Add custom emojis to your bot with Bot.addCustomEmojis()
Use emoji in messages with the customEmoji() function
Support for both local image files and remote URLs as emoji sources
We're excited to announce that #BotKit 0.2.0 will introduce custom emoji support! This feature allows your bots to express themselves with more personality and engagement.
What's included:
Add custom emojis to your bot with Bot.addCustomEmojis()
Use emoji in messages with the customEmoji() function
Support for both local image files and remote URLs as emoji sources
In case you weren't aware, #Fedify has both #Discord and #Matrix communities where you can get help, discuss features, or just chat about #ActivityPub and federated social networks.
First, there's no standardization. ActivityPub specifications don't define how custom emoji should work, leading to inconsistent implementations across different servers like Mastodon and Misskey.
Rendering is particularly problematic. Emojis must display properly across different contexts (in text, as reactions, in emoji pickers) while maintaining quality at various sizes. Animated emojis add another layer of complexity.
Perhaps most concerning is the poor #accessibility. Most implementations simply use the emoji code (like :party_blob:) as the alt text, which provides no meaningful information to screen reader users (in particular, non-English speakers) about what the emoji actually depicts or means.
What really dampens my motivation to implement this feature is knowing I'm investing significant effort into something that ultimately creates accessibility barriers. It's disheartening to work hard on a feature that excludes part of the community.
First, there's no standardization. ActivityPub specifications don't define how custom emoji should work, leading to inconsistent implementations across different servers like Mastodon and Misskey.
Rendering is particularly problematic. Emojis must display properly across different contexts (in text, as reactions, in emoji pickers) while maintaining quality at various sizes. Animated emojis add another layer of complexity.
Perhaps most concerning is the poor #accessibility. Most implementations simply use the emoji code (like :party_blob:) as the alt text, which provides no meaningful information to screen reader users (in particular, non-English speakers) about what the emoji actually depicts or means.
What really dampens my motivation to implement this feature is knowing I'm investing significant effort into something that ultimately creates accessibility barriers. It's disheartening to work hard on a feature that excludes part of the community.
In case you weren't aware, #Fedify has both #Discord and #Matrix communities where you can get help, discuss features, or just chat about #ActivityPub and federated social networks.
In case you weren't aware, #Fedify has both #Discord and #Matrix communities where you can get help, discuss features, or just chat about #ActivityPub and federated social networks.
In case you weren't aware, #Fedify has both #Discord and #Matrix communities where you can get help, discuss features, or just chat about #ActivityPub and federated social networks.
In case you weren't aware, #Fedify has both #Discord and #Matrix communities where you can get help, discuss features, or just chat about #ActivityPub and federated social networks.
I've been considering what to add in the next version of BotKit (v0.2.0) and wanted to share my current plans. After reviewing feedback and examining the #ActivityPub ecosystem, I've identified three key features that would significantly enhance the framework's capabilities:
Custom emoji support. This would allow bots to use server-defined custom emojis in their messages, making communication more expressive and allowing better integration with instance culture.
Emoji reactions. I plan to implement both sending and receiving emoji reactions to messages. This provides a lightweight interaction model that many users prefer for simple acknowledgments or responses. This would manifest as new event handlers (like Bot.onReaction) and methods (like Message.react()).
Quote posts. The ability to reference other posts with commentary is an important discourse feature in the fediverse. Supporting both sending quotes and detecting when bot posts have been quoted would enable more sophisticated conversational patterns.
These additions should make #BotKit more capable while maintaining its simple, developer-friendly API. I expect implementation to involve extending the Message class and adding new Text processing capabilities, all while keeping backward compatibility with existing bots. Having built both Hollo and Hackers' Pub, I already have deep familiarity with how various ActivityPub implementations handle these features across the fediverse. I welcome any community feedback on priorities or implementation details before I begin coding.
I've been considering what to add in the next version of BotKit (v0.2.0) and wanted to share my current plans. After reviewing feedback and examining the #ActivityPub ecosystem, I've identified three key features that would significantly enhance the framework's capabilities:
Custom emoji support. This would allow bots to use server-defined custom emojis in their messages, making communication more expressive and allowing better integration with instance culture.
Emoji reactions. I plan to implement both sending and receiving emoji reactions to messages. This provides a lightweight interaction model that many users prefer for simple acknowledgments or responses. This would manifest as new event handlers (like Bot.onReaction) and methods (like Message.react()).
Quote posts. The ability to reference other posts with commentary is an important discourse feature in the fediverse. Supporting both sending quotes and detecting when bot posts have been quoted would enable more sophisticated conversational patterns.
These additions should make #BotKit more capable while maintaining its simple, developer-friendly API. I expect implementation to involve extending the Message class and adding new Text processing capabilities, all while keeping backward compatibility with existing bots. Having built both Hollo and Hackers' Pub, I already have deep familiarity with how various ActivityPub implementations handle these features across the fediverse. I welcome any community feedback on priorities or implementation details before I begin coding.
First, there's no standardization. ActivityPub specifications don't define how custom emoji should work, leading to inconsistent implementations across different servers like Mastodon and Misskey.
Rendering is particularly problematic. Emojis must display properly across different contexts (in text, as reactions, in emoji pickers) while maintaining quality at various sizes. Animated emojis add another layer of complexity.
Perhaps most concerning is the poor #accessibility. Most implementations simply use the emoji code (like :party_blob:) as the alt text, which provides no meaningful information to screen reader users (in particular, non-English speakers) about what the emoji actually depicts or means.
What really dampens my motivation to implement this feature is knowing I'm investing significant effort into something that ultimately creates accessibility barriers. It's disheartening to work hard on a feature that excludes part of the community.
First, there's no standardization. ActivityPub specifications don't define how custom emoji should work, leading to inconsistent implementations across different servers like Mastodon and Misskey.
Rendering is particularly problematic. Emojis must display properly across different contexts (in text, as reactions, in emoji pickers) while maintaining quality at various sizes. Animated emojis add another layer of complexity.
Perhaps most concerning is the poor #accessibility. Most implementations simply use the emoji code (like :party_blob:) as the alt text, which provides no meaningful information to screen reader users (in particular, non-English speakers) about what the emoji actually depicts or means.
What really dampens my motivation to implement this feature is knowing I'm investing significant effort into something that ultimately creates accessibility barriers. It's disheartening to work hard on a feature that excludes part of the community.
First, there's no standardization. ActivityPub specifications don't define how custom emoji should work, leading to inconsistent implementations across different servers like Mastodon and Misskey.
Rendering is particularly problematic. Emojis must display properly across different contexts (in text, as reactions, in emoji pickers) while maintaining quality at various sizes. Animated emojis add another layer of complexity.
Perhaps most concerning is the poor #accessibility. Most implementations simply use the emoji code (like :party_blob:) as the alt text, which provides no meaningful information to screen reader users (in particular, non-English speakers) about what the emoji actually depicts or means.
What really dampens my motivation to implement this feature is knowing I'm investing significant effort into something that ultimately creates accessibility barriers. It's disheartening to work hard on a feature that excludes part of the community.
First, there's no standardization. ActivityPub specifications don't define how custom emoji should work, leading to inconsistent implementations across different servers like Mastodon and Misskey.
Rendering is particularly problematic. Emojis must display properly across different contexts (in text, as reactions, in emoji pickers) while maintaining quality at various sizes. Animated emojis add another layer of complexity.
Perhaps most concerning is the poor #accessibility. Most implementations simply use the emoji code (like :party_blob:) as the alt text, which provides no meaningful information to screen reader users (in particular, non-English speakers) about what the emoji actually depicts or means.
What really dampens my motivation to implement this feature is knowing I'm investing significant effort into something that ultimately creates accessibility barriers. It's disheartening to work hard on a feature that excludes part of the community.
First, there's no standardization. ActivityPub specifications don't define how custom emoji should work, leading to inconsistent implementations across different servers like Mastodon and Misskey.
Rendering is particularly problematic. Emojis must display properly across different contexts (in text, as reactions, in emoji pickers) while maintaining quality at various sizes. Animated emojis add another layer of complexity.
Perhaps most concerning is the poor #accessibility. Most implementations simply use the emoji code (like :party_blob:) as the alt text, which provides no meaningful information to screen reader users (in particular, non-English speakers) about what the emoji actually depicts or means.
What really dampens my motivation to implement this feature is knowing I'm investing significant effort into something that ultimately creates accessibility barriers. It's disheartening to work hard on a feature that excludes part of the community.
First, there's no standardization. ActivityPub specifications don't define how custom emoji should work, leading to inconsistent implementations across different servers like Mastodon and Misskey.
Rendering is particularly problematic. Emojis must display properly across different contexts (in text, as reactions, in emoji pickers) while maintaining quality at various sizes. Animated emojis add another layer of complexity.
Perhaps most concerning is the poor #accessibility. Most implementations simply use the emoji code (like :party_blob:) as the alt text, which provides no meaningful information to screen reader users (in particular, non-English speakers) about what the emoji actually depicts or means.
What really dampens my motivation to implement this feature is knowing I'm investing significant effort into something that ultimately creates accessibility barriers. It's disheartening to work hard on a feature that excludes part of the community.
First, there's no standardization. ActivityPub specifications don't define how custom emoji should work, leading to inconsistent implementations across different servers like Mastodon and Misskey.
Rendering is particularly problematic. Emojis must display properly across different contexts (in text, as reactions, in emoji pickers) while maintaining quality at various sizes. Animated emojis add another layer of complexity.
Perhaps most concerning is the poor #accessibility. Most implementations simply use the emoji code (like :party_blob:) as the alt text, which provides no meaningful information to screen reader users (in particular, non-English speakers) about what the emoji actually depicts or means.
What really dampens my motivation to implement this feature is knowing I'm investing significant effort into something that ultimately creates accessibility barriers. It's disheartening to work hard on a feature that excludes part of the community.
First, there's no standardization. ActivityPub specifications don't define how custom emoji should work, leading to inconsistent implementations across different servers like Mastodon and Misskey.
Rendering is particularly problematic. Emojis must display properly across different contexts (in text, as reactions, in emoji pickers) while maintaining quality at various sizes. Animated emojis add another layer of complexity.
Perhaps most concerning is the poor #accessibility. Most implementations simply use the emoji code (like :party_blob:) as the alt text, which provides no meaningful information to screen reader users (in particular, non-English speakers) about what the emoji actually depicts or means.
What really dampens my motivation to implement this feature is knowing I'm investing significant effort into something that ultimately creates accessibility barriers. It's disheartening to work hard on a feature that excludes part of the community.
First, there's no standardization. ActivityPub specifications don't define how custom emoji should work, leading to inconsistent implementations across different servers like Mastodon and Misskey.
Rendering is particularly problematic. Emojis must display properly across different contexts (in text, as reactions, in emoji pickers) while maintaining quality at various sizes. Animated emojis add another layer of complexity.
Perhaps most concerning is the poor #accessibility. Most implementations simply use the emoji code (like :party_blob:) as the alt text, which provides no meaningful information to screen reader users (in particular, non-English speakers) about what the emoji actually depicts or means.
What really dampens my motivation to implement this feature is knowing I'm investing significant effort into something that ultimately creates accessibility barriers. It's disheartening to work hard on a feature that excludes part of the community.
First, there's no standardization. ActivityPub specifications don't define how custom emoji should work, leading to inconsistent implementations across different servers like Mastodon and Misskey.
Rendering is particularly problematic. Emojis must display properly across different contexts (in text, as reactions, in emoji pickers) while maintaining quality at various sizes. Animated emojis add another layer of complexity.
Perhaps most concerning is the poor #accessibility. Most implementations simply use the emoji code (like :party_blob:) as the alt text, which provides no meaningful information to screen reader users (in particular, non-English speakers) about what the emoji actually depicts or means.
What really dampens my motivation to implement this feature is knowing I'm investing significant effort into something that ultimately creates accessibility barriers. It's disheartening to work hard on a feature that excludes part of the community.
First, there's no standardization. ActivityPub specifications don't define how custom emoji should work, leading to inconsistent implementations across different servers like Mastodon and Misskey.
Rendering is particularly problematic. Emojis must display properly across different contexts (in text, as reactions, in emoji pickers) while maintaining quality at various sizes. Animated emojis add another layer of complexity.
Perhaps most concerning is the poor #accessibility. Most implementations simply use the emoji code (like :party_blob:) as the alt text, which provides no meaningful information to screen reader users (in particular, non-English speakers) about what the emoji actually depicts or means.
What really dampens my motivation to implement this feature is knowing I'm investing significant effort into something that ultimately creates accessibility barriers. It's disheartening to work hard on a feature that excludes part of the community.
First, there's no standardization. ActivityPub specifications don't define how custom emoji should work, leading to inconsistent implementations across different servers like Mastodon and Misskey.
Rendering is particularly problematic. Emojis must display properly across different contexts (in text, as reactions, in emoji pickers) while maintaining quality at various sizes. Animated emojis add another layer of complexity.
Perhaps most concerning is the poor #accessibility. Most implementations simply use the emoji code (like :party_blob:) as the alt text, which provides no meaningful information to screen reader users (in particular, non-English speakers) about what the emoji actually depicts or means.
What really dampens my motivation to implement this feature is knowing I'm investing significant effort into something that ultimately creates accessibility barriers. It's disheartening to work hard on a feature that excludes part of the community.
First, there's no standardization. ActivityPub specifications don't define how custom emoji should work, leading to inconsistent implementations across different servers like Mastodon and Misskey.
Rendering is particularly problematic. Emojis must display properly across different contexts (in text, as reactions, in emoji pickers) while maintaining quality at various sizes. Animated emojis add another layer of complexity.
Perhaps most concerning is the poor #accessibility. Most implementations simply use the emoji code (like :party_blob:) as the alt text, which provides no meaningful information to screen reader users (in particular, non-English speakers) about what the emoji actually depicts or means.
What really dampens my motivation to implement this feature is knowing I'm investing significant effort into something that ultimately creates accessibility barriers. It's disheartening to work hard on a feature that excludes part of the community.
First, there's no standardization. ActivityPub specifications don't define how custom emoji should work, leading to inconsistent implementations across different servers like Mastodon and Misskey.
Rendering is particularly problematic. Emojis must display properly across different contexts (in text, as reactions, in emoji pickers) while maintaining quality at various sizes. Animated emojis add another layer of complexity.
Perhaps most concerning is the poor #accessibility. Most implementations simply use the emoji code (like :party_blob:) as the alt text, which provides no meaningful information to screen reader users (in particular, non-English speakers) about what the emoji actually depicts or means.
What really dampens my motivation to implement this feature is knowing I'm investing significant effort into something that ultimately creates accessibility barriers. It's disheartening to work hard on a feature that excludes part of the community.
I've been considering what to add in the next version of BotKit (v0.2.0) and wanted to share my current plans. After reviewing feedback and examining the #ActivityPub ecosystem, I've identified three key features that would significantly enhance the framework's capabilities:
Custom emoji support. This would allow bots to use server-defined custom emojis in their messages, making communication more expressive and allowing better integration with instance culture.
Emoji reactions. I plan to implement both sending and receiving emoji reactions to messages. This provides a lightweight interaction model that many users prefer for simple acknowledgments or responses. This would manifest as new event handlers (like Bot.onReaction) and methods (like Message.react()).
Quote posts. The ability to reference other posts with commentary is an important discourse feature in the fediverse. Supporting both sending quotes and detecting when bot posts have been quoted would enable more sophisticated conversational patterns.
These additions should make #BotKit more capable while maintaining its simple, developer-friendly API. I expect implementation to involve extending the Message class and adding new Text processing capabilities, all while keeping backward compatibility with existing bots. Having built both Hollo and Hackers' Pub, I already have deep familiarity with how various ActivityPub implementations handle these features across the fediverse. I welcome any community feedback on priorities or implementation details before I begin coding.
We want our users to share their knowledge in multiple languages, but we need to ensure compatibility with existing ActivityPub servers. I'm considering several approaches:
Creating separate posts for each language with clear language indicators, linking them through inReplyTo relationships (so translations appear as replies to the original post)
Using the primary language in content while storing translations in contentMap
Adding "View in other languages" links at the bottom of each post
Implementing inline language dividers that degrade gracefully on non-supporting servers, for example:
<div lang="en"> <h3>English</h3> <p>This is the English content…</p></div><hr><div lang="ko"> <h3>한국어</h3> <p>한국어 내용입니다…</p></div>
I'm leaning toward a hybrid approach—showing content in the user's preferred language when possible while providing easy access to other language versions.
Has anyone tackled this problem effectively? I'd love to hear about your experiences or ideas for making multilingual content work well in the fediverse, especially when dealing with server implementations that don't fully support ActivityPub's multilingual features.
Before I go though and file my own issue for this, does anyone know whats up with @peertube's support for remote edits / updates of comments/replies? It seems like its not implemented and I didn't find any issues filed for this which seemed strange to me. Maybe I am overlooking something? #fedidev
I've been considering what to add in the next version of BotKit (v0.2.0) and wanted to share my current plans. After reviewing feedback and examining the #ActivityPub ecosystem, I've identified three key features that would significantly enhance the framework's capabilities:
Custom emoji support. This would allow bots to use server-defined custom emojis in their messages, making communication more expressive and allowing better integration with instance culture.
Emoji reactions. I plan to implement both sending and receiving emoji reactions to messages. This provides a lightweight interaction model that many users prefer for simple acknowledgments or responses. This would manifest as new event handlers (like Bot.onReaction) and methods (like Message.react()).
Quote posts. The ability to reference other posts with commentary is an important discourse feature in the fediverse. Supporting both sending quotes and detecting when bot posts have been quoted would enable more sophisticated conversational patterns.
These additions should make #BotKit more capable while maintaining its simple, developer-friendly API. I expect implementation to involve extending the Message class and adding new Text processing capabilities, all while keeping backward compatibility with existing bots. Having built both Hollo and Hackers' Pub, I already have deep familiarity with how various ActivityPub implementations handle these features across the fediverse. I welcome any community feedback on priorities or implementation details before I begin coding.
I've been considering what to add in the next version of BotKit (v0.2.0) and wanted to share my current plans. After reviewing feedback and examining the #ActivityPub ecosystem, I've identified three key features that would significantly enhance the framework's capabilities:
Custom emoji support. This would allow bots to use server-defined custom emojis in their messages, making communication more expressive and allowing better integration with instance culture.
Emoji reactions. I plan to implement both sending and receiving emoji reactions to messages. This provides a lightweight interaction model that many users prefer for simple acknowledgments or responses. This would manifest as new event handlers (like Bot.onReaction) and methods (like Message.react()).
Quote posts. The ability to reference other posts with commentary is an important discourse feature in the fediverse. Supporting both sending quotes and detecting when bot posts have been quoted would enable more sophisticated conversational patterns.
These additions should make #BotKit more capable while maintaining its simple, developer-friendly API. I expect implementation to involve extending the Message class and adding new Text processing capabilities, all while keeping backward compatibility with existing bots. Having built both Hollo and Hackers' Pub, I already have deep familiarity with how various ActivityPub implementations handle these features across the fediverse. I welcome any community feedback on priorities or implementation details before I begin coding.
I've been considering what to add in the next version of BotKit (v0.2.0) and wanted to share my current plans. After reviewing feedback and examining the #ActivityPub ecosystem, I've identified three key features that would significantly enhance the framework's capabilities:
Custom emoji support. This would allow bots to use server-defined custom emojis in their messages, making communication more expressive and allowing better integration with instance culture.
Emoji reactions. I plan to implement both sending and receiving emoji reactions to messages. This provides a lightweight interaction model that many users prefer for simple acknowledgments or responses. This would manifest as new event handlers (like Bot.onReaction) and methods (like Message.react()).
Quote posts. The ability to reference other posts with commentary is an important discourse feature in the fediverse. Supporting both sending quotes and detecting when bot posts have been quoted would enable more sophisticated conversational patterns.
These additions should make #BotKit more capable while maintaining its simple, developer-friendly API. I expect implementation to involve extending the Message class and adding new Text processing capabilities, all while keeping backward compatibility with existing bots. Having built both Hollo and Hackers' Pub, I already have deep familiarity with how various ActivityPub implementations handle these features across the fediverse. I welcome any community feedback on priorities or implementation details before I begin coding.
I've been considering what to add in the next version of BotKit (v0.2.0) and wanted to share my current plans. After reviewing feedback and examining the #ActivityPub ecosystem, I've identified three key features that would significantly enhance the framework's capabilities:
Custom emoji support. This would allow bots to use server-defined custom emojis in their messages, making communication more expressive and allowing better integration with instance culture.
Emoji reactions. I plan to implement both sending and receiving emoji reactions to messages. This provides a lightweight interaction model that many users prefer for simple acknowledgments or responses. This would manifest as new event handlers (like Bot.onReaction) and methods (like Message.react()).
Quote posts. The ability to reference other posts with commentary is an important discourse feature in the fediverse. Supporting both sending quotes and detecting when bot posts have been quoted would enable more sophisticated conversational patterns.
These additions should make #BotKit more capable while maintaining its simple, developer-friendly API. I expect implementation to involve extending the Message class and adding new Text processing capabilities, all while keeping backward compatibility with existing bots. Having built both Hollo and Hackers' Pub, I already have deep familiarity with how various ActivityPub implementations handle these features across the fediverse. I welcome any community feedback on priorities or implementation details before I begin coding.
I've been considering what to add in the next version of BotKit (v0.2.0) and wanted to share my current plans. After reviewing feedback and examining the #ActivityPub ecosystem, I've identified three key features that would significantly enhance the framework's capabilities:
Custom emoji support. This would allow bots to use server-defined custom emojis in their messages, making communication more expressive and allowing better integration with instance culture.
Emoji reactions. I plan to implement both sending and receiving emoji reactions to messages. This provides a lightweight interaction model that many users prefer for simple acknowledgments or responses. This would manifest as new event handlers (like Bot.onReaction) and methods (like Message.react()).
Quote posts. The ability to reference other posts with commentary is an important discourse feature in the fediverse. Supporting both sending quotes and detecting when bot posts have been quoted would enable more sophisticated conversational patterns.
These additions should make #BotKit more capable while maintaining its simple, developer-friendly API. I expect implementation to involve extending the Message class and adding new Text processing capabilities, all while keeping backward compatibility with existing bots. Having built both Hollo and Hackers' Pub, I already have deep familiarity with how various ActivityPub implementations handle these features across the fediverse. I welcome any community feedback on priorities or implementation details before I begin coding.
I've been considering what to add in the next version of BotKit (v0.2.0) and wanted to share my current plans. After reviewing feedback and examining the #ActivityPub ecosystem, I've identified three key features that would significantly enhance the framework's capabilities:
Custom emoji support. This would allow bots to use server-defined custom emojis in their messages, making communication more expressive and allowing better integration with instance culture.
Emoji reactions. I plan to implement both sending and receiving emoji reactions to messages. This provides a lightweight interaction model that many users prefer for simple acknowledgments or responses. This would manifest as new event handlers (like Bot.onReaction) and methods (like Message.react()).
Quote posts. The ability to reference other posts with commentary is an important discourse feature in the fediverse. Supporting both sending quotes and detecting when bot posts have been quoted would enable more sophisticated conversational patterns.
These additions should make #BotKit more capable while maintaining its simple, developer-friendly API. I expect implementation to involve extending the Message class and adding new Text processing capabilities, all while keeping backward compatibility with existing bots. Having built both Hollo and Hackers' Pub, I already have deep familiarity with how various ActivityPub implementations handle these features across the fediverse. I welcome any community feedback on priorities or implementation details before I begin coding.
We want our users to share their knowledge in multiple languages, but we need to ensure compatibility with existing ActivityPub servers. I'm considering several approaches:
Creating separate posts for each language with clear language indicators, linking them through inReplyTo relationships (so translations appear as replies to the original post)
Using the primary language in content while storing translations in contentMap
Adding "View in other languages" links at the bottom of each post
Implementing inline language dividers that degrade gracefully on non-supporting servers, for example:
<div lang="en"> <h3>English</h3> <p>This is the English content…</p></div><hr><div lang="ko"> <h3>한국어</h3> <p>한국어 내용입니다…</p></div>
I'm leaning toward a hybrid approach—showing content in the user's preferred language when possible while providing easy access to other language versions.
Has anyone tackled this problem effectively? I'd love to hear about your experiences or ideas for making multilingual content work well in the fediverse, especially when dealing with server implementations that don't fully support ActivityPub's multilingual features.
We want our users to share their knowledge in multiple languages, but we need to ensure compatibility with existing ActivityPub servers. I'm considering several approaches:
Creating separate posts for each language with clear language indicators, linking them through inReplyTo relationships (so translations appear as replies to the original post)
Using the primary language in content while storing translations in contentMap
Adding "View in other languages" links at the bottom of each post
Implementing inline language dividers that degrade gracefully on non-supporting servers, for example:
<div lang="en"> <h3>English</h3> <p>This is the English content…</p></div><hr><div lang="ko"> <h3>한국어</h3> <p>한국어 내용입니다…</p></div>
I'm leaning toward a hybrid approach—showing content in the user's preferred language when possible while providing easy access to other language versions.
Has anyone tackled this problem effectively? I'd love to hear about your experiences or ideas for making multilingual content work well in the fediverse, especially when dealing with server implementations that don't fully support ActivityPub's multilingual features.
We want our users to share their knowledge in multiple languages, but we need to ensure compatibility with existing ActivityPub servers. I'm considering several approaches:
Creating separate posts for each language with clear language indicators, linking them through inReplyTo relationships (so translations appear as replies to the original post)
Using the primary language in content while storing translations in contentMap
Adding "View in other languages" links at the bottom of each post
Implementing inline language dividers that degrade gracefully on non-supporting servers, for example:
<div lang="en"> <h3>English</h3> <p>This is the English content…</p></div><hr><div lang="ko"> <h3>한국어</h3> <p>한국어 내용입니다…</p></div>
I'm leaning toward a hybrid approach—showing content in the user's preferred language when possible while providing easy access to other language versions.
Has anyone tackled this problem effectively? I'd love to hear about your experiences or ideas for making multilingual content work well in the fediverse, especially when dealing with server implementations that don't fully support ActivityPub's multilingual features.
We want our users to share their knowledge in multiple languages, but we need to ensure compatibility with existing ActivityPub servers. I'm considering several approaches:
Creating separate posts for each language with clear language indicators, linking them through inReplyTo relationships (so translations appear as replies to the original post)
Using the primary language in content while storing translations in contentMap
Adding "View in other languages" links at the bottom of each post
Implementing inline language dividers that degrade gracefully on non-supporting servers, for example:
<div lang="en"> <h3>English</h3> <p>This is the English content…</p></div><hr><div lang="ko"> <h3>한국어</h3> <p>한국어 내용입니다…</p></div>
I'm leaning toward a hybrid approach—showing content in the user's preferred language when possible while providing easy access to other language versions.
Has anyone tackled this problem effectively? I'd love to hear about your experiences or ideas for making multilingual content work well in the fediverse, especially when dealing with server implementations that don't fully support ActivityPub's multilingual features.
We want our users to share their knowledge in multiple languages, but we need to ensure compatibility with existing ActivityPub servers. I'm considering several approaches:
Creating separate posts for each language with clear language indicators, linking them through inReplyTo relationships (so translations appear as replies to the original post)
Using the primary language in content while storing translations in contentMap
Adding "View in other languages" links at the bottom of each post
Implementing inline language dividers that degrade gracefully on non-supporting servers, for example:
<div lang="en"> <h3>English</h3> <p>This is the English content…</p></div><hr><div lang="ko"> <h3>한국어</h3> <p>한국어 내용입니다…</p></div>
I'm leaning toward a hybrid approach—showing content in the user's preferred language when possible while providing easy access to other language versions.
Has anyone tackled this problem effectively? I'd love to hear about your experiences or ideas for making multilingual content work well in the fediverse, especially when dealing with server implementations that don't fully support ActivityPub's multilingual features.
We want our users to share their knowledge in multiple languages, but we need to ensure compatibility with existing ActivityPub servers. I'm considering several approaches:
Creating separate posts for each language with clear language indicators, linking them through inReplyTo relationships (so translations appear as replies to the original post)
Using the primary language in content while storing translations in contentMap
Adding "View in other languages" links at the bottom of each post
Implementing inline language dividers that degrade gracefully on non-supporting servers, for example:
<div lang="en"> <h3>English</h3> <p>This is the English content…</p></div><hr><div lang="ko"> <h3>한국어</h3> <p>한국어 내용입니다…</p></div>
I'm leaning toward a hybrid approach—showing content in the user's preferred language when possible while providing easy access to other language versions.
Has anyone tackled this problem effectively? I'd love to hear about your experiences or ideas for making multilingual content work well in the fediverse, especially when dealing with server implementations that don't fully support ActivityPub's multilingual features.
We want our users to share their knowledge in multiple languages, but we need to ensure compatibility with existing ActivityPub servers. I'm considering several approaches:
Creating separate posts for each language with clear language indicators, linking them through inReplyTo relationships (so translations appear as replies to the original post)
Using the primary language in content while storing translations in contentMap
Adding "View in other languages" links at the bottom of each post
Implementing inline language dividers that degrade gracefully on non-supporting servers, for example:
<div lang="en"> <h3>English</h3> <p>This is the English content…</p></div><hr><div lang="ko"> <h3>한국어</h3> <p>한국어 내용입니다…</p></div>
I'm leaning toward a hybrid approach—showing content in the user's preferred language when possible while providing easy access to other language versions.
Has anyone tackled this problem effectively? I'd love to hear about your experiences or ideas for making multilingual content work well in the fediverse, especially when dealing with server implementations that don't fully support ActivityPub's multilingual features.
We want our users to share their knowledge in multiple languages, but we need to ensure compatibility with existing ActivityPub servers. I'm considering several approaches:
Creating separate posts for each language with clear language indicators, linking them through inReplyTo relationships (so translations appear as replies to the original post)
Using the primary language in content while storing translations in contentMap
Adding "View in other languages" links at the bottom of each post
Implementing inline language dividers that degrade gracefully on non-supporting servers, for example:
<div lang="en"> <h3>English</h3> <p>This is the English content…</p></div><hr><div lang="ko"> <h3>한국어</h3> <p>한국어 내용입니다…</p></div>
I'm leaning toward a hybrid approach—showing content in the user's preferred language when possible while providing easy access to other language versions.
Has anyone tackled this problem effectively? I'd love to hear about your experiences or ideas for making multilingual content work well in the fediverse, especially when dealing with server implementations that don't fully support ActivityPub's multilingual features.
We want our users to share their knowledge in multiple languages, but we need to ensure compatibility with existing ActivityPub servers. I'm considering several approaches:
Creating separate posts for each language with clear language indicators, linking them through inReplyTo relationships (so translations appear as replies to the original post)
Using the primary language in content while storing translations in contentMap
Adding "View in other languages" links at the bottom of each post
Implementing inline language dividers that degrade gracefully on non-supporting servers, for example:
<div lang="en"> <h3>English</h3> <p>This is the English content…</p></div><hr><div lang="ko"> <h3>한국어</h3> <p>한국어 내용입니다…</p></div>
I'm leaning toward a hybrid approach—showing content in the user's preferred language when possible while providing easy access to other language versions.
Has anyone tackled this problem effectively? I'd love to hear about your experiences or ideas for making multilingual content work well in the fediverse, especially when dealing with server implementations that don't fully support ActivityPub's multilingual features.
Don't build #ActivityPub from scratch! It's complex. See why using the #Fedify framework is the smarter way to develop for the fediverse in my new post:
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
Don't build #ActivityPub from scratch! It's complex. See why using the #Fedify framework is the smarter way to develop for the fediverse in my new post:
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
Don't build #ActivityPub from scratch! It's complex. See why using the #Fedify framework is the smarter way to develop for the fediverse in my new post:
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
Don't build #ActivityPub from scratch! It's complex. See why using the #Fedify framework is the smarter way to develop for the fediverse in my new post:
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
Don't build #ActivityPub from scratch! It's complex. See why using the #Fedify framework is the smarter way to develop for the fediverse in my new post:
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
Don't build #ActivityPub from scratch! It's complex. See why using the #Fedify framework is the smarter way to develop for the fediverse in my new post:
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
Don't build #ActivityPub from scratch! It's complex. See why using the #Fedify framework is the smarter way to develop for the fediverse in my new post:
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
Don't build #ActivityPub from scratch! It's complex. See why using the #Fedify framework is the smarter way to develop for the fediverse in my new post:
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
Don't build #ActivityPub from scratch! It's complex. See why using the #Fedify framework is the smarter way to develop for the fediverse in my new post:
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
Don't build #ActivityPub from scratch! It's complex. See why using the #Fedify framework is the smarter way to develop for the fediverse in my new post:
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
Don't build #ActivityPub from scratch! It's complex. See why using the #Fedify framework is the smarter way to develop for the fediverse in my new post:
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
Don't build #ActivityPub from scratch! It's complex. See why using the #Fedify framework is the smarter way to develop for the fediverse in my new post:
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
Don't build #ActivityPub from scratch! It's complex. See why using the #Fedify framework is the smarter way to develop for the fediverse in my new post:
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
Don't build #ActivityPub from scratch! It's complex. See why using the #Fedify framework is the smarter way to develop for the fediverse in my new post:
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
Don't build #ActivityPub from scratch! It's complex. See why using the #Fedify framework is the smarter way to develop for the fediverse in my new post:
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
Don't build #ActivityPub from scratch! It's complex. See why using the #Fedify framework is the smarter way to develop for the fediverse in my new post:
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
Don't build #ActivityPub from scratch! It's complex. See why using the #Fedify framework is the smarter way to develop for the fediverse in my new post:
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
Don't build #ActivityPub from scratch! It's complex. See why using the #Fedify framework is the smarter way to develop for the fediverse in my new post:
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
So, you're captivated by the fediverse—the decentralized social web powered by protocols like ActivityPub. Maybe you're dreaming of building the next great federated app, a unique space connected to Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, and more. The temptation to dive deep and implement ActivityPub yourself, from the ground up, is strong. Total control, right? Understanding every byte? Sounds cool!
But hold on a sec. Before you embark on that epic quest, let's talk reality. Implementing ActivityPub correctly isn't just one task; it's like juggling several complex standards while riding a unicycle… blindfolded. It’s hard.
That's where Fedify comes in. It's a TypeScript framework designed to handle the gnarliest parts of ActivityPub development, letting you focus on what makes your app special, not reinventing the federation wheel.
This post will break down the common headaches of DIY ActivityPub implementation and show how Fedify acts as the super-powered pain reliever, starting with the very foundation of how data is represented.
Challenge #1: Data Modeling—Speaking ActivityStreams & JSON-LD Fluently
At its core, ActivityPub relies on the ActivityStreams 2.0 vocabulary to describe actions and objects, and it uses JSON-LD as the syntax to encode this vocabulary. While powerful, this combination introduces significant complexity right from the start.
First, understanding and correctly using the vast ActivityStreams vocabulary itself is a hurdle. You need to model everything—posts (Note, Article), profiles (Person, Organization), actions (Create, Follow, Like, Announce)—using the precise terms and properties defined in the specification. Manual JSON construction is tedious and prone to errors.
Second, JSON-LD, the encoding layer, has specific rules that make direct JSON manipulation surprisingly tricky:
Missing vs. Empty Array: In JSON-LD, a property being absent is often semantically identical to it being present with an empty array. Your application logic needs to treat these cases equally when checking for values. For example, these two Note objects mean the same thing regarding the name property:
// No name property{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "…"}
Single Value vs. Array: Similarly, a property holding a single value directly is often equivalent to it holding a single-element array containing that value. Your code must anticipate both representations for the same meaning, like for the content property here:
// Single value{ "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "type": "Note", "content": "Hello"}
Object Reference vs. Embedded Object: Properties can contain either the full JSON-LD object embedded directly or just a URI string referencing that object. Your application needs to be prepared to fetch the object's data if only a URI is given (a process called dereferencing). These two Announce activities are semantically equivalent (assuming the URIs resolve correctly):
Attempting to manually handle all these vocabulary rules and JSON-LD variations consistently across your application inevitably leads to verbose, complex, and fragile code, ripe for subtle bugs that break federation.
Fedify tackles this entire data modeling challenge with its comprehensive, type-safe Activity Vocabulary API. It provides TypeScript classes for ActivityStreams types and common extensions, giving you autocompletion and compile-time safety. Crucially, these classes internally manage all the tricky JSON-LD nuances. Fedify's property accessors present a consistent interface—non-functional properties (like tags) always return arrays, functional properties (like content) always return single values or null. It handles object references versus embedded objects seamlessly through dereferencing accessors (like activity.getActor()) which automatically fetch remote objects via URI when needed—a feature known as property hydration. With Fedify, you work with a clean, predictable TypeScript API, letting the framework handle the messy details of AS vocabulary and JSON-LD encoding.
Challenge #2: Discovery & Identity—Finding Your Actors
Once you can model data, you need to make your actors discoverable. This primarily involves the WebFinger protocol (RFC 7033). You'd need to build a server endpoint at /.well-known/webfinger capable of parsing resource queries (like acct: URIs), validating the requested domain against your server, and responding with a precisely formatted JSON Resource Descriptor (JRD). This JRD must include specific links, like a self link pointing to the actor's ActivityPub ID using the correct media type. Getting any part of this wrong can make your actors invisible.
Fedify simplifies this significantly. It automatically handles WebFinger requests based on the actor information you provide through its setActorDispatcher() method. Fedify generates the correct JRD response. If you need more advanced control, like mapping user-facing handles to internal identifiers, you can easily register mapHandle() or mapAlias() callbacks. You focus on defining your actors; Fedify handles making them discoverable.
// Example: Define how to find actorsfederation.setActorDispatcher( "/users/{username}", async (ctx, username) => { /* ... */ });// Now GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:username@your.domain just works!
Challenge #3: Core ActivityPub Mechanics—Handling Requests and Collections
Serving actor profiles requires careful content negotiation. A request for an actor's ID needs JSON-LD for machine clients (Accept: application/activity+json) but HTML for browsers (Accept: text/html). Handling incoming activities at the inbox endpoint involves validating POST requests, verifying cryptographic signatures, parsing the payload, preventing duplicates (idempotency), and routing based on activity type. Implementing collections (outbox, followers, etc.) with correct pagination adds another layer.
Fedify streamlines all of this. Its core request handler (via Federation.fetch() or framework adapters like @fedify/express) manages content negotiation. You define actors with setActorDispatcher() and web pages with your framework (Hono, Express, SvelteKit, etc.)—Fedify routes appropriately. For the inbox, setInboxListeners() lets you define handlers per activity type (e.g., .on(Follow, ...)), while Fedify automatically handles validation, signature verification, parsing, and idempotency checks using its KV Store. Collection implementation is simplified via dispatchers (e.g., setFollowersDispatcher()); you provide logic to fetch a page of data, and Fedify constructs the correct Collection or CollectionPage with pagination.
Sending an activity requires more than a simple POST. Networks fail, servers go down. You need robust failure handling and retry logic (ideally with backoff). Processing incoming activities synchronously can block your server. Efficiently broadcasting to many followers (fan-out) requires background processing and using shared inboxes where possible.
Fedify addresses reliability and scalability using its MessageQueue abstraction. When configured (highly recommended), Context.sendActivity() enqueues delivery tasks. Background workers handle sending with automatic retries based on configurable policies (like outboxRetryPolicy). Fedify supports various queue backends (Deno KV, Redis, PostgreSQL, AMQP). For high-traffic fan-out, Fedify uses an optimized two-stage mechanism to distribute the load efficiently.
// Configure Fedify with a persistent queue (e.g., Deno KV)const federation = createFederation({ queue: new DenoKvMessageQueue(/* ... */), // ...});// Sending is now reliable and non-blockingawait ctx.sendActivity({ handle: "myUser" }, recipient, someActivity);
Fedify is designed with security in mind. It automatically handles the creation and verification of HTTP Signatures, LDS, and OIP, provided you supply keys via setKeyPairsDispatcher(). It includes key management utilities. Crucially, Fedify's default document loader includes built-in SSRF protection, blocking requests to private IPs unless explicitly allowed.
Challenge #6: Interoperability & Maintenance—Playing Nicely with Others
The fediverse is diverse. Different servers have quirks. Ensuring compatibility requires testing and adaptation. Standards evolve with new Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs). You also need protocols like NodeInfo to advertise server capabilities.
Fedify aims for broad interoperability and is actively maintained. It includes features like ActivityTransformers to smooth over implementation differences. NodeInfo support is built-in via setNodeInfoDispatcher().
Challenge #7: Developer Experience—Actually Building Your App
Beyond the protocol, building any server involves setup, testing, and debugging. With federation, debugging becomes harder—was the message malformed? Was the signature wrong? Is the remote server down? Is it a compatibility quirk? Good tooling is essential.
Fedify enhances the developer experience significantly. Being built with TypeScript, it offers excellent type safety and editor auto-completion. The fedify CLI is a powerful companion designed to streamline common development tasks.
You can quickly scaffold a new project tailored to your chosen runtime and web framework using fedify init.
For debugging interactions and verifying data, fedify lookup is invaluable. It lets you inspect how any remote actor or object appears from the outside by performing WebFinger discovery and fetching the object's data. Fedify then displays the parsed object structure and properties directly in your terminal. For example, running:
Will first show progress messages and then output the structured representation of the actor, similar to this:
// Output of fedify lookup command (shows parsed object structure)Person { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", name: "Fedify Example Blog", published: 2024-03-03T13:18:11.857Z, // Simplified timestamp summary: "This blog is powered by Fedify, a fediverse server framework.", url: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/", preferredUsername: "fedify-example", publicKey: CryptographicKey { id: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example#main-key", owner: URL "https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example", publicKey: CryptoKey { /* ... CryptoKey details ... */ } }, // ... other properties like inbox, outbox, followers, endpoints ...}
This allows you to easily check how data is structured or troubleshoot why an interaction might be failing by seeing the actual properties Fedify parsed.
Testing outgoing activities from your application during development is made much easier with fedify inbox. Running the command starts a temporary local server that acts as a publicly accessible inbox, displaying key information about the temporary actor it creates for receiving messages:
$ fedify inbox✔ The ephemeral ActivityPub server is up and running: https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/✔ Sent follow request to @<some_test_account>@activitypub.academy.╭───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────╮│ Actor handle: │ i@<unique_id>.lhr.life │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor URI: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Actor inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/i/inbox │├───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤│ Shared inbox: │ https://<unique_id>.lhr.life/inbox │╰───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────╯Web interface available at: http://localhost:8000/
You then configure your developing application to send an activity to the Actor inbox or Shared inbox URI provided. When an activity arrives, fedify inboxonly prints a summary table to your console indicating that a request was received:
Crucially, the detailed information about the received request—including the full headers (like Signature), the request body (the Activity JSON), and the signature verification status—is only available in the web interface provided by fedify inbox. This web UI allows you to thoroughly inspect incoming activities during development.
The Fedify Inbox web UI is where you view detailed activity information.
When you need to test interactions with the live fediverse from your local machine beyond just sending, fedify tunnel can securely expose your entire local development server temporarily. This suite of tools significantly eases the process of building and debugging federated applications.
Conclusion: Build Features, Not Plumbing
Implementing the ActivityPub suite of protocols from scratch is an incredibly complex and time-consuming undertaking. It involves deep dives into multiple technical specifications, cryptographic signing, security hardening, and navigating the nuances of a diverse ecosystem. While educational, it dramatically slows down the process of building the actual, unique features of your federated application.
Fedify offers a well-architected, secure, and type-safe foundation, handling the intricacies of federation for you—data modeling, discovery, core mechanics, delivery, security, and interoperability. It lets you focus on your application's unique value and user experience. Stop wrestling with low-level protocol details and start building your vision for the fediverse faster and more reliably. Give Fedify a try!
Getting started is straightforward. First, install the Fedify CLI using your preferred method. Once installed, create a new project template by running fedify init your-project-name.
Fetching remote #ActivityPub objects or actors often involves handling #WebFinger lookups, content negotiation, and then parsing potentially untyped JSON.
With #Fedify, it's much simpler: use Context.lookupObject(). Pass it a URI (e.g., https://instance.tld/users/alice) or a handle (e.g., @alice@instance.tld), and Fedify handles the lookup and content negotiation automatically.
The real power comes from the return value: a type-safe Activity Vocabulary object, not just raw JSON. This allows you to confidently access properties and methods directly. For example, you can safely traverse account moves using .getSuccessor() like this:
let actor = await ctx.lookupObject("@alice@instance.tld");
while (isActor(actor)) {
const successor = await actor.getSuccessor();
if (successor == null) break;
actor = successor;
}
// actor now holds the latest account after moves
Fetching remote #ActivityPub objects or actors often involves handling #WebFinger lookups, content negotiation, and then parsing potentially untyped JSON.
With #Fedify, it's much simpler: use Context.lookupObject(). Pass it a URI (e.g., https://instance.tld/users/alice) or a handle (e.g., @alice@instance.tld), and Fedify handles the lookup and content negotiation automatically.
The real power comes from the return value: a type-safe Activity Vocabulary object, not just raw JSON. This allows you to confidently access properties and methods directly. For example, you can safely traverse account moves using .getSuccessor() like this:
let actor = await ctx.lookupObject("@alice@instance.tld");
while (isActor(actor)) {
const successor = await actor.getSuccessor();
if (successor == null) break;
actor = successor;
}
// actor now holds the latest account after moves
Fetching remote #ActivityPub objects or actors often involves handling #WebFinger lookups, content negotiation, and then parsing potentially untyped JSON.
With #Fedify, it's much simpler: use Context.lookupObject(). Pass it a URI (e.g., https://instance.tld/users/alice) or a handle (e.g., @alice@instance.tld), and Fedify handles the lookup and content negotiation automatically.
The real power comes from the return value: a type-safe Activity Vocabulary object, not just raw JSON. This allows you to confidently access properties and methods directly. For example, you can safely traverse account moves using .getSuccessor() like this:
let actor = await ctx.lookupObject("@alice@instance.tld");
while (isActor(actor)) {
const successor = await actor.getSuccessor();
if (successor == null) break;
actor = successor;
}
// actor now holds the latest account after moves
Fetching remote #ActivityPub objects or actors often involves handling #WebFinger lookups, content negotiation, and then parsing potentially untyped JSON.
With #Fedify, it's much simpler: use Context.lookupObject(). Pass it a URI (e.g., https://instance.tld/users/alice) or a handle (e.g., @alice@instance.tld), and Fedify handles the lookup and content negotiation automatically.
The real power comes from the return value: a type-safe Activity Vocabulary object, not just raw JSON. This allows you to confidently access properties and methods directly. For example, you can safely traverse account moves using .getSuccessor() like this:
let actor = await ctx.lookupObject("@alice@instance.tld");
while (isActor(actor)) {
const successor = await actor.getSuccessor();
if (successor == null) break;
actor = successor;
}
// actor now holds the latest account after moves
Fetching remote #ActivityPub objects or actors often involves handling #WebFinger lookups, content negotiation, and then parsing potentially untyped JSON.
With #Fedify, it's much simpler: use Context.lookupObject(). Pass it a URI (e.g., https://instance.tld/users/alice) or a handle (e.g., @alice@instance.tld), and Fedify handles the lookup and content negotiation automatically.
The real power comes from the return value: a type-safe Activity Vocabulary object, not just raw JSON. This allows you to confidently access properties and methods directly. For example, you can safely traverse account moves using .getSuccessor() like this:
let actor = await ctx.lookupObject("@alice@instance.tld");
while (isActor(actor)) {
const successor = await actor.getSuccessor();
if (successor == null) break;
actor = successor;
}
// actor now holds the latest account after moves
Fetching remote #ActivityPub objects or actors often involves handling #WebFinger lookups, content negotiation, and then parsing potentially untyped JSON.
With #Fedify, it's much simpler: use Context.lookupObject(). Pass it a URI (e.g., https://instance.tld/users/alice) or a handle (e.g., @alice@instance.tld), and Fedify handles the lookup and content negotiation automatically.
The real power comes from the return value: a type-safe Activity Vocabulary object, not just raw JSON. This allows you to confidently access properties and methods directly. For example, you can safely traverse account moves using .getSuccessor() like this:
let actor = await ctx.lookupObject("@alice@instance.tld");
while (isActor(actor)) {
const successor = await actor.getSuccessor();
if (successor == null) break;
actor = successor;
}
// actor now holds the latest account after moves
Fetching remote #ActivityPub objects or actors often involves handling #WebFinger lookups, content negotiation, and then parsing potentially untyped JSON.
With #Fedify, it's much simpler: use Context.lookupObject(). Pass it a URI (e.g., https://instance.tld/users/alice) or a handle (e.g., @alice@instance.tld), and Fedify handles the lookup and content negotiation automatically.
The real power comes from the return value: a type-safe Activity Vocabulary object, not just raw JSON. This allows you to confidently access properties and methods directly. For example, you can safely traverse account moves using .getSuccessor() like this:
let actor = await ctx.lookupObject("@alice@instance.tld");
while (isActor(actor)) {
const successor = await actor.getSuccessor();
if (successor == null) break;
actor = successor;
}
// actor now holds the latest account after moves
Introducing #Hollo. Hollo is an #ActivityPub-enabled single-user microblogging software. Although it's for a single user, it also supports creating and running multiple accounts for different topics.
It's headless, meaning you can use existing #Mastodon client apps instead, with its Mastodon-compatible APIs. It has most feature parity with Mastodon. Two big differences with Mastodon is that you can use #Markdown in the content of your posts and you can quote another post.
Introducing #Hollo. Hollo is an #ActivityPub-enabled single-user microblogging software. Although it's for a single user, it also supports creating and running multiple accounts for different topics.
It's headless, meaning you can use existing #Mastodon client apps instead, with its Mastodon-compatible APIs. It has most feature parity with Mastodon. Two big differences with Mastodon is that you can use #Markdown in the content of your posts and you can quote another post.
Introducing #Hollo. Hollo is an #ActivityPub-enabled single-user microblogging software. Although it's for a single user, it also supports creating and running multiple accounts for different topics.
It's headless, meaning you can use existing #Mastodon client apps instead, with its Mastodon-compatible APIs. It has most feature parity with Mastodon. Two big differences with Mastodon is that you can use #Markdown in the content of your posts and you can quote another post.
Introducing #Hollo. Hollo is an #ActivityPub-enabled single-user microblogging software. Although it's for a single user, it also supports creating and running multiple accounts for different topics.
It's headless, meaning you can use existing #Mastodon client apps instead, with its Mastodon-compatible APIs. It has most feature parity with Mastodon. Two big differences with Mastodon is that you can use #Markdown in the content of your posts and you can quote another post.
The number one cause of Fediverse servers crashing seems to be the storage drives filling up with cached Fediverse user data — posts, profiles, avatar images, header images, etc.
But, Misskey and the Misskey forks (ex: Firefish, Sharkey, etc) also have an additional challenge that fills up their storage drives —
A nice side-effect of using a Fediverse caching server is — for some Fediverse software, it would enable the Fediverse software to run on a less expensive computer.
(For example, compressing and shrinking images can make the computer needs higher. If that is delegated to a caching server, etc, then the Fediverse server doesn't incur that higher computer needs. Which makes hosting less expensive.)
I think a good strategy to broadly address this is — for Fediverse software to have a concept of caching-servers they could delegate to, to do the caching for them.
These caching servers could even be shared.
...
I have been working on such a Fediverse caching server.
But the various Fediverse software out there would need to be modified to use it.
FYI: Abelio will provide couple of ways of publishing visual contents. One of them is part of the article editor and it let's you organise multiple images in a form of a flexible grid you can arrange as needed.
Based on my testing (and that of others), Mastodon doesn't seem to recognize the creator link correctly when the leading @ is present in the content attribute. It only works when the @ is removed, like this:
Following the blog's example directly led to some wasted time figuring out why it wasn't working. It would be great if either the example in the blog post could be corrected to reflect the current requirement, or if Mastodon's parser could be made more flexible to accept the handle with or without the leading @.
Listen, as someone that follows many fediverse platforms, @thisismissem is one of the most active in the community. She has jumped in and assisted with security and ActivityPub issues across them all.
Please consider contributing to her tip jar if you can, especially for this last bit of advocacy work. Find her contribution options on her profile.
Listen, as someone that follows many fediverse platforms, @thisismissem is one of the most active in the community. She has jumped in and assisted with security and ActivityPub issues across them all.
Please consider contributing to her tip jar if you can, especially for this last bit of advocacy work. Find her contribution options on her profile.
Listen, as someone that follows many fediverse platforms, @thisismissem is one of the most active in the community. She has jumped in and assisted with security and ActivityPub issues across them all.
Please consider contributing to her tip jar if you can, especially for this last bit of advocacy work. Find her contribution options on her profile.
Listen, as someone that follows many fediverse platforms, @thisismissem is one of the most active in the community. She has jumped in and assisted with security and ActivityPub issues across them all.
Please consider contributing to her tip jar if you can, especially for this last bit of advocacy work. Find her contribution options on her profile.
Listen, as someone that follows many fediverse platforms, @thisismissem is one of the most active in the community. She has jumped in and assisted with security and ActivityPub issues across them all.
Please consider contributing to her tip jar if you can, especially for this last bit of advocacy work. Find her contribution options on her profile.
Based on my testing (and that of others), Mastodon doesn't seem to recognize the creator link correctly when the leading @ is present in the content attribute. It only works when the @ is removed, like this:
Following the blog's example directly led to some wasted time figuring out why it wasn't working. It would be great if either the example in the blog post could be corrected to reflect the current requirement, or if Mastodon's parser could be made more flexible to accept the handle with or without the leading @.
Based on my testing (and that of others), Mastodon doesn't seem to recognize the creator link correctly when the leading @ is present in the content attribute. It only works when the @ is removed, like this:
Following the blog's example directly led to some wasted time figuring out why it wasn't working. It would be great if either the example in the blog post could be corrected to reflect the current requirement, or if Mastodon's parser could be made more flexible to accept the handle with or without the leading @.
Based on my testing (and that of others), Mastodon doesn't seem to recognize the creator link correctly when the leading @ is present in the content attribute. It only works when the @ is removed, like this:
Following the blog's example directly led to some wasted time figuring out why it wasn't working. It would be great if either the example in the blog post could be corrected to reflect the current requirement, or if Mastodon's parser could be made more flexible to accept the handle with or without the leading @.
Based on my testing (and that of others), Mastodon doesn't seem to recognize the creator link correctly when the leading @ is present in the content attribute. It only works when the @ is removed, like this:
Following the blog's example directly led to some wasted time figuring out why it wasn't working. It would be great if either the example in the blog post could be corrected to reflect the current requirement, or if Mastodon's parser could be made more flexible to accept the handle with or without the leading @.
Based on my testing (and that of others), Mastodon doesn't seem to recognize the creator link correctly when the leading @ is present in the content attribute. It only works when the @ is removed, like this:
Following the blog's example directly led to some wasted time figuring out why it wasn't working. It would be great if either the example in the blog post could be corrected to reflect the current requirement, or if Mastodon's parser could be made more flexible to accept the handle with or without the leading @.
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.5.0! This version brings several significant improvements to performance, configurability, and developer experience. Let's dive into what's new:
Two-Stage Fan-out Architecture for Efficient Activity Delivery
#Fedify now implements a smart fan-out mechanism for delivering activities to large audiences. This change is particularly valuable for accounts with many followers. When sending activities to many recipients, Fedify now creates a single consolidated message containing the activity payload and recipient list, which a background worker then processes to re-enqueue individual delivery tasks.
This architectural improvement delivers several benefits: Context.sendActivity() returns almost instantly even with thousands of recipients, memory consumption is dramatically reduced by avoiding payload duplication, UI responsiveness improves since web requests complete quickly, and the system maintains reliability with independent retry logic for each delivery.
For specific requirements, we've added a new fanout option with three settings:
// Configuring fan-out behavior
await ctx.sendActivity(
{ identifier: "alice" },
recipients,
activity,
{ fanout: "auto" } // Default: automatic based on recipient count
// Other options: "skip" (never use fan-out) or "force" (always use fan-out)
);
Canonical Origin Support for Multi-Domain Setups
You can now explicitly configure a canonical origin for your server, which is especially useful for multi-domain setups. This feature allows you to set different domains for WebFinger handles and #ActivityPub URIs, configured through the new origin option in createFederation(). This enhancement prevents unexpected URL construction when requests bypass proxies and improves security by ensuring consistent domain usage.
const federation = createFederation({
// Use example.com for handles but ap.example.com for ActivityPub URIs
origin: {
handleHost: "example.com",
webOrigin: "https://ap.example.com",
},
// Other options...
});
Optional Followers Collection Synchronization
Followers collection synchronization (FEP-8fcf) is now opt-in rather than automatic. This feature must now be explicitly enabled through the syncCollection option, giving developers more control over when to include followers collection digests. This change improves network efficiency by reducing unnecessary synchronization traffic.
Key format support has been expanded for better interoperability. Fedify now accepts PEM-PKCS#1 format in addition to PEM-SPKI for RSA public keys. We've added importPkcs1() and importPem() functions for additional flexibility, which improves compatibility with a wider range of ActivityPub implementations.
Improved Key Selection Logic
The key selection process is now more intelligent. The fetchKey() function can now select the public key of an actor if keyId has no fragment and the actor has only one public key. This enhancement simplifies key handling in common scenarios and provides better compatibility with implementations that don't specify fragment identifiers.
New Authorization Options
Authorization handling has been enhanced with new options for the RequestContext.getSignedKey() and getSignedKeyOwner() methods. This provides more flexible control over authentication and authorization flows. We've deprecated older parameter-based approaches in favor of the more flexible method-based approach.
Efficient Bulk Message Queueing
Message queue performance is improved with bulk operations. We've added an optional enqueueMany() method to the MessageQueue interface, enabling efficient queueing of multiple messages in a single operation. This reduces overhead when processing batches of activities. All our message queue implementations have been updated to support this new operation:
If you're using any of these packages, make sure to update them alongside Fedify to take advantage of the more efficient bulk message queueing.
CLI Improvements
The Fedify command-line tools have been enhanced with an improved web interface for the fedify inbox command. We've added the Fedify logo with the cute dinosaur at the top of the page and made it easier to copy the fediverse handle of the ephemeral actor. We've also fixed issues with the web interface when installed via deno install from JSR.
Additional Improvements and Bug Fixes
Updated dependencies, including @js-temporal/polyfill to 0.5.0 for Node.js and Bun
Fixed bundler errors with uri-template-router on Rollup
Improved error handling and logging for document loader when KV store operations fail
Added more log messages using the LogTape library
Internalized the multibase package for better maintenance and compatibility
For the complete list of changes, please refer to the changelog.
To update to Fedify 1.5.0, run:
# For Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For npm
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
Thank you to all contributors who helped make this release possible!
I had trouble finding good resources explaining ActivityPub, but after reading through the Fedify docs from start to finish, I feel like I've actually digested it.
The ActivityPub specification does not have an example of the "sharedInbox" field in use.
Although it does say "An optional endpoint..." — I suspect a lot of people won't know (with confidence) that it can go under the "endpoints" field. For example:
ALT text detailssharedInbox
An optional endpoint used for wide delivery of publicly addressed activities and activities sent to followers. sharedInbox endpoints SHOULD also be publicly readable OrderedCollection objects containing objects addressed to the Public special collection. Reading from the sharedInbox endpoint MUST NOT present objects which are not addressed to the Public endpoint.
A reasonable ActivityPub / ActivityStreams API to schedule something to be posted in the future might be — to HTTP POST something to an account's outbox with the `published` field set to a date-time in the future.
A reasonable ActivityPub / ActivityStreams API to schedule something to be posted in the future might be — to HTTP POST something to an account's outbox with the `published` field set to a date-time in the future.
A reasonable ActivityPub / ActivityStreams API to schedule something to be posted in the future might be — to HTTP POST something to an account's outbox with the `published` field set to a date-time in the future.
The ActivityPub specification does not have an example of the "sharedInbox" field in use.
Although it does say "An optional endpoint..." — I suspect a lot of people won't know (with confidence) that it can go under the "endpoints" field. For example:
ALT text detailssharedInbox
An optional endpoint used for wide delivery of publicly addressed activities and activities sent to followers. sharedInbox endpoints SHOULD also be publicly readable OrderedCollection objects containing objects addressed to the Public special collection. Reading from the sharedInbox endpoint MUST NOT present objects which are not addressed to the Public endpoint.
A reasonable ActivityPub / ActivityStreams API to schedule something to be posted in the future might be — to HTTP POST something to an account's outbox with the `published` field set to a date-time in the future.
Based on my testing (and that of others), Mastodon doesn't seem to recognize the creator link correctly when the leading @ is present in the content attribute. It only works when the @ is removed, like this:
Following the blog's example directly led to some wasted time figuring out why it wasn't working. It would be great if either the example in the blog post could be corrected to reflect the current requirement, or if Mastodon's parser could be made more flexible to accept the handle with or without the leading @.
Based on my testing (and that of others), Mastodon doesn't seem to recognize the creator link correctly when the leading @ is present in the content attribute. It only works when the @ is removed, like this:
Following the blog's example directly led to some wasted time figuring out why it wasn't working. It would be great if either the example in the blog post could be corrected to reflect the current requirement, or if Mastodon's parser could be made more flexible to accept the handle with or without the leading @.
Based on my testing (and that of others), Mastodon doesn't seem to recognize the creator link correctly when the leading @ is present in the content attribute. It only works when the @ is removed, like this:
Following the blog's example directly led to some wasted time figuring out why it wasn't working. It would be great if either the example in the blog post could be corrected to reflect the current requirement, or if Mastodon's parser could be made more flexible to accept the handle with or without the leading @.
Based on my testing (and that of others), Mastodon doesn't seem to recognize the creator link correctly when the leading @ is present in the content attribute. It only works when the @ is removed, like this:
Following the blog's example directly led to some wasted time figuring out why it wasn't working. It would be great if either the example in the blog post could be corrected to reflect the current requirement, or if Mastodon's parser could be made more flexible to accept the handle with or without the leading @.
I've been thinking of contributing to the #fediverse for a while now, but I haven't really found a project or an idea that would fit my tech stack requirements yet.
Like Pixelfed and Loops have a PHP backend, but I'd rather contribute something with Golang or Typescript/Javascript.
I've been thinking of contributing to the #fediverse for a while now, but I haven't really found a project or an idea that would fit my tech stack requirements yet.
Like Pixelfed and Loops have a PHP backend, but I'd rather contribute something with Golang or Typescript/Javascript.
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.5.0! This version brings several significant improvements to performance, configurability, and developer experience. Let's dive into what's new:
Two-Stage Fan-out Architecture for Efficient Activity Delivery
#Fedify now implements a smart fan-out mechanism for delivering activities to large audiences. This change is particularly valuable for accounts with many followers. When sending activities to many recipients, Fedify now creates a single consolidated message containing the activity payload and recipient list, which a background worker then processes to re-enqueue individual delivery tasks.
This architectural improvement delivers several benefits: Context.sendActivity() returns almost instantly even with thousands of recipients, memory consumption is dramatically reduced by avoiding payload duplication, UI responsiveness improves since web requests complete quickly, and the system maintains reliability with independent retry logic for each delivery.
For specific requirements, we've added a new fanout option with three settings:
// Configuring fan-out behavior
await ctx.sendActivity(
{ identifier: "alice" },
recipients,
activity,
{ fanout: "auto" } // Default: automatic based on recipient count
// Other options: "skip" (never use fan-out) or "force" (always use fan-out)
);
Canonical Origin Support for Multi-Domain Setups
You can now explicitly configure a canonical origin for your server, which is especially useful for multi-domain setups. This feature allows you to set different domains for WebFinger handles and #ActivityPub URIs, configured through the new origin option in createFederation(). This enhancement prevents unexpected URL construction when requests bypass proxies and improves security by ensuring consistent domain usage.
const federation = createFederation({
// Use example.com for handles but ap.example.com for ActivityPub URIs
origin: {
handleHost: "example.com",
webOrigin: "https://ap.example.com",
},
// Other options...
});
Optional Followers Collection Synchronization
Followers collection synchronization (FEP-8fcf) is now opt-in rather than automatic. This feature must now be explicitly enabled through the syncCollection option, giving developers more control over when to include followers collection digests. This change improves network efficiency by reducing unnecessary synchronization traffic.
Key format support has been expanded for better interoperability. Fedify now accepts PEM-PKCS#1 format in addition to PEM-SPKI for RSA public keys. We've added importPkcs1() and importPem() functions for additional flexibility, which improves compatibility with a wider range of ActivityPub implementations.
Improved Key Selection Logic
The key selection process is now more intelligent. The fetchKey() function can now select the public key of an actor if keyId has no fragment and the actor has only one public key. This enhancement simplifies key handling in common scenarios and provides better compatibility with implementations that don't specify fragment identifiers.
New Authorization Options
Authorization handling has been enhanced with new options for the RequestContext.getSignedKey() and getSignedKeyOwner() methods. This provides more flexible control over authentication and authorization flows. We've deprecated older parameter-based approaches in favor of the more flexible method-based approach.
Efficient Bulk Message Queueing
Message queue performance is improved with bulk operations. We've added an optional enqueueMany() method to the MessageQueue interface, enabling efficient queueing of multiple messages in a single operation. This reduces overhead when processing batches of activities. All our message queue implementations have been updated to support this new operation:
If you're using any of these packages, make sure to update them alongside Fedify to take advantage of the more efficient bulk message queueing.
CLI Improvements
The Fedify command-line tools have been enhanced with an improved web interface for the fedify inbox command. We've added the Fedify logo with the cute dinosaur at the top of the page and made it easier to copy the fediverse handle of the ephemeral actor. We've also fixed issues with the web interface when installed via deno install from JSR.
Additional Improvements and Bug Fixes
Updated dependencies, including @js-temporal/polyfill to 0.5.0 for Node.js and Bun
Fixed bundler errors with uri-template-router on Rollup
Improved error handling and logging for document loader when KV store operations fail
Added more log messages using the LogTape library
Internalized the multibase package for better maintenance and compatibility
For the complete list of changes, please refer to the changelog.
To update to Fedify 1.5.0, run:
# For Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For npm
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
Thank you to all contributors who helped make this release possible!
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.5.0! This version brings several significant improvements to performance, configurability, and developer experience. Let's dive into what's new:
Two-Stage Fan-out Architecture for Efficient Activity Delivery
#Fedify now implements a smart fan-out mechanism for delivering activities to large audiences. This change is particularly valuable for accounts with many followers. When sending activities to many recipients, Fedify now creates a single consolidated message containing the activity payload and recipient list, which a background worker then processes to re-enqueue individual delivery tasks.
This architectural improvement delivers several benefits: Context.sendActivity() returns almost instantly even with thousands of recipients, memory consumption is dramatically reduced by avoiding payload duplication, UI responsiveness improves since web requests complete quickly, and the system maintains reliability with independent retry logic for each delivery.
For specific requirements, we've added a new fanout option with three settings:
// Configuring fan-out behavior
await ctx.sendActivity(
{ identifier: "alice" },
recipients,
activity,
{ fanout: "auto" } // Default: automatic based on recipient count
// Other options: "skip" (never use fan-out) or "force" (always use fan-out)
);
Canonical Origin Support for Multi-Domain Setups
You can now explicitly configure a canonical origin for your server, which is especially useful for multi-domain setups. This feature allows you to set different domains for WebFinger handles and #ActivityPub URIs, configured through the new origin option in createFederation(). This enhancement prevents unexpected URL construction when requests bypass proxies and improves security by ensuring consistent domain usage.
const federation = createFederation({
// Use example.com for handles but ap.example.com for ActivityPub URIs
origin: {
handleHost: "example.com",
webOrigin: "https://ap.example.com",
},
// Other options...
});
Optional Followers Collection Synchronization
Followers collection synchronization (FEP-8fcf) is now opt-in rather than automatic. This feature must now be explicitly enabled through the syncCollection option, giving developers more control over when to include followers collection digests. This change improves network efficiency by reducing unnecessary synchronization traffic.
Key format support has been expanded for better interoperability. Fedify now accepts PEM-PKCS#1 format in addition to PEM-SPKI for RSA public keys. We've added importPkcs1() and importPem() functions for additional flexibility, which improves compatibility with a wider range of ActivityPub implementations.
Improved Key Selection Logic
The key selection process is now more intelligent. The fetchKey() function can now select the public key of an actor if keyId has no fragment and the actor has only one public key. This enhancement simplifies key handling in common scenarios and provides better compatibility with implementations that don't specify fragment identifiers.
New Authorization Options
Authorization handling has been enhanced with new options for the RequestContext.getSignedKey() and getSignedKeyOwner() methods. This provides more flexible control over authentication and authorization flows. We've deprecated older parameter-based approaches in favor of the more flexible method-based approach.
Efficient Bulk Message Queueing
Message queue performance is improved with bulk operations. We've added an optional enqueueMany() method to the MessageQueue interface, enabling efficient queueing of multiple messages in a single operation. This reduces overhead when processing batches of activities. All our message queue implementations have been updated to support this new operation:
If you're using any of these packages, make sure to update them alongside Fedify to take advantage of the more efficient bulk message queueing.
CLI Improvements
The Fedify command-line tools have been enhanced with an improved web interface for the fedify inbox command. We've added the Fedify logo with the cute dinosaur at the top of the page and made it easier to copy the fediverse handle of the ephemeral actor. We've also fixed issues with the web interface when installed via deno install from JSR.
Additional Improvements and Bug Fixes
Updated dependencies, including @js-temporal/polyfill to 0.5.0 for Node.js and Bun
Fixed bundler errors with uri-template-router on Rollup
Improved error handling and logging for document loader when KV store operations fail
Added more log messages using the LogTape library
Internalized the multibase package for better maintenance and compatibility
For the complete list of changes, please refer to the changelog.
To update to Fedify 1.5.0, run:
# For Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For npm
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
Thank you to all contributors who helped make this release possible!
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.5.0! This version brings several significant improvements to performance, configurability, and developer experience. Let's dive into what's new:
Two-Stage Fan-out Architecture for Efficient Activity Delivery
#Fedify now implements a smart fan-out mechanism for delivering activities to large audiences. This change is particularly valuable for accounts with many followers. When sending activities to many recipients, Fedify now creates a single consolidated message containing the activity payload and recipient list, which a background worker then processes to re-enqueue individual delivery tasks.
This architectural improvement delivers several benefits: Context.sendActivity() returns almost instantly even with thousands of recipients, memory consumption is dramatically reduced by avoiding payload duplication, UI responsiveness improves since web requests complete quickly, and the system maintains reliability with independent retry logic for each delivery.
For specific requirements, we've added a new fanout option with three settings:
// Configuring fan-out behavior
await ctx.sendActivity(
{ identifier: "alice" },
recipients,
activity,
{ fanout: "auto" } // Default: automatic based on recipient count
// Other options: "skip" (never use fan-out) or "force" (always use fan-out)
);
Canonical Origin Support for Multi-Domain Setups
You can now explicitly configure a canonical origin for your server, which is especially useful for multi-domain setups. This feature allows you to set different domains for WebFinger handles and #ActivityPub URIs, configured through the new origin option in createFederation(). This enhancement prevents unexpected URL construction when requests bypass proxies and improves security by ensuring consistent domain usage.
const federation = createFederation({
// Use example.com for handles but ap.example.com for ActivityPub URIs
origin: {
handleHost: "example.com",
webOrigin: "https://ap.example.com",
},
// Other options...
});
Optional Followers Collection Synchronization
Followers collection synchronization (FEP-8fcf) is now opt-in rather than automatic. This feature must now be explicitly enabled through the syncCollection option, giving developers more control over when to include followers collection digests. This change improves network efficiency by reducing unnecessary synchronization traffic.
Key format support has been expanded for better interoperability. Fedify now accepts PEM-PKCS#1 format in addition to PEM-SPKI for RSA public keys. We've added importPkcs1() and importPem() functions for additional flexibility, which improves compatibility with a wider range of ActivityPub implementations.
Improved Key Selection Logic
The key selection process is now more intelligent. The fetchKey() function can now select the public key of an actor if keyId has no fragment and the actor has only one public key. This enhancement simplifies key handling in common scenarios and provides better compatibility with implementations that don't specify fragment identifiers.
New Authorization Options
Authorization handling has been enhanced with new options for the RequestContext.getSignedKey() and getSignedKeyOwner() methods. This provides more flexible control over authentication and authorization flows. We've deprecated older parameter-based approaches in favor of the more flexible method-based approach.
Efficient Bulk Message Queueing
Message queue performance is improved with bulk operations. We've added an optional enqueueMany() method to the MessageQueue interface, enabling efficient queueing of multiple messages in a single operation. This reduces overhead when processing batches of activities. All our message queue implementations have been updated to support this new operation:
If you're using any of these packages, make sure to update them alongside Fedify to take advantage of the more efficient bulk message queueing.
CLI Improvements
The Fedify command-line tools have been enhanced with an improved web interface for the fedify inbox command. We've added the Fedify logo with the cute dinosaur at the top of the page and made it easier to copy the fediverse handle of the ephemeral actor. We've also fixed issues with the web interface when installed via deno install from JSR.
Additional Improvements and Bug Fixes
Updated dependencies, including @js-temporal/polyfill to 0.5.0 for Node.js and Bun
Fixed bundler errors with uri-template-router on Rollup
Improved error handling and logging for document loader when KV store operations fail
Added more log messages using the LogTape library
Internalized the multibase package for better maintenance and compatibility
For the complete list of changes, please refer to the changelog.
To update to Fedify 1.5.0, run:
# For Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For npm
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
Thank you to all contributors who helped make this release possible!
I had trouble finding good resources explaining ActivityPub, but after reading through the Fedify docs from start to finish, I feel like I've actually digested it.
I had trouble finding good resources explaining ActivityPub, but after reading through the Fedify docs from start to finish, I feel like I've actually digested it.
I've been thinking of contributing to the #fediverse for a while now, but I haven't really found a project or an idea that would fit my tech stack requirements yet.
Like Pixelfed and Loops have a PHP backend, but I'd rather contribute something with Golang or Typescript/Javascript.
I had trouble finding good resources explaining ActivityPub, but after reading through the Fedify docs from start to finish, I feel like I've actually digested it.
I had trouble finding good resources explaining ActivityPub, but after reading through the Fedify docs from start to finish, I feel like I've actually digested it.
I had trouble finding good resources explaining ActivityPub, but after reading through the Fedify docs from start to finish, I feel like I've actually digested it.
I had trouble finding good resources explaining ActivityPub, but after reading through the Fedify docs from start to finish, I feel like I've actually digested it.
I had trouble finding good resources explaining ActivityPub, but after reading through the Fedify docs from start to finish, I feel like I've actually digested it.
I had trouble finding good resources explaining ActivityPub, but after reading through the Fedify docs from start to finish, I feel like I've actually digested it.
I had trouble finding good resources explaining ActivityPub, but after reading through the Fedify docs from start to finish, I feel like I've actually digested it.
I had trouble finding good resources explaining ActivityPub, but after reading through the Fedify docs from start to finish, I feel like I've actually digested it.
I had trouble finding good resources explaining ActivityPub, but after reading through the Fedify docs from start to finish, I feel like I've actually digested it.
I had trouble finding good resources explaining ActivityPub, but after reading through the Fedify docs from start to finish, I feel like I've actually digested it.
I had trouble finding good resources explaining ActivityPub, but after reading through the Fedify docs from start to finish, I feel like I've actually digested it.
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.5.0! This version brings several significant improvements to performance, configurability, and developer experience. Let's dive into what's new:
Two-Stage Fan-out Architecture for Efficient Activity Delivery
#Fedify now implements a smart fan-out mechanism for delivering activities to large audiences. This change is particularly valuable for accounts with many followers. When sending activities to many recipients, Fedify now creates a single consolidated message containing the activity payload and recipient list, which a background worker then processes to re-enqueue individual delivery tasks.
This architectural improvement delivers several benefits: Context.sendActivity() returns almost instantly even with thousands of recipients, memory consumption is dramatically reduced by avoiding payload duplication, UI responsiveness improves since web requests complete quickly, and the system maintains reliability with independent retry logic for each delivery.
For specific requirements, we've added a new fanout option with three settings:
// Configuring fan-out behavior
await ctx.sendActivity(
{ identifier: "alice" },
recipients,
activity,
{ fanout: "auto" } // Default: automatic based on recipient count
// Other options: "skip" (never use fan-out) or "force" (always use fan-out)
);
Canonical Origin Support for Multi-Domain Setups
You can now explicitly configure a canonical origin for your server, which is especially useful for multi-domain setups. This feature allows you to set different domains for WebFinger handles and #ActivityPub URIs, configured through the new origin option in createFederation(). This enhancement prevents unexpected URL construction when requests bypass proxies and improves security by ensuring consistent domain usage.
const federation = createFederation({
// Use example.com for handles but ap.example.com for ActivityPub URIs
origin: {
handleHost: "example.com",
webOrigin: "https://ap.example.com",
},
// Other options...
});
Optional Followers Collection Synchronization
Followers collection synchronization (FEP-8fcf) is now opt-in rather than automatic. This feature must now be explicitly enabled through the syncCollection option, giving developers more control over when to include followers collection digests. This change improves network efficiency by reducing unnecessary synchronization traffic.
Key format support has been expanded for better interoperability. Fedify now accepts PEM-PKCS#1 format in addition to PEM-SPKI for RSA public keys. We've added importPkcs1() and importPem() functions for additional flexibility, which improves compatibility with a wider range of ActivityPub implementations.
Improved Key Selection Logic
The key selection process is now more intelligent. The fetchKey() function can now select the public key of an actor if keyId has no fragment and the actor has only one public key. This enhancement simplifies key handling in common scenarios and provides better compatibility with implementations that don't specify fragment identifiers.
New Authorization Options
Authorization handling has been enhanced with new options for the RequestContext.getSignedKey() and getSignedKeyOwner() methods. This provides more flexible control over authentication and authorization flows. We've deprecated older parameter-based approaches in favor of the more flexible method-based approach.
Efficient Bulk Message Queueing
Message queue performance is improved with bulk operations. We've added an optional enqueueMany() method to the MessageQueue interface, enabling efficient queueing of multiple messages in a single operation. This reduces overhead when processing batches of activities. All our message queue implementations have been updated to support this new operation:
If you're using any of these packages, make sure to update them alongside Fedify to take advantage of the more efficient bulk message queueing.
CLI Improvements
The Fedify command-line tools have been enhanced with an improved web interface for the fedify inbox command. We've added the Fedify logo with the cute dinosaur at the top of the page and made it easier to copy the fediverse handle of the ephemeral actor. We've also fixed issues with the web interface when installed via deno install from JSR.
Additional Improvements and Bug Fixes
Updated dependencies, including @js-temporal/polyfill to 0.5.0 for Node.js and Bun
Fixed bundler errors with uri-template-router on Rollup
Improved error handling and logging for document loader when KV store operations fail
Added more log messages using the LogTape library
Internalized the multibase package for better maintenance and compatibility
For the complete list of changes, please refer to the changelog.
To update to Fedify 1.5.0, run:
# For Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For npm
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
Thank you to all contributors who helped make this release possible!
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.5.0! This version brings several significant improvements to performance, configurability, and developer experience. Let's dive into what's new:
Two-Stage Fan-out Architecture for Efficient Activity Delivery
#Fedify now implements a smart fan-out mechanism for delivering activities to large audiences. This change is particularly valuable for accounts with many followers. When sending activities to many recipients, Fedify now creates a single consolidated message containing the activity payload and recipient list, which a background worker then processes to re-enqueue individual delivery tasks.
This architectural improvement delivers several benefits: Context.sendActivity() returns almost instantly even with thousands of recipients, memory consumption is dramatically reduced by avoiding payload duplication, UI responsiveness improves since web requests complete quickly, and the system maintains reliability with independent retry logic for each delivery.
For specific requirements, we've added a new fanout option with three settings:
// Configuring fan-out behavior
await ctx.sendActivity(
{ identifier: "alice" },
recipients,
activity,
{ fanout: "auto" } // Default: automatic based on recipient count
// Other options: "skip" (never use fan-out) or "force" (always use fan-out)
);
Canonical Origin Support for Multi-Domain Setups
You can now explicitly configure a canonical origin for your server, which is especially useful for multi-domain setups. This feature allows you to set different domains for WebFinger handles and #ActivityPub URIs, configured through the new origin option in createFederation(). This enhancement prevents unexpected URL construction when requests bypass proxies and improves security by ensuring consistent domain usage.
const federation = createFederation({
// Use example.com for handles but ap.example.com for ActivityPub URIs
origin: {
handleHost: "example.com",
webOrigin: "https://ap.example.com",
},
// Other options...
});
Optional Followers Collection Synchronization
Followers collection synchronization (FEP-8fcf) is now opt-in rather than automatic. This feature must now be explicitly enabled through the syncCollection option, giving developers more control over when to include followers collection digests. This change improves network efficiency by reducing unnecessary synchronization traffic.
Key format support has been expanded for better interoperability. Fedify now accepts PEM-PKCS#1 format in addition to PEM-SPKI for RSA public keys. We've added importPkcs1() and importPem() functions for additional flexibility, which improves compatibility with a wider range of ActivityPub implementations.
Improved Key Selection Logic
The key selection process is now more intelligent. The fetchKey() function can now select the public key of an actor if keyId has no fragment and the actor has only one public key. This enhancement simplifies key handling in common scenarios and provides better compatibility with implementations that don't specify fragment identifiers.
New Authorization Options
Authorization handling has been enhanced with new options for the RequestContext.getSignedKey() and getSignedKeyOwner() methods. This provides more flexible control over authentication and authorization flows. We've deprecated older parameter-based approaches in favor of the more flexible method-based approach.
Efficient Bulk Message Queueing
Message queue performance is improved with bulk operations. We've added an optional enqueueMany() method to the MessageQueue interface, enabling efficient queueing of multiple messages in a single operation. This reduces overhead when processing batches of activities. All our message queue implementations have been updated to support this new operation:
If you're using any of these packages, make sure to update them alongside Fedify to take advantage of the more efficient bulk message queueing.
CLI Improvements
The Fedify command-line tools have been enhanced with an improved web interface for the fedify inbox command. We've added the Fedify logo with the cute dinosaur at the top of the page and made it easier to copy the fediverse handle of the ephemeral actor. We've also fixed issues with the web interface when installed via deno install from JSR.
Additional Improvements and Bug Fixes
Updated dependencies, including @js-temporal/polyfill to 0.5.0 for Node.js and Bun
Fixed bundler errors with uri-template-router on Rollup
Improved error handling and logging for document loader when KV store operations fail
Added more log messages using the LogTape library
Internalized the multibase package for better maintenance and compatibility
For the complete list of changes, please refer to the changelog.
To update to Fedify 1.5.0, run:
# For Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For npm
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
Thank you to all contributors who helped make this release possible!
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.5.0! This version brings several significant improvements to performance, configurability, and developer experience. Let's dive into what's new:
Two-Stage Fan-out Architecture for Efficient Activity Delivery
#Fedify now implements a smart fan-out mechanism for delivering activities to large audiences. This change is particularly valuable for accounts with many followers. When sending activities to many recipients, Fedify now creates a single consolidated message containing the activity payload and recipient list, which a background worker then processes to re-enqueue individual delivery tasks.
This architectural improvement delivers several benefits: Context.sendActivity() returns almost instantly even with thousands of recipients, memory consumption is dramatically reduced by avoiding payload duplication, UI responsiveness improves since web requests complete quickly, and the system maintains reliability with independent retry logic for each delivery.
For specific requirements, we've added a new fanout option with three settings:
// Configuring fan-out behavior
await ctx.sendActivity(
{ identifier: "alice" },
recipients,
activity,
{ fanout: "auto" } // Default: automatic based on recipient count
// Other options: "skip" (never use fan-out) or "force" (always use fan-out)
);
Canonical Origin Support for Multi-Domain Setups
You can now explicitly configure a canonical origin for your server, which is especially useful for multi-domain setups. This feature allows you to set different domains for WebFinger handles and #ActivityPub URIs, configured through the new origin option in createFederation(). This enhancement prevents unexpected URL construction when requests bypass proxies and improves security by ensuring consistent domain usage.
const federation = createFederation({
// Use example.com for handles but ap.example.com for ActivityPub URIs
origin: {
handleHost: "example.com",
webOrigin: "https://ap.example.com",
},
// Other options...
});
Optional Followers Collection Synchronization
Followers collection synchronization (FEP-8fcf) is now opt-in rather than automatic. This feature must now be explicitly enabled through the syncCollection option, giving developers more control over when to include followers collection digests. This change improves network efficiency by reducing unnecessary synchronization traffic.
Key format support has been expanded for better interoperability. Fedify now accepts PEM-PKCS#1 format in addition to PEM-SPKI for RSA public keys. We've added importPkcs1() and importPem() functions for additional flexibility, which improves compatibility with a wider range of ActivityPub implementations.
Improved Key Selection Logic
The key selection process is now more intelligent. The fetchKey() function can now select the public key of an actor if keyId has no fragment and the actor has only one public key. This enhancement simplifies key handling in common scenarios and provides better compatibility with implementations that don't specify fragment identifiers.
New Authorization Options
Authorization handling has been enhanced with new options for the RequestContext.getSignedKey() and getSignedKeyOwner() methods. This provides more flexible control over authentication and authorization flows. We've deprecated older parameter-based approaches in favor of the more flexible method-based approach.
Efficient Bulk Message Queueing
Message queue performance is improved with bulk operations. We've added an optional enqueueMany() method to the MessageQueue interface, enabling efficient queueing of multiple messages in a single operation. This reduces overhead when processing batches of activities. All our message queue implementations have been updated to support this new operation:
If you're using any of these packages, make sure to update them alongside Fedify to take advantage of the more efficient bulk message queueing.
CLI Improvements
The Fedify command-line tools have been enhanced with an improved web interface for the fedify inbox command. We've added the Fedify logo with the cute dinosaur at the top of the page and made it easier to copy the fediverse handle of the ephemeral actor. We've also fixed issues with the web interface when installed via deno install from JSR.
Additional Improvements and Bug Fixes
Updated dependencies, including @js-temporal/polyfill to 0.5.0 for Node.js and Bun
Fixed bundler errors with uri-template-router on Rollup
Improved error handling and logging for document loader when KV store operations fail
Added more log messages using the LogTape library
Internalized the multibase package for better maintenance and compatibility
For the complete list of changes, please refer to the changelog.
To update to Fedify 1.5.0, run:
# For Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For npm
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
Thank you to all contributors who helped make this release possible!
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.5.0! This version brings several significant improvements to performance, configurability, and developer experience. Let's dive into what's new:
Two-Stage Fan-out Architecture for Efficient Activity Delivery
#Fedify now implements a smart fan-out mechanism for delivering activities to large audiences. This change is particularly valuable for accounts with many followers. When sending activities to many recipients, Fedify now creates a single consolidated message containing the activity payload and recipient list, which a background worker then processes to re-enqueue individual delivery tasks.
This architectural improvement delivers several benefits: Context.sendActivity() returns almost instantly even with thousands of recipients, memory consumption is dramatically reduced by avoiding payload duplication, UI responsiveness improves since web requests complete quickly, and the system maintains reliability with independent retry logic for each delivery.
For specific requirements, we've added a new fanout option with three settings:
// Configuring fan-out behavior
await ctx.sendActivity(
{ identifier: "alice" },
recipients,
activity,
{ fanout: "auto" } // Default: automatic based on recipient count
// Other options: "skip" (never use fan-out) or "force" (always use fan-out)
);
Canonical Origin Support for Multi-Domain Setups
You can now explicitly configure a canonical origin for your server, which is especially useful for multi-domain setups. This feature allows you to set different domains for WebFinger handles and #ActivityPub URIs, configured through the new origin option in createFederation(). This enhancement prevents unexpected URL construction when requests bypass proxies and improves security by ensuring consistent domain usage.
const federation = createFederation({
// Use example.com for handles but ap.example.com for ActivityPub URIs
origin: {
handleHost: "example.com",
webOrigin: "https://ap.example.com",
},
// Other options...
});
Optional Followers Collection Synchronization
Followers collection synchronization (FEP-8fcf) is now opt-in rather than automatic. This feature must now be explicitly enabled through the syncCollection option, giving developers more control over when to include followers collection digests. This change improves network efficiency by reducing unnecessary synchronization traffic.
Key format support has been expanded for better interoperability. Fedify now accepts PEM-PKCS#1 format in addition to PEM-SPKI for RSA public keys. We've added importPkcs1() and importPem() functions for additional flexibility, which improves compatibility with a wider range of ActivityPub implementations.
Improved Key Selection Logic
The key selection process is now more intelligent. The fetchKey() function can now select the public key of an actor if keyId has no fragment and the actor has only one public key. This enhancement simplifies key handling in common scenarios and provides better compatibility with implementations that don't specify fragment identifiers.
New Authorization Options
Authorization handling has been enhanced with new options for the RequestContext.getSignedKey() and getSignedKeyOwner() methods. This provides more flexible control over authentication and authorization flows. We've deprecated older parameter-based approaches in favor of the more flexible method-based approach.
Efficient Bulk Message Queueing
Message queue performance is improved with bulk operations. We've added an optional enqueueMany() method to the MessageQueue interface, enabling efficient queueing of multiple messages in a single operation. This reduces overhead when processing batches of activities. All our message queue implementations have been updated to support this new operation:
If you're using any of these packages, make sure to update them alongside Fedify to take advantage of the more efficient bulk message queueing.
CLI Improvements
The Fedify command-line tools have been enhanced with an improved web interface for the fedify inbox command. We've added the Fedify logo with the cute dinosaur at the top of the page and made it easier to copy the fediverse handle of the ephemeral actor. We've also fixed issues with the web interface when installed via deno install from JSR.
Additional Improvements and Bug Fixes
Updated dependencies, including @js-temporal/polyfill to 0.5.0 for Node.js and Bun
Fixed bundler errors with uri-template-router on Rollup
Improved error handling and logging for document loader when KV store operations fail
Added more log messages using the LogTape library
Internalized the multibase package for better maintenance and compatibility
For the complete list of changes, please refer to the changelog.
To update to Fedify 1.5.0, run:
# For Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For npm
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
Thank you to all contributors who helped make this release possible!
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.5.0! This version brings several significant improvements to performance, configurability, and developer experience. Let's dive into what's new:
Two-Stage Fan-out Architecture for Efficient Activity Delivery
#Fedify now implements a smart fan-out mechanism for delivering activities to large audiences. This change is particularly valuable for accounts with many followers. When sending activities to many recipients, Fedify now creates a single consolidated message containing the activity payload and recipient list, which a background worker then processes to re-enqueue individual delivery tasks.
This architectural improvement delivers several benefits: Context.sendActivity() returns almost instantly even with thousands of recipients, memory consumption is dramatically reduced by avoiding payload duplication, UI responsiveness improves since web requests complete quickly, and the system maintains reliability with independent retry logic for each delivery.
For specific requirements, we've added a new fanout option with three settings:
// Configuring fan-out behavior
await ctx.sendActivity(
{ identifier: "alice" },
recipients,
activity,
{ fanout: "auto" } // Default: automatic based on recipient count
// Other options: "skip" (never use fan-out) or "force" (always use fan-out)
);
Canonical Origin Support for Multi-Domain Setups
You can now explicitly configure a canonical origin for your server, which is especially useful for multi-domain setups. This feature allows you to set different domains for WebFinger handles and #ActivityPub URIs, configured through the new origin option in createFederation(). This enhancement prevents unexpected URL construction when requests bypass proxies and improves security by ensuring consistent domain usage.
const federation = createFederation({
// Use example.com for handles but ap.example.com for ActivityPub URIs
origin: {
handleHost: "example.com",
webOrigin: "https://ap.example.com",
},
// Other options...
});
Optional Followers Collection Synchronization
Followers collection synchronization (FEP-8fcf) is now opt-in rather than automatic. This feature must now be explicitly enabled through the syncCollection option, giving developers more control over when to include followers collection digests. This change improves network efficiency by reducing unnecessary synchronization traffic.
Key format support has been expanded for better interoperability. Fedify now accepts PEM-PKCS#1 format in addition to PEM-SPKI for RSA public keys. We've added importPkcs1() and importPem() functions for additional flexibility, which improves compatibility with a wider range of ActivityPub implementations.
Improved Key Selection Logic
The key selection process is now more intelligent. The fetchKey() function can now select the public key of an actor if keyId has no fragment and the actor has only one public key. This enhancement simplifies key handling in common scenarios and provides better compatibility with implementations that don't specify fragment identifiers.
New Authorization Options
Authorization handling has been enhanced with new options for the RequestContext.getSignedKey() and getSignedKeyOwner() methods. This provides more flexible control over authentication and authorization flows. We've deprecated older parameter-based approaches in favor of the more flexible method-based approach.
Efficient Bulk Message Queueing
Message queue performance is improved with bulk operations. We've added an optional enqueueMany() method to the MessageQueue interface, enabling efficient queueing of multiple messages in a single operation. This reduces overhead when processing batches of activities. All our message queue implementations have been updated to support this new operation:
If you're using any of these packages, make sure to update them alongside Fedify to take advantage of the more efficient bulk message queueing.
CLI Improvements
The Fedify command-line tools have been enhanced with an improved web interface for the fedify inbox command. We've added the Fedify logo with the cute dinosaur at the top of the page and made it easier to copy the fediverse handle of the ephemeral actor. We've also fixed issues with the web interface when installed via deno install from JSR.
Additional Improvements and Bug Fixes
Updated dependencies, including @js-temporal/polyfill to 0.5.0 for Node.js and Bun
Fixed bundler errors with uri-template-router on Rollup
Improved error handling and logging for document loader when KV store operations fail
Added more log messages using the LogTape library
Internalized the multibase package for better maintenance and compatibility
For the complete list of changes, please refer to the changelog.
To update to Fedify 1.5.0, run:
# For Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For npm
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
Thank you to all contributors who helped make this release possible!
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.5.0! This version brings several significant improvements to performance, configurability, and developer experience. Let's dive into what's new:
Two-Stage Fan-out Architecture for Efficient Activity Delivery
#Fedify now implements a smart fan-out mechanism for delivering activities to large audiences. This change is particularly valuable for accounts with many followers. When sending activities to many recipients, Fedify now creates a single consolidated message containing the activity payload and recipient list, which a background worker then processes to re-enqueue individual delivery tasks.
This architectural improvement delivers several benefits: Context.sendActivity() returns almost instantly even with thousands of recipients, memory consumption is dramatically reduced by avoiding payload duplication, UI responsiveness improves since web requests complete quickly, and the system maintains reliability with independent retry logic for each delivery.
For specific requirements, we've added a new fanout option with three settings:
// Configuring fan-out behavior
await ctx.sendActivity(
{ identifier: "alice" },
recipients,
activity,
{ fanout: "auto" } // Default: automatic based on recipient count
// Other options: "skip" (never use fan-out) or "force" (always use fan-out)
);
Canonical Origin Support for Multi-Domain Setups
You can now explicitly configure a canonical origin for your server, which is especially useful for multi-domain setups. This feature allows you to set different domains for WebFinger handles and #ActivityPub URIs, configured through the new origin option in createFederation(). This enhancement prevents unexpected URL construction when requests bypass proxies and improves security by ensuring consistent domain usage.
const federation = createFederation({
// Use example.com for handles but ap.example.com for ActivityPub URIs
origin: {
handleHost: "example.com",
webOrigin: "https://ap.example.com",
},
// Other options...
});
Optional Followers Collection Synchronization
Followers collection synchronization (FEP-8fcf) is now opt-in rather than automatic. This feature must now be explicitly enabled through the syncCollection option, giving developers more control over when to include followers collection digests. This change improves network efficiency by reducing unnecessary synchronization traffic.
Key format support has been expanded for better interoperability. Fedify now accepts PEM-PKCS#1 format in addition to PEM-SPKI for RSA public keys. We've added importPkcs1() and importPem() functions for additional flexibility, which improves compatibility with a wider range of ActivityPub implementations.
Improved Key Selection Logic
The key selection process is now more intelligent. The fetchKey() function can now select the public key of an actor if keyId has no fragment and the actor has only one public key. This enhancement simplifies key handling in common scenarios and provides better compatibility with implementations that don't specify fragment identifiers.
New Authorization Options
Authorization handling has been enhanced with new options for the RequestContext.getSignedKey() and getSignedKeyOwner() methods. This provides more flexible control over authentication and authorization flows. We've deprecated older parameter-based approaches in favor of the more flexible method-based approach.
Efficient Bulk Message Queueing
Message queue performance is improved with bulk operations. We've added an optional enqueueMany() method to the MessageQueue interface, enabling efficient queueing of multiple messages in a single operation. This reduces overhead when processing batches of activities. All our message queue implementations have been updated to support this new operation:
If you're using any of these packages, make sure to update them alongside Fedify to take advantage of the more efficient bulk message queueing.
CLI Improvements
The Fedify command-line tools have been enhanced with an improved web interface for the fedify inbox command. We've added the Fedify logo with the cute dinosaur at the top of the page and made it easier to copy the fediverse handle of the ephemeral actor. We've also fixed issues with the web interface when installed via deno install from JSR.
Additional Improvements and Bug Fixes
Updated dependencies, including @js-temporal/polyfill to 0.5.0 for Node.js and Bun
Fixed bundler errors with uri-template-router on Rollup
Improved error handling and logging for document loader when KV store operations fail
Added more log messages using the LogTape library
Internalized the multibase package for better maintenance and compatibility
For the complete list of changes, please refer to the changelog.
To update to Fedify 1.5.0, run:
# For Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For npm
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
Thank you to all contributors who helped make this release possible!
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.5.0! This version brings several significant improvements to performance, configurability, and developer experience. Let's dive into what's new:
Two-Stage Fan-out Architecture for Efficient Activity Delivery
#Fedify now implements a smart fan-out mechanism for delivering activities to large audiences. This change is particularly valuable for accounts with many followers. When sending activities to many recipients, Fedify now creates a single consolidated message containing the activity payload and recipient list, which a background worker then processes to re-enqueue individual delivery tasks.
This architectural improvement delivers several benefits: Context.sendActivity() returns almost instantly even with thousands of recipients, memory consumption is dramatically reduced by avoiding payload duplication, UI responsiveness improves since web requests complete quickly, and the system maintains reliability with independent retry logic for each delivery.
For specific requirements, we've added a new fanout option with three settings:
// Configuring fan-out behavior
await ctx.sendActivity(
{ identifier: "alice" },
recipients,
activity,
{ fanout: "auto" } // Default: automatic based on recipient count
// Other options: "skip" (never use fan-out) or "force" (always use fan-out)
);
Canonical Origin Support for Multi-Domain Setups
You can now explicitly configure a canonical origin for your server, which is especially useful for multi-domain setups. This feature allows you to set different domains for WebFinger handles and #ActivityPub URIs, configured through the new origin option in createFederation(). This enhancement prevents unexpected URL construction when requests bypass proxies and improves security by ensuring consistent domain usage.
const federation = createFederation({
// Use example.com for handles but ap.example.com for ActivityPub URIs
origin: {
handleHost: "example.com",
webOrigin: "https://ap.example.com",
},
// Other options...
});
Optional Followers Collection Synchronization
Followers collection synchronization (FEP-8fcf) is now opt-in rather than automatic. This feature must now be explicitly enabled through the syncCollection option, giving developers more control over when to include followers collection digests. This change improves network efficiency by reducing unnecessary synchronization traffic.
Key format support has been expanded for better interoperability. Fedify now accepts PEM-PKCS#1 format in addition to PEM-SPKI for RSA public keys. We've added importPkcs1() and importPem() functions for additional flexibility, which improves compatibility with a wider range of ActivityPub implementations.
Improved Key Selection Logic
The key selection process is now more intelligent. The fetchKey() function can now select the public key of an actor if keyId has no fragment and the actor has only one public key. This enhancement simplifies key handling in common scenarios and provides better compatibility with implementations that don't specify fragment identifiers.
New Authorization Options
Authorization handling has been enhanced with new options for the RequestContext.getSignedKey() and getSignedKeyOwner() methods. This provides more flexible control over authentication and authorization flows. We've deprecated older parameter-based approaches in favor of the more flexible method-based approach.
Efficient Bulk Message Queueing
Message queue performance is improved with bulk operations. We've added an optional enqueueMany() method to the MessageQueue interface, enabling efficient queueing of multiple messages in a single operation. This reduces overhead when processing batches of activities. All our message queue implementations have been updated to support this new operation:
If you're using any of these packages, make sure to update them alongside Fedify to take advantage of the more efficient bulk message queueing.
CLI Improvements
The Fedify command-line tools have been enhanced with an improved web interface for the fedify inbox command. We've added the Fedify logo with the cute dinosaur at the top of the page and made it easier to copy the fediverse handle of the ephemeral actor. We've also fixed issues with the web interface when installed via deno install from JSR.
Additional Improvements and Bug Fixes
Updated dependencies, including @js-temporal/polyfill to 0.5.0 for Node.js and Bun
Fixed bundler errors with uri-template-router on Rollup
Improved error handling and logging for document loader when KV store operations fail
Added more log messages using the LogTape library
Internalized the multibase package for better maintenance and compatibility
For the complete list of changes, please refer to the changelog.
To update to Fedify 1.5.0, run:
# For Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For npm
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
Thank you to all contributors who helped make this release possible!
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.5.0! This version brings several significant improvements to performance, configurability, and developer experience. Let's dive into what's new:
Two-Stage Fan-out Architecture for Efficient Activity Delivery
#Fedify now implements a smart fan-out mechanism for delivering activities to large audiences. This change is particularly valuable for accounts with many followers. When sending activities to many recipients, Fedify now creates a single consolidated message containing the activity payload and recipient list, which a background worker then processes to re-enqueue individual delivery tasks.
This architectural improvement delivers several benefits: Context.sendActivity() returns almost instantly even with thousands of recipients, memory consumption is dramatically reduced by avoiding payload duplication, UI responsiveness improves since web requests complete quickly, and the system maintains reliability with independent retry logic for each delivery.
For specific requirements, we've added a new fanout option with three settings:
// Configuring fan-out behavior
await ctx.sendActivity(
{ identifier: "alice" },
recipients,
activity,
{ fanout: "auto" } // Default: automatic based on recipient count
// Other options: "skip" (never use fan-out) or "force" (always use fan-out)
);
Canonical Origin Support for Multi-Domain Setups
You can now explicitly configure a canonical origin for your server, which is especially useful for multi-domain setups. This feature allows you to set different domains for WebFinger handles and #ActivityPub URIs, configured through the new origin option in createFederation(). This enhancement prevents unexpected URL construction when requests bypass proxies and improves security by ensuring consistent domain usage.
const federation = createFederation({
// Use example.com for handles but ap.example.com for ActivityPub URIs
origin: {
handleHost: "example.com",
webOrigin: "https://ap.example.com",
},
// Other options...
});
Optional Followers Collection Synchronization
Followers collection synchronization (FEP-8fcf) is now opt-in rather than automatic. This feature must now be explicitly enabled through the syncCollection option, giving developers more control over when to include followers collection digests. This change improves network efficiency by reducing unnecessary synchronization traffic.
Key format support has been expanded for better interoperability. Fedify now accepts PEM-PKCS#1 format in addition to PEM-SPKI for RSA public keys. We've added importPkcs1() and importPem() functions for additional flexibility, which improves compatibility with a wider range of ActivityPub implementations.
Improved Key Selection Logic
The key selection process is now more intelligent. The fetchKey() function can now select the public key of an actor if keyId has no fragment and the actor has only one public key. This enhancement simplifies key handling in common scenarios and provides better compatibility with implementations that don't specify fragment identifiers.
New Authorization Options
Authorization handling has been enhanced with new options for the RequestContext.getSignedKey() and getSignedKeyOwner() methods. This provides more flexible control over authentication and authorization flows. We've deprecated older parameter-based approaches in favor of the more flexible method-based approach.
Efficient Bulk Message Queueing
Message queue performance is improved with bulk operations. We've added an optional enqueueMany() method to the MessageQueue interface, enabling efficient queueing of multiple messages in a single operation. This reduces overhead when processing batches of activities. All our message queue implementations have been updated to support this new operation:
If you're using any of these packages, make sure to update them alongside Fedify to take advantage of the more efficient bulk message queueing.
CLI Improvements
The Fedify command-line tools have been enhanced with an improved web interface for the fedify inbox command. We've added the Fedify logo with the cute dinosaur at the top of the page and made it easier to copy the fediverse handle of the ephemeral actor. We've also fixed issues with the web interface when installed via deno install from JSR.
Additional Improvements and Bug Fixes
Updated dependencies, including @js-temporal/polyfill to 0.5.0 for Node.js and Bun
Fixed bundler errors with uri-template-router on Rollup
Improved error handling and logging for document loader when KV store operations fail
Added more log messages using the LogTape library
Internalized the multibase package for better maintenance and compatibility
For the complete list of changes, please refer to the changelog.
To update to Fedify 1.5.0, run:
# For Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For npm
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
Thank you to all contributors who helped make this release possible!
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.5.0! This version brings several significant improvements to performance, configurability, and developer experience. Let's dive into what's new:
Two-Stage Fan-out Architecture for Efficient Activity Delivery
#Fedify now implements a smart fan-out mechanism for delivering activities to large audiences. This change is particularly valuable for accounts with many followers. When sending activities to many recipients, Fedify now creates a single consolidated message containing the activity payload and recipient list, which a background worker then processes to re-enqueue individual delivery tasks.
This architectural improvement delivers several benefits: Context.sendActivity() returns almost instantly even with thousands of recipients, memory consumption is dramatically reduced by avoiding payload duplication, UI responsiveness improves since web requests complete quickly, and the system maintains reliability with independent retry logic for each delivery.
For specific requirements, we've added a new fanout option with three settings:
// Configuring fan-out behavior
await ctx.sendActivity(
{ identifier: "alice" },
recipients,
activity,
{ fanout: "auto" } // Default: automatic based on recipient count
// Other options: "skip" (never use fan-out) or "force" (always use fan-out)
);
Canonical Origin Support for Multi-Domain Setups
You can now explicitly configure a canonical origin for your server, which is especially useful for multi-domain setups. This feature allows you to set different domains for WebFinger handles and #ActivityPub URIs, configured through the new origin option in createFederation(). This enhancement prevents unexpected URL construction when requests bypass proxies and improves security by ensuring consistent domain usage.
const federation = createFederation({
// Use example.com for handles but ap.example.com for ActivityPub URIs
origin: {
handleHost: "example.com",
webOrigin: "https://ap.example.com",
},
// Other options...
});
Optional Followers Collection Synchronization
Followers collection synchronization (FEP-8fcf) is now opt-in rather than automatic. This feature must now be explicitly enabled through the syncCollection option, giving developers more control over when to include followers collection digests. This change improves network efficiency by reducing unnecessary synchronization traffic.
Key format support has been expanded for better interoperability. Fedify now accepts PEM-PKCS#1 format in addition to PEM-SPKI for RSA public keys. We've added importPkcs1() and importPem() functions for additional flexibility, which improves compatibility with a wider range of ActivityPub implementations.
Improved Key Selection Logic
The key selection process is now more intelligent. The fetchKey() function can now select the public key of an actor if keyId has no fragment and the actor has only one public key. This enhancement simplifies key handling in common scenarios and provides better compatibility with implementations that don't specify fragment identifiers.
New Authorization Options
Authorization handling has been enhanced with new options for the RequestContext.getSignedKey() and getSignedKeyOwner() methods. This provides more flexible control over authentication and authorization flows. We've deprecated older parameter-based approaches in favor of the more flexible method-based approach.
Efficient Bulk Message Queueing
Message queue performance is improved with bulk operations. We've added an optional enqueueMany() method to the MessageQueue interface, enabling efficient queueing of multiple messages in a single operation. This reduces overhead when processing batches of activities. All our message queue implementations have been updated to support this new operation:
If you're using any of these packages, make sure to update them alongside Fedify to take advantage of the more efficient bulk message queueing.
CLI Improvements
The Fedify command-line tools have been enhanced with an improved web interface for the fedify inbox command. We've added the Fedify logo with the cute dinosaur at the top of the page and made it easier to copy the fediverse handle of the ephemeral actor. We've also fixed issues with the web interface when installed via deno install from JSR.
Additional Improvements and Bug Fixes
Updated dependencies, including @js-temporal/polyfill to 0.5.0 for Node.js and Bun
Fixed bundler errors with uri-template-router on Rollup
Improved error handling and logging for document loader when KV store operations fail
Added more log messages using the LogTape library
Internalized the multibase package for better maintenance and compatibility
For the complete list of changes, please refer to the changelog.
To update to Fedify 1.5.0, run:
# For Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For npm
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
Thank you to all contributors who helped make this release possible!
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.5.0! This version brings several significant improvements to performance, configurability, and developer experience. Let's dive into what's new:
Two-Stage Fan-out Architecture for Efficient Activity Delivery
#Fedify now implements a smart fan-out mechanism for delivering activities to large audiences. This change is particularly valuable for accounts with many followers. When sending activities to many recipients, Fedify now creates a single consolidated message containing the activity payload and recipient list, which a background worker then processes to re-enqueue individual delivery tasks.
This architectural improvement delivers several benefits: Context.sendActivity() returns almost instantly even with thousands of recipients, memory consumption is dramatically reduced by avoiding payload duplication, UI responsiveness improves since web requests complete quickly, and the system maintains reliability with independent retry logic for each delivery.
For specific requirements, we've added a new fanout option with three settings:
// Configuring fan-out behavior
await ctx.sendActivity(
{ identifier: "alice" },
recipients,
activity,
{ fanout: "auto" } // Default: automatic based on recipient count
// Other options: "skip" (never use fan-out) or "force" (always use fan-out)
);
Canonical Origin Support for Multi-Domain Setups
You can now explicitly configure a canonical origin for your server, which is especially useful for multi-domain setups. This feature allows you to set different domains for WebFinger handles and #ActivityPub URIs, configured through the new origin option in createFederation(). This enhancement prevents unexpected URL construction when requests bypass proxies and improves security by ensuring consistent domain usage.
const federation = createFederation({
// Use example.com for handles but ap.example.com for ActivityPub URIs
origin: {
handleHost: "example.com",
webOrigin: "https://ap.example.com",
},
// Other options...
});
Optional Followers Collection Synchronization
Followers collection synchronization (FEP-8fcf) is now opt-in rather than automatic. This feature must now be explicitly enabled through the syncCollection option, giving developers more control over when to include followers collection digests. This change improves network efficiency by reducing unnecessary synchronization traffic.
Key format support has been expanded for better interoperability. Fedify now accepts PEM-PKCS#1 format in addition to PEM-SPKI for RSA public keys. We've added importPkcs1() and importPem() functions for additional flexibility, which improves compatibility with a wider range of ActivityPub implementations.
Improved Key Selection Logic
The key selection process is now more intelligent. The fetchKey() function can now select the public key of an actor if keyId has no fragment and the actor has only one public key. This enhancement simplifies key handling in common scenarios and provides better compatibility with implementations that don't specify fragment identifiers.
New Authorization Options
Authorization handling has been enhanced with new options for the RequestContext.getSignedKey() and getSignedKeyOwner() methods. This provides more flexible control over authentication and authorization flows. We've deprecated older parameter-based approaches in favor of the more flexible method-based approach.
Efficient Bulk Message Queueing
Message queue performance is improved with bulk operations. We've added an optional enqueueMany() method to the MessageQueue interface, enabling efficient queueing of multiple messages in a single operation. This reduces overhead when processing batches of activities. All our message queue implementations have been updated to support this new operation:
If you're using any of these packages, make sure to update them alongside Fedify to take advantage of the more efficient bulk message queueing.
CLI Improvements
The Fedify command-line tools have been enhanced with an improved web interface for the fedify inbox command. We've added the Fedify logo with the cute dinosaur at the top of the page and made it easier to copy the fediverse handle of the ephemeral actor. We've also fixed issues with the web interface when installed via deno install from JSR.
Additional Improvements and Bug Fixes
Updated dependencies, including @js-temporal/polyfill to 0.5.0 for Node.js and Bun
Fixed bundler errors with uri-template-router on Rollup
Improved error handling and logging for document loader when KV store operations fail
Added more log messages using the LogTape library
Internalized the multibase package for better maintenance and compatibility
For the complete list of changes, please refer to the changelog.
To update to Fedify 1.5.0, run:
# For Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For npm
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
Thank you to all contributors who helped make this release possible!
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.5.0! This version brings several significant improvements to performance, configurability, and developer experience. Let's dive into what's new:
Two-Stage Fan-out Architecture for Efficient Activity Delivery
#Fedify now implements a smart fan-out mechanism for delivering activities to large audiences. This change is particularly valuable for accounts with many followers. When sending activities to many recipients, Fedify now creates a single consolidated message containing the activity payload and recipient list, which a background worker then processes to re-enqueue individual delivery tasks.
This architectural improvement delivers several benefits: Context.sendActivity() returns almost instantly even with thousands of recipients, memory consumption is dramatically reduced by avoiding payload duplication, UI responsiveness improves since web requests complete quickly, and the system maintains reliability with independent retry logic for each delivery.
For specific requirements, we've added a new fanout option with three settings:
// Configuring fan-out behavior
await ctx.sendActivity(
{ identifier: "alice" },
recipients,
activity,
{ fanout: "auto" } // Default: automatic based on recipient count
// Other options: "skip" (never use fan-out) or "force" (always use fan-out)
);
Canonical Origin Support for Multi-Domain Setups
You can now explicitly configure a canonical origin for your server, which is especially useful for multi-domain setups. This feature allows you to set different domains for WebFinger handles and #ActivityPub URIs, configured through the new origin option in createFederation(). This enhancement prevents unexpected URL construction when requests bypass proxies and improves security by ensuring consistent domain usage.
const federation = createFederation({
// Use example.com for handles but ap.example.com for ActivityPub URIs
origin: {
handleHost: "example.com",
webOrigin: "https://ap.example.com",
},
// Other options...
});
Optional Followers Collection Synchronization
Followers collection synchronization (FEP-8fcf) is now opt-in rather than automatic. This feature must now be explicitly enabled through the syncCollection option, giving developers more control over when to include followers collection digests. This change improves network efficiency by reducing unnecessary synchronization traffic.
Key format support has been expanded for better interoperability. Fedify now accepts PEM-PKCS#1 format in addition to PEM-SPKI for RSA public keys. We've added importPkcs1() and importPem() functions for additional flexibility, which improves compatibility with a wider range of ActivityPub implementations.
Improved Key Selection Logic
The key selection process is now more intelligent. The fetchKey() function can now select the public key of an actor if keyId has no fragment and the actor has only one public key. This enhancement simplifies key handling in common scenarios and provides better compatibility with implementations that don't specify fragment identifiers.
New Authorization Options
Authorization handling has been enhanced with new options for the RequestContext.getSignedKey() and getSignedKeyOwner() methods. This provides more flexible control over authentication and authorization flows. We've deprecated older parameter-based approaches in favor of the more flexible method-based approach.
Efficient Bulk Message Queueing
Message queue performance is improved with bulk operations. We've added an optional enqueueMany() method to the MessageQueue interface, enabling efficient queueing of multiple messages in a single operation. This reduces overhead when processing batches of activities. All our message queue implementations have been updated to support this new operation:
If you're using any of these packages, make sure to update them alongside Fedify to take advantage of the more efficient bulk message queueing.
CLI Improvements
The Fedify command-line tools have been enhanced with an improved web interface for the fedify inbox command. We've added the Fedify logo with the cute dinosaur at the top of the page and made it easier to copy the fediverse handle of the ephemeral actor. We've also fixed issues with the web interface when installed via deno install from JSR.
Additional Improvements and Bug Fixes
Updated dependencies, including @js-temporal/polyfill to 0.5.0 for Node.js and Bun
Fixed bundler errors with uri-template-router on Rollup
Improved error handling and logging for document loader when KV store operations fail
Added more log messages using the LogTape library
Internalized the multibase package for better maintenance and compatibility
For the complete list of changes, please refer to the changelog.
To update to Fedify 1.5.0, run:
# For Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For npm
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
Thank you to all contributors who helped make this release possible!
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.5.0! This version brings several significant improvements to performance, configurability, and developer experience. Let's dive into what's new:
Two-Stage Fan-out Architecture for Efficient Activity Delivery
#Fedify now implements a smart fan-out mechanism for delivering activities to large audiences. This change is particularly valuable for accounts with many followers. When sending activities to many recipients, Fedify now creates a single consolidated message containing the activity payload and recipient list, which a background worker then processes to re-enqueue individual delivery tasks.
This architectural improvement delivers several benefits: Context.sendActivity() returns almost instantly even with thousands of recipients, memory consumption is dramatically reduced by avoiding payload duplication, UI responsiveness improves since web requests complete quickly, and the system maintains reliability with independent retry logic for each delivery.
For specific requirements, we've added a new fanout option with three settings:
// Configuring fan-out behavior
await ctx.sendActivity(
{ identifier: "alice" },
recipients,
activity,
{ fanout: "auto" } // Default: automatic based on recipient count
// Other options: "skip" (never use fan-out) or "force" (always use fan-out)
);
Canonical Origin Support for Multi-Domain Setups
You can now explicitly configure a canonical origin for your server, which is especially useful for multi-domain setups. This feature allows you to set different domains for WebFinger handles and #ActivityPub URIs, configured through the new origin option in createFederation(). This enhancement prevents unexpected URL construction when requests bypass proxies and improves security by ensuring consistent domain usage.
const federation = createFederation({
// Use example.com for handles but ap.example.com for ActivityPub URIs
origin: {
handleHost: "example.com",
webOrigin: "https://ap.example.com",
},
// Other options...
});
Optional Followers Collection Synchronization
Followers collection synchronization (FEP-8fcf) is now opt-in rather than automatic. This feature must now be explicitly enabled through the syncCollection option, giving developers more control over when to include followers collection digests. This change improves network efficiency by reducing unnecessary synchronization traffic.
Key format support has been expanded for better interoperability. Fedify now accepts PEM-PKCS#1 format in addition to PEM-SPKI for RSA public keys. We've added importPkcs1() and importPem() functions for additional flexibility, which improves compatibility with a wider range of ActivityPub implementations.
Improved Key Selection Logic
The key selection process is now more intelligent. The fetchKey() function can now select the public key of an actor if keyId has no fragment and the actor has only one public key. This enhancement simplifies key handling in common scenarios and provides better compatibility with implementations that don't specify fragment identifiers.
New Authorization Options
Authorization handling has been enhanced with new options for the RequestContext.getSignedKey() and getSignedKeyOwner() methods. This provides more flexible control over authentication and authorization flows. We've deprecated older parameter-based approaches in favor of the more flexible method-based approach.
Efficient Bulk Message Queueing
Message queue performance is improved with bulk operations. We've added an optional enqueueMany() method to the MessageQueue interface, enabling efficient queueing of multiple messages in a single operation. This reduces overhead when processing batches of activities. All our message queue implementations have been updated to support this new operation:
If you're using any of these packages, make sure to update them alongside Fedify to take advantage of the more efficient bulk message queueing.
CLI Improvements
The Fedify command-line tools have been enhanced with an improved web interface for the fedify inbox command. We've added the Fedify logo with the cute dinosaur at the top of the page and made it easier to copy the fediverse handle of the ephemeral actor. We've also fixed issues with the web interface when installed via deno install from JSR.
Additional Improvements and Bug Fixes
Updated dependencies, including @js-temporal/polyfill to 0.5.0 for Node.js and Bun
Fixed bundler errors with uri-template-router on Rollup
Improved error handling and logging for document loader when KV store operations fail
Added more log messages using the LogTape library
Internalized the multibase package for better maintenance and compatibility
For the complete list of changes, please refer to the changelog.
To update to Fedify 1.5.0, run:
# For Deno
deno add jsr:@fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For npm
npm add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
# For Bun
bun add @fedify/fedify@1.5.0
Thank you to all contributors who helped make this release possible!
The ActivityPub specification does not have an example of the "sharedInbox" field in use.
Although it does say "An optional endpoint..." — I suspect a lot of people won't know (with confidence) that it can go under the "endpoints" field. For example:
ALT text detailssharedInbox
An optional endpoint used for wide delivery of publicly addressed activities and activities sent to followers. sharedInbox endpoints SHOULD also be publicly readable OrderedCollection objects containing objects addressed to the Public special collection. Reading from the sharedInbox endpoint MUST NOT present objects which are not addressed to the Public endpoint.
New API filter action in Mastodon that fedi app developers will want to know about.
Filters can now include a new filter_action of “blur”. Media attachments in posts matching the criteria should then be blurred by the client app based on the FilterResult object attached.
New API filter action in Mastodon that fedi app developers will want to know about.
Filters can now include a new filter_action of “blur”. Media attachments in posts matching the criteria should then be blurred by the client app based on the FilterResult object attached.
New API filter action in Mastodon that fedi app developers will want to know about.
Filters can now include a new filter_action of “blur”. Media attachments in posts matching the criteria should then be blurred by the client app based on the FilterResult object attached.
New API filter action in Mastodon that fedi app developers will want to know about.
Filters can now include a new filter_action of “blur”. Media attachments in posts matching the criteria should then be blurred by the client app based on the FilterResult object attached.
Turns out Mastodon implements the FEP-8fcf specification (Followers collection synchronization across servers), but it expected all followers to be in a single page collection. When followers were split across multiple pages, it would only see the first page and incorrectly remove all followers from subsequent pages!
This explains so much about the strange behavior I've been seeing with #Hollo and other #Fedify-based servers over the past few months. Some people would follow me from large instances, then mysteriously unfollow later without any action on their part.
Thankfully this fix has been marked for backporting, so it should appear in an upcoming patch release rather than waiting for the next major version. Great news for all of us building on #ActivityPub!
This is why I love open source—we can identify, understand, and fix these kinds of interoperability issues together. 😊
Turns out Mastodon implements the FEP-8fcf specification (Followers collection synchronization across servers), but it expected all followers to be in a single page collection. When followers were split across multiple pages, it would only see the first page and incorrectly remove all followers from subsequent pages!
This explains so much about the strange behavior I've been seeing with #Hollo and other #Fedify-based servers over the past few months. Some people would follow me from large instances, then mysteriously unfollow later without any action on their part.
Thankfully this fix has been marked for backporting, so it should appear in an upcoming patch release rather than waiting for the next major version. Great news for all of us building on #ActivityPub!
This is why I love open source—we can identify, understand, and fix these kinds of interoperability issues together. 😊
Turns out Mastodon implements the FEP-8fcf specification (Followers collection synchronization across servers), but it expected all followers to be in a single page collection. When followers were split across multiple pages, it would only see the first page and incorrectly remove all followers from subsequent pages!
This explains so much about the strange behavior I've been seeing with #Hollo and other #Fedify-based servers over the past few months. Some people would follow me from large instances, then mysteriously unfollow later without any action on their part.
Thankfully this fix has been marked for backporting, so it should appear in an upcoming patch release rather than waiting for the next major version. Great news for all of us building on #ActivityPub!
This is why I love open source—we can identify, understand, and fix these kinds of interoperability issues together. 😊
Turns out Mastodon implements the FEP-8fcf specification (Followers collection synchronization across servers), but it expected all followers to be in a single page collection. When followers were split across multiple pages, it would only see the first page and incorrectly remove all followers from subsequent pages!
This explains so much about the strange behavior I've been seeing with #Hollo and other #Fedify-based servers over the past few months. Some people would follow me from large instances, then mysteriously unfollow later without any action on their part.
Thankfully this fix has been marked for backporting, so it should appear in an upcoming patch release rather than waiting for the next major version. Great news for all of us building on #ActivityPub!
This is why I love open source—we can identify, understand, and fix these kinds of interoperability issues together. 😊
Turns out Mastodon implements the FEP-8fcf specification (Followers collection synchronization across servers), but it expected all followers to be in a single page collection. When followers were split across multiple pages, it would only see the first page and incorrectly remove all followers from subsequent pages!
This explains so much about the strange behavior I've been seeing with #Hollo and other #Fedify-based servers over the past few months. Some people would follow me from large instances, then mysteriously unfollow later without any action on their part.
Thankfully this fix has been marked for backporting, so it should appear in an upcoming patch release rather than waiting for the next major version. Great news for all of us building on #ActivityPub!
This is why I love open source—we can identify, understand, and fix these kinds of interoperability issues together. 😊
Turns out Mastodon implements the FEP-8fcf specification (Followers collection synchronization across servers), but it expected all followers to be in a single page collection. When followers were split across multiple pages, it would only see the first page and incorrectly remove all followers from subsequent pages!
This explains so much about the strange behavior I've been seeing with #Hollo and other #Fedify-based servers over the past few months. Some people would follow me from large instances, then mysteriously unfollow later without any action on their part.
Thankfully this fix has been marked for backporting, so it should appear in an upcoming patch release rather than waiting for the next major version. Great news for all of us building on #ActivityPub!
This is why I love open source—we can identify, understand, and fix these kinds of interoperability issues together. 😊
Turns out Mastodon implements the FEP-8fcf specification (Followers collection synchronization across servers), but it expected all followers to be in a single page collection. When followers were split across multiple pages, it would only see the first page and incorrectly remove all followers from subsequent pages!
This explains so much about the strange behavior I've been seeing with #Hollo and other #Fedify-based servers over the past few months. Some people would follow me from large instances, then mysteriously unfollow later without any action on their part.
Thankfully this fix has been marked for backporting, so it should appear in an upcoming patch release rather than waiting for the next major version. Great news for all of us building on #ActivityPub!
This is why I love open source—we can identify, understand, and fix these kinds of interoperability issues together. 😊
Turns out Mastodon implements the FEP-8fcf specification (Followers collection synchronization across servers), but it expected all followers to be in a single page collection. When followers were split across multiple pages, it would only see the first page and incorrectly remove all followers from subsequent pages!
This explains so much about the strange behavior I've been seeing with #Hollo and other #Fedify-based servers over the past few months. Some people would follow me from large instances, then mysteriously unfollow later without any action on their part.
Thankfully this fix has been marked for backporting, so it should appear in an upcoming patch release rather than waiting for the next major version. Great news for all of us building on #ActivityPub!
This is why I love open source—we can identify, understand, and fix these kinds of interoperability issues together. 😊
Turns out Mastodon implements the FEP-8fcf specification (Followers collection synchronization across servers), but it expected all followers to be in a single page collection. When followers were split across multiple pages, it would only see the first page and incorrectly remove all followers from subsequent pages!
This explains so much about the strange behavior I've been seeing with #Hollo and other #Fedify-based servers over the past few months. Some people would follow me from large instances, then mysteriously unfollow later without any action on their part.
Thankfully this fix has been marked for backporting, so it should appear in an upcoming patch release rather than waiting for the next major version. Great news for all of us building on #ActivityPub!
This is why I love open source—we can identify, understand, and fix these kinds of interoperability issues together. 😊
Turns out Mastodon implements the FEP-8fcf specification (Followers collection synchronization across servers), but it expected all followers to be in a single page collection. When followers were split across multiple pages, it would only see the first page and incorrectly remove all followers from subsequent pages!
This explains so much about the strange behavior I've been seeing with #Hollo and other #Fedify-based servers over the past few months. Some people would follow me from large instances, then mysteriously unfollow later without any action on their part.
Thankfully this fix has been marked for backporting, so it should appear in an upcoming patch release rather than waiting for the next major version. Great news for all of us building on #ActivityPub!
This is why I love open source—we can identify, understand, and fix these kinds of interoperability issues together. 😊
Turns out Mastodon implements the FEP-8fcf specification (Followers collection synchronization across servers), but it expected all followers to be in a single page collection. When followers were split across multiple pages, it would only see the first page and incorrectly remove all followers from subsequent pages!
This explains so much about the strange behavior I've been seeing with #Hollo and other #Fedify-based servers over the past few months. Some people would follow me from large instances, then mysteriously unfollow later without any action on their part.
Thankfully this fix has been marked for backporting, so it should appear in an upcoming patch release rather than waiting for the next major version. Great news for all of us building on #ActivityPub!
This is why I love open source—we can identify, understand, and fix these kinds of interoperability issues together. 😊
Turns out Mastodon implements the FEP-8fcf specification (Followers collection synchronization across servers), but it expected all followers to be in a single page collection. When followers were split across multiple pages, it would only see the first page and incorrectly remove all followers from subsequent pages!
This explains so much about the strange behavior I've been seeing with #Hollo and other #Fedify-based servers over the past few months. Some people would follow me from large instances, then mysteriously unfollow later without any action on their part.
Thankfully this fix has been marked for backporting, so it should appear in an upcoming patch release rather than waiting for the next major version. Great news for all of us building on #ActivityPub!
This is why I love open source—we can identify, understand, and fix these kinds of interoperability issues together. 😊
Turns out Mastodon implements the FEP-8fcf specification (Followers collection synchronization across servers), but it expected all followers to be in a single page collection. When followers were split across multiple pages, it would only see the first page and incorrectly remove all followers from subsequent pages!
This explains so much about the strange behavior I've been seeing with #Hollo and other #Fedify-based servers over the past few months. Some people would follow me from large instances, then mysteriously unfollow later without any action on their part.
Thankfully this fix has been marked for backporting, so it should appear in an upcoming patch release rather than waiting for the next major version. Great news for all of us building on #ActivityPub!
This is why I love open source—we can identify, understand, and fix these kinds of interoperability issues together. 😊
Turns out Mastodon implements the FEP-8fcf specification (Followers collection synchronization across servers), but it expected all followers to be in a single page collection. When followers were split across multiple pages, it would only see the first page and incorrectly remove all followers from subsequent pages!
This explains so much about the strange behavior I've been seeing with #Hollo and other #Fedify-based servers over the past few months. Some people would follow me from large instances, then mysteriously unfollow later without any action on their part.
Thankfully this fix has been marked for backporting, so it should appear in an upcoming patch release rather than waiting for the next major version. Great news for all of us building on #ActivityPub!
This is why I love open source—we can identify, understand, and fix these kinds of interoperability issues together. 😊
Turns out Mastodon implements the FEP-8fcf specification (Followers collection synchronization across servers), but it expected all followers to be in a single page collection. When followers were split across multiple pages, it would only see the first page and incorrectly remove all followers from subsequent pages!
This explains so much about the strange behavior I've been seeing with #Hollo and other #Fedify-based servers over the past few months. Some people would follow me from large instances, then mysteriously unfollow later without any action on their part.
Thankfully this fix has been marked for backporting, so it should appear in an upcoming patch release rather than waiting for the next major version. Great news for all of us building on #ActivityPub!
This is why I love open source—we can identify, understand, and fix these kinds of interoperability issues together. 😊
Turns out Mastodon implements the FEP-8fcf specification (Followers collection synchronization across servers), but it expected all followers to be in a single page collection. When followers were split across multiple pages, it would only see the first page and incorrectly remove all followers from subsequent pages!
This explains so much about the strange behavior I've been seeing with #Hollo and other #Fedify-based servers over the past few months. Some people would follow me from large instances, then mysteriously unfollow later without any action on their part.
Thankfully this fix has been marked for backporting, so it should appear in an upcoming patch release rather than waiting for the next major version. Great news for all of us building on #ActivityPub!
This is why I love open source—we can identify, understand, and fix these kinds of interoperability issues together. 😊
Turns out Mastodon implements the FEP-8fcf specification (Followers collection synchronization across servers), but it expected all followers to be in a single page collection. When followers were split across multiple pages, it would only see the first page and incorrectly remove all followers from subsequent pages!
This explains so much about the strange behavior I've been seeing with #Hollo and other #Fedify-based servers over the past few months. Some people would follow me from large instances, then mysteriously unfollow later without any action on their part.
Thankfully this fix has been marked for backporting, so it should appear in an upcoming patch release rather than waiting for the next major version. Great news for all of us building on #ActivityPub!
This is why I love open source—we can identify, understand, and fix these kinds of interoperability issues together. 😊
Turns out Mastodon implements the FEP-8fcf specification (Followers collection synchronization across servers), but it expected all followers to be in a single page collection. When followers were split across multiple pages, it would only see the first page and incorrectly remove all followers from subsequent pages!
This explains so much about the strange behavior I've been seeing with #Hollo and other #Fedify-based servers over the past few months. Some people would follow me from large instances, then mysteriously unfollow later without any action on their part.
Thankfully this fix has been marked for backporting, so it should appear in an upcoming patch release rather than waiting for the next major version. Great news for all of us building on #ActivityPub!
This is why I love open source—we can identify, understand, and fix these kinds of interoperability issues together. 😊
Turns out Mastodon implements the FEP-8fcf specification (Followers collection synchronization across servers), but it expected all followers to be in a single page collection. When followers were split across multiple pages, it would only see the first page and incorrectly remove all followers from subsequent pages!
This explains so much about the strange behavior I've been seeing with #Hollo and other #Fedify-based servers over the past few months. Some people would follow me from large instances, then mysteriously unfollow later without any action on their part.
Thankfully this fix has been marked for backporting, so it should appear in an upcoming patch release rather than waiting for the next major version. Great news for all of us building on #ActivityPub!
This is why I love open source—we can identify, understand, and fix these kinds of interoperability issues together. 😊
Turns out Mastodon implements the FEP-8fcf specification (Followers collection synchronization across servers), but it expected all followers to be in a single page collection. When followers were split across multiple pages, it would only see the first page and incorrectly remove all followers from subsequent pages!
This explains so much about the strange behavior I've been seeing with #Hollo and other #Fedify-based servers over the past few months. Some people would follow me from large instances, then mysteriously unfollow later without any action on their part.
Thankfully this fix has been marked for backporting, so it should appear in an upcoming patch release rather than waiting for the next major version. Great news for all of us building on #ActivityPub!
This is why I love open source—we can identify, understand, and fix these kinds of interoperability issues together. 😊
Turns out Mastodon implements the FEP-8fcf specification (Followers collection synchronization across servers), but it expected all followers to be in a single page collection. When followers were split across multiple pages, it would only see the first page and incorrectly remove all followers from subsequent pages!
This explains so much about the strange behavior I've been seeing with #Hollo and other #Fedify-based servers over the past few months. Some people would follow me from large instances, then mysteriously unfollow later without any action on their part.
Thankfully this fix has been marked for backporting, so it should appear in an upcoming patch release rather than waiting for the next major version. Great news for all of us building on #ActivityPub!
This is why I love open source—we can identify, understand, and fix these kinds of interoperability issues together. 😊
People being able to have a service acting on their behalf as (at least part of) the back-end could be a path towards this back-end / front-end decoupling and separation.
In fact, it is an old idea. I remember ideas like this floating around in the 1990s. Including in the P2P scene.
(It is common for ideas to get rediscovered over and over and over again. Different people trying to solve similar problems, and independently coming up with similar solutions.)
Theres a new interview with @hongminhee (of @fedify, @hollo, and now #Ghost fame). It's in with Korean subtitles but quite readable with YouTube's autogenerated English subs.
Theres a new interview with @hongminhee (of @fedify, @hollo, and now #Ghost fame). It's in with Korean subtitles but quite readable with YouTube's autogenerated English subs.
Theres a new interview with @hongminhee (of @fedify, @hollo, and now #Ghost fame). It's in with Korean subtitles but quite readable with YouTube's autogenerated English subs.
Theres a new interview with @hongminhee (of @fedify, @hollo, and now #Ghost fame). It's in with Korean subtitles but quite readable with YouTube's autogenerated English subs.
Theres a new interview with @hongminhee (of @fedify, @hollo, and now #Ghost fame). It's in with Korean subtitles but quite readable with YouTube's autogenerated English subs.
Getting back to #Fedify development today! Working on optimizing the outgoing activity queue to improve response times. Currently focusing on reducing latency when sending posts to large follower counts—should make the whole publishing experience feel much snappier.
Theres a new interview with @hongminhee (of @fedify, @hollo, and now #Ghost fame). It's in with Korean subtitles but quite readable with YouTube's autogenerated English subs.
Theres a new interview with @hongminhee (of @fedify, @hollo, and now #Ghost fame). It's in with Korean subtitles but quite readable with YouTube's autogenerated English subs.
Theres a new interview with @hongminhee (of @fedify, @hollo, and now #Ghost fame). It's in with Korean subtitles but quite readable with YouTube's autogenerated English subs.
Theres a new interview with @hongminhee (of @fedify, @hollo, and now #Ghost fame). It's in with Korean subtitles but quite readable with YouTube's autogenerated English subs.
Theres a new interview with @hongminhee (of @fedify, @hollo, and now #Ghost fame). It's in with Korean subtitles but quite readable with YouTube's autogenerated English subs.
Getting back to #Fedify development today! Working on optimizing the outgoing activity queue to improve response times. Currently focusing on reducing latency when sending posts to large follower counts—should make the whole publishing experience feel much snappier.
ALT text detailsA webpage displaying a collection of posts organized by authors and tags. It shows a total of 21 bookmarks, with sections for different authors and various tags related to topics like "fediverse," "activitypub," and "mastodon." A linked video is also included at the bottom.
Coming soon in #Fedify 1.5.0: Smart fan-out for efficient activity delivery!
After getting feedback about our queue design, we're excited to introduce a significant improvement for accounts with large follower counts.
As we discussed in our previous post, Fedify currently creates separate queue messages for each recipient. While this approach offers excellent reliability and individual retry capabilities, it causes performance issues when sending activities to thousands of followers.
Our solution? A new two-stage “fan-out” approach:
When you call Context.sendActivity(), we'll now enqueue just one consolidated message containing your activity payload and recipient list
A background worker then processes this message and re-enqueues individual delivery tasks
The benefits are substantial:
Context.sendActivity() returns almost instantly, even for massive follower counts
Memory usage is dramatically reduced by avoiding payload duplication
UI responsiveness improves since web requests complete quickly
The same reliability for individual deliveries is maintained
For developers with specific needs, we're adding a fanout option with three settings:
"auto" (default): Uses fanout for large recipient lists, direct delivery for small ones
"skip": Bypasses fanout when you need different payload per recipient
"force": Always uses fanout even with few recipients
ALT text detailsFlowchart comparing Fedify's current approach versus the new fan-out approach for activity delivery.
The current approach shows:
1. sendActivity calls create separate messages for each recipient (marked as a response time bottleneck)
2. These individual messages are queued in outbox
3. Messages are processed independently
4. Three delivery outcomes: Recipient 1 (fast delivery), Recipient 2 (fast delivery), and Recipient 3 (slow server)
The fan-out approach shows:
1. sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients
2. This single message is queued in fan-out queue (marked as providing quick response)
3. A background worker processes the fan-out message
4. The worker re-enqueues individual messages in outbox
5. These are then processed independently
6. Three delivery outcomes: Recipient 1 (fast delivery), Recipient 2 (fast delivery), and Recipient 3 (slow server)
The diagram highlights how the fan-out approach moves the heavy processing out of the response path, providing faster API response times while maintaining the same delivery characteristics.
Got an interesting question today about #Fedify's outgoing #queue design!
Some users noticed we create separate queue messages for each recipient inbox rather than queuing a single message and handling the splitting later. There's a good reason for this approach.
In the #fediverse, server response times vary dramatically—some respond quickly, others slowly, and some might be temporarily down. If we processed deliveries in a single task, the entire batch would be held up by the slowest server in the group.
By creating individual queue items for each recipient:
Fast servers get messages delivered promptly
Slow servers don't delay delivery to others
Failed deliveries can be retried independently
Your UI remains responsive while deliveries happen in the background
It's a classic trade-off: we generate more queue messages, but gain better resilience and user experience in return.
This is particularly important in federated networks where server behavior is unpredictable and outside our control. We'd rather optimize for making sure your posts reach their destinations as quickly as possible!
What other aspects of Fedify's design would you like to hear about? Let us know!
ALT text detailsA flowchart comparing two approaches to message queue design. The top half shows “Fedify's Current Approach” where a single sendActivity call creates separate messages for each recipient, which are individually queued and processed independently. This results in fast delivery to working recipients while slow servers only affect their own delivery. The bottom half shows an “Alternative Approach” where sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients, queued as one item, and processed sequentially. This results in all recipients waiting for each delivery to complete, with slow servers blocking everyone in the queue.
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Got an interesting question today about #Fedify's outgoing #queue design!
Some users noticed we create separate queue messages for each recipient inbox rather than queuing a single message and handling the splitting later. There's a good reason for this approach.
In the #fediverse, server response times vary dramatically—some respond quickly, others slowly, and some might be temporarily down. If we processed deliveries in a single task, the entire batch would be held up by the slowest server in the group.
By creating individual queue items for each recipient:
Fast servers get messages delivered promptly
Slow servers don't delay delivery to others
Failed deliveries can be retried independently
Your UI remains responsive while deliveries happen in the background
It's a classic trade-off: we generate more queue messages, but gain better resilience and user experience in return.
This is particularly important in federated networks where server behavior is unpredictable and outside our control. We'd rather optimize for making sure your posts reach their destinations as quickly as possible!
What other aspects of Fedify's design would you like to hear about? Let us know!
ALT text detailsA flowchart comparing two approaches to message queue design. The top half shows “Fedify's Current Approach” where a single sendActivity call creates separate messages for each recipient, which are individually queued and processed independently. This results in fast delivery to working recipients while slow servers only affect their own delivery. The bottom half shows an “Alternative Approach” where sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients, queued as one item, and processed sequentially. This results in all recipients waiting for each delivery to complete, with slow servers blocking everyone in the queue.
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Coming soon in #Fedify 1.5.0: Smart fan-out for efficient activity delivery!
After getting feedback about our queue design, we're excited to introduce a significant improvement for accounts with large follower counts.
As we discussed in our previous post, Fedify currently creates separate queue messages for each recipient. While this approach offers excellent reliability and individual retry capabilities, it causes performance issues when sending activities to thousands of followers.
Our solution? A new two-stage “fan-out” approach:
When you call Context.sendActivity(), we'll now enqueue just one consolidated message containing your activity payload and recipient list
A background worker then processes this message and re-enqueues individual delivery tasks
The benefits are substantial:
Context.sendActivity() returns almost instantly, even for massive follower counts
Memory usage is dramatically reduced by avoiding payload duplication
UI responsiveness improves since web requests complete quickly
The same reliability for individual deliveries is maintained
For developers with specific needs, we're adding a fanout option with three settings:
"auto" (default): Uses fanout for large recipient lists, direct delivery for small ones
"skip": Bypasses fanout when you need different payload per recipient
"force": Always uses fanout even with few recipients
ALT text detailsFlowchart comparing Fedify's current approach versus the new fan-out approach for activity delivery.
The current approach shows:
1. sendActivity calls create separate messages for each recipient (marked as a response time bottleneck)
2. These individual messages are queued in outbox
3. Messages are processed independently
4. Three delivery outcomes: Recipient 1 (fast delivery), Recipient 2 (fast delivery), and Recipient 3 (slow server)
The fan-out approach shows:
1. sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients
2. This single message is queued in fan-out queue (marked as providing quick response)
3. A background worker processes the fan-out message
4. The worker re-enqueues individual messages in outbox
5. These are then processed independently
6. Three delivery outcomes: Recipient 1 (fast delivery), Recipient 2 (fast delivery), and Recipient 3 (slow server)
The diagram highlights how the fan-out approach moves the heavy processing out of the response path, providing faster API response times while maintaining the same delivery characteristics.
Got an interesting question today about #Fedify's outgoing #queue design!
Some users noticed we create separate queue messages for each recipient inbox rather than queuing a single message and handling the splitting later. There's a good reason for this approach.
In the #fediverse, server response times vary dramatically—some respond quickly, others slowly, and some might be temporarily down. If we processed deliveries in a single task, the entire batch would be held up by the slowest server in the group.
By creating individual queue items for each recipient:
Fast servers get messages delivered promptly
Slow servers don't delay delivery to others
Failed deliveries can be retried independently
Your UI remains responsive while deliveries happen in the background
It's a classic trade-off: we generate more queue messages, but gain better resilience and user experience in return.
This is particularly important in federated networks where server behavior is unpredictable and outside our control. We'd rather optimize for making sure your posts reach their destinations as quickly as possible!
What other aspects of Fedify's design would you like to hear about? Let us know!
ALT text detailsA flowchart comparing two approaches to message queue design. The top half shows “Fedify's Current Approach” where a single sendActivity call creates separate messages for each recipient, which are individually queued and processed independently. This results in fast delivery to working recipients while slow servers only affect their own delivery. The bottom half shows an “Alternative Approach” where sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients, queued as one item, and processed sequentially. This results in all recipients waiting for each delivery to complete, with slow servers blocking everyone in the queue.
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Coming soon in #Fedify 1.5.0: Smart fan-out for efficient activity delivery!
After getting feedback about our queue design, we're excited to introduce a significant improvement for accounts with large follower counts.
As we discussed in our previous post, Fedify currently creates separate queue messages for each recipient. While this approach offers excellent reliability and individual retry capabilities, it causes performance issues when sending activities to thousands of followers.
Our solution? A new two-stage “fan-out” approach:
When you call Context.sendActivity(), we'll now enqueue just one consolidated message containing your activity payload and recipient list
A background worker then processes this message and re-enqueues individual delivery tasks
The benefits are substantial:
Context.sendActivity() returns almost instantly, even for massive follower counts
Memory usage is dramatically reduced by avoiding payload duplication
UI responsiveness improves since web requests complete quickly
The same reliability for individual deliveries is maintained
For developers with specific needs, we're adding a fanout option with three settings:
"auto" (default): Uses fanout for large recipient lists, direct delivery for small ones
"skip": Bypasses fanout when you need different payload per recipient
"force": Always uses fanout even with few recipients
ALT text detailsFlowchart comparing Fedify's current approach versus the new fan-out approach for activity delivery.
The current approach shows:
1. sendActivity calls create separate messages for each recipient (marked as a response time bottleneck)
2. These individual messages are queued in outbox
3. Messages are processed independently
4. Three delivery outcomes: Recipient 1 (fast delivery), Recipient 2 (fast delivery), and Recipient 3 (slow server)
The fan-out approach shows:
1. sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients
2. This single message is queued in fan-out queue (marked as providing quick response)
3. A background worker processes the fan-out message
4. The worker re-enqueues individual messages in outbox
5. These are then processed independently
6. Three delivery outcomes: Recipient 1 (fast delivery), Recipient 2 (fast delivery), and Recipient 3 (slow server)
The diagram highlights how the fan-out approach moves the heavy processing out of the response path, providing faster API response times while maintaining the same delivery characteristics.
Got an interesting question today about #Fedify's outgoing #queue design!
Some users noticed we create separate queue messages for each recipient inbox rather than queuing a single message and handling the splitting later. There's a good reason for this approach.
In the #fediverse, server response times vary dramatically—some respond quickly, others slowly, and some might be temporarily down. If we processed deliveries in a single task, the entire batch would be held up by the slowest server in the group.
By creating individual queue items for each recipient:
Fast servers get messages delivered promptly
Slow servers don't delay delivery to others
Failed deliveries can be retried independently
Your UI remains responsive while deliveries happen in the background
It's a classic trade-off: we generate more queue messages, but gain better resilience and user experience in return.
This is particularly important in federated networks where server behavior is unpredictable and outside our control. We'd rather optimize for making sure your posts reach their destinations as quickly as possible!
What other aspects of Fedify's design would you like to hear about? Let us know!
ALT text detailsA flowchart comparing two approaches to message queue design. The top half shows “Fedify's Current Approach” where a single sendActivity call creates separate messages for each recipient, which are individually queued and processed independently. This results in fast delivery to working recipients while slow servers only affect their own delivery. The bottom half shows an “Alternative Approach” where sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients, queued as one item, and processed sequentially. This results in all recipients waiting for each delivery to complete, with slow servers blocking everyone in the queue.
Coming soon in #Fedify 1.5.0: Smart fan-out for efficient activity delivery!
After getting feedback about our queue design, we're excited to introduce a significant improvement for accounts with large follower counts.
As we discussed in our previous post, Fedify currently creates separate queue messages for each recipient. While this approach offers excellent reliability and individual retry capabilities, it causes performance issues when sending activities to thousands of followers.
Our solution? A new two-stage “fan-out” approach:
When you call Context.sendActivity(), we'll now enqueue just one consolidated message containing your activity payload and recipient list
A background worker then processes this message and re-enqueues individual delivery tasks
The benefits are substantial:
Context.sendActivity() returns almost instantly, even for massive follower counts
Memory usage is dramatically reduced by avoiding payload duplication
UI responsiveness improves since web requests complete quickly
The same reliability for individual deliveries is maintained
For developers with specific needs, we're adding a fanout option with three settings:
"auto" (default): Uses fanout for large recipient lists, direct delivery for small ones
"skip": Bypasses fanout when you need different payload per recipient
"force": Always uses fanout even with few recipients
ALT text detailsFlowchart comparing Fedify's current approach versus the new fan-out approach for activity delivery.
The current approach shows:
1. sendActivity calls create separate messages for each recipient (marked as a response time bottleneck)
2. These individual messages are queued in outbox
3. Messages are processed independently
4. Three delivery outcomes: Recipient 1 (fast delivery), Recipient 2 (fast delivery), and Recipient 3 (slow server)
The fan-out approach shows:
1. sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients
2. This single message is queued in fan-out queue (marked as providing quick response)
3. A background worker processes the fan-out message
4. The worker re-enqueues individual messages in outbox
5. These are then processed independently
6. Three delivery outcomes: Recipient 1 (fast delivery), Recipient 2 (fast delivery), and Recipient 3 (slow server)
The diagram highlights how the fan-out approach moves the heavy processing out of the response path, providing faster API response times while maintaining the same delivery characteristics.
Got an interesting question today about #Fedify's outgoing #queue design!
Some users noticed we create separate queue messages for each recipient inbox rather than queuing a single message and handling the splitting later. There's a good reason for this approach.
In the #fediverse, server response times vary dramatically—some respond quickly, others slowly, and some might be temporarily down. If we processed deliveries in a single task, the entire batch would be held up by the slowest server in the group.
By creating individual queue items for each recipient:
Fast servers get messages delivered promptly
Slow servers don't delay delivery to others
Failed deliveries can be retried independently
Your UI remains responsive while deliveries happen in the background
It's a classic trade-off: we generate more queue messages, but gain better resilience and user experience in return.
This is particularly important in federated networks where server behavior is unpredictable and outside our control. We'd rather optimize for making sure your posts reach their destinations as quickly as possible!
What other aspects of Fedify's design would you like to hear about? Let us know!
ALT text detailsA flowchart comparing two approaches to message queue design. The top half shows “Fedify's Current Approach” where a single sendActivity call creates separate messages for each recipient, which are individually queued and processed independently. This results in fast delivery to working recipients while slow servers only affect their own delivery. The bottom half shows an “Alternative Approach” where sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients, queued as one item, and processed sequentially. This results in all recipients waiting for each delivery to complete, with slow servers blocking everyone in the queue.
Got an interesting question today about #Fedify's outgoing #queue design!
Some users noticed we create separate queue messages for each recipient inbox rather than queuing a single message and handling the splitting later. There's a good reason for this approach.
In the #fediverse, server response times vary dramatically—some respond quickly, others slowly, and some might be temporarily down. If we processed deliveries in a single task, the entire batch would be held up by the slowest server in the group.
By creating individual queue items for each recipient:
Fast servers get messages delivered promptly
Slow servers don't delay delivery to others
Failed deliveries can be retried independently
Your UI remains responsive while deliveries happen in the background
It's a classic trade-off: we generate more queue messages, but gain better resilience and user experience in return.
This is particularly important in federated networks where server behavior is unpredictable and outside our control. We'd rather optimize for making sure your posts reach their destinations as quickly as possible!
What other aspects of Fedify's design would you like to hear about? Let us know!
ALT text detailsA flowchart comparing two approaches to message queue design. The top half shows “Fedify's Current Approach” where a single sendActivity call creates separate messages for each recipient, which are individually queued and processed independently. This results in fast delivery to working recipients while slow servers only affect their own delivery. The bottom half shows an “Alternative Approach” where sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients, queued as one item, and processed sequentially. This results in all recipients waiting for each delivery to complete, with slow servers blocking everyone in the queue.
Coming soon in #Fedify 1.5.0: Smart fan-out for efficient activity delivery!
After getting feedback about our queue design, we're excited to introduce a significant improvement for accounts with large follower counts.
As we discussed in our previous post, Fedify currently creates separate queue messages for each recipient. While this approach offers excellent reliability and individual retry capabilities, it causes performance issues when sending activities to thousands of followers.
Our solution? A new two-stage “fan-out” approach:
When you call Context.sendActivity(), we'll now enqueue just one consolidated message containing your activity payload and recipient list
A background worker then processes this message and re-enqueues individual delivery tasks
The benefits are substantial:
Context.sendActivity() returns almost instantly, even for massive follower counts
Memory usage is dramatically reduced by avoiding payload duplication
UI responsiveness improves since web requests complete quickly
The same reliability for individual deliveries is maintained
For developers with specific needs, we're adding a fanout option with three settings:
"auto" (default): Uses fanout for large recipient lists, direct delivery for small ones
"skip": Bypasses fanout when you need different payload per recipient
"force": Always uses fanout even with few recipients
ALT text detailsFlowchart comparing Fedify's current approach versus the new fan-out approach for activity delivery.
The current approach shows:
1. sendActivity calls create separate messages for each recipient (marked as a response time bottleneck)
2. These individual messages are queued in outbox
3. Messages are processed independently
4. Three delivery outcomes: Recipient 1 (fast delivery), Recipient 2 (fast delivery), and Recipient 3 (slow server)
The fan-out approach shows:
1. sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients
2. This single message is queued in fan-out queue (marked as providing quick response)
3. A background worker processes the fan-out message
4. The worker re-enqueues individual messages in outbox
5. These are then processed independently
6. Three delivery outcomes: Recipient 1 (fast delivery), Recipient 2 (fast delivery), and Recipient 3 (slow server)
The diagram highlights how the fan-out approach moves the heavy processing out of the response path, providing faster API response times while maintaining the same delivery characteristics.
Got an interesting question today about #Fedify's outgoing #queue design!
Some users noticed we create separate queue messages for each recipient inbox rather than queuing a single message and handling the splitting later. There's a good reason for this approach.
In the #fediverse, server response times vary dramatically—some respond quickly, others slowly, and some might be temporarily down. If we processed deliveries in a single task, the entire batch would be held up by the slowest server in the group.
By creating individual queue items for each recipient:
Fast servers get messages delivered promptly
Slow servers don't delay delivery to others
Failed deliveries can be retried independently
Your UI remains responsive while deliveries happen in the background
It's a classic trade-off: we generate more queue messages, but gain better resilience and user experience in return.
This is particularly important in federated networks where server behavior is unpredictable and outside our control. We'd rather optimize for making sure your posts reach their destinations as quickly as possible!
What other aspects of Fedify's design would you like to hear about? Let us know!
ALT text detailsA flowchart comparing two approaches to message queue design. The top half shows “Fedify's Current Approach” where a single sendActivity call creates separate messages for each recipient, which are individually queued and processed independently. This results in fast delivery to working recipients while slow servers only affect their own delivery. The bottom half shows an “Alternative Approach” where sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients, queued as one item, and processed sequentially. This results in all recipients waiting for each delivery to complete, with slow servers blocking everyone in the queue.
Coming soon in #Fedify 1.5.0: Smart fan-out for efficient activity delivery!
After getting feedback about our queue design, we're excited to introduce a significant improvement for accounts with large follower counts.
As we discussed in our previous post, Fedify currently creates separate queue messages for each recipient. While this approach offers excellent reliability and individual retry capabilities, it causes performance issues when sending activities to thousands of followers.
Our solution? A new two-stage “fan-out” approach:
When you call Context.sendActivity(), we'll now enqueue just one consolidated message containing your activity payload and recipient list
A background worker then processes this message and re-enqueues individual delivery tasks
The benefits are substantial:
Context.sendActivity() returns almost instantly, even for massive follower counts
Memory usage is dramatically reduced by avoiding payload duplication
UI responsiveness improves since web requests complete quickly
The same reliability for individual deliveries is maintained
For developers with specific needs, we're adding a fanout option with three settings:
"auto" (default): Uses fanout for large recipient lists, direct delivery for small ones
"skip": Bypasses fanout when you need different payload per recipient
"force": Always uses fanout even with few recipients
ALT text detailsFlowchart comparing Fedify's current approach versus the new fan-out approach for activity delivery.
The current approach shows:
1. sendActivity calls create separate messages for each recipient (marked as a response time bottleneck)
2. These individual messages are queued in outbox
3. Messages are processed independently
4. Three delivery outcomes: Recipient 1 (fast delivery), Recipient 2 (fast delivery), and Recipient 3 (slow server)
The fan-out approach shows:
1. sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients
2. This single message is queued in fan-out queue (marked as providing quick response)
3. A background worker processes the fan-out message
4. The worker re-enqueues individual messages in outbox
5. These are then processed independently
6. Three delivery outcomes: Recipient 1 (fast delivery), Recipient 2 (fast delivery), and Recipient 3 (slow server)
The diagram highlights how the fan-out approach moves the heavy processing out of the response path, providing faster API response times while maintaining the same delivery characteristics.
Got an interesting question today about #Fedify's outgoing #queue design!
Some users noticed we create separate queue messages for each recipient inbox rather than queuing a single message and handling the splitting later. There's a good reason for this approach.
In the #fediverse, server response times vary dramatically—some respond quickly, others slowly, and some might be temporarily down. If we processed deliveries in a single task, the entire batch would be held up by the slowest server in the group.
By creating individual queue items for each recipient:
Fast servers get messages delivered promptly
Slow servers don't delay delivery to others
Failed deliveries can be retried independently
Your UI remains responsive while deliveries happen in the background
It's a classic trade-off: we generate more queue messages, but gain better resilience and user experience in return.
This is particularly important in federated networks where server behavior is unpredictable and outside our control. We'd rather optimize for making sure your posts reach their destinations as quickly as possible!
What other aspects of Fedify's design would you like to hear about? Let us know!
ALT text detailsA flowchart comparing two approaches to message queue design. The top half shows “Fedify's Current Approach” where a single sendActivity call creates separate messages for each recipient, which are individually queued and processed independently. This results in fast delivery to working recipients while slow servers only affect their own delivery. The bottom half shows an “Alternative Approach” where sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients, queued as one item, and processed sequentially. This results in all recipients waiting for each delivery to complete, with slow servers blocking everyone in the queue.
Coming soon in #Fedify 1.5.0: Smart fan-out for efficient activity delivery!
After getting feedback about our queue design, we're excited to introduce a significant improvement for accounts with large follower counts.
As we discussed in our previous post, Fedify currently creates separate queue messages for each recipient. While this approach offers excellent reliability and individual retry capabilities, it causes performance issues when sending activities to thousands of followers.
Our solution? A new two-stage “fan-out” approach:
When you call Context.sendActivity(), we'll now enqueue just one consolidated message containing your activity payload and recipient list
A background worker then processes this message and re-enqueues individual delivery tasks
The benefits are substantial:
Context.sendActivity() returns almost instantly, even for massive follower counts
Memory usage is dramatically reduced by avoiding payload duplication
UI responsiveness improves since web requests complete quickly
The same reliability for individual deliveries is maintained
For developers with specific needs, we're adding a fanout option with three settings:
"auto" (default): Uses fanout for large recipient lists, direct delivery for small ones
"skip": Bypasses fanout when you need different payload per recipient
"force": Always uses fanout even with few recipients
ALT text detailsFlowchart comparing Fedify's current approach versus the new fan-out approach for activity delivery.
The current approach shows:
1. sendActivity calls create separate messages for each recipient (marked as a response time bottleneck)
2. These individual messages are queued in outbox
3. Messages are processed independently
4. Three delivery outcomes: Recipient 1 (fast delivery), Recipient 2 (fast delivery), and Recipient 3 (slow server)
The fan-out approach shows:
1. sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients
2. This single message is queued in fan-out queue (marked as providing quick response)
3. A background worker processes the fan-out message
4. The worker re-enqueues individual messages in outbox
5. These are then processed independently
6. Three delivery outcomes: Recipient 1 (fast delivery), Recipient 2 (fast delivery), and Recipient 3 (slow server)
The diagram highlights how the fan-out approach moves the heavy processing out of the response path, providing faster API response times while maintaining the same delivery characteristics.
Got an interesting question today about #Fedify's outgoing #queue design!
Some users noticed we create separate queue messages for each recipient inbox rather than queuing a single message and handling the splitting later. There's a good reason for this approach.
In the #fediverse, server response times vary dramatically—some respond quickly, others slowly, and some might be temporarily down. If we processed deliveries in a single task, the entire batch would be held up by the slowest server in the group.
By creating individual queue items for each recipient:
Fast servers get messages delivered promptly
Slow servers don't delay delivery to others
Failed deliveries can be retried independently
Your UI remains responsive while deliveries happen in the background
It's a classic trade-off: we generate more queue messages, but gain better resilience and user experience in return.
This is particularly important in federated networks where server behavior is unpredictable and outside our control. We'd rather optimize for making sure your posts reach their destinations as quickly as possible!
What other aspects of Fedify's design would you like to hear about? Let us know!
ALT text detailsA flowchart comparing two approaches to message queue design. The top half shows “Fedify's Current Approach” where a single sendActivity call creates separate messages for each recipient, which are individually queued and processed independently. This results in fast delivery to working recipients while slow servers only affect their own delivery. The bottom half shows an “Alternative Approach” where sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients, queued as one item, and processed sequentially. This results in all recipients waiting for each delivery to complete, with slow servers blocking everyone in the queue.
Coming soon in #Fedify 1.5.0: Smart fan-out for efficient activity delivery!
After getting feedback about our queue design, we're excited to introduce a significant improvement for accounts with large follower counts.
As we discussed in our previous post, Fedify currently creates separate queue messages for each recipient. While this approach offers excellent reliability and individual retry capabilities, it causes performance issues when sending activities to thousands of followers.
Our solution? A new two-stage “fan-out” approach:
When you call Context.sendActivity(), we'll now enqueue just one consolidated message containing your activity payload and recipient list
A background worker then processes this message and re-enqueues individual delivery tasks
The benefits are substantial:
Context.sendActivity() returns almost instantly, even for massive follower counts
Memory usage is dramatically reduced by avoiding payload duplication
UI responsiveness improves since web requests complete quickly
The same reliability for individual deliveries is maintained
For developers with specific needs, we're adding a fanout option with three settings:
"auto" (default): Uses fanout for large recipient lists, direct delivery for small ones
"skip": Bypasses fanout when you need different payload per recipient
"force": Always uses fanout even with few recipients
ALT text detailsFlowchart comparing Fedify's current approach versus the new fan-out approach for activity delivery.
The current approach shows:
1. sendActivity calls create separate messages for each recipient (marked as a response time bottleneck)
2. These individual messages are queued in outbox
3. Messages are processed independently
4. Three delivery outcomes: Recipient 1 (fast delivery), Recipient 2 (fast delivery), and Recipient 3 (slow server)
The fan-out approach shows:
1. sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients
2. This single message is queued in fan-out queue (marked as providing quick response)
3. A background worker processes the fan-out message
4. The worker re-enqueues individual messages in outbox
5. These are then processed independently
6. Three delivery outcomes: Recipient 1 (fast delivery), Recipient 2 (fast delivery), and Recipient 3 (slow server)
The diagram highlights how the fan-out approach moves the heavy processing out of the response path, providing faster API response times while maintaining the same delivery characteristics.
Got an interesting question today about #Fedify's outgoing #queue design!
Some users noticed we create separate queue messages for each recipient inbox rather than queuing a single message and handling the splitting later. There's a good reason for this approach.
In the #fediverse, server response times vary dramatically—some respond quickly, others slowly, and some might be temporarily down. If we processed deliveries in a single task, the entire batch would be held up by the slowest server in the group.
By creating individual queue items for each recipient:
Fast servers get messages delivered promptly
Slow servers don't delay delivery to others
Failed deliveries can be retried independently
Your UI remains responsive while deliveries happen in the background
It's a classic trade-off: we generate more queue messages, but gain better resilience and user experience in return.
This is particularly important in federated networks where server behavior is unpredictable and outside our control. We'd rather optimize for making sure your posts reach their destinations as quickly as possible!
What other aspects of Fedify's design would you like to hear about? Let us know!
ALT text detailsA flowchart comparing two approaches to message queue design. The top half shows “Fedify's Current Approach” where a single sendActivity call creates separate messages for each recipient, which are individually queued and processed independently. This results in fast delivery to working recipients while slow servers only affect their own delivery. The bottom half shows an “Alternative Approach” where sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients, queued as one item, and processed sequentially. This results in all recipients waiting for each delivery to complete, with slow servers blocking everyone in the queue.
Got an interesting question today about #Fedify's outgoing #queue design!
Some users noticed we create separate queue messages for each recipient inbox rather than queuing a single message and handling the splitting later. There's a good reason for this approach.
In the #fediverse, server response times vary dramatically—some respond quickly, others slowly, and some might be temporarily down. If we processed deliveries in a single task, the entire batch would be held up by the slowest server in the group.
By creating individual queue items for each recipient:
Fast servers get messages delivered promptly
Slow servers don't delay delivery to others
Failed deliveries can be retried independently
Your UI remains responsive while deliveries happen in the background
It's a classic trade-off: we generate more queue messages, but gain better resilience and user experience in return.
This is particularly important in federated networks where server behavior is unpredictable and outside our control. We'd rather optimize for making sure your posts reach their destinations as quickly as possible!
What other aspects of Fedify's design would you like to hear about? Let us know!
ALT text detailsA flowchart comparing two approaches to message queue design. The top half shows “Fedify's Current Approach” where a single sendActivity call creates separate messages for each recipient, which are individually queued and processed independently. This results in fast delivery to working recipients while slow servers only affect their own delivery. The bottom half shows an “Alternative Approach” where sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients, queued as one item, and processed sequentially. This results in all recipients waiting for each delivery to complete, with slow servers blocking everyone in the queue.
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Hollo(@hollo)는 Fedify로 구동되는 1인 사용자용 마이크로블로깅 서버입니다. 1인 사용자를 위해 설계되었지만, ActivityPub를 통해 완전히 연합되어 연합우주 전체의 사용자들과 상호작용할 수 있습니다. Hollo는 Mastodon 호환 API를 구현하여 자체 웹 인터페이스 없이도 대부분의 Mastodon 클라이언트와 호환됩니다.
Hollo는 또한 정식 출시 전에 최신 Fedify 기능을 테스트하는 실험장으로도 활용되고 있습니다.
BotKit(@botkit)은 저희의 가장 새로운 구성원으로, ActivityPub 봇을 만들기 위해 특별히 설계된 프레임워크입니다. 전통적인 Mastodon 봇과 달리, BotKit은 플랫폼별 제한(글자 수 제한 등)에 구애받지 않는 독립적인 ActivityPub 서버를 만듭니다.
BotKit의 API는 의도적으로 단순하게 설계되어 단일 TypeScript 파일로 완전한 봇을 만들 수 있습니다!
세 프로젝트 모두 @fedify-dev GitHub 조직에서 오픈 소스로 공개되어 있습니다. 각기 다른 목적을 가지고 있지만, ActivityPub 개발을 더 접근하기 쉽게 만들고 연합우주 생태계를 확장한다는 공통된 목표를 공유합니다.
이러한 프로젝트를 사용해보거나 개발에 기여하는 데 관심이 있으시다면, 다음을 확인해보세요:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Hollo(@hollo)는 Fedify로 구동되는 1인 사용자용 마이크로블로깅 서버입니다. 1인 사용자를 위해 설계되었지만, ActivityPub를 통해 완전히 연합되어 연합우주 전체의 사용자들과 상호작용할 수 있습니다. Hollo는 Mastodon 호환 API를 구현하여 자체 웹 인터페이스 없이도 대부분의 Mastodon 클라이언트와 호환됩니다.
Hollo는 또한 정식 출시 전에 최신 Fedify 기능을 테스트하는 실험장으로도 활용되고 있습니다.
BotKit(@botkit)은 저희의 가장 새로운 구성원으로, ActivityPub 봇을 만들기 위해 특별히 설계된 프레임워크입니다. 전통적인 Mastodon 봇과 달리, BotKit은 플랫폼별 제한(글자 수 제한 등)에 구애받지 않는 독립적인 ActivityPub 서버를 만듭니다.
BotKit의 API는 의도적으로 단순하게 설계되어 단일 TypeScript 파일로 완전한 봇을 만들 수 있습니다!
세 프로젝트 모두 @fedify-dev GitHub 조직에서 오픈 소스로 공개되어 있습니다. 각기 다른 목적을 가지고 있지만, ActivityPub 개발을 더 접근하기 쉽게 만들고 연합우주 생태계를 확장한다는 공통된 목표를 공유합니다.
이러한 프로젝트를 사용해보거나 개발에 기여하는 데 관심이 있으시다면, 다음을 확인해보세요:
Hollo(@hollo)는 Fedify로 구동되는 1인 사용자용 마이크로블로깅 서버입니다. 1인 사용자를 위해 설계되었지만, ActivityPub를 통해 완전히 연합되어 연합우주 전체의 사용자들과 상호작용할 수 있습니다. Hollo는 Mastodon 호환 API를 구현하여 자체 웹 인터페이스 없이도 대부분의 Mastodon 클라이언트와 호환됩니다.
Hollo는 또한 정식 출시 전에 최신 Fedify 기능을 테스트하는 실험장으로도 활용되고 있습니다.
BotKit(@botkit)은 저희의 가장 새로운 구성원으로, ActivityPub 봇을 만들기 위해 특별히 설계된 프레임워크입니다. 전통적인 Mastodon 봇과 달리, BotKit은 플랫폼별 제한(글자 수 제한 등)에 구애받지 않는 독립적인 ActivityPub 서버를 만듭니다.
BotKit의 API는 의도적으로 단순하게 설계되어 단일 TypeScript 파일로 완전한 봇을 만들 수 있습니다!
세 프로젝트 모두 @fedify-dev GitHub 조직에서 오픈 소스로 공개되어 있습니다. 각기 다른 목적을 가지고 있지만, ActivityPub 개발을 더 접근하기 쉽게 만들고 연합우주 생태계를 확장한다는 공통된 목표를 공유합니다.
이러한 프로젝트를 사용해보거나 개발에 기여하는 데 관심이 있으시다면, 다음을 확인해보세요:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
We've been working on adding custom background task support to #Fedify as planned for version 1.5.0. After diving deeper into implementation, we've realized this is a more substantial undertaking than initially anticipated.
The feature would require significant API changes that would be too disruptive for a minor version update. Therefore, we've decided to postpone this feature to Fedify 2.0.0.
This allows us to:
Design a more robust and flexible worker architecture
Ensure better integration with existing task queue systems
Properly document the new APIs without rushing
We believe this decision will result in a more stable and well-designed feature that better serves your needs. However, some smaller improvements from our work that don't require API changes will still be included in Fedify 1.5.0 or subsequent minor updates.
We appreciate your understanding and continued support.
If you have specific use cases or requirements for background task support, please share them in our GitHub issue. Your input will help shape this feature for 2.0.0.
We've been working on adding custom background task support to #Fedify as planned for version 1.5.0. After diving deeper into implementation, we've realized this is a more substantial undertaking than initially anticipated.
The feature would require significant API changes that would be too disruptive for a minor version update. Therefore, we've decided to postpone this feature to Fedify 2.0.0.
This allows us to:
Design a more robust and flexible worker architecture
Ensure better integration with existing task queue systems
Properly document the new APIs without rushing
We believe this decision will result in a more stable and well-designed feature that better serves your needs. However, some smaller improvements from our work that don't require API changes will still be included in Fedify 1.5.0 or subsequent minor updates.
We appreciate your understanding and continued support.
If you have specific use cases or requirements for background task support, please share them in our GitHub issue. Your input will help shape this feature for 2.0.0.
Getting back to #Fedify development today! Working on optimizing the outgoing activity queue to improve response times. Currently focusing on reducing latency when sending posts to large follower counts—should make the whole publishing experience feel much snappier.
Getting back to #Fedify development today! Working on optimizing the outgoing activity queue to improve response times. Currently focusing on reducing latency when sending posts to large follower counts—should make the whole publishing experience feel much snappier.
We've been working on adding custom background task support to #Fedify as planned for version 1.5.0. After diving deeper into implementation, we've realized this is a more substantial undertaking than initially anticipated.
The feature would require significant API changes that would be too disruptive for a minor version update. Therefore, we've decided to postpone this feature to Fedify 2.0.0.
This allows us to:
Design a more robust and flexible worker architecture
Ensure better integration with existing task queue systems
Properly document the new APIs without rushing
We believe this decision will result in a more stable and well-designed feature that better serves your needs. However, some smaller improvements from our work that don't require API changes will still be included in Fedify 1.5.0 or subsequent minor updates.
We appreciate your understanding and continued support.
If you have specific use cases or requirements for background task support, please share them in our GitHub issue. Your input will help shape this feature for 2.0.0.
We've been working on adding custom background task support to #Fedify as planned for version 1.5.0. After diving deeper into implementation, we've realized this is a more substantial undertaking than initially anticipated.
The feature would require significant API changes that would be too disruptive for a minor version update. Therefore, we've decided to postpone this feature to Fedify 2.0.0.
This allows us to:
Design a more robust and flexible worker architecture
Ensure better integration with existing task queue systems
Properly document the new APIs without rushing
We believe this decision will result in a more stable and well-designed feature that better serves your needs. However, some smaller improvements from our work that don't require API changes will still be included in Fedify 1.5.0 or subsequent minor updates.
We appreciate your understanding and continued support.
If you have specific use cases or requirements for background task support, please share them in our GitHub issue. Your input will help shape this feature for 2.0.0.
We've been working on adding custom background task support to #Fedify as planned for version 1.5.0. After diving deeper into implementation, we've realized this is a more substantial undertaking than initially anticipated.
The feature would require significant API changes that would be too disruptive for a minor version update. Therefore, we've decided to postpone this feature to Fedify 2.0.0.
This allows us to:
Design a more robust and flexible worker architecture
Ensure better integration with existing task queue systems
Properly document the new APIs without rushing
We believe this decision will result in a more stable and well-designed feature that better serves your needs. However, some smaller improvements from our work that don't require API changes will still be included in Fedify 1.5.0 or subsequent minor updates.
We appreciate your understanding and continued support.
If you have specific use cases or requirements for background task support, please share them in our GitHub issue. Your input will help shape this feature for 2.0.0.
Patch releases for #Fedify versions 1.0.21, 1.1.18, 1.2.18, 1.3.14, and 1.4.7 are now available. These updates address two important bugs across all supported release lines:
Fixed a WebFinger handler bug that prevented matching acct: URIs with port numbers in the host. Thanks to @revathskumar for reporting and debugging the bug!
Resolved server errors that occurred when invalid URLs were passed to the base-url parameter of followers collections.
We recommend all users upgrade to these latest patch versions for improved stability and federation compatibility.
Patch releases for #Fedify versions 1.0.21, 1.1.18, 1.2.18, 1.3.14, and 1.4.7 are now available. These updates address two important bugs across all supported release lines:
Fixed a WebFinger handler bug that prevented matching acct: URIs with port numbers in the host. Thanks to @revathskumar for reporting and debugging the bug!
Resolved server errors that occurred when invalid URLs were passed to the base-url parameter of followers collections.
We recommend all users upgrade to these latest patch versions for improved stability and federation compatibility.
Patch releases for #Fedify versions 1.0.21, 1.1.18, 1.2.18, 1.3.14, and 1.4.7 are now available. These updates address two important bugs across all supported release lines:
Fixed a WebFinger handler bug that prevented matching acct: URIs with port numbers in the host. Thanks to @revathskumar for reporting and debugging the bug!
Resolved server errors that occurred when invalid URLs were passed to the base-url parameter of followers collections.
We recommend all users upgrade to these latest patch versions for improved stability and federation compatibility.
Patch releases for #Fedify versions 1.0.21, 1.1.18, 1.2.18, 1.3.14, and 1.4.7 are now available. These updates address two important bugs across all supported release lines:
Fixed a WebFinger handler bug that prevented matching acct: URIs with port numbers in the host. Thanks to @revathskumar for reporting and debugging the bug!
Resolved server errors that occurred when invalid URLs were passed to the base-url parameter of followers collections.
We recommend all users upgrade to these latest patch versions for improved stability and federation compatibility.
Patch releases for #Fedify versions 1.0.21, 1.1.18, 1.2.18, 1.3.14, and 1.4.7 are now available. These updates address two important bugs across all supported release lines:
Fixed a WebFinger handler bug that prevented matching acct: URIs with port numbers in the host. Thanks to @revathskumar for reporting and debugging the bug!
Resolved server errors that occurred when invalid URLs were passed to the base-url parameter of followers collections.
We recommend all users upgrade to these latest patch versions for improved stability and federation compatibility.
Just noticed this "Open in the application? " banner on @framasoft's "What is the fediverse" @peertube video and I have the app installed thru @fdroidorg but it takes me to the Google Play download page for it instead of opening it in the app. Makes for a really bad fediverse experience, we need to figure out these sorts of flows and make sure they reliably work. #fedidev#peertube#fediverse
ALT text detailsA screenshot of a peertube video
ALT text detailsA screenshot of peertube on Google Play
I'm finally unveiling the #ActivityPub project that has been consuming my weekends: Encyclia, an #ORCID bridge that will make ORCID records followable and interactable on the fediverse. 🙂
It's early-stage and the ORCID following function is not publicly available yet. We're seeking community feedback on functionality and safety aspects. Read more at https://encyclia.pub or follow @encyclia for news!
I'm finally unveiling the #ActivityPub project that has been consuming my weekends: Encyclia, an #ORCID bridge that will make ORCID records followable and interactable on the fediverse. 🙂
It's early-stage and the ORCID following function is not publicly available yet. We're seeking community feedback on functionality and safety aspects. Read more at https://encyclia.pub or follow @encyclia for news!
Most #ActivityPub implementations include Mention objects in the tag attribute when someone mentions another actor within the content of a Note or Article. Should actor objects like Person or Group also include Mention objects in their tag attribute when mentioning other actors within their bio (summary)? Are there any implementations that already work this way? (I've checked Mastodon and it seems they don't include these mentions.) What are your thoughts on this?
Most #ActivityPub implementations include Mention objects in the tag attribute when someone mentions another actor within the content of a Note or Article. Should actor objects like Person or Group also include Mention objects in their tag attribute when mentioning other actors within their bio (summary)? Are there any implementations that already work this way? (I've checked Mastodon and it seems they don't include these mentions.) What are your thoughts on this?
Most #ActivityPub implementations include Mention objects in the tag attribute when someone mentions another actor within the content of a Note or Article. Should actor objects like Person or Group also include Mention objects in their tag attribute when mentioning other actors within their bio (summary)? Are there any implementations that already work this way? (I've checked Mastodon and it seems they don't include these mentions.) What are your thoughts on this?
Most #ActivityPub implementations include Mention objects in the tag attribute when someone mentions another actor within the content of a Note or Article. Should actor objects like Person or Group also include Mention objects in their tag attribute when mentioning other actors within their bio (summary)? Are there any implementations that already work this way? (I've checked Mastodon and it seems they don't include these mentions.) What are your thoughts on this?
Most #ActivityPub implementations include Mention objects in the tag attribute when someone mentions another actor within the content of a Note or Article. Should actor objects like Person or Group also include Mention objects in their tag attribute when mentioning other actors within their bio (summary)? Are there any implementations that already work this way? (I've checked Mastodon and it seems they don't include these mentions.) What are your thoughts on this?
Most #ActivityPub implementations include Mention objects in the tag attribute when someone mentions another actor within the content of a Note or Article. Should actor objects like Person or Group also include Mention objects in their tag attribute when mentioning other actors within their bio (summary)? Are there any implementations that already work this way? (I've checked Mastodon and it seems they don't include these mentions.) What are your thoughts on this?
Most #ActivityPub implementations include Mention objects in the tag attribute when someone mentions another actor within the content of a Note or Article. Should actor objects like Person or Group also include Mention objects in their tag attribute when mentioning other actors within their bio (summary)? Are there any implementations that already work this way? (I've checked Mastodon and it seems they don't include these mentions.) What are your thoughts on this?
Most #ActivityPub implementations include Mention objects in the tag attribute when someone mentions another actor within the content of a Note or Article. Should actor objects like Person or Group also include Mention objects in their tag attribute when mentioning other actors within their bio (summary)? Are there any implementations that already work this way? (I've checked Mastodon and it seems they don't include these mentions.) What are your thoughts on this?
大部分의 #ActivityPub 具顯들이 Note나 Article의 內容 (content) 안에서 누군가 다른 액터를 멘션할 境遇 tag 屬性으로 該當하는 Mention 客體들을 包含시킵니다. 그러면 Person, Group 等 액터 客體들도 略歷 (summary) 안에서 누군가 다른 액터를 멘션할 境遇 tag 屬性으로 該當하는 Mention 客體들을 包含해야 할까요? 或是 이미 그렇게 動作하는 具顯이 있을까요? (Mastodon은 確認해 본 結果 包含시키지 않는 것 같습니다만.) 어떻게 보시나요?
大部分의 #ActivityPub 具顯들이 Note나 Article의 內容 (content) 안에서 누군가 다른 액터를 멘션할 境遇 tag 屬性으로 該當하는 Mention 客體들을 包含시킵니다. 그러면 Person, Group 等 액터 客體들도 略歷 (summary) 안에서 누군가 다른 액터를 멘션할 境遇 tag 屬性으로 該當하는 Mention 客體들을 包含해야 할까요? 或是 이미 그렇게 動作하는 具顯이 있을까요? (Mastodon은 確認해 본 結果 包含시키지 않는 것 같습니다만.) 어떻게 보시나요?
Most #ActivityPub implementations include Mention objects in the tag attribute when someone mentions another actor within the content of a Note or Article. Should actor objects like Person or Group also include Mention objects in their tag attribute when mentioning other actors within their bio (summary)? Are there any implementations that already work this way? (I've checked Mastodon and it seems they don't include these mentions.) What are your thoughts on this?
大部分의 #ActivityPub 具顯들이 Note나 Article의 內容 (content) 안에서 누군가 다른 액터를 멘션할 境遇 tag 屬性으로 該當하는 Mention 客體들을 包含시킵니다. 그러면 Person, Group 等 액터 客體들도 略歷 (summary) 안에서 누군가 다른 액터를 멘션할 境遇 tag 屬性으로 該當하는 Mention 客體들을 包含해야 할까요? 或是 이미 그렇게 動作하는 具顯이 있을까요? (Mastodon은 確認해 본 結果 包含시키지 않는 것 같습니다만.) 어떻게 보시나요?
Most #ActivityPub implementations include Mention objects in the tag attribute when someone mentions another actor within the content of a Note or Article. Should actor objects like Person or Group also include Mention objects in their tag attribute when mentioning other actors within their bio (summary)? Are there any implementations that already work this way? (I've checked Mastodon and it seems they don't include these mentions.) What are your thoughts on this?
Got an interesting question today about #Fedify's outgoing #queue design!
Some users noticed we create separate queue messages for each recipient inbox rather than queuing a single message and handling the splitting later. There's a good reason for this approach.
In the #fediverse, server response times vary dramatically—some respond quickly, others slowly, and some might be temporarily down. If we processed deliveries in a single task, the entire batch would be held up by the slowest server in the group.
By creating individual queue items for each recipient:
Fast servers get messages delivered promptly
Slow servers don't delay delivery to others
Failed deliveries can be retried independently
Your UI remains responsive while deliveries happen in the background
It's a classic trade-off: we generate more queue messages, but gain better resilience and user experience in return.
This is particularly important in federated networks where server behavior is unpredictable and outside our control. We'd rather optimize for making sure your posts reach their destinations as quickly as possible!
What other aspects of Fedify's design would you like to hear about? Let us know!
ALT text detailsA flowchart comparing two approaches to message queue design. The top half shows “Fedify's Current Approach” where a single sendActivity call creates separate messages for each recipient, which are individually queued and processed independently. This results in fast delivery to working recipients while slow servers only affect their own delivery. The bottom half shows an “Alternative Approach” where sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients, queued as one item, and processed sequentially. This results in all recipients waiting for each delivery to complete, with slow servers blocking everyone in the queue.
Got an interesting question today about #Fedify's outgoing #queue design!
Some users noticed we create separate queue messages for each recipient inbox rather than queuing a single message and handling the splitting later. There's a good reason for this approach.
In the #fediverse, server response times vary dramatically—some respond quickly, others slowly, and some might be temporarily down. If we processed deliveries in a single task, the entire batch would be held up by the slowest server in the group.
By creating individual queue items for each recipient:
Fast servers get messages delivered promptly
Slow servers don't delay delivery to others
Failed deliveries can be retried independently
Your UI remains responsive while deliveries happen in the background
It's a classic trade-off: we generate more queue messages, but gain better resilience and user experience in return.
This is particularly important in federated networks where server behavior is unpredictable and outside our control. We'd rather optimize for making sure your posts reach their destinations as quickly as possible!
What other aspects of Fedify's design would you like to hear about? Let us know!
ALT text detailsA flowchart comparing two approaches to message queue design. The top half shows “Fedify's Current Approach” where a single sendActivity call creates separate messages for each recipient, which are individually queued and processed independently. This results in fast delivery to working recipients while slow servers only affect their own delivery. The bottom half shows an “Alternative Approach” where sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients, queued as one item, and processed sequentially. This results in all recipients waiting for each delivery to complete, with slow servers blocking everyone in the queue.
Got an interesting question today about #Fedify's outgoing #queue design!
Some users noticed we create separate queue messages for each recipient inbox rather than queuing a single message and handling the splitting later. There's a good reason for this approach.
In the #fediverse, server response times vary dramatically—some respond quickly, others slowly, and some might be temporarily down. If we processed deliveries in a single task, the entire batch would be held up by the slowest server in the group.
By creating individual queue items for each recipient:
Fast servers get messages delivered promptly
Slow servers don't delay delivery to others
Failed deliveries can be retried independently
Your UI remains responsive while deliveries happen in the background
It's a classic trade-off: we generate more queue messages, but gain better resilience and user experience in return.
This is particularly important in federated networks where server behavior is unpredictable and outside our control. We'd rather optimize for making sure your posts reach their destinations as quickly as possible!
What other aspects of Fedify's design would you like to hear about? Let us know!
ALT text detailsA flowchart comparing two approaches to message queue design. The top half shows “Fedify's Current Approach” where a single sendActivity call creates separate messages for each recipient, which are individually queued and processed independently. This results in fast delivery to working recipients while slow servers only affect their own delivery. The bottom half shows an “Alternative Approach” where sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients, queued as one item, and processed sequentially. This results in all recipients waiting for each delivery to complete, with slow servers blocking everyone in the queue.
Got an interesting question today about #Fedify's outgoing #queue design!
Some users noticed we create separate queue messages for each recipient inbox rather than queuing a single message and handling the splitting later. There's a good reason for this approach.
In the #fediverse, server response times vary dramatically—some respond quickly, others slowly, and some might be temporarily down. If we processed deliveries in a single task, the entire batch would be held up by the slowest server in the group.
By creating individual queue items for each recipient:
Fast servers get messages delivered promptly
Slow servers don't delay delivery to others
Failed deliveries can be retried independently
Your UI remains responsive while deliveries happen in the background
It's a classic trade-off: we generate more queue messages, but gain better resilience and user experience in return.
This is particularly important in federated networks where server behavior is unpredictable and outside our control. We'd rather optimize for making sure your posts reach their destinations as quickly as possible!
What other aspects of Fedify's design would you like to hear about? Let us know!
ALT text detailsA flowchart comparing two approaches to message queue design. The top half shows “Fedify's Current Approach” where a single sendActivity call creates separate messages for each recipient, which are individually queued and processed independently. This results in fast delivery to working recipients while slow servers only affect their own delivery. The bottom half shows an “Alternative Approach” where sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients, queued as one item, and processed sequentially. This results in all recipients waiting for each delivery to complete, with slow servers blocking everyone in the queue.
Got an interesting question today about #Fedify's outgoing #queue design!
Some users noticed we create separate queue messages for each recipient inbox rather than queuing a single message and handling the splitting later. There's a good reason for this approach.
In the #fediverse, server response times vary dramatically—some respond quickly, others slowly, and some might be temporarily down. If we processed deliveries in a single task, the entire batch would be held up by the slowest server in the group.
By creating individual queue items for each recipient:
Fast servers get messages delivered promptly
Slow servers don't delay delivery to others
Failed deliveries can be retried independently
Your UI remains responsive while deliveries happen in the background
It's a classic trade-off: we generate more queue messages, but gain better resilience and user experience in return.
This is particularly important in federated networks where server behavior is unpredictable and outside our control. We'd rather optimize for making sure your posts reach their destinations as quickly as possible!
What other aspects of Fedify's design would you like to hear about? Let us know!
ALT text detailsA flowchart comparing two approaches to message queue design. The top half shows “Fedify's Current Approach” where a single sendActivity call creates separate messages for each recipient, which are individually queued and processed independently. This results in fast delivery to working recipients while slow servers only affect their own delivery. The bottom half shows an “Alternative Approach” where sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients, queued as one item, and processed sequentially. This results in all recipients waiting for each delivery to complete, with slow servers blocking everyone in the queue.
Got an interesting question today about #Fedify's outgoing #queue design!
Some users noticed we create separate queue messages for each recipient inbox rather than queuing a single message and handling the splitting later. There's a good reason for this approach.
In the #fediverse, server response times vary dramatically—some respond quickly, others slowly, and some might be temporarily down. If we processed deliveries in a single task, the entire batch would be held up by the slowest server in the group.
By creating individual queue items for each recipient:
Fast servers get messages delivered promptly
Slow servers don't delay delivery to others
Failed deliveries can be retried independently
Your UI remains responsive while deliveries happen in the background
It's a classic trade-off: we generate more queue messages, but gain better resilience and user experience in return.
This is particularly important in federated networks where server behavior is unpredictable and outside our control. We'd rather optimize for making sure your posts reach their destinations as quickly as possible!
What other aspects of Fedify's design would you like to hear about? Let us know!
ALT text detailsA flowchart comparing two approaches to message queue design. The top half shows “Fedify's Current Approach” where a single sendActivity call creates separate messages for each recipient, which are individually queued and processed independently. This results in fast delivery to working recipients while slow servers only affect their own delivery. The bottom half shows an “Alternative Approach” where sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients, queued as one item, and processed sequentially. This results in all recipients waiting for each delivery to complete, with slow servers blocking everyone in the queue.
Got an interesting question today about #Fedify's outgoing #queue design!
Some users noticed we create separate queue messages for each recipient inbox rather than queuing a single message and handling the splitting later. There's a good reason for this approach.
In the #fediverse, server response times vary dramatically—some respond quickly, others slowly, and some might be temporarily down. If we processed deliveries in a single task, the entire batch would be held up by the slowest server in the group.
By creating individual queue items for each recipient:
Fast servers get messages delivered promptly
Slow servers don't delay delivery to others
Failed deliveries can be retried independently
Your UI remains responsive while deliveries happen in the background
It's a classic trade-off: we generate more queue messages, but gain better resilience and user experience in return.
This is particularly important in federated networks where server behavior is unpredictable and outside our control. We'd rather optimize for making sure your posts reach their destinations as quickly as possible!
What other aspects of Fedify's design would you like to hear about? Let us know!
ALT text detailsA flowchart comparing two approaches to message queue design. The top half shows “Fedify's Current Approach” where a single sendActivity call creates separate messages for each recipient, which are individually queued and processed independently. This results in fast delivery to working recipients while slow servers only affect their own delivery. The bottom half shows an “Alternative Approach” where sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients, queued as one item, and processed sequentially. This results in all recipients waiting for each delivery to complete, with slow servers blocking everyone in the queue.
Got an interesting question today about #Fedify's outgoing #queue design!
Some users noticed we create separate queue messages for each recipient inbox rather than queuing a single message and handling the splitting later. There's a good reason for this approach.
In the #fediverse, server response times vary dramatically—some respond quickly, others slowly, and some might be temporarily down. If we processed deliveries in a single task, the entire batch would be held up by the slowest server in the group.
By creating individual queue items for each recipient:
Fast servers get messages delivered promptly
Slow servers don't delay delivery to others
Failed deliveries can be retried independently
Your UI remains responsive while deliveries happen in the background
It's a classic trade-off: we generate more queue messages, but gain better resilience and user experience in return.
This is particularly important in federated networks where server behavior is unpredictable and outside our control. We'd rather optimize for making sure your posts reach their destinations as quickly as possible!
What other aspects of Fedify's design would you like to hear about? Let us know!
ALT text detailsA flowchart comparing two approaches to message queue design. The top half shows “Fedify's Current Approach” where a single sendActivity call creates separate messages for each recipient, which are individually queued and processed independently. This results in fast delivery to working recipients while slow servers only affect their own delivery. The bottom half shows an “Alternative Approach” where sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients, queued as one item, and processed sequentially. This results in all recipients waiting for each delivery to complete, with slow servers blocking everyone in the queue.
Got an interesting question today about #Fedify's outgoing #queue design!
Some users noticed we create separate queue messages for each recipient inbox rather than queuing a single message and handling the splitting later. There's a good reason for this approach.
In the #fediverse, server response times vary dramatically—some respond quickly, others slowly, and some might be temporarily down. If we processed deliveries in a single task, the entire batch would be held up by the slowest server in the group.
By creating individual queue items for each recipient:
Fast servers get messages delivered promptly
Slow servers don't delay delivery to others
Failed deliveries can be retried independently
Your UI remains responsive while deliveries happen in the background
It's a classic trade-off: we generate more queue messages, but gain better resilience and user experience in return.
This is particularly important in federated networks where server behavior is unpredictable and outside our control. We'd rather optimize for making sure your posts reach their destinations as quickly as possible!
What other aspects of Fedify's design would you like to hear about? Let us know!
ALT text detailsA flowchart comparing two approaches to message queue design. The top half shows “Fedify's Current Approach” where a single sendActivity call creates separate messages for each recipient, which are individually queued and processed independently. This results in fast delivery to working recipients while slow servers only affect their own delivery. The bottom half shows an “Alternative Approach” where sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients, queued as one item, and processed sequentially. This results in all recipients waiting for each delivery to complete, with slow servers blocking everyone in the queue.
Got an interesting question today about #Fedify's outgoing #queue design!
Some users noticed we create separate queue messages for each recipient inbox rather than queuing a single message and handling the splitting later. There's a good reason for this approach.
In the #fediverse, server response times vary dramatically—some respond quickly, others slowly, and some might be temporarily down. If we processed deliveries in a single task, the entire batch would be held up by the slowest server in the group.
By creating individual queue items for each recipient:
Fast servers get messages delivered promptly
Slow servers don't delay delivery to others
Failed deliveries can be retried independently
Your UI remains responsive while deliveries happen in the background
It's a classic trade-off: we generate more queue messages, but gain better resilience and user experience in return.
This is particularly important in federated networks where server behavior is unpredictable and outside our control. We'd rather optimize for making sure your posts reach their destinations as quickly as possible!
What other aspects of Fedify's design would you like to hear about? Let us know!
ALT text detailsA flowchart comparing two approaches to message queue design. The top half shows “Fedify's Current Approach” where a single sendActivity call creates separate messages for each recipient, which are individually queued and processed independently. This results in fast delivery to working recipients while slow servers only affect their own delivery. The bottom half shows an “Alternative Approach” where sendActivity creates a single message with multiple recipients, queued as one item, and processed sequentially. This results in all recipients waiting for each delivery to complete, with slow servers blocking everyone in the queue.
I'm finally unveiling the #ActivityPub project that has been consuming my weekends: Encyclia, an #ORCID bridge that will make ORCID records followable and interactable on the fediverse. 🙂
It's early-stage and the ORCID following function is not publicly available yet. We're seeking community feedback on functionality and safety aspects. Read more at https://encyclia.pub or follow @encyclia for news!
Just published a post about Hackers' Pub's unique username change policy! Unlike most #fediverse platforms, they allow a one-time username change while preserving your connections and content history. It's all possible thanks to some clever #ActivityPub implementation using UUID-based actor URIs instead of username-based ones. If you're interested in trying it out, the platform is currently in invitation-only beta—check the post for details on how to request access!
Hackers' Pub is a community-focused platform where programmers and technology enthusiasts share knowledge and experiences. As an ActivityPub-enabled social network, it allows users to connect with others across the broader fediverse ecosystem, bringing technical discussions and insights directly to followers' feeds.
In the fediverse landscape, your username is typically set in stone once chosen. Most ActivityPub-powered platforms like Mastodon, Pleroma, and others enforce this permanence as a fundamental design principle. However, Hackers' Pub is charting a different course with a more flexible approach to digital identity.
One-Time Username Change: Freedom with Responsibility
Unlike most fediverse platforms, Hackers' Pub now allows users to change their username (the part before the @ in your Fediverse handle) exactly once during the lifetime of their account. This policy acknowledges that people grow, interests evolve, and the username that seemed perfect when you joined might not represent who you are today.
This one-time change limit strikes a careful balance—offering flexibility while maintaining the stability and reliability that's essential for a federated network.
Username Recycling: New Opportunities
When you change your username on Hackers' Pub, your previous username becomes available for other users to claim. This recycling mechanism creates new opportunities for meaningful usernames to find their most fitting owners, rather than remaining permanently locked to accounts that no longer use them.
For newcomers to the platform, this means a wider selection of desirable usernames might become available over time—something virtually unheard of in the traditional fediverse ecosystem.
Link Preservation: Maintaining Digital History
Worried about broken links after changing your username? Hackers' Pub has implemented a thoughtful solution. All permalinks containing your original username will continue to function until someone else claims that username. This approach helps preserve the web of connections and conversations that make the fediverse valuable.
This temporary preservation period gives your connections time to adjust to your new identity while preventing immediate link rot across the federation.
The Technical Foundation: ActivityPub Actor URIs
What enables Hackers' Pub to offer username changes while other fediverse platforms can't? The answer lies in how actor identities are implemented at the protocol level.
Hackers' Pub uses UUID-based actor URIs that don't contain the username. For example, a user with handle @hongminhee has an underlying ActivityPub actor URI that looks like https://hackers.pub/ap/actors/019382d3-63d7-7cf7-86e8-91e2551c306c. Since the username isn't part of this permanent identifier, it can be changed without breaking federation connections.
This contrasts sharply with platforms like Mastodon, where a user @hongminhee has an actor URI of https://mastodon.social/users/hongminhee. With the username embedded directly in the URI, changing it would break all federation connections, which is why these platforms don't allow username changes.
This architectural choice gives Hackers' Pub the technical flexibility to implement username changes while maintaining account continuity across the fediverse.
GitHub-Inspired Approach
Those familiar with GitHub might recognize this model—Hackers' Pub has adapted GitHub's username change policy for the fediverse context. This approach brings the best of both worlds: the option for identity evolution from centralized platforms and the federation benefits of the fediverse.
What This Means for Users
For Hackers' Pub users, this policy offers a significant advantage over other fediverse instances:
You can correct an unfortunate username choice
Your online identity can evolve as you do
Your content history remains intact during the transition
You maintain your social connections despite the change
The Future of Fediverse Identity
Hackers' Pub's username policy represents an interesting experiment in the fediverse—testing whether more flexible identity management can coexist with the stability needed for federation. If successful, we might see other platforms adopt similar approaches, creating a more adaptable yet still interconnected social web.
For now, users should consider this policy a compelling reason to choose Hackers' Pub as their fediverse home, especially if username flexibility matters to their online experience.
Hackers' Pub is currently in invitation-only beta. If you're interested in trying out the platform and its unique username policy, please leave your email address in the comments below. We'll add you to the allowlist, enabling you to sign up directly on the website. Note that this doesn't involve sending invitation emails—your address will simply be approved for registration when you visit the signup page.
Just published a post about Hackers' Pub's unique username change policy! Unlike most #fediverse platforms, they allow a one-time username change while preserving your connections and content history. It's all possible thanks to some clever #ActivityPub implementation using UUID-based actor URIs instead of username-based ones. If you're interested in trying it out, the platform is currently in invitation-only beta—check the post for details on how to request access!
Hackers' Pub is a community-focused platform where programmers and technology enthusiasts share knowledge and experiences. As an ActivityPub-enabled social network, it allows users to connect with others across the broader fediverse ecosystem, bringing technical discussions and insights directly to followers' feeds.
In the fediverse landscape, your username is typically set in stone once chosen. Most ActivityPub-powered platforms like Mastodon, Pleroma, and others enforce this permanence as a fundamental design principle. However, Hackers' Pub is charting a different course with a more flexible approach to digital identity.
One-Time Username Change: Freedom with Responsibility
Unlike most fediverse platforms, Hackers' Pub now allows users to change their username (the part before the @ in your Fediverse handle) exactly once during the lifetime of their account. This policy acknowledges that people grow, interests evolve, and the username that seemed perfect when you joined might not represent who you are today.
This one-time change limit strikes a careful balance—offering flexibility while maintaining the stability and reliability that's essential for a federated network.
Username Recycling: New Opportunities
When you change your username on Hackers' Pub, your previous username becomes available for other users to claim. This recycling mechanism creates new opportunities for meaningful usernames to find their most fitting owners, rather than remaining permanently locked to accounts that no longer use them.
For newcomers to the platform, this means a wider selection of desirable usernames might become available over time—something virtually unheard of in the traditional fediverse ecosystem.
Link Preservation: Maintaining Digital History
Worried about broken links after changing your username? Hackers' Pub has implemented a thoughtful solution. All permalinks containing your original username will continue to function until someone else claims that username. This approach helps preserve the web of connections and conversations that make the fediverse valuable.
This temporary preservation period gives your connections time to adjust to your new identity while preventing immediate link rot across the federation.
The Technical Foundation: ActivityPub Actor URIs
What enables Hackers' Pub to offer username changes while other fediverse platforms can't? The answer lies in how actor identities are implemented at the protocol level.
Hackers' Pub uses UUID-based actor URIs that don't contain the username. For example, a user with handle @hongminhee has an underlying ActivityPub actor URI that looks like https://hackers.pub/ap/actors/019382d3-63d7-7cf7-86e8-91e2551c306c. Since the username isn't part of this permanent identifier, it can be changed without breaking federation connections.
This contrasts sharply with platforms like Mastodon, where a user @hongminhee has an actor URI of https://mastodon.social/users/hongminhee. With the username embedded directly in the URI, changing it would break all federation connections, which is why these platforms don't allow username changes.
This architectural choice gives Hackers' Pub the technical flexibility to implement username changes while maintaining account continuity across the fediverse.
GitHub-Inspired Approach
Those familiar with GitHub might recognize this model—Hackers' Pub has adapted GitHub's username change policy for the fediverse context. This approach brings the best of both worlds: the option for identity evolution from centralized platforms and the federation benefits of the fediverse.
What This Means for Users
For Hackers' Pub users, this policy offers a significant advantage over other fediverse instances:
You can correct an unfortunate username choice
Your online identity can evolve as you do
Your content history remains intact during the transition
You maintain your social connections despite the change
The Future of Fediverse Identity
Hackers' Pub's username policy represents an interesting experiment in the fediverse—testing whether more flexible identity management can coexist with the stability needed for federation. If successful, we might see other platforms adopt similar approaches, creating a more adaptable yet still interconnected social web.
For now, users should consider this policy a compelling reason to choose Hackers' Pub as their fediverse home, especially if username flexibility matters to their online experience.
Hackers' Pub is currently in invitation-only beta. If you're interested in trying out the platform and its unique username policy, please leave your email address in the comments below. We'll add you to the allowlist, enabling you to sign up directly on the website. Note that this doesn't involve sending invitation emails—your address will simply be approved for registration when you visit the signup page.
Just published a post about Hackers' Pub's unique username change policy! Unlike most #fediverse platforms, they allow a one-time username change while preserving your connections and content history. It's all possible thanks to some clever #ActivityPub implementation using UUID-based actor URIs instead of username-based ones. If you're interested in trying it out, the platform is currently in invitation-only beta—check the post for details on how to request access!
Hackers' Pub is a community-focused platform where programmers and technology enthusiasts share knowledge and experiences. As an ActivityPub-enabled social network, it allows users to connect with others across the broader fediverse ecosystem, bringing technical discussions and insights directly to followers' feeds.
In the fediverse landscape, your username is typically set in stone once chosen. Most ActivityPub-powered platforms like Mastodon, Pleroma, and others enforce this permanence as a fundamental design principle. However, Hackers' Pub is charting a different course with a more flexible approach to digital identity.
One-Time Username Change: Freedom with Responsibility
Unlike most fediverse platforms, Hackers' Pub now allows users to change their username (the part before the @ in your Fediverse handle) exactly once during the lifetime of their account. This policy acknowledges that people grow, interests evolve, and the username that seemed perfect when you joined might not represent who you are today.
This one-time change limit strikes a careful balance—offering flexibility while maintaining the stability and reliability that's essential for a federated network.
Username Recycling: New Opportunities
When you change your username on Hackers' Pub, your previous username becomes available for other users to claim. This recycling mechanism creates new opportunities for meaningful usernames to find their most fitting owners, rather than remaining permanently locked to accounts that no longer use them.
For newcomers to the platform, this means a wider selection of desirable usernames might become available over time—something virtually unheard of in the traditional fediverse ecosystem.
Link Preservation: Maintaining Digital History
Worried about broken links after changing your username? Hackers' Pub has implemented a thoughtful solution. All permalinks containing your original username will continue to function until someone else claims that username. This approach helps preserve the web of connections and conversations that make the fediverse valuable.
This temporary preservation period gives your connections time to adjust to your new identity while preventing immediate link rot across the federation.
The Technical Foundation: ActivityPub Actor URIs
What enables Hackers' Pub to offer username changes while other fediverse platforms can't? The answer lies in how actor identities are implemented at the protocol level.
Hackers' Pub uses UUID-based actor URIs that don't contain the username. For example, a user with handle @hongminhee has an underlying ActivityPub actor URI that looks like https://hackers.pub/ap/actors/019382d3-63d7-7cf7-86e8-91e2551c306c. Since the username isn't part of this permanent identifier, it can be changed without breaking federation connections.
This contrasts sharply with platforms like Mastodon, where a user @hongminhee has an actor URI of https://mastodon.social/users/hongminhee. With the username embedded directly in the URI, changing it would break all federation connections, which is why these platforms don't allow username changes.
This architectural choice gives Hackers' Pub the technical flexibility to implement username changes while maintaining account continuity across the fediverse.
GitHub-Inspired Approach
Those familiar with GitHub might recognize this model—Hackers' Pub has adapted GitHub's username change policy for the fediverse context. This approach brings the best of both worlds: the option for identity evolution from centralized platforms and the federation benefits of the fediverse.
What This Means for Users
For Hackers' Pub users, this policy offers a significant advantage over other fediverse instances:
You can correct an unfortunate username choice
Your online identity can evolve as you do
Your content history remains intact during the transition
You maintain your social connections despite the change
The Future of Fediverse Identity
Hackers' Pub's username policy represents an interesting experiment in the fediverse—testing whether more flexible identity management can coexist with the stability needed for federation. If successful, we might see other platforms adopt similar approaches, creating a more adaptable yet still interconnected social web.
For now, users should consider this policy a compelling reason to choose Hackers' Pub as their fediverse home, especially if username flexibility matters to their online experience.
Hackers' Pub is currently in invitation-only beta. If you're interested in trying out the platform and its unique username policy, please leave your email address in the comments below. We'll add you to the allowlist, enabling you to sign up directly on the website. Note that this doesn't involve sending invitation emails—your address will simply be approved for registration when you visit the signup page.
Just published a post about Hackers' Pub's unique username change policy! Unlike most #fediverse platforms, they allow a one-time username change while preserving your connections and content history. It's all possible thanks to some clever #ActivityPub implementation using UUID-based actor URIs instead of username-based ones. If you're interested in trying it out, the platform is currently in invitation-only beta—check the post for details on how to request access!
Hackers' Pub is a community-focused platform where programmers and technology enthusiasts share knowledge and experiences. As an ActivityPub-enabled social network, it allows users to connect with others across the broader fediverse ecosystem, bringing technical discussions and insights directly to followers' feeds.
In the fediverse landscape, your username is typically set in stone once chosen. Most ActivityPub-powered platforms like Mastodon, Pleroma, and others enforce this permanence as a fundamental design principle. However, Hackers' Pub is charting a different course with a more flexible approach to digital identity.
One-Time Username Change: Freedom with Responsibility
Unlike most fediverse platforms, Hackers' Pub now allows users to change their username (the part before the @ in your Fediverse handle) exactly once during the lifetime of their account. This policy acknowledges that people grow, interests evolve, and the username that seemed perfect when you joined might not represent who you are today.
This one-time change limit strikes a careful balance—offering flexibility while maintaining the stability and reliability that's essential for a federated network.
Username Recycling: New Opportunities
When you change your username on Hackers' Pub, your previous username becomes available for other users to claim. This recycling mechanism creates new opportunities for meaningful usernames to find their most fitting owners, rather than remaining permanently locked to accounts that no longer use them.
For newcomers to the platform, this means a wider selection of desirable usernames might become available over time—something virtually unheard of in the traditional fediverse ecosystem.
Link Preservation: Maintaining Digital History
Worried about broken links after changing your username? Hackers' Pub has implemented a thoughtful solution. All permalinks containing your original username will continue to function until someone else claims that username. This approach helps preserve the web of connections and conversations that make the fediverse valuable.
This temporary preservation period gives your connections time to adjust to your new identity while preventing immediate link rot across the federation.
The Technical Foundation: ActivityPub Actor URIs
What enables Hackers' Pub to offer username changes while other fediverse platforms can't? The answer lies in how actor identities are implemented at the protocol level.
Hackers' Pub uses UUID-based actor URIs that don't contain the username. For example, a user with handle @hongminhee has an underlying ActivityPub actor URI that looks like https://hackers.pub/ap/actors/019382d3-63d7-7cf7-86e8-91e2551c306c. Since the username isn't part of this permanent identifier, it can be changed without breaking federation connections.
This contrasts sharply with platforms like Mastodon, where a user @hongminhee has an actor URI of https://mastodon.social/users/hongminhee. With the username embedded directly in the URI, changing it would break all federation connections, which is why these platforms don't allow username changes.
This architectural choice gives Hackers' Pub the technical flexibility to implement username changes while maintaining account continuity across the fediverse.
GitHub-Inspired Approach
Those familiar with GitHub might recognize this model—Hackers' Pub has adapted GitHub's username change policy for the fediverse context. This approach brings the best of both worlds: the option for identity evolution from centralized platforms and the federation benefits of the fediverse.
What This Means for Users
For Hackers' Pub users, this policy offers a significant advantage over other fediverse instances:
You can correct an unfortunate username choice
Your online identity can evolve as you do
Your content history remains intact during the transition
You maintain your social connections despite the change
The Future of Fediverse Identity
Hackers' Pub's username policy represents an interesting experiment in the fediverse—testing whether more flexible identity management can coexist with the stability needed for federation. If successful, we might see other platforms adopt similar approaches, creating a more adaptable yet still interconnected social web.
For now, users should consider this policy a compelling reason to choose Hackers' Pub as their fediverse home, especially if username flexibility matters to their online experience.
Hackers' Pub is currently in invitation-only beta. If you're interested in trying out the platform and its unique username policy, please leave your email address in the comments below. We'll add you to the allowlist, enabling you to sign up directly on the website. Note that this doesn't involve sending invitation emails—your address will simply be approved for registration when you visit the signup page.
Just published a post about Hackers' Pub's unique username change policy! Unlike most #fediverse platforms, they allow a one-time username change while preserving your connections and content history. It's all possible thanks to some clever #ActivityPub implementation using UUID-based actor URIs instead of username-based ones. If you're interested in trying it out, the platform is currently in invitation-only beta—check the post for details on how to request access!
Hackers' Pub is a community-focused platform where programmers and technology enthusiasts share knowledge and experiences. As an ActivityPub-enabled social network, it allows users to connect with others across the broader fediverse ecosystem, bringing technical discussions and insights directly to followers' feeds.
In the fediverse landscape, your username is typically set in stone once chosen. Most ActivityPub-powered platforms like Mastodon, Pleroma, and others enforce this permanence as a fundamental design principle. However, Hackers' Pub is charting a different course with a more flexible approach to digital identity.
One-Time Username Change: Freedom with Responsibility
Unlike most fediverse platforms, Hackers' Pub now allows users to change their username (the part before the @ in your Fediverse handle) exactly once during the lifetime of their account. This policy acknowledges that people grow, interests evolve, and the username that seemed perfect when you joined might not represent who you are today.
This one-time change limit strikes a careful balance—offering flexibility while maintaining the stability and reliability that's essential for a federated network.
Username Recycling: New Opportunities
When you change your username on Hackers' Pub, your previous username becomes available for other users to claim. This recycling mechanism creates new opportunities for meaningful usernames to find their most fitting owners, rather than remaining permanently locked to accounts that no longer use them.
For newcomers to the platform, this means a wider selection of desirable usernames might become available over time—something virtually unheard of in the traditional fediverse ecosystem.
Link Preservation: Maintaining Digital History
Worried about broken links after changing your username? Hackers' Pub has implemented a thoughtful solution. All permalinks containing your original username will continue to function until someone else claims that username. This approach helps preserve the web of connections and conversations that make the fediverse valuable.
This temporary preservation period gives your connections time to adjust to your new identity while preventing immediate link rot across the federation.
The Technical Foundation: ActivityPub Actor URIs
What enables Hackers' Pub to offer username changes while other fediverse platforms can't? The answer lies in how actor identities are implemented at the protocol level.
Hackers' Pub uses UUID-based actor URIs that don't contain the username. For example, a user with handle @hongminhee has an underlying ActivityPub actor URI that looks like https://hackers.pub/ap/actors/019382d3-63d7-7cf7-86e8-91e2551c306c. Since the username isn't part of this permanent identifier, it can be changed without breaking federation connections.
This contrasts sharply with platforms like Mastodon, where a user @hongminhee has an actor URI of https://mastodon.social/users/hongminhee. With the username embedded directly in the URI, changing it would break all federation connections, which is why these platforms don't allow username changes.
This architectural choice gives Hackers' Pub the technical flexibility to implement username changes while maintaining account continuity across the fediverse.
GitHub-Inspired Approach
Those familiar with GitHub might recognize this model—Hackers' Pub has adapted GitHub's username change policy for the fediverse context. This approach brings the best of both worlds: the option for identity evolution from centralized platforms and the federation benefits of the fediverse.
What This Means for Users
For Hackers' Pub users, this policy offers a significant advantage over other fediverse instances:
You can correct an unfortunate username choice
Your online identity can evolve as you do
Your content history remains intact during the transition
You maintain your social connections despite the change
The Future of Fediverse Identity
Hackers' Pub's username policy represents an interesting experiment in the fediverse—testing whether more flexible identity management can coexist with the stability needed for federation. If successful, we might see other platforms adopt similar approaches, creating a more adaptable yet still interconnected social web.
For now, users should consider this policy a compelling reason to choose Hackers' Pub as their fediverse home, especially if username flexibility matters to their online experience.
Hackers' Pub is currently in invitation-only beta. If you're interested in trying out the platform and its unique username policy, please leave your email address in the comments below. We'll add you to the allowlist, enabling you to sign up directly on the website. Note that this doesn't involve sending invitation emails—your address will simply be approved for registration when you visit the signup page.
Just published a post about Hackers' Pub's unique username change policy! Unlike most #fediverse platforms, they allow a one-time username change while preserving your connections and content history. It's all possible thanks to some clever #ActivityPub implementation using UUID-based actor URIs instead of username-based ones. If you're interested in trying it out, the platform is currently in invitation-only beta—check the post for details on how to request access!
Hackers' Pub is a community-focused platform where programmers and technology enthusiasts share knowledge and experiences. As an ActivityPub-enabled social network, it allows users to connect with others across the broader fediverse ecosystem, bringing technical discussions and insights directly to followers' feeds.
In the fediverse landscape, your username is typically set in stone once chosen. Most ActivityPub-powered platforms like Mastodon, Pleroma, and others enforce this permanence as a fundamental design principle. However, Hackers' Pub is charting a different course with a more flexible approach to digital identity.
One-Time Username Change: Freedom with Responsibility
Unlike most fediverse platforms, Hackers' Pub now allows users to change their username (the part before the @ in your Fediverse handle) exactly once during the lifetime of their account. This policy acknowledges that people grow, interests evolve, and the username that seemed perfect when you joined might not represent who you are today.
This one-time change limit strikes a careful balance—offering flexibility while maintaining the stability and reliability that's essential for a federated network.
Username Recycling: New Opportunities
When you change your username on Hackers' Pub, your previous username becomes available for other users to claim. This recycling mechanism creates new opportunities for meaningful usernames to find their most fitting owners, rather than remaining permanently locked to accounts that no longer use them.
For newcomers to the platform, this means a wider selection of desirable usernames might become available over time—something virtually unheard of in the traditional fediverse ecosystem.
Link Preservation: Maintaining Digital History
Worried about broken links after changing your username? Hackers' Pub has implemented a thoughtful solution. All permalinks containing your original username will continue to function until someone else claims that username. This approach helps preserve the web of connections and conversations that make the fediverse valuable.
This temporary preservation period gives your connections time to adjust to your new identity while preventing immediate link rot across the federation.
The Technical Foundation: ActivityPub Actor URIs
What enables Hackers' Pub to offer username changes while other fediverse platforms can't? The answer lies in how actor identities are implemented at the protocol level.
Hackers' Pub uses UUID-based actor URIs that don't contain the username. For example, a user with handle @hongminhee has an underlying ActivityPub actor URI that looks like https://hackers.pub/ap/actors/019382d3-63d7-7cf7-86e8-91e2551c306c. Since the username isn't part of this permanent identifier, it can be changed without breaking federation connections.
This contrasts sharply with platforms like Mastodon, where a user @hongminhee has an actor URI of https://mastodon.social/users/hongminhee. With the username embedded directly in the URI, changing it would break all federation connections, which is why these platforms don't allow username changes.
This architectural choice gives Hackers' Pub the technical flexibility to implement username changes while maintaining account continuity across the fediverse.
GitHub-Inspired Approach
Those familiar with GitHub might recognize this model—Hackers' Pub has adapted GitHub's username change policy for the fediverse context. This approach brings the best of both worlds: the option for identity evolution from centralized platforms and the federation benefits of the fediverse.
What This Means for Users
For Hackers' Pub users, this policy offers a significant advantage over other fediverse instances:
You can correct an unfortunate username choice
Your online identity can evolve as you do
Your content history remains intact during the transition
You maintain your social connections despite the change
The Future of Fediverse Identity
Hackers' Pub's username policy represents an interesting experiment in the fediverse—testing whether more flexible identity management can coexist with the stability needed for federation. If successful, we might see other platforms adopt similar approaches, creating a more adaptable yet still interconnected social web.
For now, users should consider this policy a compelling reason to choose Hackers' Pub as their fediverse home, especially if username flexibility matters to their online experience.
Hackers' Pub is currently in invitation-only beta. If you're interested in trying out the platform and its unique username policy, please leave your email address in the comments below. We'll add you to the allowlist, enabling you to sign up directly on the website. Note that this doesn't involve sending invitation emails—your address will simply be approved for registration when you visit the signup page.
Just published a post about Hackers' Pub's unique username change policy! Unlike most #fediverse platforms, they allow a one-time username change while preserving your connections and content history. It's all possible thanks to some clever #ActivityPub implementation using UUID-based actor URIs instead of username-based ones. If you're interested in trying it out, the platform is currently in invitation-only beta—check the post for details on how to request access!
Hackers' Pub is a community-focused platform where programmers and technology enthusiasts share knowledge and experiences. As an ActivityPub-enabled social network, it allows users to connect with others across the broader fediverse ecosystem, bringing technical discussions and insights directly to followers' feeds.
In the fediverse landscape, your username is typically set in stone once chosen. Most ActivityPub-powered platforms like Mastodon, Pleroma, and others enforce this permanence as a fundamental design principle. However, Hackers' Pub is charting a different course with a more flexible approach to digital identity.
One-Time Username Change: Freedom with Responsibility
Unlike most fediverse platforms, Hackers' Pub now allows users to change their username (the part before the @ in your Fediverse handle) exactly once during the lifetime of their account. This policy acknowledges that people grow, interests evolve, and the username that seemed perfect when you joined might not represent who you are today.
This one-time change limit strikes a careful balance—offering flexibility while maintaining the stability and reliability that's essential for a federated network.
Username Recycling: New Opportunities
When you change your username on Hackers' Pub, your previous username becomes available for other users to claim. This recycling mechanism creates new opportunities for meaningful usernames to find their most fitting owners, rather than remaining permanently locked to accounts that no longer use them.
For newcomers to the platform, this means a wider selection of desirable usernames might become available over time—something virtually unheard of in the traditional fediverse ecosystem.
Link Preservation: Maintaining Digital History
Worried about broken links after changing your username? Hackers' Pub has implemented a thoughtful solution. All permalinks containing your original username will continue to function until someone else claims that username. This approach helps preserve the web of connections and conversations that make the fediverse valuable.
This temporary preservation period gives your connections time to adjust to your new identity while preventing immediate link rot across the federation.
The Technical Foundation: ActivityPub Actor URIs
What enables Hackers' Pub to offer username changes while other fediverse platforms can't? The answer lies in how actor identities are implemented at the protocol level.
Hackers' Pub uses UUID-based actor URIs that don't contain the username. For example, a user with handle @hongminhee has an underlying ActivityPub actor URI that looks like https://hackers.pub/ap/actors/019382d3-63d7-7cf7-86e8-91e2551c306c. Since the username isn't part of this permanent identifier, it can be changed without breaking federation connections.
This contrasts sharply with platforms like Mastodon, where a user @hongminhee has an actor URI of https://mastodon.social/users/hongminhee. With the username embedded directly in the URI, changing it would break all federation connections, which is why these platforms don't allow username changes.
This architectural choice gives Hackers' Pub the technical flexibility to implement username changes while maintaining account continuity across the fediverse.
GitHub-Inspired Approach
Those familiar with GitHub might recognize this model—Hackers' Pub has adapted GitHub's username change policy for the fediverse context. This approach brings the best of both worlds: the option for identity evolution from centralized platforms and the federation benefits of the fediverse.
What This Means for Users
For Hackers' Pub users, this policy offers a significant advantage over other fediverse instances:
You can correct an unfortunate username choice
Your online identity can evolve as you do
Your content history remains intact during the transition
You maintain your social connections despite the change
The Future of Fediverse Identity
Hackers' Pub's username policy represents an interesting experiment in the fediverse—testing whether more flexible identity management can coexist with the stability needed for federation. If successful, we might see other platforms adopt similar approaches, creating a more adaptable yet still interconnected social web.
For now, users should consider this policy a compelling reason to choose Hackers' Pub as their fediverse home, especially if username flexibility matters to their online experience.
Hackers' Pub is currently in invitation-only beta. If you're interested in trying out the platform and its unique username policy, please leave your email address in the comments below. We'll add you to the allowlist, enabling you to sign up directly on the website. Note that this doesn't involve sending invitation emails—your address will simply be approved for registration when you visit the signup page.
Just published a post about Hackers' Pub's unique username change policy! Unlike most #fediverse platforms, they allow a one-time username change while preserving your connections and content history. It's all possible thanks to some clever #ActivityPub implementation using UUID-based actor URIs instead of username-based ones. If you're interested in trying it out, the platform is currently in invitation-only beta—check the post for details on how to request access!
Hackers' Pub is a community-focused platform where programmers and technology enthusiasts share knowledge and experiences. As an ActivityPub-enabled social network, it allows users to connect with others across the broader fediverse ecosystem, bringing technical discussions and insights directly to followers' feeds.
In the fediverse landscape, your username is typically set in stone once chosen. Most ActivityPub-powered platforms like Mastodon, Pleroma, and others enforce this permanence as a fundamental design principle. However, Hackers' Pub is charting a different course with a more flexible approach to digital identity.
One-Time Username Change: Freedom with Responsibility
Unlike most fediverse platforms, Hackers' Pub now allows users to change their username (the part before the @ in your Fediverse handle) exactly once during the lifetime of their account. This policy acknowledges that people grow, interests evolve, and the username that seemed perfect when you joined might not represent who you are today.
This one-time change limit strikes a careful balance—offering flexibility while maintaining the stability and reliability that's essential for a federated network.
Username Recycling: New Opportunities
When you change your username on Hackers' Pub, your previous username becomes available for other users to claim. This recycling mechanism creates new opportunities for meaningful usernames to find their most fitting owners, rather than remaining permanently locked to accounts that no longer use them.
For newcomers to the platform, this means a wider selection of desirable usernames might become available over time—something virtually unheard of in the traditional fediverse ecosystem.
Link Preservation: Maintaining Digital History
Worried about broken links after changing your username? Hackers' Pub has implemented a thoughtful solution. All permalinks containing your original username will continue to function until someone else claims that username. This approach helps preserve the web of connections and conversations that make the fediverse valuable.
This temporary preservation period gives your connections time to adjust to your new identity while preventing immediate link rot across the federation.
The Technical Foundation: ActivityPub Actor URIs
What enables Hackers' Pub to offer username changes while other fediverse platforms can't? The answer lies in how actor identities are implemented at the protocol level.
Hackers' Pub uses UUID-based actor URIs that don't contain the username. For example, a user with handle @hongminhee has an underlying ActivityPub actor URI that looks like https://hackers.pub/ap/actors/019382d3-63d7-7cf7-86e8-91e2551c306c. Since the username isn't part of this permanent identifier, it can be changed without breaking federation connections.
This contrasts sharply with platforms like Mastodon, where a user @hongminhee has an actor URI of https://mastodon.social/users/hongminhee. With the username embedded directly in the URI, changing it would break all federation connections, which is why these platforms don't allow username changes.
This architectural choice gives Hackers' Pub the technical flexibility to implement username changes while maintaining account continuity across the fediverse.
GitHub-Inspired Approach
Those familiar with GitHub might recognize this model—Hackers' Pub has adapted GitHub's username change policy for the fediverse context. This approach brings the best of both worlds: the option for identity evolution from centralized platforms and the federation benefits of the fediverse.
What This Means for Users
For Hackers' Pub users, this policy offers a significant advantage over other fediverse instances:
You can correct an unfortunate username choice
Your online identity can evolve as you do
Your content history remains intact during the transition
You maintain your social connections despite the change
The Future of Fediverse Identity
Hackers' Pub's username policy represents an interesting experiment in the fediverse—testing whether more flexible identity management can coexist with the stability needed for federation. If successful, we might see other platforms adopt similar approaches, creating a more adaptable yet still interconnected social web.
For now, users should consider this policy a compelling reason to choose Hackers' Pub as their fediverse home, especially if username flexibility matters to their online experience.
Hackers' Pub is currently in invitation-only beta. If you're interested in trying out the platform and its unique username policy, please leave your email address in the comments below. We'll add you to the allowlist, enabling you to sign up directly on the website. Note that this doesn't involve sending invitation emails—your address will simply be approved for registration when you visit the signup page.
Just published a post about Hackers' Pub's unique username change policy! Unlike most #fediverse platforms, they allow a one-time username change while preserving your connections and content history. It's all possible thanks to some clever #ActivityPub implementation using UUID-based actor URIs instead of username-based ones. If you're interested in trying it out, the platform is currently in invitation-only beta—check the post for details on how to request access!
Hackers' Pub is a community-focused platform where programmers and technology enthusiasts share knowledge and experiences. As an ActivityPub-enabled social network, it allows users to connect with others across the broader fediverse ecosystem, bringing technical discussions and insights directly to followers' feeds.
In the fediverse landscape, your username is typically set in stone once chosen. Most ActivityPub-powered platforms like Mastodon, Pleroma, and others enforce this permanence as a fundamental design principle. However, Hackers' Pub is charting a different course with a more flexible approach to digital identity.
One-Time Username Change: Freedom with Responsibility
Unlike most fediverse platforms, Hackers' Pub now allows users to change their username (the part before the @ in your Fediverse handle) exactly once during the lifetime of their account. This policy acknowledges that people grow, interests evolve, and the username that seemed perfect when you joined might not represent who you are today.
This one-time change limit strikes a careful balance—offering flexibility while maintaining the stability and reliability that's essential for a federated network.
Username Recycling: New Opportunities
When you change your username on Hackers' Pub, your previous username becomes available for other users to claim. This recycling mechanism creates new opportunities for meaningful usernames to find their most fitting owners, rather than remaining permanently locked to accounts that no longer use them.
For newcomers to the platform, this means a wider selection of desirable usernames might become available over time—something virtually unheard of in the traditional fediverse ecosystem.
Link Preservation: Maintaining Digital History
Worried about broken links after changing your username? Hackers' Pub has implemented a thoughtful solution. All permalinks containing your original username will continue to function until someone else claims that username. This approach helps preserve the web of connections and conversations that make the fediverse valuable.
This temporary preservation period gives your connections time to adjust to your new identity while preventing immediate link rot across the federation.
The Technical Foundation: ActivityPub Actor URIs
What enables Hackers' Pub to offer username changes while other fediverse platforms can't? The answer lies in how actor identities are implemented at the protocol level.
Hackers' Pub uses UUID-based actor URIs that don't contain the username. For example, a user with handle @hongminhee has an underlying ActivityPub actor URI that looks like https://hackers.pub/ap/actors/019382d3-63d7-7cf7-86e8-91e2551c306c. Since the username isn't part of this permanent identifier, it can be changed without breaking federation connections.
This contrasts sharply with platforms like Mastodon, where a user @hongminhee has an actor URI of https://mastodon.social/users/hongminhee. With the username embedded directly in the URI, changing it would break all federation connections, which is why these platforms don't allow username changes.
This architectural choice gives Hackers' Pub the technical flexibility to implement username changes while maintaining account continuity across the fediverse.
GitHub-Inspired Approach
Those familiar with GitHub might recognize this model—Hackers' Pub has adapted GitHub's username change policy for the fediverse context. This approach brings the best of both worlds: the option for identity evolution from centralized platforms and the federation benefits of the fediverse.
What This Means for Users
For Hackers' Pub users, this policy offers a significant advantage over other fediverse instances:
You can correct an unfortunate username choice
Your online identity can evolve as you do
Your content history remains intact during the transition
You maintain your social connections despite the change
The Future of Fediverse Identity
Hackers' Pub's username policy represents an interesting experiment in the fediverse—testing whether more flexible identity management can coexist with the stability needed for federation. If successful, we might see other platforms adopt similar approaches, creating a more adaptable yet still interconnected social web.
For now, users should consider this policy a compelling reason to choose Hackers' Pub as their fediverse home, especially if username flexibility matters to their online experience.
Hackers' Pub is currently in invitation-only beta. If you're interested in trying out the platform and its unique username policy, please leave your email address in the comments below. We'll add you to the allowlist, enabling you to sign up directly on the website. Note that this doesn't involve sending invitation emails—your address will simply be approved for registration when you visit the signup page.
Just published a post about Hackers' Pub's unique username change policy! Unlike most #fediverse platforms, they allow a one-time username change while preserving your connections and content history. It's all possible thanks to some clever #ActivityPub implementation using UUID-based actor URIs instead of username-based ones. If you're interested in trying it out, the platform is currently in invitation-only beta—check the post for details on how to request access!
Hackers' Pub is a community-focused platform where programmers and technology enthusiasts share knowledge and experiences. As an ActivityPub-enabled social network, it allows users to connect with others across the broader fediverse ecosystem, bringing technical discussions and insights directly to followers' feeds.
In the fediverse landscape, your username is typically set in stone once chosen. Most ActivityPub-powered platforms like Mastodon, Pleroma, and others enforce this permanence as a fundamental design principle. However, Hackers' Pub is charting a different course with a more flexible approach to digital identity.
One-Time Username Change: Freedom with Responsibility
Unlike most fediverse platforms, Hackers' Pub now allows users to change their username (the part before the @ in your Fediverse handle) exactly once during the lifetime of their account. This policy acknowledges that people grow, interests evolve, and the username that seemed perfect when you joined might not represent who you are today.
This one-time change limit strikes a careful balance—offering flexibility while maintaining the stability and reliability that's essential for a federated network.
Username Recycling: New Opportunities
When you change your username on Hackers' Pub, your previous username becomes available for other users to claim. This recycling mechanism creates new opportunities for meaningful usernames to find their most fitting owners, rather than remaining permanently locked to accounts that no longer use them.
For newcomers to the platform, this means a wider selection of desirable usernames might become available over time—something virtually unheard of in the traditional fediverse ecosystem.
Link Preservation: Maintaining Digital History
Worried about broken links after changing your username? Hackers' Pub has implemented a thoughtful solution. All permalinks containing your original username will continue to function until someone else claims that username. This approach helps preserve the web of connections and conversations that make the fediverse valuable.
This temporary preservation period gives your connections time to adjust to your new identity while preventing immediate link rot across the federation.
The Technical Foundation: ActivityPub Actor URIs
What enables Hackers' Pub to offer username changes while other fediverse platforms can't? The answer lies in how actor identities are implemented at the protocol level.
Hackers' Pub uses UUID-based actor URIs that don't contain the username. For example, a user with handle @hongminhee has an underlying ActivityPub actor URI that looks like https://hackers.pub/ap/actors/019382d3-63d7-7cf7-86e8-91e2551c306c. Since the username isn't part of this permanent identifier, it can be changed without breaking federation connections.
This contrasts sharply with platforms like Mastodon, where a user @hongminhee has an actor URI of https://mastodon.social/users/hongminhee. With the username embedded directly in the URI, changing it would break all federation connections, which is why these platforms don't allow username changes.
This architectural choice gives Hackers' Pub the technical flexibility to implement username changes while maintaining account continuity across the fediverse.
GitHub-Inspired Approach
Those familiar with GitHub might recognize this model—Hackers' Pub has adapted GitHub's username change policy for the fediverse context. This approach brings the best of both worlds: the option for identity evolution from centralized platforms and the federation benefits of the fediverse.
What This Means for Users
For Hackers' Pub users, this policy offers a significant advantage over other fediverse instances:
You can correct an unfortunate username choice
Your online identity can evolve as you do
Your content history remains intact during the transition
You maintain your social connections despite the change
The Future of Fediverse Identity
Hackers' Pub's username policy represents an interesting experiment in the fediverse—testing whether more flexible identity management can coexist with the stability needed for federation. If successful, we might see other platforms adopt similar approaches, creating a more adaptable yet still interconnected social web.
For now, users should consider this policy a compelling reason to choose Hackers' Pub as their fediverse home, especially if username flexibility matters to their online experience.
Hackers' Pub is currently in invitation-only beta. If you're interested in trying out the platform and its unique username policy, please leave your email address in the comments below. We'll add you to the allowlist, enabling you to sign up directly on the website. Note that this doesn't involve sending invitation emails—your address will simply be approved for registration when you visit the signup page.
Just published a post about Hackers' Pub's unique username change policy! Unlike most #fediverse platforms, they allow a one-time username change while preserving your connections and content history. It's all possible thanks to some clever #ActivityPub implementation using UUID-based actor URIs instead of username-based ones. If you're interested in trying it out, the platform is currently in invitation-only beta—check the post for details on how to request access!
Hackers' Pub is a community-focused platform where programmers and technology enthusiasts share knowledge and experiences. As an ActivityPub-enabled social network, it allows users to connect with others across the broader fediverse ecosystem, bringing technical discussions and insights directly to followers' feeds.
In the fediverse landscape, your username is typically set in stone once chosen. Most ActivityPub-powered platforms like Mastodon, Pleroma, and others enforce this permanence as a fundamental design principle. However, Hackers' Pub is charting a different course with a more flexible approach to digital identity.
One-Time Username Change: Freedom with Responsibility
Unlike most fediverse platforms, Hackers' Pub now allows users to change their username (the part before the @ in your Fediverse handle) exactly once during the lifetime of their account. This policy acknowledges that people grow, interests evolve, and the username that seemed perfect when you joined might not represent who you are today.
This one-time change limit strikes a careful balance—offering flexibility while maintaining the stability and reliability that's essential for a federated network.
Username Recycling: New Opportunities
When you change your username on Hackers' Pub, your previous username becomes available for other users to claim. This recycling mechanism creates new opportunities for meaningful usernames to find their most fitting owners, rather than remaining permanently locked to accounts that no longer use them.
For newcomers to the platform, this means a wider selection of desirable usernames might become available over time—something virtually unheard of in the traditional fediverse ecosystem.
Link Preservation: Maintaining Digital History
Worried about broken links after changing your username? Hackers' Pub has implemented a thoughtful solution. All permalinks containing your original username will continue to function until someone else claims that username. This approach helps preserve the web of connections and conversations that make the fediverse valuable.
This temporary preservation period gives your connections time to adjust to your new identity while preventing immediate link rot across the federation.
The Technical Foundation: ActivityPub Actor URIs
What enables Hackers' Pub to offer username changes while other fediverse platforms can't? The answer lies in how actor identities are implemented at the protocol level.
Hackers' Pub uses UUID-based actor URIs that don't contain the username. For example, a user with handle @hongminhee has an underlying ActivityPub actor URI that looks like https://hackers.pub/ap/actors/019382d3-63d7-7cf7-86e8-91e2551c306c. Since the username isn't part of this permanent identifier, it can be changed without breaking federation connections.
This contrasts sharply with platforms like Mastodon, where a user @hongminhee has an actor URI of https://mastodon.social/users/hongminhee. With the username embedded directly in the URI, changing it would break all federation connections, which is why these platforms don't allow username changes.
This architectural choice gives Hackers' Pub the technical flexibility to implement username changes while maintaining account continuity across the fediverse.
GitHub-Inspired Approach
Those familiar with GitHub might recognize this model—Hackers' Pub has adapted GitHub's username change policy for the fediverse context. This approach brings the best of both worlds: the option for identity evolution from centralized platforms and the federation benefits of the fediverse.
What This Means for Users
For Hackers' Pub users, this policy offers a significant advantage over other fediverse instances:
You can correct an unfortunate username choice
Your online identity can evolve as you do
Your content history remains intact during the transition
You maintain your social connections despite the change
The Future of Fediverse Identity
Hackers' Pub's username policy represents an interesting experiment in the fediverse—testing whether more flexible identity management can coexist with the stability needed for federation. If successful, we might see other platforms adopt similar approaches, creating a more adaptable yet still interconnected social web.
For now, users should consider this policy a compelling reason to choose Hackers' Pub as their fediverse home, especially if username flexibility matters to their online experience.
Hackers' Pub is currently in invitation-only beta. If you're interested in trying out the platform and its unique username policy, please leave your email address in the comments below. We'll add you to the allowlist, enabling you to sign up directly on the website. Note that this doesn't involve sending invitation emails—your address will simply be approved for registration when you visit the signup page.
Just published a post about Hackers' Pub's unique username change policy! Unlike most #fediverse platforms, they allow a one-time username change while preserving your connections and content history. It's all possible thanks to some clever #ActivityPub implementation using UUID-based actor URIs instead of username-based ones. If you're interested in trying it out, the platform is currently in invitation-only beta—check the post for details on how to request access!
Hackers' Pub is a community-focused platform where programmers and technology enthusiasts share knowledge and experiences. As an ActivityPub-enabled social network, it allows users to connect with others across the broader fediverse ecosystem, bringing technical discussions and insights directly to followers' feeds.
In the fediverse landscape, your username is typically set in stone once chosen. Most ActivityPub-powered platforms like Mastodon, Pleroma, and others enforce this permanence as a fundamental design principle. However, Hackers' Pub is charting a different course with a more flexible approach to digital identity.
One-Time Username Change: Freedom with Responsibility
Unlike most fediverse platforms, Hackers' Pub now allows users to change their username (the part before the @ in your Fediverse handle) exactly once during the lifetime of their account. This policy acknowledges that people grow, interests evolve, and the username that seemed perfect when you joined might not represent who you are today.
This one-time change limit strikes a careful balance—offering flexibility while maintaining the stability and reliability that's essential for a federated network.
Username Recycling: New Opportunities
When you change your username on Hackers' Pub, your previous username becomes available for other users to claim. This recycling mechanism creates new opportunities for meaningful usernames to find their most fitting owners, rather than remaining permanently locked to accounts that no longer use them.
For newcomers to the platform, this means a wider selection of desirable usernames might become available over time—something virtually unheard of in the traditional fediverse ecosystem.
Link Preservation: Maintaining Digital History
Worried about broken links after changing your username? Hackers' Pub has implemented a thoughtful solution. All permalinks containing your original username will continue to function until someone else claims that username. This approach helps preserve the web of connections and conversations that make the fediverse valuable.
This temporary preservation period gives your connections time to adjust to your new identity while preventing immediate link rot across the federation.
The Technical Foundation: ActivityPub Actor URIs
What enables Hackers' Pub to offer username changes while other fediverse platforms can't? The answer lies in how actor identities are implemented at the protocol level.
Hackers' Pub uses UUID-based actor URIs that don't contain the username. For example, a user with handle @hongminhee has an underlying ActivityPub actor URI that looks like https://hackers.pub/ap/actors/019382d3-63d7-7cf7-86e8-91e2551c306c. Since the username isn't part of this permanent identifier, it can be changed without breaking federation connections.
This contrasts sharply with platforms like Mastodon, where a user @hongminhee has an actor URI of https://mastodon.social/users/hongminhee. With the username embedded directly in the URI, changing it would break all federation connections, which is why these platforms don't allow username changes.
This architectural choice gives Hackers' Pub the technical flexibility to implement username changes while maintaining account continuity across the fediverse.
GitHub-Inspired Approach
Those familiar with GitHub might recognize this model—Hackers' Pub has adapted GitHub's username change policy for the fediverse context. This approach brings the best of both worlds: the option for identity evolution from centralized platforms and the federation benefits of the fediverse.
What This Means for Users
For Hackers' Pub users, this policy offers a significant advantage over other fediverse instances:
You can correct an unfortunate username choice
Your online identity can evolve as you do
Your content history remains intact during the transition
You maintain your social connections despite the change
The Future of Fediverse Identity
Hackers' Pub's username policy represents an interesting experiment in the fediverse—testing whether more flexible identity management can coexist with the stability needed for federation. If successful, we might see other platforms adopt similar approaches, creating a more adaptable yet still interconnected social web.
For now, users should consider this policy a compelling reason to choose Hackers' Pub as their fediverse home, especially if username flexibility matters to their online experience.
Hackers' Pub is currently in invitation-only beta. If you're interested in trying out the platform and its unique username policy, please leave your email address in the comments below. We'll add you to the allowlist, enabling you to sign up directly on the website. Note that this doesn't involve sending invitation emails—your address will simply be approved for registration when you visit the signup page.
Just published a post about Hackers' Pub's unique username change policy! Unlike most #fediverse platforms, they allow a one-time username change while preserving your connections and content history. It's all possible thanks to some clever #ActivityPub implementation using UUID-based actor URIs instead of username-based ones. If you're interested in trying it out, the platform is currently in invitation-only beta—check the post for details on how to request access!
Hackers' Pub is a community-focused platform where programmers and technology enthusiasts share knowledge and experiences. As an ActivityPub-enabled social network, it allows users to connect with others across the broader fediverse ecosystem, bringing technical discussions and insights directly to followers' feeds.
In the fediverse landscape, your username is typically set in stone once chosen. Most ActivityPub-powered platforms like Mastodon, Pleroma, and others enforce this permanence as a fundamental design principle. However, Hackers' Pub is charting a different course with a more flexible approach to digital identity.
One-Time Username Change: Freedom with Responsibility
Unlike most fediverse platforms, Hackers' Pub now allows users to change their username (the part before the @ in your Fediverse handle) exactly once during the lifetime of their account. This policy acknowledges that people grow, interests evolve, and the username that seemed perfect when you joined might not represent who you are today.
This one-time change limit strikes a careful balance—offering flexibility while maintaining the stability and reliability that's essential for a federated network.
Username Recycling: New Opportunities
When you change your username on Hackers' Pub, your previous username becomes available for other users to claim. This recycling mechanism creates new opportunities for meaningful usernames to find their most fitting owners, rather than remaining permanently locked to accounts that no longer use them.
For newcomers to the platform, this means a wider selection of desirable usernames might become available over time—something virtually unheard of in the traditional fediverse ecosystem.
Link Preservation: Maintaining Digital History
Worried about broken links after changing your username? Hackers' Pub has implemented a thoughtful solution. All permalinks containing your original username will continue to function until someone else claims that username. This approach helps preserve the web of connections and conversations that make the fediverse valuable.
This temporary preservation period gives your connections time to adjust to your new identity while preventing immediate link rot across the federation.
The Technical Foundation: ActivityPub Actor URIs
What enables Hackers' Pub to offer username changes while other fediverse platforms can't? The answer lies in how actor identities are implemented at the protocol level.
Hackers' Pub uses UUID-based actor URIs that don't contain the username. For example, a user with handle @hongminhee has an underlying ActivityPub actor URI that looks like https://hackers.pub/ap/actors/019382d3-63d7-7cf7-86e8-91e2551c306c. Since the username isn't part of this permanent identifier, it can be changed without breaking federation connections.
This contrasts sharply with platforms like Mastodon, where a user @hongminhee has an actor URI of https://mastodon.social/users/hongminhee. With the username embedded directly in the URI, changing it would break all federation connections, which is why these platforms don't allow username changes.
This architectural choice gives Hackers' Pub the technical flexibility to implement username changes while maintaining account continuity across the fediverse.
GitHub-Inspired Approach
Those familiar with GitHub might recognize this model—Hackers' Pub has adapted GitHub's username change policy for the fediverse context. This approach brings the best of both worlds: the option for identity evolution from centralized platforms and the federation benefits of the fediverse.
What This Means for Users
For Hackers' Pub users, this policy offers a significant advantage over other fediverse instances:
You can correct an unfortunate username choice
Your online identity can evolve as you do
Your content history remains intact during the transition
You maintain your social connections despite the change
The Future of Fediverse Identity
Hackers' Pub's username policy represents an interesting experiment in the fediverse—testing whether more flexible identity management can coexist with the stability needed for federation. If successful, we might see other platforms adopt similar approaches, creating a more adaptable yet still interconnected social web.
For now, users should consider this policy a compelling reason to choose Hackers' Pub as their fediverse home, especially if username flexibility matters to their online experience.
Hackers' Pub is currently in invitation-only beta. If you're interested in trying out the platform and its unique username policy, please leave your email address in the comments below. We'll add you to the allowlist, enabling you to sign up directly on the website. Note that this doesn't involve sending invitation emails—your address will simply be approved for registration when you visit the signup page.
Just published a post about Hackers' Pub's unique username change policy! Unlike most #fediverse platforms, they allow a one-time username change while preserving your connections and content history. It's all possible thanks to some clever #ActivityPub implementation using UUID-based actor URIs instead of username-based ones. If you're interested in trying it out, the platform is currently in invitation-only beta—check the post for details on how to request access!
Hackers' Pub is a community-focused platform where programmers and technology enthusiasts share knowledge and experiences. As an ActivityPub-enabled social network, it allows users to connect with others across the broader fediverse ecosystem, bringing technical discussions and insights directly to followers' feeds.
In the fediverse landscape, your username is typically set in stone once chosen. Most ActivityPub-powered platforms like Mastodon, Pleroma, and others enforce this permanence as a fundamental design principle. However, Hackers' Pub is charting a different course with a more flexible approach to digital identity.
One-Time Username Change: Freedom with Responsibility
Unlike most fediverse platforms, Hackers' Pub now allows users to change their username (the part before the @ in your Fediverse handle) exactly once during the lifetime of their account. This policy acknowledges that people grow, interests evolve, and the username that seemed perfect when you joined might not represent who you are today.
This one-time change limit strikes a careful balance—offering flexibility while maintaining the stability and reliability that's essential for a federated network.
Username Recycling: New Opportunities
When you change your username on Hackers' Pub, your previous username becomes available for other users to claim. This recycling mechanism creates new opportunities for meaningful usernames to find their most fitting owners, rather than remaining permanently locked to accounts that no longer use them.
For newcomers to the platform, this means a wider selection of desirable usernames might become available over time—something virtually unheard of in the traditional fediverse ecosystem.
Link Preservation: Maintaining Digital History
Worried about broken links after changing your username? Hackers' Pub has implemented a thoughtful solution. All permalinks containing your original username will continue to function until someone else claims that username. This approach helps preserve the web of connections and conversations that make the fediverse valuable.
This temporary preservation period gives your connections time to adjust to your new identity while preventing immediate link rot across the federation.
The Technical Foundation: ActivityPub Actor URIs
What enables Hackers' Pub to offer username changes while other fediverse platforms can't? The answer lies in how actor identities are implemented at the protocol level.
Hackers' Pub uses UUID-based actor URIs that don't contain the username. For example, a user with handle @hongminhee has an underlying ActivityPub actor URI that looks like https://hackers.pub/ap/actors/019382d3-63d7-7cf7-86e8-91e2551c306c. Since the username isn't part of this permanent identifier, it can be changed without breaking federation connections.
This contrasts sharply with platforms like Mastodon, where a user @hongminhee has an actor URI of https://mastodon.social/users/hongminhee. With the username embedded directly in the URI, changing it would break all federation connections, which is why these platforms don't allow username changes.
This architectural choice gives Hackers' Pub the technical flexibility to implement username changes while maintaining account continuity across the fediverse.
GitHub-Inspired Approach
Those familiar with GitHub might recognize this model—Hackers' Pub has adapted GitHub's username change policy for the fediverse context. This approach brings the best of both worlds: the option for identity evolution from centralized platforms and the federation benefits of the fediverse.
What This Means for Users
For Hackers' Pub users, this policy offers a significant advantage over other fediverse instances:
You can correct an unfortunate username choice
Your online identity can evolve as you do
Your content history remains intact during the transition
You maintain your social connections despite the change
The Future of Fediverse Identity
Hackers' Pub's username policy represents an interesting experiment in the fediverse—testing whether more flexible identity management can coexist with the stability needed for federation. If successful, we might see other platforms adopt similar approaches, creating a more adaptable yet still interconnected social web.
For now, users should consider this policy a compelling reason to choose Hackers' Pub as their fediverse home, especially if username flexibility matters to their online experience.
Hackers' Pub is currently in invitation-only beta. If you're interested in trying out the platform and its unique username policy, please leave your email address in the comments below. We'll add you to the allowlist, enabling you to sign up directly on the website. Note that this doesn't involve sending invitation emails—your address will simply be approved for registration when you visit the signup page.
Just published a post about Hackers' Pub's unique username change policy! Unlike most #fediverse platforms, they allow a one-time username change while preserving your connections and content history. It's all possible thanks to some clever #ActivityPub implementation using UUID-based actor URIs instead of username-based ones. If you're interested in trying it out, the platform is currently in invitation-only beta—check the post for details on how to request access!
Hackers' Pub is a community-focused platform where programmers and technology enthusiasts share knowledge and experiences. As an ActivityPub-enabled social network, it allows users to connect with others across the broader fediverse ecosystem, bringing technical discussions and insights directly to followers' feeds.
In the fediverse landscape, your username is typically set in stone once chosen. Most ActivityPub-powered platforms like Mastodon, Pleroma, and others enforce this permanence as a fundamental design principle. However, Hackers' Pub is charting a different course with a more flexible approach to digital identity.
One-Time Username Change: Freedom with Responsibility
Unlike most fediverse platforms, Hackers' Pub now allows users to change their username (the part before the @ in your Fediverse handle) exactly once during the lifetime of their account. This policy acknowledges that people grow, interests evolve, and the username that seemed perfect when you joined might not represent who you are today.
This one-time change limit strikes a careful balance—offering flexibility while maintaining the stability and reliability that's essential for a federated network.
Username Recycling: New Opportunities
When you change your username on Hackers' Pub, your previous username becomes available for other users to claim. This recycling mechanism creates new opportunities for meaningful usernames to find their most fitting owners, rather than remaining permanently locked to accounts that no longer use them.
For newcomers to the platform, this means a wider selection of desirable usernames might become available over time—something virtually unheard of in the traditional fediverse ecosystem.
Link Preservation: Maintaining Digital History
Worried about broken links after changing your username? Hackers' Pub has implemented a thoughtful solution. All permalinks containing your original username will continue to function until someone else claims that username. This approach helps preserve the web of connections and conversations that make the fediverse valuable.
This temporary preservation period gives your connections time to adjust to your new identity while preventing immediate link rot across the federation.
The Technical Foundation: ActivityPub Actor URIs
What enables Hackers' Pub to offer username changes while other fediverse platforms can't? The answer lies in how actor identities are implemented at the protocol level.
Hackers' Pub uses UUID-based actor URIs that don't contain the username. For example, a user with handle @hongminhee has an underlying ActivityPub actor URI that looks like https://hackers.pub/ap/actors/019382d3-63d7-7cf7-86e8-91e2551c306c. Since the username isn't part of this permanent identifier, it can be changed without breaking federation connections.
This contrasts sharply with platforms like Mastodon, where a user @hongminhee has an actor URI of https://mastodon.social/users/hongminhee. With the username embedded directly in the URI, changing it would break all federation connections, which is why these platforms don't allow username changes.
This architectural choice gives Hackers' Pub the technical flexibility to implement username changes while maintaining account continuity across the fediverse.
GitHub-Inspired Approach
Those familiar with GitHub might recognize this model—Hackers' Pub has adapted GitHub's username change policy for the fediverse context. This approach brings the best of both worlds: the option for identity evolution from centralized platforms and the federation benefits of the fediverse.
What This Means for Users
For Hackers' Pub users, this policy offers a significant advantage over other fediverse instances:
You can correct an unfortunate username choice
Your online identity can evolve as you do
Your content history remains intact during the transition
You maintain your social connections despite the change
The Future of Fediverse Identity
Hackers' Pub's username policy represents an interesting experiment in the fediverse—testing whether more flexible identity management can coexist with the stability needed for federation. If successful, we might see other platforms adopt similar approaches, creating a more adaptable yet still interconnected social web.
For now, users should consider this policy a compelling reason to choose Hackers' Pub as their fediverse home, especially if username flexibility matters to their online experience.
Hackers' Pub is currently in invitation-only beta. If you're interested in trying out the platform and its unique username policy, please leave your email address in the comments below. We'll add you to the allowlist, enabling you to sign up directly on the website. Note that this doesn't involve sending invitation emails—your address will simply be approved for registration when you visit the signup page.
Just published a post about Hackers' Pub's unique username change policy! Unlike most #fediverse platforms, they allow a one-time username change while preserving your connections and content history. It's all possible thanks to some clever #ActivityPub implementation using UUID-based actor URIs instead of username-based ones. If you're interested in trying it out, the platform is currently in invitation-only beta—check the post for details on how to request access!
Hackers' Pub is a community-focused platform where programmers and technology enthusiasts share knowledge and experiences. As an ActivityPub-enabled social network, it allows users to connect with others across the broader fediverse ecosystem, bringing technical discussions and insights directly to followers' feeds.
In the fediverse landscape, your username is typically set in stone once chosen. Most ActivityPub-powered platforms like Mastodon, Pleroma, and others enforce this permanence as a fundamental design principle. However, Hackers' Pub is charting a different course with a more flexible approach to digital identity.
One-Time Username Change: Freedom with Responsibility
Unlike most fediverse platforms, Hackers' Pub now allows users to change their username (the part before the @ in your Fediverse handle) exactly once during the lifetime of their account. This policy acknowledges that people grow, interests evolve, and the username that seemed perfect when you joined might not represent who you are today.
This one-time change limit strikes a careful balance—offering flexibility while maintaining the stability and reliability that's essential for a federated network.
Username Recycling: New Opportunities
When you change your username on Hackers' Pub, your previous username becomes available for other users to claim. This recycling mechanism creates new opportunities for meaningful usernames to find their most fitting owners, rather than remaining permanently locked to accounts that no longer use them.
For newcomers to the platform, this means a wider selection of desirable usernames might become available over time—something virtually unheard of in the traditional fediverse ecosystem.
Link Preservation: Maintaining Digital History
Worried about broken links after changing your username? Hackers' Pub has implemented a thoughtful solution. All permalinks containing your original username will continue to function until someone else claims that username. This approach helps preserve the web of connections and conversations that make the fediverse valuable.
This temporary preservation period gives your connections time to adjust to your new identity while preventing immediate link rot across the federation.
The Technical Foundation: ActivityPub Actor URIs
What enables Hackers' Pub to offer username changes while other fediverse platforms can't? The answer lies in how actor identities are implemented at the protocol level.
Hackers' Pub uses UUID-based actor URIs that don't contain the username. For example, a user with handle @hongminhee has an underlying ActivityPub actor URI that looks like https://hackers.pub/ap/actors/019382d3-63d7-7cf7-86e8-91e2551c306c. Since the username isn't part of this permanent identifier, it can be changed without breaking federation connections.
This contrasts sharply with platforms like Mastodon, where a user @hongminhee has an actor URI of https://mastodon.social/users/hongminhee. With the username embedded directly in the URI, changing it would break all federation connections, which is why these platforms don't allow username changes.
This architectural choice gives Hackers' Pub the technical flexibility to implement username changes while maintaining account continuity across the fediverse.
GitHub-Inspired Approach
Those familiar with GitHub might recognize this model—Hackers' Pub has adapted GitHub's username change policy for the fediverse context. This approach brings the best of both worlds: the option for identity evolution from centralized platforms and the federation benefits of the fediverse.
What This Means for Users
For Hackers' Pub users, this policy offers a significant advantage over other fediverse instances:
You can correct an unfortunate username choice
Your online identity can evolve as you do
Your content history remains intact during the transition
You maintain your social connections despite the change
The Future of Fediverse Identity
Hackers' Pub's username policy represents an interesting experiment in the fediverse—testing whether more flexible identity management can coexist with the stability needed for federation. If successful, we might see other platforms adopt similar approaches, creating a more adaptable yet still interconnected social web.
For now, users should consider this policy a compelling reason to choose Hackers' Pub as their fediverse home, especially if username flexibility matters to their online experience.
Hackers' Pub is currently in invitation-only beta. If you're interested in trying out the platform and its unique username policy, please leave your email address in the comments below. We'll add you to the allowlist, enabling you to sign up directly on the website. Note that this doesn't involve sending invitation emails—your address will simply be approved for registration when you visit the signup page.
Just published a post about Hackers' Pub's unique username change policy! Unlike most #fediverse platforms, they allow a one-time username change while preserving your connections and content history. It's all possible thanks to some clever #ActivityPub implementation using UUID-based actor URIs instead of username-based ones. If you're interested in trying it out, the platform is currently in invitation-only beta—check the post for details on how to request access!
Hackers' Pub is a community-focused platform where programmers and technology enthusiasts share knowledge and experiences. As an ActivityPub-enabled social network, it allows users to connect with others across the broader fediverse ecosystem, bringing technical discussions and insights directly to followers' feeds.
In the fediverse landscape, your username is typically set in stone once chosen. Most ActivityPub-powered platforms like Mastodon, Pleroma, and others enforce this permanence as a fundamental design principle. However, Hackers' Pub is charting a different course with a more flexible approach to digital identity.
One-Time Username Change: Freedom with Responsibility
Unlike most fediverse platforms, Hackers' Pub now allows users to change their username (the part before the @ in your Fediverse handle) exactly once during the lifetime of their account. This policy acknowledges that people grow, interests evolve, and the username that seemed perfect when you joined might not represent who you are today.
This one-time change limit strikes a careful balance—offering flexibility while maintaining the stability and reliability that's essential for a federated network.
Username Recycling: New Opportunities
When you change your username on Hackers' Pub, your previous username becomes available for other users to claim. This recycling mechanism creates new opportunities for meaningful usernames to find their most fitting owners, rather than remaining permanently locked to accounts that no longer use them.
For newcomers to the platform, this means a wider selection of desirable usernames might become available over time—something virtually unheard of in the traditional fediverse ecosystem.
Link Preservation: Maintaining Digital History
Worried about broken links after changing your username? Hackers' Pub has implemented a thoughtful solution. All permalinks containing your original username will continue to function until someone else claims that username. This approach helps preserve the web of connections and conversations that make the fediverse valuable.
This temporary preservation period gives your connections time to adjust to your new identity while preventing immediate link rot across the federation.
The Technical Foundation: ActivityPub Actor URIs
What enables Hackers' Pub to offer username changes while other fediverse platforms can't? The answer lies in how actor identities are implemented at the protocol level.
Hackers' Pub uses UUID-based actor URIs that don't contain the username. For example, a user with handle @hongminhee has an underlying ActivityPub actor URI that looks like https://hackers.pub/ap/actors/019382d3-63d7-7cf7-86e8-91e2551c306c. Since the username isn't part of this permanent identifier, it can be changed without breaking federation connections.
This contrasts sharply with platforms like Mastodon, where a user @hongminhee has an actor URI of https://mastodon.social/users/hongminhee. With the username embedded directly in the URI, changing it would break all federation connections, which is why these platforms don't allow username changes.
This architectural choice gives Hackers' Pub the technical flexibility to implement username changes while maintaining account continuity across the fediverse.
GitHub-Inspired Approach
Those familiar with GitHub might recognize this model—Hackers' Pub has adapted GitHub's username change policy for the fediverse context. This approach brings the best of both worlds: the option for identity evolution from centralized platforms and the federation benefits of the fediverse.
What This Means for Users
For Hackers' Pub users, this policy offers a significant advantage over other fediverse instances:
You can correct an unfortunate username choice
Your online identity can evolve as you do
Your content history remains intact during the transition
You maintain your social connections despite the change
The Future of Fediverse Identity
Hackers' Pub's username policy represents an interesting experiment in the fediverse—testing whether more flexible identity management can coexist with the stability needed for federation. If successful, we might see other platforms adopt similar approaches, creating a more adaptable yet still interconnected social web.
For now, users should consider this policy a compelling reason to choose Hackers' Pub as their fediverse home, especially if username flexibility matters to their online experience.
Hackers' Pub is currently in invitation-only beta. If you're interested in trying out the platform and its unique username policy, please leave your email address in the comments below. We'll add you to the allowlist, enabling you to sign up directly on the website. Note that this doesn't involve sending invitation emails—your address will simply be approved for registration when you visit the signup page.
Just published a post about Hackers' Pub's unique username change policy! Unlike most #fediverse platforms, they allow a one-time username change while preserving your connections and content history. It's all possible thanks to some clever #ActivityPub implementation using UUID-based actor URIs instead of username-based ones. If you're interested in trying it out, the platform is currently in invitation-only beta—check the post for details on how to request access!
Hackers' Pub is a community-focused platform where programmers and technology enthusiasts share knowledge and experiences. As an ActivityPub-enabled social network, it allows users to connect with others across the broader fediverse ecosystem, bringing technical discussions and insights directly to followers' feeds.
In the fediverse landscape, your username is typically set in stone once chosen. Most ActivityPub-powered platforms like Mastodon, Pleroma, and others enforce this permanence as a fundamental design principle. However, Hackers' Pub is charting a different course with a more flexible approach to digital identity.
One-Time Username Change: Freedom with Responsibility
Unlike most fediverse platforms, Hackers' Pub now allows users to change their username (the part before the @ in your Fediverse handle) exactly once during the lifetime of their account. This policy acknowledges that people grow, interests evolve, and the username that seemed perfect when you joined might not represent who you are today.
This one-time change limit strikes a careful balance—offering flexibility while maintaining the stability and reliability that's essential for a federated network.
Username Recycling: New Opportunities
When you change your username on Hackers' Pub, your previous username becomes available for other users to claim. This recycling mechanism creates new opportunities for meaningful usernames to find their most fitting owners, rather than remaining permanently locked to accounts that no longer use them.
For newcomers to the platform, this means a wider selection of desirable usernames might become available over time—something virtually unheard of in the traditional fediverse ecosystem.
Link Preservation: Maintaining Digital History
Worried about broken links after changing your username? Hackers' Pub has implemented a thoughtful solution. All permalinks containing your original username will continue to function until someone else claims that username. This approach helps preserve the web of connections and conversations that make the fediverse valuable.
This temporary preservation period gives your connections time to adjust to your new identity while preventing immediate link rot across the federation.
The Technical Foundation: ActivityPub Actor URIs
What enables Hackers' Pub to offer username changes while other fediverse platforms can't? The answer lies in how actor identities are implemented at the protocol level.
Hackers' Pub uses UUID-based actor URIs that don't contain the username. For example, a user with handle @hongminhee has an underlying ActivityPub actor URI that looks like https://hackers.pub/ap/actors/019382d3-63d7-7cf7-86e8-91e2551c306c. Since the username isn't part of this permanent identifier, it can be changed without breaking federation connections.
This contrasts sharply with platforms like Mastodon, where a user @hongminhee has an actor URI of https://mastodon.social/users/hongminhee. With the username embedded directly in the URI, changing it would break all federation connections, which is why these platforms don't allow username changes.
This architectural choice gives Hackers' Pub the technical flexibility to implement username changes while maintaining account continuity across the fediverse.
GitHub-Inspired Approach
Those familiar with GitHub might recognize this model—Hackers' Pub has adapted GitHub's username change policy for the fediverse context. This approach brings the best of both worlds: the option for identity evolution from centralized platforms and the federation benefits of the fediverse.
What This Means for Users
For Hackers' Pub users, this policy offers a significant advantage over other fediverse instances:
You can correct an unfortunate username choice
Your online identity can evolve as you do
Your content history remains intact during the transition
You maintain your social connections despite the change
The Future of Fediverse Identity
Hackers' Pub's username policy represents an interesting experiment in the fediverse—testing whether more flexible identity management can coexist with the stability needed for federation. If successful, we might see other platforms adopt similar approaches, creating a more adaptable yet still interconnected social web.
For now, users should consider this policy a compelling reason to choose Hackers' Pub as their fediverse home, especially if username flexibility matters to their online experience.
Hackers' Pub is currently in invitation-only beta. If you're interested in trying out the platform and its unique username policy, please leave your email address in the comments below. We'll add you to the allowlist, enabling you to sign up directly on the website. Note that this doesn't involve sending invitation emails—your address will simply be approved for registration when you visit the signup page.
Hackers' Pub is a community-focused platform where programmers and technology enthusiasts share knowledge and experiences. As an ActivityPub-enabled social network, it allows users to connect with others across the broader fediverse ecosystem, bringing technical discussions and insights directly to followers' feeds.
In the fediverse landscape, your username is typically set in stone once chosen. Most ActivityPub-powered platforms like Mastodon, Pleroma, and others enforce this permanence as a fundamental design principle. However, Hackers' Pub is charting a different course with a more flexible approach to digital identity.
One-Time Username Change: Freedom with Responsibility
Unlike most fediverse platforms, Hackers' Pub now allows users to change their username (the part before the @ in your Fediverse handle) exactly once during the lifetime of their account. This policy acknowledges that people grow, interests evolve, and the username that seemed perfect when you joined might not represent who you are today.
This one-time change limit strikes a careful balance—offering flexibility while maintaining the stability and reliability that's essential for a federated network.
Username Recycling: New Opportunities
When you change your username on Hackers' Pub, your previous username becomes available for other users to claim. This recycling mechanism creates new opportunities for meaningful usernames to find their most fitting owners, rather than remaining permanently locked to accounts that no longer use them.
For newcomers to the platform, this means a wider selection of desirable usernames might become available over time—something virtually unheard of in the traditional fediverse ecosystem.
Link Preservation: Maintaining Digital History
Worried about broken links after changing your username? Hackers' Pub has implemented a thoughtful solution. All permalinks containing your original username will continue to function until someone else claims that username. This approach helps preserve the web of connections and conversations that make the fediverse valuable.
This temporary preservation period gives your connections time to adjust to your new identity while preventing immediate link rot across the federation.
The Technical Foundation: ActivityPub Actor URIs
What enables Hackers' Pub to offer username changes while other fediverse platforms can't? The answer lies in how actor identities are implemented at the protocol level.
Hackers' Pub uses UUID-based actor URIs that don't contain the username. For example, a user with handle @hongminhee has an underlying ActivityPub actor URI that looks like https://hackers.pub/ap/actors/019382d3-63d7-7cf7-86e8-91e2551c306c. Since the username isn't part of this permanent identifier, it can be changed without breaking federation connections.
This contrasts sharply with platforms like Mastodon, where a user @hongminhee has an actor URI of https://mastodon.social/users/hongminhee. With the username embedded directly in the URI, changing it would break all federation connections, which is why these platforms don't allow username changes.
This architectural choice gives Hackers' Pub the technical flexibility to implement username changes while maintaining account continuity across the fediverse.
GitHub-Inspired Approach
Those familiar with GitHub might recognize this model—Hackers' Pub has adapted GitHub's username change policy for the fediverse context. This approach brings the best of both worlds: the option for identity evolution from centralized platforms and the federation benefits of the fediverse.
What This Means for Users
For Hackers' Pub users, this policy offers a significant advantage over other fediverse instances:
You can correct an unfortunate username choice
Your online identity can evolve as you do
Your content history remains intact during the transition
You maintain your social connections despite the change
The Future of Fediverse Identity
Hackers' Pub's username policy represents an interesting experiment in the fediverse—testing whether more flexible identity management can coexist with the stability needed for federation. If successful, we might see other platforms adopt similar approaches, creating a more adaptable yet still interconnected social web.
For now, users should consider this policy a compelling reason to choose Hackers' Pub as their fediverse home, especially if username flexibility matters to their online experience.
Hackers' Pub is currently in invitation-only beta. If you're interested in trying out the platform and its unique username policy, please leave your email address in the comments below. We'll add you to the allowlist, enabling you to sign up directly on the website. Note that this doesn't involve sending invitation emails—your address will simply be approved for registration when you visit the signup page.
I'm finally unveiling the #ActivityPub project that has been consuming my weekends: Encyclia, an #ORCID bridge that will make ORCID records followable and interactable on the fediverse. 🙂
It's early-stage and the ORCID following function is not publicly available yet. We're seeking community feedback on functionality and safety aspects. Read more at https://encyclia.pub or follow @encyclia for news!
I'm finally unveiling the #ActivityPub project that has been consuming my weekends: Encyclia, an #ORCID bridge that will make ORCID records followable and interactable on the fediverse. 🙂
It's early-stage and the ORCID following function is not publicly available yet. We're seeking community feedback on functionality and safety aspects. Read more at https://encyclia.pub or follow @encyclia for news!
I'm finally unveiling the #ActivityPub project that has been consuming my weekends: Encyclia, an #ORCID bridge that will make ORCID records followable and interactable on the fediverse. 🙂
It's early-stage and the ORCID following function is not publicly available yet. We're seeking community feedback on functionality and safety aspects. Read more at https://encyclia.pub or follow @encyclia for news!
I'm finally unveiling the #ActivityPub project that has been consuming my weekends: Encyclia, an #ORCID bridge that will make ORCID records followable and interactable on the fediverse. 🙂
It's early-stage and the ORCID following function is not publicly available yet. We're seeking community feedback on functionality and safety aspects. Read more at https://encyclia.pub or follow @encyclia for news!
I'm finally unveiling the #ActivityPub project that has been consuming my weekends: Encyclia, an #ORCID bridge that will make ORCID records followable and interactable on the fediverse. 🙂
It's early-stage and the ORCID following function is not publicly available yet. We're seeking community feedback on functionality and safety aspects. Read more at https://encyclia.pub or follow @encyclia for news!
I'm finally unveiling the #ActivityPub project that has been consuming my weekends: Encyclia, an #ORCID bridge that will make ORCID records followable and interactable on the fediverse. 🙂
It's early-stage and the ORCID following function is not publicly available yet. We're seeking community feedback on functionality and safety aspects. Read more at https://encyclia.pub or follow @encyclia for news!
I'm finally unveiling the #ActivityPub project that has been consuming my weekends: Encyclia, an #ORCID bridge that will make ORCID records followable and interactable on the fediverse. 🙂
It's early-stage and the ORCID following function is not publicly available yet. We're seeking community feedback on functionality and safety aspects. Read more at https://encyclia.pub or follow @encyclia for news!
I'm finally unveiling the #ActivityPub project that has been consuming my weekends: Encyclia, an #ORCID bridge that will make ORCID records followable and interactable on the fediverse. 🙂
It's early-stage and the ORCID following function is not publicly available yet. We're seeking community feedback on functionality and safety aspects. Read more at https://encyclia.pub or follow @encyclia for news!
I'm finally unveiling the #ActivityPub project that has been consuming my weekends: Encyclia, an #ORCID bridge that will make ORCID records followable and interactable on the fediverse. 🙂
It's early-stage and the ORCID following function is not publicly available yet. We're seeking community feedback on functionality and safety aspects. Read more at https://encyclia.pub or follow @encyclia for news!
I'm finally unveiling the #ActivityPub project that has been consuming my weekends: Encyclia, an #ORCID bridge that will make ORCID records followable and interactable on the fediverse. 🙂
It's early-stage and the ORCID following function is not publicly available yet. We're seeking community feedback on functionality and safety aspects. Read more at https://encyclia.pub or follow @encyclia for news!
I'm finally unveiling the #ActivityPub project that has been consuming my weekends: Encyclia, an #ORCID bridge that will make ORCID records followable and interactable on the fediverse. 🙂
It's early-stage and the ORCID following function is not publicly available yet. We're seeking community feedback on functionality and safety aspects. Read more at https://encyclia.pub or follow @encyclia for news!
I'm finally unveiling the #ActivityPub project that has been consuming my weekends: Encyclia, an #ORCID bridge that will make ORCID records followable and interactable on the fediverse. 🙂
It's early-stage and the ORCID following function is not publicly available yet. We're seeking community feedback on functionality and safety aspects. Read more at https://encyclia.pub or follow @encyclia for news!
I'm finally unveiling the #ActivityPub project that has been consuming my weekends: Encyclia, an #ORCID bridge that will make ORCID records followable and interactable on the fediverse. 🙂
It's early-stage and the ORCID following function is not publicly available yet. We're seeking community feedback on functionality and safety aspects. Read more at https://encyclia.pub or follow @encyclia for news!
I'm finally unveiling the #ActivityPub project that has been consuming my weekends: Encyclia, an #ORCID bridge that will make ORCID records followable and interactable on the fediverse. 🙂
It's early-stage and the ORCID following function is not publicly available yet. We're seeking community feedback on functionality and safety aspects. Read more at https://encyclia.pub or follow @encyclia for news!
I'm finally unveiling the #ActivityPub project that has been consuming my weekends: Encyclia, an #ORCID bridge that will make ORCID records followable and interactable on the fediverse. 🙂
It's early-stage and the ORCID following function is not publicly available yet. We're seeking community feedback on functionality and safety aspects. Read more at https://encyclia.pub or follow @encyclia for news!
most of the specifics are in the slurp docs, but if you write your own importer and think it might be of general interest to GTS users, please let us know.
most of the specifics are in the slurp docs, but if you write your own importer and think it might be of general interest to GTS users, please let us know.
most of the specifics are in the slurp docs, but if you write your own importer and think it might be of general interest to GTS users, please let us know.
most of the specifics are in the slurp docs, but if you write your own importer and think it might be of general interest to GTS users, please let us know.
I.e., a Note or Article or whatever is saying that the author is NOT an actor on the same server host (example·com), but an actor over on the server host mastodon·social.
Excited to share that Fedify CLI is now available on Scoop for #Windows users! You can easily install it with scoop install fedify. One more way to get started with #ActivityPub development!
Excited to share that Fedify CLI is now available on Scoop for #Windows users! You can easily install it with scoop install fedify. One more way to get started with #ActivityPub development!
ActivityPub outboxes are the new RSS / Atom / WebFeed.
You can just read from them to get a JSON feed of someone's posts.
I.e., you do NOT have to implement the full suite of Fediverse protocols, or Follow, or run your own server, or anything else to get someone's posts on the Fediverse — just read from their outbox.
ActivityPub outboxes are the new RSS / Atom / WebFeed.
You can just read from them to get a JSON feed of someone's posts.
I.e., you do NOT have to implement the full suite of Fediverse protocols, or Follow, or run your own server, or anything else to get someone's posts on the Fediverse — just read from their outbox.
ActivityPub outboxes are the new RSS / Atom / WebFeed.
You can just read from them to get a JSON feed of someone's posts.
I.e., you do NOT have to implement the full suite of Fediverse protocols, or Follow, or run your own server, or anything else to get someone's posts on the Fediverse — just read from their outbox.
ActivityPub outboxes are the new RSS / Atom / WebFeed.
You can just read from them to get a JSON feed of someone's posts.
I.e., you do NOT have to implement the full suite of Fediverse protocols, or Follow, or run your own server, or anything else to get someone's posts on the Fediverse — just read from their outbox.
ActivityPub outboxes are the new RSS / Atom / WebFeed.
You can just read from them to get a JSON feed of someone's posts.
I.e., you do NOT have to implement the full suite of Fediverse protocols, or Follow, or run your own server, or anything else to get someone's posts on the Fediverse — just read from their outbox.
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Hollo(@hollo)는 Fedify로 구동되는 1인 사용자용 마이크로블로깅 서버입니다. 1인 사용자를 위해 설계되었지만, ActivityPub를 통해 완전히 연합되어 연합우주 전체의 사용자들과 상호작용할 수 있습니다. Hollo는 Mastodon 호환 API를 구현하여 자체 웹 인터페이스 없이도 대부분의 Mastodon 클라이언트와 호환됩니다.
Hollo는 또한 정식 출시 전에 최신 Fedify 기능을 테스트하는 실험장으로도 활용되고 있습니다.
BotKit(@botkit)은 저희의 가장 새로운 구성원으로, ActivityPub 봇을 만들기 위해 특별히 설계된 프레임워크입니다. 전통적인 Mastodon 봇과 달리, BotKit은 플랫폼별 제한(글자 수 제한 등)에 구애받지 않는 독립적인 ActivityPub 서버를 만듭니다.
BotKit의 API는 의도적으로 단순하게 설계되어 단일 TypeScript 파일로 완전한 봇을 만들 수 있습니다!
세 프로젝트 모두 @fedify-dev GitHub 조직에서 오픈 소스로 공개되어 있습니다. 각기 다른 목적을 가지고 있지만, ActivityPub 개발을 더 접근하기 쉽게 만들고 연합우주 생태계를 확장한다는 공통된 목표를 공유합니다.
이러한 프로젝트를 사용해보거나 개발에 기여하는 데 관심이 있으시다면, 다음을 확인해보세요:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Hollo(@hollo)는 Fedify로 구동되는 1인 사용자용 마이크로블로깅 서버입니다. 1인 사용자를 위해 설계되었지만, ActivityPub를 통해 완전히 연합되어 연합우주 전체의 사용자들과 상호작용할 수 있습니다. Hollo는 Mastodon 호환 API를 구현하여 자체 웹 인터페이스 없이도 대부분의 Mastodon 클라이언트와 호환됩니다.
Hollo는 또한 정식 출시 전에 최신 Fedify 기능을 테스트하는 실험장으로도 활용되고 있습니다.
BotKit(@botkit)은 저희의 가장 새로운 구성원으로, ActivityPub 봇을 만들기 위해 특별히 설계된 프레임워크입니다. 전통적인 Mastodon 봇과 달리, BotKit은 플랫폼별 제한(글자 수 제한 등)에 구애받지 않는 독립적인 ActivityPub 서버를 만듭니다.
BotKit의 API는 의도적으로 단순하게 설계되어 단일 TypeScript 파일로 완전한 봇을 만들 수 있습니다!
세 프로젝트 모두 @fedify-dev GitHub 조직에서 오픈 소스로 공개되어 있습니다. 각기 다른 목적을 가지고 있지만, ActivityPub 개발을 더 접근하기 쉽게 만들고 연합우주 생태계를 확장한다는 공통된 목표를 공유합니다.
이러한 프로젝트를 사용해보거나 개발에 기여하는 데 관심이 있으시다면, 다음을 확인해보세요:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Hollo(@hollo)는 Fedify로 구동되는 1인 사용자용 마이크로블로깅 서버입니다. 1인 사용자를 위해 설계되었지만, ActivityPub를 통해 완전히 연합되어 연합우주 전체의 사용자들과 상호작용할 수 있습니다. Hollo는 Mastodon 호환 API를 구현하여 자체 웹 인터페이스 없이도 대부분의 Mastodon 클라이언트와 호환됩니다.
Hollo는 또한 정식 출시 전에 최신 Fedify 기능을 테스트하는 실험장으로도 활용되고 있습니다.
BotKit(@botkit)은 저희의 가장 새로운 구성원으로, ActivityPub 봇을 만들기 위해 특별히 설계된 프레임워크입니다. 전통적인 Mastodon 봇과 달리, BotKit은 플랫폼별 제한(글자 수 제한 등)에 구애받지 않는 독립적인 ActivityPub 서버를 만듭니다.
BotKit의 API는 의도적으로 단순하게 설계되어 단일 TypeScript 파일로 완전한 봇을 만들 수 있습니다!
세 프로젝트 모두 @fedify-dev GitHub 조직에서 오픈 소스로 공개되어 있습니다. 각기 다른 목적을 가지고 있지만, ActivityPub 개발을 더 접근하기 쉽게 만들고 연합우주 생태계를 확장한다는 공통된 목표를 공유합니다.
이러한 프로젝트를 사용해보거나 개발에 기여하는 데 관심이 있으시다면, 다음을 확인해보세요:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Hollo(@hollo)는 Fedify로 구동되는 1인 사용자용 마이크로블로깅 서버입니다. 1인 사용자를 위해 설계되었지만, ActivityPub를 통해 완전히 연합되어 연합우주 전체의 사용자들과 상호작용할 수 있습니다. Hollo는 Mastodon 호환 API를 구현하여 자체 웹 인터페이스 없이도 대부분의 Mastodon 클라이언트와 호환됩니다.
Hollo는 또한 정식 출시 전에 최신 Fedify 기능을 테스트하는 실험장으로도 활용되고 있습니다.
BotKit(@botkit)은 저희의 가장 새로운 구성원으로, ActivityPub 봇을 만들기 위해 특별히 설계된 프레임워크입니다. 전통적인 Mastodon 봇과 달리, BotKit은 플랫폼별 제한(글자 수 제한 등)에 구애받지 않는 독립적인 ActivityPub 서버를 만듭니다.
BotKit의 API는 의도적으로 단순하게 설계되어 단일 TypeScript 파일로 완전한 봇을 만들 수 있습니다!
세 프로젝트 모두 @fedify-dev GitHub 조직에서 오픈 소스로 공개되어 있습니다. 각기 다른 목적을 가지고 있지만, ActivityPub 개발을 더 접근하기 쉽게 만들고 연합우주 생태계를 확장한다는 공통된 목표를 공유합니다.
이러한 프로젝트를 사용해보거나 개발에 기여하는 데 관심이 있으시다면, 다음을 확인해보세요:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Hollo(@hollo)는 Fedify로 구동되는 1인 사용자용 마이크로블로깅 서버입니다. 1인 사용자를 위해 설계되었지만, ActivityPub를 통해 완전히 연합되어 연합우주 전체의 사용자들과 상호작용할 수 있습니다. Hollo는 Mastodon 호환 API를 구현하여 자체 웹 인터페이스 없이도 대부분의 Mastodon 클라이언트와 호환됩니다.
Hollo는 또한 정식 출시 전에 최신 Fedify 기능을 테스트하는 실험장으로도 활용되고 있습니다.
BotKit(@botkit)은 저희의 가장 새로운 구성원으로, ActivityPub 봇을 만들기 위해 특별히 설계된 프레임워크입니다. 전통적인 Mastodon 봇과 달리, BotKit은 플랫폼별 제한(글자 수 제한 등)에 구애받지 않는 독립적인 ActivityPub 서버를 만듭니다.
BotKit의 API는 의도적으로 단순하게 설계되어 단일 TypeScript 파일로 완전한 봇을 만들 수 있습니다!
세 프로젝트 모두 @fedify-dev GitHub 조직에서 오픈 소스로 공개되어 있습니다. 각기 다른 목적을 가지고 있지만, ActivityPub 개발을 더 접근하기 쉽게 만들고 연합우주 생태계를 확장한다는 공통된 목표를 공유합니다.
이러한 프로젝트를 사용해보거나 개발에 기여하는 데 관심이 있으시다면, 다음을 확인해보세요:
Fedify (@fedify) is a #TypeScript library for building federated server applications powered by ActivityPub and other #fediverse standards. It provides type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary, WebFinger client/server, HTTP Signatures, and more—eliminating boilerplate code so you can focus on your application logic.
Hollo (@hollo) is a single-user microblogging server powered by Fedify. While designed for individual users, it's fully federated through ActivityPub, allowing interaction with users across the fediverse. #Hollo implements Mastodon-compatible APIs, making it compatible with most Mastodon clients without needing its own web interface.
Hollo also serves as our testing ground for bleeding-edge Fedify features before they're officially released.
BotKit (@botkit) is our newest family member—a framework specifically designed for creating ActivityPub bots. Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, #BotKit creates standalone ActivityPub servers that aren't constrained by platform-specific limitations (like character counts).
BotKit's API is intentionally simple—you can create a complete bot in a single TypeScript file!
All three projects are open source and hosted under the @fedify-dev GitHub organization. While they serve different purposes, they share common goals: making ActivityPub development more accessible and expanding the fediverse ecosystem.
If you're interested in trying any of these projects or contributing to their development, check out:
Want different domains for your WebFinger handles and server URIs? Fedify 1.5.0 will let you use domains like @alice@example.com as fediverse handles while serving content from https://ap.example.com. This gives you more flexibility in how you structure your federated services.
Need to ensure consistent URLs across your infrastructure? The new canonical origin support lets you explicitly set your server's authoritative domain. This is particularly useful when running behind reverse proxies or load balancers—no more unexpected URLs generated from internal hostnames.
These features represent our ongoing commitment to making Fedify more flexible and production-ready.
Can't wait to try these features? You can experiment with them today using our unstable release v1.5.0-dev.680+562e3dc0 (JSR & npm). Keep in mind that this is an unstable release intended for testing—use it in production at your own risk.
Otherwise, stay tuned for the stable Fedify 1.5.0 release!
ALT text detailsSeparating WebFinger host from the server origin
This API is available since Fedify 1.5.0.
Sometimes you may want to use different domain names for WebFinger handles (i.e., fediverse handles) and the server origin. For example, you may want to use https://ap.example.com/actors/alice as an actor URI but want to use @alice@example.com as its fediverse handle.
In such cases, you can set the handleHost different from the webOrigin in the origin option. The handleHost is used to construct the WebFinger handles, and the webOrigin is used to construct the URLs in the Context object:
const federation = createFederation({
origin: {
handleHost: "example.com",
webOrigin: "https://ap.example.com",
},
});
NOTE
Even if you set the handleHost different from the webOrigin, the other fediverse handle with the same domain name as the webOrigin will still be recognized.
In the above example, two fediverse handles are recognized as the same:
• @alice@example.com
• @alice@ap.example.com
ALT text detailsExplicitly setting the canonical origin
This API is available since Fedify 1.5.0.
Or you can explicitly set the canonical origin of the server by passing the origin option to the createFederation() function. The origin option is either a string or a FederationOrigin object, which consists of two fields: handleHost and webOrigin.
For example, if you want to set the canonical origin to https://example.com, you can pass the string:
const federation = createFederation({
origin: "https://example.com",
});
NOTE
The origin option has to include the leading https:// or http:// scheme.
Such a configuration leads the constructed URLs using Context to use the canonical origin instead of the origin from the incoming HTTP requests, which avoids constructing unexpected URLs when a request bypasses a reverse proxy or a load balancer.
CAUTION
For example, suppose that your federated server (upstream) is accessible at the http://1.2.3.4:8000 and your load balancer (downstream) is accessible at the https://example.com and forwards the requests to the upstream server. In this case, you should set the canonical origin to https://example.com to construct the correct URLs. Otherwise, when some malicious actor directly sends a request to the upstream server, the constructed URLs will start with http://1.2.3.4:8000 instead of https://example.com, which can lead to security issues.
Want different domains for your WebFinger handles and server URIs? Fedify 1.5.0 will let you use domains like @alice@example.com as fediverse handles while serving content from https://ap.example.com. This gives you more flexibility in how you structure your federated services.
Need to ensure consistent URLs across your infrastructure? The new canonical origin support lets you explicitly set your server's authoritative domain. This is particularly useful when running behind reverse proxies or load balancers—no more unexpected URLs generated from internal hostnames.
These features represent our ongoing commitment to making Fedify more flexible and production-ready.
Can't wait to try these features? You can experiment with them today using our unstable release v1.5.0-dev.680+562e3dc0 (JSR & npm). Keep in mind that this is an unstable release intended for testing—use it in production at your own risk.
Otherwise, stay tuned for the stable Fedify 1.5.0 release!
ALT text detailsSeparating WebFinger host from the server origin
This API is available since Fedify 1.5.0.
Sometimes you may want to use different domain names for WebFinger handles (i.e., fediverse handles) and the server origin. For example, you may want to use https://ap.example.com/actors/alice as an actor URI but want to use @alice@example.com as its fediverse handle.
In such cases, you can set the handleHost different from the webOrigin in the origin option. The handleHost is used to construct the WebFinger handles, and the webOrigin is used to construct the URLs in the Context object:
const federation = createFederation({
origin: {
handleHost: "example.com",
webOrigin: "https://ap.example.com",
},
});
NOTE
Even if you set the handleHost different from the webOrigin, the other fediverse handle with the same domain name as the webOrigin will still be recognized.
In the above example, two fediverse handles are recognized as the same:
• @alice@example.com
• @alice@ap.example.com
ALT text detailsExplicitly setting the canonical origin
This API is available since Fedify 1.5.0.
Or you can explicitly set the canonical origin of the server by passing the origin option to the createFederation() function. The origin option is either a string or a FederationOrigin object, which consists of two fields: handleHost and webOrigin.
For example, if you want to set the canonical origin to https://example.com, you can pass the string:
const federation = createFederation({
origin: "https://example.com",
});
NOTE
The origin option has to include the leading https:// or http:// scheme.
Such a configuration leads the constructed URLs using Context to use the canonical origin instead of the origin from the incoming HTTP requests, which avoids constructing unexpected URLs when a request bypasses a reverse proxy or a load balancer.
CAUTION
For example, suppose that your federated server (upstream) is accessible at the http://1.2.3.4:8000 and your load balancer (downstream) is accessible at the https://example.com and forwards the requests to the upstream server. In this case, you should set the canonical origin to https://example.com to construct the correct URLs. Otherwise, when some malicious actor directly sends a request to the upstream server, the constructed URLs will start with http://1.2.3.4:8000 instead of https://example.com, which can lead to security issues.
Want different domains for your WebFinger handles and server URIs? Fedify 1.5.0 will let you use domains like @alice@example.com as fediverse handles while serving content from https://ap.example.com. This gives you more flexibility in how you structure your federated services.
Need to ensure consistent URLs across your infrastructure? The new canonical origin support lets you explicitly set your server's authoritative domain. This is particularly useful when running behind reverse proxies or load balancers—no more unexpected URLs generated from internal hostnames.
These features represent our ongoing commitment to making Fedify more flexible and production-ready.
Can't wait to try these features? You can experiment with them today using our unstable release v1.5.0-dev.680+562e3dc0 (JSR & npm). Keep in mind that this is an unstable release intended for testing—use it in production at your own risk.
Otherwise, stay tuned for the stable Fedify 1.5.0 release!
ALT text detailsSeparating WebFinger host from the server origin
This API is available since Fedify 1.5.0.
Sometimes you may want to use different domain names for WebFinger handles (i.e., fediverse handles) and the server origin. For example, you may want to use https://ap.example.com/actors/alice as an actor URI but want to use @alice@example.com as its fediverse handle.
In such cases, you can set the handleHost different from the webOrigin in the origin option. The handleHost is used to construct the WebFinger handles, and the webOrigin is used to construct the URLs in the Context object:
const federation = createFederation({
origin: {
handleHost: "example.com",
webOrigin: "https://ap.example.com",
},
});
NOTE
Even if you set the handleHost different from the webOrigin, the other fediverse handle with the same domain name as the webOrigin will still be recognized.
In the above example, two fediverse handles are recognized as the same:
• @alice@example.com
• @alice@ap.example.com
ALT text detailsExplicitly setting the canonical origin
This API is available since Fedify 1.5.0.
Or you can explicitly set the canonical origin of the server by passing the origin option to the createFederation() function. The origin option is either a string or a FederationOrigin object, which consists of two fields: handleHost and webOrigin.
For example, if you want to set the canonical origin to https://example.com, you can pass the string:
const federation = createFederation({
origin: "https://example.com",
});
NOTE
The origin option has to include the leading https:// or http:// scheme.
Such a configuration leads the constructed URLs using Context to use the canonical origin instead of the origin from the incoming HTTP requests, which avoids constructing unexpected URLs when a request bypasses a reverse proxy or a load balancer.
CAUTION
For example, suppose that your federated server (upstream) is accessible at the http://1.2.3.4:8000 and your load balancer (downstream) is accessible at the https://example.com and forwards the requests to the upstream server. In this case, you should set the canonical origin to https://example.com to construct the correct URLs. Otherwise, when some malicious actor directly sends a request to the upstream server, the constructed URLs will start with http://1.2.3.4:8000 instead of https://example.com, which can lead to security issues.
Want different domains for your WebFinger handles and server URIs? Fedify 1.5.0 will let you use domains like @alice@example.com as fediverse handles while serving content from https://ap.example.com. This gives you more flexibility in how you structure your federated services.
Need to ensure consistent URLs across your infrastructure? The new canonical origin support lets you explicitly set your server's authoritative domain. This is particularly useful when running behind reverse proxies or load balancers—no more unexpected URLs generated from internal hostnames.
These features represent our ongoing commitment to making Fedify more flexible and production-ready.
Can't wait to try these features? You can experiment with them today using our unstable release v1.5.0-dev.680+562e3dc0 (JSR & npm). Keep in mind that this is an unstable release intended for testing—use it in production at your own risk.
Otherwise, stay tuned for the stable Fedify 1.5.0 release!
ALT text detailsSeparating WebFinger host from the server origin
This API is available since Fedify 1.5.0.
Sometimes you may want to use different domain names for WebFinger handles (i.e., fediverse handles) and the server origin. For example, you may want to use https://ap.example.com/actors/alice as an actor URI but want to use @alice@example.com as its fediverse handle.
In such cases, you can set the handleHost different from the webOrigin in the origin option. The handleHost is used to construct the WebFinger handles, and the webOrigin is used to construct the URLs in the Context object:
const federation = createFederation({
origin: {
handleHost: "example.com",
webOrigin: "https://ap.example.com",
},
});
NOTE
Even if you set the handleHost different from the webOrigin, the other fediverse handle with the same domain name as the webOrigin will still be recognized.
In the above example, two fediverse handles are recognized as the same:
• @alice@example.com
• @alice@ap.example.com
ALT text detailsExplicitly setting the canonical origin
This API is available since Fedify 1.5.0.
Or you can explicitly set the canonical origin of the server by passing the origin option to the createFederation() function. The origin option is either a string or a FederationOrigin object, which consists of two fields: handleHost and webOrigin.
For example, if you want to set the canonical origin to https://example.com, you can pass the string:
const federation = createFederation({
origin: "https://example.com",
});
NOTE
The origin option has to include the leading https:// or http:// scheme.
Such a configuration leads the constructed URLs using Context to use the canonical origin instead of the origin from the incoming HTTP requests, which avoids constructing unexpected URLs when a request bypasses a reverse proxy or a load balancer.
CAUTION
For example, suppose that your federated server (upstream) is accessible at the http://1.2.3.4:8000 and your load balancer (downstream) is accessible at the https://example.com and forwards the requests to the upstream server. In this case, you should set the canonical origin to https://example.com to construct the correct URLs. Otherwise, when some malicious actor directly sends a request to the upstream server, the constructed URLs will start with http://1.2.3.4:8000 instead of https://example.com, which can lead to security issues.
Want different domains for your WebFinger handles and server URIs? Fedify 1.5.0 will let you use domains like @alice@example.com as fediverse handles while serving content from https://ap.example.com. This gives you more flexibility in how you structure your federated services.
Need to ensure consistent URLs across your infrastructure? The new canonical origin support lets you explicitly set your server's authoritative domain. This is particularly useful when running behind reverse proxies or load balancers—no more unexpected URLs generated from internal hostnames.
These features represent our ongoing commitment to making Fedify more flexible and production-ready.
Can't wait to try these features? You can experiment with them today using our unstable release v1.5.0-dev.680+562e3dc0 (JSR & npm). Keep in mind that this is an unstable release intended for testing—use it in production at your own risk.
Otherwise, stay tuned for the stable Fedify 1.5.0 release!
ALT text detailsSeparating WebFinger host from the server origin
This API is available since Fedify 1.5.0.
Sometimes you may want to use different domain names for WebFinger handles (i.e., fediverse handles) and the server origin. For example, you may want to use https://ap.example.com/actors/alice as an actor URI but want to use @alice@example.com as its fediverse handle.
In such cases, you can set the handleHost different from the webOrigin in the origin option. The handleHost is used to construct the WebFinger handles, and the webOrigin is used to construct the URLs in the Context object:
const federation = createFederation({
origin: {
handleHost: "example.com",
webOrigin: "https://ap.example.com",
},
});
NOTE
Even if you set the handleHost different from the webOrigin, the other fediverse handle with the same domain name as the webOrigin will still be recognized.
In the above example, two fediverse handles are recognized as the same:
• @alice@example.com
• @alice@ap.example.com
ALT text detailsExplicitly setting the canonical origin
This API is available since Fedify 1.5.0.
Or you can explicitly set the canonical origin of the server by passing the origin option to the createFederation() function. The origin option is either a string or a FederationOrigin object, which consists of two fields: handleHost and webOrigin.
For example, if you want to set the canonical origin to https://example.com, you can pass the string:
const federation = createFederation({
origin: "https://example.com",
});
NOTE
The origin option has to include the leading https:// or http:// scheme.
Such a configuration leads the constructed URLs using Context to use the canonical origin instead of the origin from the incoming HTTP requests, which avoids constructing unexpected URLs when a request bypasses a reverse proxy or a load balancer.
CAUTION
For example, suppose that your federated server (upstream) is accessible at the http://1.2.3.4:8000 and your load balancer (downstream) is accessible at the https://example.com and forwards the requests to the upstream server. In this case, you should set the canonical origin to https://example.com to construct the correct URLs. Otherwise, when some malicious actor directly sends a request to the upstream server, the constructed URLs will start with http://1.2.3.4:8000 instead of https://example.com, which can lead to security issues.
Want different domains for your WebFinger handles and server URIs? Fedify 1.5.0 will let you use domains like @alice@example.com as fediverse handles while serving content from https://ap.example.com. This gives you more flexibility in how you structure your federated services.
Need to ensure consistent URLs across your infrastructure? The new canonical origin support lets you explicitly set your server's authoritative domain. This is particularly useful when running behind reverse proxies or load balancers—no more unexpected URLs generated from internal hostnames.
These features represent our ongoing commitment to making Fedify more flexible and production-ready.
Can't wait to try these features? You can experiment with them today using our unstable release v1.5.0-dev.680+562e3dc0 (JSR & npm). Keep in mind that this is an unstable release intended for testing—use it in production at your own risk.
Otherwise, stay tuned for the stable Fedify 1.5.0 release!
ALT text detailsSeparating WebFinger host from the server origin
This API is available since Fedify 1.5.0.
Sometimes you may want to use different domain names for WebFinger handles (i.e., fediverse handles) and the server origin. For example, you may want to use https://ap.example.com/actors/alice as an actor URI but want to use @alice@example.com as its fediverse handle.
In such cases, you can set the handleHost different from the webOrigin in the origin option. The handleHost is used to construct the WebFinger handles, and the webOrigin is used to construct the URLs in the Context object:
const federation = createFederation({
origin: {
handleHost: "example.com",
webOrigin: "https://ap.example.com",
},
});
NOTE
Even if you set the handleHost different from the webOrigin, the other fediverse handle with the same domain name as the webOrigin will still be recognized.
In the above example, two fediverse handles are recognized as the same:
• @alice@example.com
• @alice@ap.example.com
ALT text detailsExplicitly setting the canonical origin
This API is available since Fedify 1.5.0.
Or you can explicitly set the canonical origin of the server by passing the origin option to the createFederation() function. The origin option is either a string or a FederationOrigin object, which consists of two fields: handleHost and webOrigin.
For example, if you want to set the canonical origin to https://example.com, you can pass the string:
const federation = createFederation({
origin: "https://example.com",
});
NOTE
The origin option has to include the leading https:// or http:// scheme.
Such a configuration leads the constructed URLs using Context to use the canonical origin instead of the origin from the incoming HTTP requests, which avoids constructing unexpected URLs when a request bypasses a reverse proxy or a load balancer.
CAUTION
For example, suppose that your federated server (upstream) is accessible at the http://1.2.3.4:8000 and your load balancer (downstream) is accessible at the https://example.com and forwards the requests to the upstream server. In this case, you should set the canonical origin to https://example.com to construct the correct URLs. Otherwise, when some malicious actor directly sends a request to the upstream server, the constructed URLs will start with http://1.2.3.4:8000 instead of https://example.com, which can lead to security issues.
Share this news with your favorite app developers!
GoToSocial has documented their new global and post level interaction policies. I know @Fedicat has already added these - would love to see them in other apps too.
Share this news with your favorite app developers!
GoToSocial has documented their new global and post level interaction policies. I know @Fedicat has already added these - would love to see them in other apps too.
A topical or community Fediverse Relays — ex: a Paleogenetics relay server, or an animal photography relay server, or a company focused relay server, etc —
Would be similar to the old PlanetPlanet river-of-news feed-reader blogs.
slurp can now import your pixelfed-statuses.json to a GoToSocial server and save your photos locally in the process, provided your original Pixelfed server and account are still available to provide the photos.
slurp can now import your pixelfed-statuses.json to a GoToSocial server and save your photos locally in the process, provided your original Pixelfed server and account are still available to provide the photos.
As it is now, I think the 'discoverable' flag is broken.
And, I think the whole user-experience (UX) around the 'discoverable' flag is poor.
And, I think Fediverse software treating a 'false' value for 'discoverable' as "not discoverable" (rather than "not discoverable" or "no choice made") has hugely negative consequences for the user-experience (UX) of the Fediverse
With other conceptions, this lack of choice — this lack of setting a value — isn't as muddled.
With optional-types (which are also called "option-types" and "maybe-types") when something isn't assigned a value it is represented as 'nothing' / 'none'.
In relation-databases, this is represented as 'null'.
As it is now, I think the 'discoverable' flag is broken.
And, I think the whole user-experience (UX) around the 'discoverable' flag is poor.
And, I think Fediverse software treating a 'false' value for 'discoverable' as "not discoverable" (rather than "not discoverable" or "no choice made") has hugely negative consequences for the user-experience (UX) of the Fediverse
With other conceptions, this lack of choice — this lack of setting a value — isn't as muddled.
With optional-types (which are also called "option-types" and "maybe-types") when something isn't assigned a value it is represented as 'nothing' / 'none'.
In relation-databases, this is represented as 'null'.
Is there any #fediverse apps that let you bookmark posts into folders or categories? This is something that I see a lot of people using on Instagram that is incredibly useful. Could totally be done entirely client side too if someone wanted to implement it. #fedidev
Really annoying gripe that I hope someone on the #fediverse is working on. If there is a long thread with many participants and 1 out of the many in that thread has your instance defederated, it breaks viewing the whole thread while logged in, so I have to go to another instance or a logged out view to *read* the whole thread. #fedidev
Is there any #fediverse apps that let you bookmark posts into folders or categories? This is something that I see a lot of people using on Instagram that is incredibly useful. Could totally be done entirely client side too if someone wanted to implement it. #fedidev
Really annoying gripe that I hope someone on the #fediverse is working on. If there is a long thread with many participants and 1 out of the many in that thread has your instance defederated, it breaks viewing the whole thread while logged in, so I have to go to another instance or a logged out view to *read* the whole thread. #fedidev
"we can’t ignore the composition of the Unicode Consortium’s members, directors, and officers, the people who define the everyday writing systems of all languages across the globe. They are comprised largely of white men (and a few white women) whose first language was either English or another European language" https://hci.social/@peterpur/114014097928801232#fedidev
Fedify is a #TypeScript framework that simplifies #ActivityPub implementation. Want to build a federated server without the complexity? Fedify has got you covered!
Fedify is a #TypeScript framework that simplifies #ActivityPub implementation. Want to build a federated server without the complexity? Fedify has got you covered!
Fedify is a #TypeScript framework that simplifies #ActivityPub implementation. Want to build a federated server without the complexity? Fedify has got you covered!
Fedify is a #TypeScript framework that simplifies #ActivityPub implementation. Want to build a federated server without the complexity? Fedify has got you covered!
Fedify is a #TypeScript framework that simplifies #ActivityPub implementation. Want to build a federated server without the complexity? Fedify has got you covered!
Fedify is a #TypeScript framework that simplifies #ActivityPub implementation. Want to build a federated server without the complexity? Fedify has got you covered!
Fedify is a #TypeScript framework that simplifies #ActivityPub implementation. Want to build a federated server without the complexity? Fedify has got you covered!
Fedify is a #TypeScript framework that simplifies #ActivityPub implementation. Want to build a federated server without the complexity? Fedify has got you covered!
Excited to share that Fedify CLI is now available on Scoop for #Windows users! You can easily install it with scoop install fedify. One more way to get started with #ActivityPub development!
Excited to share that Fedify CLI is now available on Scoop for #Windows users! You can easily install it with scoop install fedify. One more way to get started with #ActivityPub development!
Excited to share that Fedify CLI is now available on Scoop for #Windows users! You can easily install it with scoop install fedify. One more way to get started with #ActivityPub development!
You could create view-counts on posts, profiles, etc, using this.
Of course, there are privacy concerns with this.
And, also, what counts as a "view".
Although, I sometimes use a "Like" to indicate I viewed something. If a 'View' was something manual (such a pressing a button) that could be more semantically clean.
To me, it feels like the Activity Types should have been past-tense verbs, rather than present-tense verbs.
I.e.:
• "Accepted" rather than "Accept" • "Added" rather than "Add" • "Announced" rather than "Announce" • "Arrived" rather than "Arrive" • "Blocked" rather than "Block" • "Created" rather than "Create" • etc
To me, it feels like the Activity Types should have been past-tense verbs, rather than present-tense verbs.
I.e.:
• "Accepted" rather than "Accept" • "Added" rather than "Add" • "Announced" rather than "Announce" • "Arrived" rather than "Arrive" • "Blocked" rather than "Block" • "Created" rather than "Create" • etc
Excited to share that Fedify CLI is now available on Scoop for #Windows users! You can easily install it with scoop install fedify. One more way to get started with #ActivityPub development!
To me, it feels like the Activity Types should have been past-tense verbs, rather than present-tense verbs.
I.e.:
• "Accepted" rather than "Accept" • "Added" rather than "Add" • "Announced" rather than "Announce" • "Arrived" rather than "Arrive" • "Blocked" rather than "Block" • "Created" rather than "Create" • etc
Excited to share that Fedify CLI is now available on Scoop for #Windows users! You can easily install it with scoop install fedify. One more way to get started with #ActivityPub development!
Excited to share that Fedify CLI is now available on Scoop for #Windows users! You can easily install it with scoop install fedify. One more way to get started with #ActivityPub development!
A milestone worth celebrating—#Fedify just hit 100+ releases! From day one, we've been committed to building a robust #ActivityPub framework, and each release has brought us closer to that goal. Here's to many more releases as we continue growing the #fediverse together! #fedidev
ALT text detailsScreenshot shows release stats for Fedify: latest version 1.4.1 was released 6 minutes ago, with a green tag showing “Latest.” Total release count shows “+ 100 releases.” A green icon resembling a tag appears next to the Fedify name.
A milestone worth celebrating—#Fedify just hit 100+ releases! From day one, we've been committed to building a robust #ActivityPub framework, and each release has brought us closer to that goal. Here's to many more releases as we continue growing the #fediverse together! #fedidev
ALT text detailsScreenshot shows release stats for Fedify: latest version 1.4.1 was released 6 minutes ago, with a green tag showing “Latest.” Total release count shows “+ 100 releases.” A green icon resembling a tag appears next to the Fedify name.
This security update fixes a message visibility bug where direct/followers-only replies to bots were unintentionally forwarded to bot followers. Upgrade recommended. Download at JSR:
A milestone worth celebrating—#Fedify just hit 100+ releases! From day one, we've been committed to building a robust #ActivityPub framework, and each release has brought us closer to that goal. Here's to many more releases as we continue growing the #fediverse together! #fedidev
ALT text detailsScreenshot shows release stats for Fedify: latest version 1.4.1 was released 6 minutes ago, with a green tag showing “Latest.” Total release count shows “+ 100 releases.” A green icon resembling a tag appears next to the Fedify name.
This security update fixes a message visibility bug where direct/followers-only replies to bots were unintentionally forwarded to bot followers. Upgrade recommended. Download at JSR:
A milestone worth celebrating—#Fedify just hit 100+ releases! From day one, we've been committed to building a robust #ActivityPub framework, and each release has brought us closer to that goal. Here's to many more releases as we continue growing the #fediverse together! #fedidev
ALT text detailsScreenshot shows release stats for Fedify: latest version 1.4.1 was released 6 minutes ago, with a green tag showing “Latest.” Total release count shows “+ 100 releases.” A green icon resembling a tag appears next to the Fedify name.
A milestone worth celebrating—#Fedify just hit 100+ releases! From day one, we've been committed to building a robust #ActivityPub framework, and each release has brought us closer to that goal. Here's to many more releases as we continue growing the #fediverse together! #fedidev
ALT text detailsScreenshot shows release stats for Fedify: latest version 1.4.1 was released 6 minutes ago, with a green tag showing “Latest.” Total release count shows “+ 100 releases.” A green icon resembling a tag appears next to the Fedify name.
A milestone worth celebrating—#Fedify just hit 100+ releases! From day one, we've been committed to building a robust #ActivityPub framework, and each release has brought us closer to that goal. Here's to many more releases as we continue growing the #fediverse together! #fedidev
ALT text detailsScreenshot shows release stats for Fedify: latest version 1.4.1 was released 6 minutes ago, with a green tag showing “Latest.” Total release count shows “+ 100 releases.” A green icon resembling a tag appears next to the Fedify name.
This security update fixes a message visibility bug where direct/followers-only replies to bots were unintentionally forwarded to bot followers. Upgrade recommended. Download at JSR:
We're considering adding custom background task support to #Fedify 1.5.0.
Want to use Fedify's worker system for your own background tasks? We're exploring ways to let you register and process custom tasks alongside #ActivityPub jobs.
This security update fixes a message visibility bug where direct/followers-only replies to bots were unintentionally forwarded to bot followers. Upgrade recommended. Download at JSR:
This security update fixes a message visibility bug where direct/followers-only replies to bots were unintentionally forwarded to bot followers. Upgrade recommended. Download at JSR:
Introducing #Hollo. Hollo is an #ActivityPub-enabled single-user microblogging software. Although it's for a single user, it also supports creating and running multiple accounts for different topics.
It's headless, meaning you can use existing #Mastodon client apps instead, with its Mastodon-compatible APIs. It has most feature parity with Mastodon. Two big differences with Mastodon is that you can use #Markdown in the content of your posts and you can quote another post.
We're considering adding custom background task support to #Fedify 1.5.0.
Want to use Fedify's worker system for your own background tasks? We're exploring ways to let you register and process custom tasks alongside #ActivityPub jobs.
We're considering adding custom background task support to #Fedify 1.5.0.
Want to use Fedify's worker system for your own background tasks? We're exploring ways to let you register and process custom tasks alongside #ActivityPub jobs.
This idea is a bit premature but I have decently functioning prototype. What does the #fediverse think of federated gaming? A specific implementation is Club Penguin servers that federate user actions and messages so that separate servers can still have users render on other servers. Allows for full Mastodon integration, i.e. CP conversations show up as threads and a Mas user can respond and appear as a penguin message to CP users. Like CP is the front-end client. #clubpenguin#fedidev#gamedev
We're considering adding custom background task support to #Fedify 1.5.0.
Want to use Fedify's worker system for your own background tasks? We're exploring ways to let you register and process custom tasks alongside #ActivityPub jobs.
We're considering adding custom background task support to #Fedify 1.5.0.
Want to use Fedify's worker system for your own background tasks? We're exploring ways to let you register and process custom tasks alongside #ActivityPub jobs.
We're considering adding custom background task support to #Fedify 1.5.0.
Want to use Fedify's worker system for your own background tasks? We're exploring ways to let you register and process custom tasks alongside #ActivityPub jobs.
🎉 Announcing BotKit 0.1.0: A new framework for creating ActivityPub bots!
We're thrilled to announce the initial release of #BotKit, a #TypeScript framework that makes creating standalone #ActivityPub bots simpler than ever before. With BotKit, you can create a complete fediverse bot in just a single TypeScript file!
Key features:
🔋 Standalone bot creation—no need for a Mastodon/Misskey account
🎉 Announcing BotKit 0.1.0: A new framework for creating ActivityPub bots!
We're thrilled to announce the initial release of #BotKit, a #TypeScript framework that makes creating standalone #ActivityPub bots simpler than ever before. With BotKit, you can create a complete fediverse bot in just a single TypeScript file!
Key features:
🔋 Standalone bot creation—no need for a Mastodon/Misskey account
🎉 Announcing BotKit 0.1.0: A new framework for creating ActivityPub bots!
We're thrilled to announce the initial release of #BotKit, a #TypeScript framework that makes creating standalone #ActivityPub bots simpler than ever before. With BotKit, you can create a complete fediverse bot in just a single TypeScript file!
Key features:
🔋 Standalone bot creation—no need for a Mastodon/Misskey account
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.4.0! This release brings significant improvements to enhance compatibility and flexibility in #ActivityPub federation.
Introduced a new system to adjust outgoing activities for better compatibility with various ActivityPub implementations. This includes automatic ID assignment for activities and actor dehydration to satisfy implementation quirks (looking at you, Threads!).
WebFinger customization
Added the ability to customize WebFinger responses through the new mapAlias() API, giving you more control over how your actors are discovered.
New interaction collections
Added support for shares, likes, and emojiReactions properties to the Object class, making it easier to access and traverse these interaction collections.
More flexible document/context loader
Document loader and context loader are now configurable through factory functions, giving you more control over how your application handles JSON-LD documents.
CLI improvements
The fedify lookup command now supports two new options:
Improved error handling in collection traversal and JSON-LD processing
Added support for private network access control in WebFinger lookups
User-Agent headers now automatically include your instance URL, making it easier for other servers to identify your instance
For the complete list of changes and bugfixes, please visit our changelog.
Whether you're building a new federated application or maintaining an existing one, #Fedify 1.4.0 provides the tools you need for robust ActivityPub federation.
Supporting us
We're grateful to all our sponsors who make this project possible. Check out our new sponsors showcase page to see the amazing individuals and organizations supporting Fedify's development. If you'd like to support Fedify's development, please consider becoming a sponsor!
Upgrade now
You can install Fedify 1.4.0 from JSR or npm. Upgrade today and let us know what you think!
🎉 Announcing BotKit 0.1.0: A new framework for creating ActivityPub bots!
We're thrilled to announce the initial release of #BotKit, a #TypeScript framework that makes creating standalone #ActivityPub bots simpler than ever before. With BotKit, you can create a complete fediverse bot in just a single TypeScript file!
Key features:
🔋 Standalone bot creation—no need for a Mastodon/Misskey account
This idea is a bit premature but I have decently functioning prototype. What does the #fediverse think of federated gaming? A specific implementation is Club Penguin servers that federate user actions and messages so that separate servers can still have users render on other servers. Allows for full Mastodon integration, i.e. CP conversations show up as threads and a Mas user can respond and appear as a penguin message to CP users. Like CP is the front-end client. #clubpenguin#fedidev#gamedev
This idea is a bit premature but I have decently functioning prototype. What does the #fediverse think of federated gaming? A specific implementation is Club Penguin servers that federate user actions and messages so that separate servers can still have users render on other servers. Allows for full Mastodon integration, i.e. CP conversations show up as threads and a Mas user can respond and appear as a penguin message to CP users. Like CP is the front-end client. #clubpenguin#fedidev#gamedev
🎉 Announcing BotKit 0.1.0: A new framework for creating ActivityPub bots!
We're thrilled to announce the initial release of #BotKit, a #TypeScript framework that makes creating standalone #ActivityPub bots simpler than ever before. With BotKit, you can create a complete fediverse bot in just a single TypeScript file!
Key features:
🔋 Standalone bot creation—no need for a Mastodon/Misskey account
This idea is a bit premature but I have decently functioning prototype. What does the #fediverse think of federated gaming? A specific implementation is Club Penguin servers that federate user actions and messages so that separate servers can still have users render on other servers. Allows for full Mastodon integration, i.e. CP conversations show up as threads and a Mas user can respond and appear as a penguin message to CP users. Like CP is the front-end client. #clubpenguin#fedidev#gamedev
🎉 Announcing BotKit 0.1.0: A new framework for creating ActivityPub bots!
We're thrilled to announce the initial release of #BotKit, a #TypeScript framework that makes creating standalone #ActivityPub bots simpler than ever before. With BotKit, you can create a complete fediverse bot in just a single TypeScript file!
Key features:
🔋 Standalone bot creation—no need for a Mastodon/Misskey account
🎉 Announcing BotKit 0.1.0: A new framework for creating ActivityPub bots!
We're thrilled to announce the initial release of #BotKit, a #TypeScript framework that makes creating standalone #ActivityPub bots simpler than ever before. With BotKit, you can create a complete fediverse bot in just a single TypeScript file!
Key features:
🔋 Standalone bot creation—no need for a Mastodon/Misskey account
🎉 Announcing BotKit 0.1.0: A new framework for creating ActivityPub bots!
We're thrilled to announce the initial release of #BotKit, a #TypeScript framework that makes creating standalone #ActivityPub bots simpler than ever before. With BotKit, you can create a complete fediverse bot in just a single TypeScript file!
Key features:
🔋 Standalone bot creation—no need for a Mastodon/Misskey account
🎉 Announcing BotKit 0.1.0: A new framework for creating ActivityPub bots!
We're thrilled to announce the initial release of #BotKit, a #TypeScript framework that makes creating standalone #ActivityPub bots simpler than ever before. With BotKit, you can create a complete fediverse bot in just a single TypeScript file!
Key features:
🔋 Standalone bot creation—no need for a Mastodon/Misskey account
🎉 Announcing BotKit 0.1.0: A new framework for creating ActivityPub bots!
We're thrilled to announce the initial release of #BotKit, a #TypeScript framework that makes creating standalone #ActivityPub bots simpler than ever before. With BotKit, you can create a complete fediverse bot in just a single TypeScript file!
Key features:
🔋 Standalone bot creation—no need for a Mastodon/Misskey account
🎉 Announcing BotKit 0.1.0: A new framework for creating ActivityPub bots!
We're thrilled to announce the initial release of #BotKit, a #TypeScript framework that makes creating standalone #ActivityPub bots simpler than ever before. With BotKit, you can create a complete fediverse bot in just a single TypeScript file!
Key features:
🔋 Standalone bot creation—no need for a Mastodon/Misskey account
🎉 Announcing BotKit 0.1.0: A new framework for creating ActivityPub bots!
We're thrilled to announce the initial release of #BotKit, a #TypeScript framework that makes creating standalone #ActivityPub bots simpler than ever before. With BotKit, you can create a complete fediverse bot in just a single TypeScript file!
Key features:
🔋 Standalone bot creation—no need for a Mastodon/Misskey account
🎉 Announcing BotKit 0.1.0: A new framework for creating ActivityPub bots!
We're thrilled to announce the initial release of #BotKit, a #TypeScript framework that makes creating standalone #ActivityPub bots simpler than ever before. With BotKit, you can create a complete fediverse bot in just a single TypeScript file!
Key features:
🔋 Standalone bot creation—no need for a Mastodon/Misskey account
🎉 Announcing BotKit 0.1.0: A new framework for creating ActivityPub bots!
We're thrilled to announce the initial release of #BotKit, a #TypeScript framework that makes creating standalone #ActivityPub bots simpler than ever before. With BotKit, you can create a complete fediverse bot in just a single TypeScript file!
Key features:
🔋 Standalone bot creation—no need for a Mastodon/Misskey account
🎉 Announcing BotKit 0.1.0: A new framework for creating ActivityPub bots!
We're thrilled to announce the initial release of #BotKit, a #TypeScript framework that makes creating standalone #ActivityPub bots simpler than ever before. With BotKit, you can create a complete fediverse bot in just a single TypeScript file!
Key features:
🔋 Standalone bot creation—no need for a Mastodon/Misskey account
🎉 Announcing BotKit 0.1.0: A new framework for creating ActivityPub bots!
We're thrilled to announce the initial release of #BotKit, a #TypeScript framework that makes creating standalone #ActivityPub bots simpler than ever before. With BotKit, you can create a complete fediverse bot in just a single TypeScript file!
Key features:
🔋 Standalone bot creation—no need for a Mastodon/Misskey account
Many of the developers, moderators, and teams behind the projects that make up decentralised social media do it because they believe in what they're building. Projects which are self-funded, both in time and money then shared with you for little to no cost.
So, take some time today to say thank you to the people behind your favourite Fediverse tools and platforms. We're sure they'd appreciate it.
🎉 Announcing BotKit 0.1.0: A new framework for creating ActivityPub bots!
We're thrilled to announce the initial release of #BotKit, a #TypeScript framework that makes creating standalone #ActivityPub bots simpler than ever before. With BotKit, you can create a complete fediverse bot in just a single TypeScript file!
Key features:
🔋 Standalone bot creation—no need for a Mastodon/Misskey account
🎉 Announcing BotKit 0.1.0: A new framework for creating ActivityPub bots!
We're thrilled to announce the initial release of #BotKit, a #TypeScript framework that makes creating standalone #ActivityPub bots simpler than ever before. With BotKit, you can create a complete fediverse bot in just a single TypeScript file!
Key features:
🔋 Standalone bot creation—no need for a Mastodon/Misskey account
🎉 Announcing BotKit 0.1.0: A new framework for creating ActivityPub bots!
We're thrilled to announce the initial release of #BotKit, a #TypeScript framework that makes creating standalone #ActivityPub bots simpler than ever before. With BotKit, you can create a complete fediverse bot in just a single TypeScript file!
Key features:
🔋 Standalone bot creation—no need for a Mastodon/Misskey account
🎉 Announcing BotKit 0.1.0: A new framework for creating ActivityPub bots!
We're thrilled to announce the initial release of #BotKit, a #TypeScript framework that makes creating standalone #ActivityPub bots simpler than ever before. With BotKit, you can create a complete fediverse bot in just a single TypeScript file!
Key features:
🔋 Standalone bot creation—no need for a Mastodon/Misskey account
🎉 Announcing BotKit 0.1.0: A new framework for creating ActivityPub bots!
We're thrilled to announce the initial release of #BotKit, a #TypeScript framework that makes creating standalone #ActivityPub bots simpler than ever before. With BotKit, you can create a complete fediverse bot in just a single TypeScript file!
Key features:
🔋 Standalone bot creation—no need for a Mastodon/Misskey account
If you plan on building discovery features for Fedi, BeAware of the "Fedi Mafia" that harasses, threatens, and abuses any dev on Fedi that DARES to make an open platform a little bit more usable.🤦♂️
Over the past 2 months, I've seen 4 Fedi projects that were building tools to help people find accounts and servers to make it easier to find content on Fedi, get shut down because people who don't understand that Fedi is OPEN, harassed and threatened the devs until they shut their projects down.🤬
So, if you plan on building these tools, PLEASE just be prepared to block and continue building your tools.
Ignorant people should not dictate how this protocol is built. Don't let the abusers win.
Many of the developers, moderators, and teams behind the projects that make up decentralised social media do it because they believe in what they're building. Projects which are self-funded, both in time and money then shared with you for little to no cost.
So, take some time today to say thank you to the people behind your favourite Fediverse tools and platforms. We're sure they'd appreciate it.
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.4.0! This release brings significant improvements to enhance compatibility and flexibility in #ActivityPub federation.
Introduced a new system to adjust outgoing activities for better compatibility with various ActivityPub implementations. This includes automatic ID assignment for activities and actor dehydration to satisfy implementation quirks (looking at you, Threads!).
WebFinger customization
Added the ability to customize WebFinger responses through the new mapAlias() API, giving you more control over how your actors are discovered.
New interaction collections
Added support for shares, likes, and emojiReactions properties to the Object class, making it easier to access and traverse these interaction collections.
More flexible document/context loader
Document loader and context loader are now configurable through factory functions, giving you more control over how your application handles JSON-LD documents.
CLI improvements
The fedify lookup command now supports two new options:
Improved error handling in collection traversal and JSON-LD processing
Added support for private network access control in WebFinger lookups
User-Agent headers now automatically include your instance URL, making it easier for other servers to identify your instance
For the complete list of changes and bugfixes, please visit our changelog.
Whether you're building a new federated application or maintaining an existing one, #Fedify 1.4.0 provides the tools you need for robust ActivityPub federation.
Supporting us
We're grateful to all our sponsors who make this project possible. Check out our new sponsors showcase page to see the amazing individuals and organizations supporting Fedify's development. If you'd like to support Fedify's development, please consider becoming a sponsor!
Upgrade now
You can install Fedify 1.4.0 from JSR or npm. Upgrade today and let us know what you think!
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.4.0! This release brings significant improvements to enhance compatibility and flexibility in #ActivityPub federation.
Introduced a new system to adjust outgoing activities for better compatibility with various ActivityPub implementations. This includes automatic ID assignment for activities and actor dehydration to satisfy implementation quirks (looking at you, Threads!).
WebFinger customization
Added the ability to customize WebFinger responses through the new mapAlias() API, giving you more control over how your actors are discovered.
New interaction collections
Added support for shares, likes, and emojiReactions properties to the Object class, making it easier to access and traverse these interaction collections.
More flexible document/context loader
Document loader and context loader are now configurable through factory functions, giving you more control over how your application handles JSON-LD documents.
CLI improvements
The fedify lookup command now supports two new options:
Improved error handling in collection traversal and JSON-LD processing
Added support for private network access control in WebFinger lookups
User-Agent headers now automatically include your instance URL, making it easier for other servers to identify your instance
For the complete list of changes and bugfixes, please visit our changelog.
Whether you're building a new federated application or maintaining an existing one, #Fedify 1.4.0 provides the tools you need for robust ActivityPub federation.
Supporting us
We're grateful to all our sponsors who make this project possible. Check out our new sponsors showcase page to see the amazing individuals and organizations supporting Fedify's development. If you'd like to support Fedify's development, please consider becoming a sponsor!
Upgrade now
You can install Fedify 1.4.0 from JSR or npm. Upgrade today and let us know what you think!
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.4.0! This release brings significant improvements to enhance compatibility and flexibility in #ActivityPub federation.
Introduced a new system to adjust outgoing activities for better compatibility with various ActivityPub implementations. This includes automatic ID assignment for activities and actor dehydration to satisfy implementation quirks (looking at you, Threads!).
WebFinger customization
Added the ability to customize WebFinger responses through the new mapAlias() API, giving you more control over how your actors are discovered.
New interaction collections
Added support for shares, likes, and emojiReactions properties to the Object class, making it easier to access and traverse these interaction collections.
More flexible document/context loader
Document loader and context loader are now configurable through factory functions, giving you more control over how your application handles JSON-LD documents.
CLI improvements
The fedify lookup command now supports two new options:
Improved error handling in collection traversal and JSON-LD processing
Added support for private network access control in WebFinger lookups
User-Agent headers now automatically include your instance URL, making it easier for other servers to identify your instance
For the complete list of changes and bugfixes, please visit our changelog.
Whether you're building a new federated application or maintaining an existing one, #Fedify 1.4.0 provides the tools you need for robust ActivityPub federation.
Supporting us
We're grateful to all our sponsors who make this project possible. Check out our new sponsors showcase page to see the amazing individuals and organizations supporting Fedify's development. If you'd like to support Fedify's development, please consider becoming a sponsor!
Upgrade now
You can install Fedify 1.4.0 from JSR or npm. Upgrade today and let us know what you think!
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.4.0! This release brings significant improvements to enhance compatibility and flexibility in #ActivityPub federation.
Introduced a new system to adjust outgoing activities for better compatibility with various ActivityPub implementations. This includes automatic ID assignment for activities and actor dehydration to satisfy implementation quirks (looking at you, Threads!).
WebFinger customization
Added the ability to customize WebFinger responses through the new mapAlias() API, giving you more control over how your actors are discovered.
New interaction collections
Added support for shares, likes, and emojiReactions properties to the Object class, making it easier to access and traverse these interaction collections.
More flexible document/context loader
Document loader and context loader are now configurable through factory functions, giving you more control over how your application handles JSON-LD documents.
CLI improvements
The fedify lookup command now supports two new options:
Improved error handling in collection traversal and JSON-LD processing
Added support for private network access control in WebFinger lookups
User-Agent headers now automatically include your instance URL, making it easier for other servers to identify your instance
For the complete list of changes and bugfixes, please visit our changelog.
Whether you're building a new federated application or maintaining an existing one, #Fedify 1.4.0 provides the tools you need for robust ActivityPub federation.
Supporting us
We're grateful to all our sponsors who make this project possible. Check out our new sponsors showcase page to see the amazing individuals and organizations supporting Fedify's development. If you'd like to support Fedify's development, please consider becoming a sponsor!
Upgrade now
You can install Fedify 1.4.0 from JSR or npm. Upgrade today and let us know what you think!
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.4.0! This release brings significant improvements to enhance compatibility and flexibility in #ActivityPub federation.
Introduced a new system to adjust outgoing activities for better compatibility with various ActivityPub implementations. This includes automatic ID assignment for activities and actor dehydration to satisfy implementation quirks (looking at you, Threads!).
WebFinger customization
Added the ability to customize WebFinger responses through the new mapAlias() API, giving you more control over how your actors are discovered.
New interaction collections
Added support for shares, likes, and emojiReactions properties to the Object class, making it easier to access and traverse these interaction collections.
More flexible document/context loader
Document loader and context loader are now configurable through factory functions, giving you more control over how your application handles JSON-LD documents.
CLI improvements
The fedify lookup command now supports two new options:
Improved error handling in collection traversal and JSON-LD processing
Added support for private network access control in WebFinger lookups
User-Agent headers now automatically include your instance URL, making it easier for other servers to identify your instance
For the complete list of changes and bugfixes, please visit our changelog.
Whether you're building a new federated application or maintaining an existing one, #Fedify 1.4.0 provides the tools you need for robust ActivityPub federation.
Supporting us
We're grateful to all our sponsors who make this project possible. Check out our new sponsors showcase page to see the amazing individuals and organizations supporting Fedify's development. If you'd like to support Fedify's development, please consider becoming a sponsor!
Upgrade now
You can install Fedify 1.4.0 from JSR or npm. Upgrade today and let us know what you think!
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.4.0! This release brings significant improvements to enhance compatibility and flexibility in #ActivityPub federation.
Introduced a new system to adjust outgoing activities for better compatibility with various ActivityPub implementations. This includes automatic ID assignment for activities and actor dehydration to satisfy implementation quirks (looking at you, Threads!).
WebFinger customization
Added the ability to customize WebFinger responses through the new mapAlias() API, giving you more control over how your actors are discovered.
New interaction collections
Added support for shares, likes, and emojiReactions properties to the Object class, making it easier to access and traverse these interaction collections.
More flexible document/context loader
Document loader and context loader are now configurable through factory functions, giving you more control over how your application handles JSON-LD documents.
CLI improvements
The fedify lookup command now supports two new options:
Improved error handling in collection traversal and JSON-LD processing
Added support for private network access control in WebFinger lookups
User-Agent headers now automatically include your instance URL, making it easier for other servers to identify your instance
For the complete list of changes and bugfixes, please visit our changelog.
Whether you're building a new federated application or maintaining an existing one, #Fedify 1.4.0 provides the tools you need for robust ActivityPub federation.
Supporting us
We're grateful to all our sponsors who make this project possible. Check out our new sponsors showcase page to see the amazing individuals and organizations supporting Fedify's development. If you'd like to support Fedify's development, please consider becoming a sponsor!
Upgrade now
You can install Fedify 1.4.0 from JSR or npm. Upgrade today and let us know what you think!
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.4.0! This release brings significant improvements to enhance compatibility and flexibility in #ActivityPub federation.
Introduced a new system to adjust outgoing activities for better compatibility with various ActivityPub implementations. This includes automatic ID assignment for activities and actor dehydration to satisfy implementation quirks (looking at you, Threads!).
WebFinger customization
Added the ability to customize WebFinger responses through the new mapAlias() API, giving you more control over how your actors are discovered.
New interaction collections
Added support for shares, likes, and emojiReactions properties to the Object class, making it easier to access and traverse these interaction collections.
More flexible document/context loader
Document loader and context loader are now configurable through factory functions, giving you more control over how your application handles JSON-LD documents.
CLI improvements
The fedify lookup command now supports two new options:
Improved error handling in collection traversal and JSON-LD processing
Added support for private network access control in WebFinger lookups
User-Agent headers now automatically include your instance URL, making it easier for other servers to identify your instance
For the complete list of changes and bugfixes, please visit our changelog.
Whether you're building a new federated application or maintaining an existing one, #Fedify 1.4.0 provides the tools you need for robust ActivityPub federation.
Supporting us
We're grateful to all our sponsors who make this project possible. Check out our new sponsors showcase page to see the amazing individuals and organizations supporting Fedify's development. If you'd like to support Fedify's development, please consider becoming a sponsor!
Upgrade now
You can install Fedify 1.4.0 from JSR or npm. Upgrade today and let us know what you think!
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.4.0! This release brings significant improvements to enhance compatibility and flexibility in #ActivityPub federation.
Introduced a new system to adjust outgoing activities for better compatibility with various ActivityPub implementations. This includes automatic ID assignment for activities and actor dehydration to satisfy implementation quirks (looking at you, Threads!).
WebFinger customization
Added the ability to customize WebFinger responses through the new mapAlias() API, giving you more control over how your actors are discovered.
New interaction collections
Added support for shares, likes, and emojiReactions properties to the Object class, making it easier to access and traverse these interaction collections.
More flexible document/context loader
Document loader and context loader are now configurable through factory functions, giving you more control over how your application handles JSON-LD documents.
CLI improvements
The fedify lookup command now supports two new options:
Improved error handling in collection traversal and JSON-LD processing
Added support for private network access control in WebFinger lookups
User-Agent headers now automatically include your instance URL, making it easier for other servers to identify your instance
For the complete list of changes and bugfixes, please visit our changelog.
Whether you're building a new federated application or maintaining an existing one, #Fedify 1.4.0 provides the tools you need for robust ActivityPub federation.
Supporting us
We're grateful to all our sponsors who make this project possible. Check out our new sponsors showcase page to see the amazing individuals and organizations supporting Fedify's development. If you'd like to support Fedify's development, please consider becoming a sponsor!
Upgrade now
You can install Fedify 1.4.0 from JSR or npm. Upgrade today and let us know what you think!
We're excited to announce the release of Fedify 1.4.0! This release brings significant improvements to enhance compatibility and flexibility in #ActivityPub federation.
Introduced a new system to adjust outgoing activities for better compatibility with various ActivityPub implementations. This includes automatic ID assignment for activities and actor dehydration to satisfy implementation quirks (looking at you, Threads!).
WebFinger customization
Added the ability to customize WebFinger responses through the new mapAlias() API, giving you more control over how your actors are discovered.
New interaction collections
Added support for shares, likes, and emojiReactions properties to the Object class, making it easier to access and traverse these interaction collections.
More flexible document/context loader
Document loader and context loader are now configurable through factory functions, giving you more control over how your application handles JSON-LD documents.
CLI improvements
The fedify lookup command now supports two new options:
Improved error handling in collection traversal and JSON-LD processing
Added support for private network access control in WebFinger lookups
User-Agent headers now automatically include your instance URL, making it easier for other servers to identify your instance
For the complete list of changes and bugfixes, please visit our changelog.
Whether you're building a new federated application or maintaining an existing one, #Fedify 1.4.0 provides the tools you need for robust ActivityPub federation.
Supporting us
We're grateful to all our sponsors who make this project possible. Check out our new sponsors showcase page to see the amazing individuals and organizations supporting Fedify's development. If you'd like to support Fedify's development, please consider becoming a sponsor!
Upgrade now
You can install Fedify 1.4.0 from JSR or npm. Upgrade today and let us know what you think!
ALT text detailsFedify's Open Collective page showing the project logo, description as “A TypeScript library for building federated server apps powered by ActivityPub and other standards”, and five contribution tiers starting from $5/month Backer to $500/month Corporate Sponsor, with custom contribution options available.
ALT text detailsFedify's Open Collective page showing the project logo, description as “A TypeScript library for building federated server apps powered by ActivityPub and other standards”, and five contribution tiers starting from $5/month Backer to $500/month Corporate Sponsor, with custom contribution options available.
ALT text detailsFedify's Open Collective page showing the project logo, description as “A TypeScript library for building federated server apps powered by ActivityPub and other standards”, and five contribution tiers starting from $5/month Backer to $500/month Corporate Sponsor, with custom contribution options available.
ALT text detailsFedify's Open Collective page showing the project logo, description as “A TypeScript library for building federated server apps powered by ActivityPub and other standards”, and five contribution tiers starting from $5/month Backer to $500/month Corporate Sponsor, with custom contribution options available.
ALT text detailsFedify's Open Collective page showing the project logo, description as “A TypeScript library for building federated server apps powered by ActivityPub and other standards”, and five contribution tiers starting from $5/month Backer to $500/month Corporate Sponsor, with custom contribution options available.
ALT text detailsFedify's Open Collective page showing the project logo, description as “A TypeScript library for building federated server apps powered by ActivityPub and other standards”, and five contribution tiers starting from $5/month Backer to $500/month Corporate Sponsor, with custom contribution options available.
ALT text detailsFedify's Open Collective page showing the project logo, description as “A TypeScript library for building federated server apps powered by ActivityPub and other standards”, and five contribution tiers starting from $5/month Backer to $500/month Corporate Sponsor, with custom contribution options available.
You can now add searchable hashtags to your bot's posts using either our dedicated hashtag() function or through BotKit's extended Markdown syntax. This makes your bot's content more discoverable across the fediverse and helps engage with broader conversations.
Whether you're building a news bot, content curator, or community engagement tool, hashtags can help your bot reach the right audience.
Check out our docs to learn more about implementing hashtags in your bots!
ALT text detailsDocumentation showing BotKit's hashtag() function usage. It demonstrates how to use the hashtag() function in template literals and explains that the function automatically adds the “#” prefix if missing. The note section explains that hashtags are made discoverable for ActivityPub software.
ALT text detailsDocumentation showing BotKit's Markdown hashtag syntax. It demonstrates how to use hashtags in markdown() function with examples and explains that the function denotes hashtags for ActivityPub discoverability. It also shows how to disable hashtag syntax using the hashtags: false option.
You can now add searchable hashtags to your bot's posts using either our dedicated hashtag() function or through BotKit's extended Markdown syntax. This makes your bot's content more discoverable across the fediverse and helps engage with broader conversations.
Whether you're building a news bot, content curator, or community engagement tool, hashtags can help your bot reach the right audience.
Check out our docs to learn more about implementing hashtags in your bots!
ALT text detailsDocumentation showing BotKit's hashtag() function usage. It demonstrates how to use the hashtag() function in template literals and explains that the function automatically adds the “#” prefix if missing. The note section explains that hashtags are made discoverable for ActivityPub software.
ALT text detailsDocumentation showing BotKit's Markdown hashtag syntax. It demonstrates how to use hashtags in markdown() function with examples and explains that the function denotes hashtags for ActivityPub discoverability. It also shows how to disable hashtag syntax using the hashtags: false option.
You can now add searchable hashtags to your bot's posts using either our dedicated hashtag() function or through BotKit's extended Markdown syntax. This makes your bot's content more discoverable across the fediverse and helps engage with broader conversations.
Whether you're building a news bot, content curator, or community engagement tool, hashtags can help your bot reach the right audience.
Check out our docs to learn more about implementing hashtags in your bots!
ALT text detailsDocumentation showing BotKit's hashtag() function usage. It demonstrates how to use the hashtag() function in template literals and explains that the function automatically adds the “#” prefix if missing. The note section explains that hashtags are made discoverable for ActivityPub software.
ALT text detailsDocumentation showing BotKit's Markdown hashtag syntax. It demonstrates how to use hashtags in markdown() function with examples and explains that the function denotes hashtags for ActivityPub discoverability. It also shows how to disable hashtag syntax using the hashtags: false option.
You can now add searchable hashtags to your bot's posts using either our dedicated hashtag() function or through BotKit's extended Markdown syntax. This makes your bot's content more discoverable across the fediverse and helps engage with broader conversations.
Whether you're building a news bot, content curator, or community engagement tool, hashtags can help your bot reach the right audience.
Check out our docs to learn more about implementing hashtags in your bots!
ALT text detailsDocumentation showing BotKit's hashtag() function usage. It demonstrates how to use the hashtag() function in template literals and explains that the function automatically adds the “#” prefix if missing. The note section explains that hashtags are made discoverable for ActivityPub software.
ALT text detailsDocumentation showing BotKit's Markdown hashtag syntax. It demonstrates how to use hashtags in markdown() function with examples and explains that the function denotes hashtags for ActivityPub discoverability. It also shows how to disable hashtag syntax using the hashtags: false option.
You can now add searchable hashtags to your bot's posts using either our dedicated hashtag() function or through BotKit's extended Markdown syntax. This makes your bot's content more discoverable across the fediverse and helps engage with broader conversations.
Whether you're building a news bot, content curator, or community engagement tool, hashtags can help your bot reach the right audience.
Check out our docs to learn more about implementing hashtags in your bots!
ALT text detailsDocumentation showing BotKit's hashtag() function usage. It demonstrates how to use the hashtag() function in template literals and explains that the function automatically adds the “#” prefix if missing. The note section explains that hashtags are made discoverable for ActivityPub software.
ALT text detailsDocumentation showing BotKit's Markdown hashtag syntax. It demonstrates how to use hashtags in markdown() function with examples and explains that the function denotes hashtags for ActivityPub discoverability. It also shows how to disable hashtag syntax using the hashtags: false option.
ALT text detailsFedify's Open Collective page showing the project logo, description as “A TypeScript library for building federated server apps powered by ActivityPub and other standards”, and five contribution tiers starting from $5/month Backer to $500/month Corporate Sponsor, with custom contribution options available.
ALT text detailsFedify's Open Collective page showing the project logo, description as “A TypeScript library for building federated server apps powered by ActivityPub and other standards”, and five contribution tiers starting from $5/month Backer to $500/month Corporate Sponsor, with custom contribution options available.
ALT text detailsFedify's Open Collective page showing the project logo, description as “A TypeScript library for building federated server apps powered by ActivityPub and other standards”, and five contribution tiers starting from $5/month Backer to $500/month Corporate Sponsor, with custom contribution options available.
ALT text detailsFedify's Open Collective page showing the project logo, description as “A TypeScript library for building federated server apps powered by ActivityPub and other standards”, and five contribution tiers starting from $5/month Backer to $500/month Corporate Sponsor, with custom contribution options available.
ALT text detailsFedify's Open Collective page showing the project logo, description as “A TypeScript library for building federated server apps powered by ActivityPub and other standards”, and five contribution tiers starting from $5/month Backer to $500/month Corporate Sponsor, with custom contribution options available.
ALT text detailsFedify's Open Collective page showing the project logo, description as “A TypeScript library for building federated server apps powered by ActivityPub and other standards”, and five contribution tiers starting from $5/month Backer to $500/month Corporate Sponsor, with custom contribution options available.
All repositories have been transferred and GitHub's automatic redirects are in place, so existing links will continue to work. Also, the project's core functionality and development process remain unchanged.
Thanks to everyone who participated in our naming poll. Looking forward to Fedify's continued growth under its new organizational home!
All repositories have been transferred and GitHub's automatic redirects are in place, so existing links will continue to work. Also, the project's core functionality and development process remain unchanged.
Thanks to everyone who participated in our naming poll. Looking forward to Fedify's continued growth under its new organizational home!
All repositories have been transferred and GitHub's automatic redirects are in place, so existing links will continue to work. Also, the project's core functionality and development process remain unchanged.
Thanks to everyone who participated in our naming poll. Looking forward to Fedify's continued growth under its new organizational home!
All repositories have been transferred and GitHub's automatic redirects are in place, so existing links will continue to work. Also, the project's core functionality and development process remain unchanged.
Thanks to everyone who participated in our naming poll. Looking forward to Fedify's continued growth under its new organizational home!
All repositories have been transferred and GitHub's automatic redirects are in place, so existing links will continue to work. Also, the project's core functionality and development process remain unchanged.
Thanks to everyone who participated in our naming poll. Looking forward to Fedify's continued growth under its new organizational home!
All repositories have been transferred and GitHub's automatic redirects are in place, so existing links will continue to work. Also, the project's core functionality and development process remain unchanged.
Thanks to everyone who participated in our naming poll. Looking forward to Fedify's continued growth under its new organizational home!
#BotKit's web interface now supports theme customization! 🎨 You can set your preferred color theme using the pages.color option in createBot(). Here are some examples showing the same interface in different colors: "violet", "pumpkin", "azure", and "green" (default).
const bot = createBot<void>({
// ... other options
pages: {
color: "violet" // or "pumpkin", "azure", etc.
}
});
We support all color themes from Pico CSS—including "amber", "fuchsia", "indigo", "jade", "lime", "pink", "sand", "slate", "yellow", "zinc", and more! Check out Pico CSS's Colors docs for the full list of available themes.
ALT text detailsBotKit web interface in pumpkin theme, displaying Greet Bot's profile. Headers and interactive elements are styled in warm orange tones.
ALT text detailsDefault green-themed BotKit interface displaying Greet Bot's profile. UI elements are styled in forest green colors, showing the default color scheme.
ALT text detailsBotKit web interface in violet theme, showing Greet Bot's profile with greeting message. The interface elements including headings and links are colored in shades of purple.
ALT text detailsBotKit web interface themed in azure blue, showing Greet Bot's profile and activity. Navigation elements and links feature various shades of blue.
The @Mastodon team will be at the upcoming annual free and open source event #FOSSDEM in Brussels this upcoming weekend to talk about their (opt-in!) Fediverse Discovery Providers project:
The @Mastodon team will be at the upcoming annual free and open source event #FOSSDEM in Brussels this upcoming weekend to talk about their (opt-in!) Fediverse Discovery Providers project:
#BotKit's web interface now supports theme customization! 🎨 You can set your preferred color theme using the pages.color option in createBot(). Here are some examples showing the same interface in different colors: "violet", "pumpkin", "azure", and "green" (default).
const bot = createBot<void>({
// ... other options
pages: {
color: "violet" // or "pumpkin", "azure", etc.
}
});
We support all color themes from Pico CSS—including "amber", "fuchsia", "indigo", "jade", "lime", "pink", "sand", "slate", "yellow", "zinc", and more! Check out Pico CSS's Colors docs for the full list of available themes.
ALT text detailsBotKit web interface in pumpkin theme, displaying Greet Bot's profile. Headers and interactive elements are styled in warm orange tones.
ALT text detailsDefault green-themed BotKit interface displaying Greet Bot's profile. UI elements are styled in forest green colors, showing the default color scheme.
ALT text detailsBotKit web interface in violet theme, showing Greet Bot's profile with greeting message. The interface elements including headings and links are colored in shades of purple.
ALT text detailsBotKit web interface themed in azure blue, showing Greet Bot's profile and activity. Navigation elements and links feature various shades of blue.
#BotKit's web interface now supports theme customization! 🎨 You can set your preferred color theme using the pages.color option in createBot(). Here are some examples showing the same interface in different colors: "violet", "pumpkin", "azure", and "green" (default).
const bot = createBot<void>({
// ... other options
pages: {
color: "violet" // or "pumpkin", "azure", etc.
}
});
We support all color themes from Pico CSS—including "amber", "fuchsia", "indigo", "jade", "lime", "pink", "sand", "slate", "yellow", "zinc", and more! Check out Pico CSS's Colors docs for the full list of available themes.
ALT text detailsBotKit web interface in pumpkin theme, displaying Greet Bot's profile. Headers and interactive elements are styled in warm orange tones.
ALT text detailsDefault green-themed BotKit interface displaying Greet Bot's profile. UI elements are styled in forest green colors, showing the default color scheme.
ALT text detailsBotKit web interface in violet theme, showing Greet Bot's profile with greeting message. The interface elements including headings and links are colored in shades of purple.
ALT text detailsBotKit web interface themed in azure blue, showing Greet Bot's profile and activity. Navigation elements and links feature various shades of blue.
#BotKit's web interface now supports theme customization! 🎨 You can set your preferred color theme using the pages.color option in createBot(). Here are some examples showing the same interface in different colors: "violet", "pumpkin", "azure", and "green" (default).
const bot = createBot<void>({
// ... other options
pages: {
color: "violet" // or "pumpkin", "azure", etc.
}
});
We support all color themes from Pico CSS—including "amber", "fuchsia", "indigo", "jade", "lime", "pink", "sand", "slate", "yellow", "zinc", and more! Check out Pico CSS's Colors docs for the full list of available themes.
ALT text detailsBotKit web interface in pumpkin theme, displaying Greet Bot's profile. Headers and interactive elements are styled in warm orange tones.
ALT text detailsDefault green-themed BotKit interface displaying Greet Bot's profile. UI elements are styled in forest green colors, showing the default color scheme.
ALT text detailsBotKit web interface in violet theme, showing Greet Bot's profile with greeting message. The interface elements including headings and links are colored in shades of purple.
ALT text detailsBotKit web interface themed in azure blue, showing Greet Bot's profile and activity. Navigation elements and links feature various shades of blue.
I'm looking for your opinions from the developers of the fediverse.
A common HTML web page can contain related links via the <link> tag. I would like to do the same for Activity Streams objects, for example:
{
"@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams",
"id": "https://writings.hongminhee.org/ap/2024/12/a-year-with-the-fediverse.json",
"type": "Article",
"name": "A year with the fediverse",
"content": "2024 was truly a year where I was deeply immersed in the fediverse. …",
"url": "https://writings.hongminhee.org/2024/12/a-year-with-the-fediverse/",
"attachment": [
{
"type": "Link",
"rel": "alternate",
"hreflang": "ko",
"href": "https://writings.hongminhee.org/2024/12/a-year-with-the-fediverse/index.ko-hang-kr.html",
"mediaType": "text/html"
},
{
"type": "Link",
"rel": "alternate",
"hreflang": "ja",
"href": "https://writings.hongminhee.org/2024/12/a-year-with-the-fediverse/index.ja.html",
"mediaType": "text/html"
}
]
}
Do you think this makes sense, and would it be appropriate to put Link objects in the attachment?
Exciting update on #BotKit: we've introduced a new Repository abstraction layer that provides cleaner data access. While previously data operations went directly through KvStore, they now go through Repository—improving separation of concerns and making the codebase more maintainable. Don't worry though—there are no breaking changes to the public API that BotKit users rely on!
Exciting update on #BotKit: we've introduced a new Repository abstraction layer that provides cleaner data access. While previously data operations went directly through KvStore, they now go through Repository—improving separation of concerns and making the codebase more maintainable. Don't worry though—there are no breaking changes to the public API that BotKit users rely on!
Exciting update on #BotKit: we've introduced a new Repository abstraction layer that provides cleaner data access. While previously data operations went directly through KvStore, they now go through Repository—improving separation of concerns and making the codebase more maintainable. Don't worry though—there are no breaking changes to the public API that BotKit users rely on!
Exciting update on #BotKit: we've introduced a new Repository abstraction layer that provides cleaner data access. While previously data operations went directly through KvStore, they now go through Repository—improving separation of concerns and making the codebase more maintainable. Don't worry though—there are no breaking changes to the public API that BotKit users rely on!
I'm looking for your opinions from the developers of the fediverse.
A common HTML web page can contain related links via the <link> tag. I would like to do the same for Activity Streams objects, for example:
{
"@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams",
"id": "https://writings.hongminhee.org/ap/2024/12/a-year-with-the-fediverse.json",
"type": "Article",
"name": "A year with the fediverse",
"content": "2024 was truly a year where I was deeply immersed in the fediverse. …",
"url": "https://writings.hongminhee.org/2024/12/a-year-with-the-fediverse/",
"attachment": [
{
"type": "Link",
"rel": "alternate",
"hreflang": "ko",
"href": "https://writings.hongminhee.org/2024/12/a-year-with-the-fediverse/index.ko-hang-kr.html",
"mediaType": "text/html"
},
{
"type": "Link",
"rel": "alternate",
"hreflang": "ja",
"href": "https://writings.hongminhee.org/2024/12/a-year-with-the-fediverse/index.ja.html",
"mediaType": "text/html"
}
]
}
Do you think this makes sense, and would it be appropriate to put Link objects in the attachment?
I mostly use Phanpy these days but I periodically go back and use @elk. The other day was one of those days. While I was browsing @mjtsai's profile I noticed that Elk supported the new fediverse:creator OG tag but for some reason it was quite borked when viewed from this profile. So I filed an issue in the Elk repo and forgot about it. Today I noticed that @shuuji3 already fixed it and now these badges look great! #fedidev#fediverse
ALT text detailsa screenshot of a blog post on linked in a Mastodon post loaded in Elk with an OpenGraph tag featuring a fediverse:creator badge
I mostly use Phanpy these days but I periodically go back and use @elk. The other day was one of those days. While I was browsing @mjtsai's profile I noticed that Elk supported the new fediverse:creator OG tag but for some reason it was quite borked when viewed from this profile. So I filed an issue in the Elk repo and forgot about it. Today I noticed that @shuuji3 already fixed it and now these badges look great! #fedidev#fediverse
ALT text detailsa screenshot of a blog post on linked in a Mastodon post loaded in Elk with an OpenGraph tag featuring a fediverse:creator badge
A YunoHost type project, but specific to fediverse platforms. Definitely one I’m going to follow more closely.
Fedi Developers take note, there are some grants available to implement your fedi services as packages here!
“The Fediversity Project enables easy hosting for a wide variety of fediverse platforms, all based on NixOS. At the start, the project will support Mastodon, PixelFed,PeerTube...”
Introducing #Hollo. Hollo is an #ActivityPub-enabled single-user microblogging software. Although it's for a single user, it also supports creating and running multiple accounts for different topics.
It's headless, meaning you can use existing #Mastodon client apps instead, with its Mastodon-compatible APIs. It has most feature parity with Mastodon. Two big differences with Mastodon is that you can use #Markdown in the content of your posts and you can quote another post.
Introducing #Hollo. Hollo is an #ActivityPub-enabled single-user microblogging software. Although it's for a single user, it also supports creating and running multiple accounts for different topics.
It's headless, meaning you can use existing #Mastodon client apps instead, with its Mastodon-compatible APIs. It has most feature parity with Mastodon. Two big differences with Mastodon is that you can use #Markdown in the content of your posts and you can quote another post.
If ActivityPub and ActivityStreams used acct-URI rather than HTTP-URL to identify users, then there would less problems with switching between different Fediverse software.
(Different Fediverse software represent users with different style HTTP-URLs — which creates the problem.)
The last "big" code thing I need to get done before the alpha test of my current @fedify project is the task queue - make sure routine data updates happen, consider individual importance and urgency, respect external API rate limits, etc.
But that's super intimidating so I'm currently procrastinating by making it a cute lil home page instead. 🙃
The last "big" code thing I need to get done before the alpha test of my current @fedify project is the task queue - make sure routine data updates happen, consider individual importance and urgency, respect external API rate limits, etc.
But that's super intimidating so I'm currently procrastinating by making it a cute lil home page instead. 🙃
The last "big" code thing I need to get done before the alpha test of my current @fedify project is the task queue - make sure routine data updates happen, consider individual importance and urgency, respect external API rate limits, etc.
But that's super intimidating so I'm currently procrastinating by making it a cute lil home page instead. 🙃
The last "big" code thing I need to get done before the alpha test of my current @fedify project is the task queue - make sure routine data updates happen, consider individual importance and urgency, respect external API rate limits, etc.
But that's super intimidating so I'm currently procrastinating by making it a cute lil home page instead. 🙃
The last "big" code thing I need to get done before the alpha test of my current @fedify project is the task queue - make sure routine data updates happen, consider individual importance and urgency, respect external API rate limits, etc.
But that's super intimidating so I'm currently procrastinating by making it a cute lil home page instead. 🙃
Pretty neat. I've now seen three examples of fediverse bots that run as independent fediverse servers, rather than using some platform's (most commonly Mastodon's) API.
The list of Fediverse instances over at https://nodes.fediverse.party/ hasn't been updated for about three months, and nobody contacted me about it. Is anyone even using the service?
The list of Fediverse instances over at https://nodes.fediverse.party/ hasn't been updated for about three months, and nobody contacted me about it. Is anyone even using the service?
Pretty neat. I've now seen three examples of fediverse bots that run as independent fediverse servers, rather than using some platform's (most commonly Mastodon's) API.
I'm currently brainstorming a framework for creating fediverse bots called #BotKit, based on #Fedify. It's less flexible than Fedify, but the goal is to make it possible to create simple fediverse bots with much less code. What do you think?
ALT text detailsimport { createBot, mention, text } from "@fedify/botkit";
import { RedisKvStore } from "@fedify/redis";
import { Redis } from "ioredis";
// Create a bot instance:
const bot = createBot({
// The bot will have fediverse handle "@greetbot@mydomain":
username: "greetbot",
// Set the profile icon (avatar):
icon: new URL("https://mydomain/icon.png"),
// Set the bio:
bio: text`Hi, there! I'm a simple fediverse bot created by ${
mention("@hongminhee@hollo.social").}`,
// Use Redis as a key-value store:
kv: new RedisKvStore(new Redis()),
// Use Redis as a message queue:
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(() => new Redis()),
});
// A bot can respond to a mention:
bot.on(/hi|hello|what'?s\s+up/i, (ctx) => {
return ctx.reply(text`Hi, ${ctx.actor}!`);
});
// Or, a bot also can actively publish a post:
setInterval(async () => {
await bot.publish(text`Hi, forks! It's an hourly greeting.`);
}, 1000 * 60 * 60);
export default bot;
I'm currently brainstorming a framework for creating fediverse bots called #BotKit, based on #Fedify. It's less flexible than Fedify, but the goal is to make it possible to create simple fediverse bots with much less code. What do you think?
ALT text detailsimport { createBot, mention, text } from "@fedify/botkit";
import { RedisKvStore } from "@fedify/redis";
import { Redis } from "ioredis";
// Create a bot instance:
const bot = createBot({
// The bot will have fediverse handle "@greetbot@mydomain":
username: "greetbot",
// Set the profile icon (avatar):
icon: new URL("https://mydomain/icon.png"),
// Set the bio:
bio: text`Hi, there! I'm a simple fediverse bot created by ${
mention("@hongminhee@hollo.social").}`,
// Use Redis as a key-value store:
kv: new RedisKvStore(new Redis()),
// Use Redis as a message queue:
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(() => new Redis()),
});
// A bot can respond to a mention:
bot.on(/hi|hello|what'?s\s+up/i, (ctx) => {
return ctx.reply(text`Hi, ${ctx.actor}!`);
});
// Or, a bot also can actively publish a post:
setInterval(async () => {
await bot.publish(text`Hi, forks! It's an hourly greeting.`);
}, 1000 * 60 * 60);
export default bot;
I'm currently brainstorming a framework for creating fediverse bots called #BotKit, based on #Fedify. It's less flexible than Fedify, but the goal is to make it possible to create simple fediverse bots with much less code. What do you think?
ALT text detailsimport { createBot, mention, text } from "@fedify/botkit";
import { RedisKvStore } from "@fedify/redis";
import { Redis } from "ioredis";
// Create a bot instance:
const bot = createBot({
// The bot will have fediverse handle "@greetbot@mydomain":
username: "greetbot",
// Set the profile icon (avatar):
icon: new URL("https://mydomain/icon.png"),
// Set the bio:
bio: text`Hi, there! I'm a simple fediverse bot created by ${
mention("@hongminhee@hollo.social").}`,
// Use Redis as a key-value store:
kv: new RedisKvStore(new Redis()),
// Use Redis as a message queue:
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(() => new Redis()),
});
// A bot can respond to a mention:
bot.on(/hi|hello|what'?s\s+up/i, (ctx) => {
return ctx.reply(text`Hi, ${ctx.actor}!`);
});
// Or, a bot also can actively publish a post:
setInterval(async () => {
await bot.publish(text`Hi, forks! It's an hourly greeting.`);
}, 1000 * 60 * 60);
export default bot;
I'm currently brainstorming a framework for creating fediverse bots called #BotKit, based on #Fedify. It's less flexible than Fedify, but the goal is to make it possible to create simple fediverse bots with much less code. What do you think?
ALT text detailsimport { createBot, mention, text } from "@fedify/botkit";
import { RedisKvStore } from "@fedify/redis";
import { Redis } from "ioredis";
// Create a bot instance:
const bot = createBot({
// The bot will have fediverse handle "@greetbot@mydomain":
username: "greetbot",
// Set the profile icon (avatar):
icon: new URL("https://mydomain/icon.png"),
// Set the bio:
bio: text`Hi, there! I'm a simple fediverse bot created by ${
mention("@hongminhee@hollo.social").}`,
// Use Redis as a key-value store:
kv: new RedisKvStore(new Redis()),
// Use Redis as a message queue:
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(() => new Redis()),
});
// A bot can respond to a mention:
bot.on(/hi|hello|what'?s\s+up/i, (ctx) => {
return ctx.reply(text`Hi, ${ctx.actor}!`);
});
// Or, a bot also can actively publish a post:
setInterval(async () => {
await bot.publish(text`Hi, forks! It's an hourly greeting.`);
}, 1000 * 60 * 60);
export default bot;
I'm currently brainstorming a framework for creating fediverse bots called #BotKit, based on #Fedify. It's less flexible than Fedify, but the goal is to make it possible to create simple fediverse bots with much less code. What do you think?
ALT text detailsimport { createBot, mention, text } from "@fedify/botkit";
import { RedisKvStore } from "@fedify/redis";
import { Redis } from "ioredis";
// Create a bot instance:
const bot = createBot({
// The bot will have fediverse handle "@greetbot@mydomain":
username: "greetbot",
// Set the profile icon (avatar):
icon: new URL("https://mydomain/icon.png"),
// Set the bio:
bio: text`Hi, there! I'm a simple fediverse bot created by ${
mention("@hongminhee@hollo.social").}`,
// Use Redis as a key-value store:
kv: new RedisKvStore(new Redis()),
// Use Redis as a message queue:
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(() => new Redis()),
});
// A bot can respond to a mention:
bot.on(/hi|hello|what'?s\s+up/i, (ctx) => {
return ctx.reply(text`Hi, ${ctx.actor}!`);
});
// Or, a bot also can actively publish a post:
setInterval(async () => {
await bot.publish(text`Hi, forks! It's an hourly greeting.`);
}, 1000 * 60 * 60);
export default bot;
I'm currently brainstorming a framework for creating fediverse bots called #BotKit, based on #Fedify. It's less flexible than Fedify, but the goal is to make it possible to create simple fediverse bots with much less code. What do you think?
ALT text detailsimport { createBot, mention, text } from "@fedify/botkit";
import { RedisKvStore } from "@fedify/redis";
import { Redis } from "ioredis";
// Create a bot instance:
const bot = createBot({
// The bot will have fediverse handle "@greetbot@mydomain":
username: "greetbot",
// Set the profile icon (avatar):
icon: new URL("https://mydomain/icon.png"),
// Set the bio:
bio: text`Hi, there! I'm a simple fediverse bot created by ${
mention("@hongminhee@hollo.social").}`,
// Use Redis as a key-value store:
kv: new RedisKvStore(new Redis()),
// Use Redis as a message queue:
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(() => new Redis()),
});
// A bot can respond to a mention:
bot.on(/hi|hello|what'?s\s+up/i, (ctx) => {
return ctx.reply(text`Hi, ${ctx.actor}!`);
});
// Or, a bot also can actively publish a post:
setInterval(async () => {
await bot.publish(text`Hi, forks! It's an hourly greeting.`);
}, 1000 * 60 * 60);
export default bot;
I'm currently brainstorming a framework for creating fediverse bots called #BotKit, based on #Fedify. It's less flexible than Fedify, but the goal is to make it possible to create simple fediverse bots with much less code. What do you think?
ALT text detailsimport { createBot, mention, text } from "@fedify/botkit";
import { RedisKvStore } from "@fedify/redis";
import { Redis } from "ioredis";
// Create a bot instance:
const bot = createBot({
// The bot will have fediverse handle "@greetbot@mydomain":
username: "greetbot",
// Set the profile icon (avatar):
icon: new URL("https://mydomain/icon.png"),
// Set the bio:
bio: text`Hi, there! I'm a simple fediverse bot created by ${
mention("@hongminhee@hollo.social").}`,
// Use Redis as a key-value store:
kv: new RedisKvStore(new Redis()),
// Use Redis as a message queue:
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(() => new Redis()),
});
// A bot can respond to a mention:
bot.on(/hi|hello|what'?s\s+up/i, (ctx) => {
return ctx.reply(text`Hi, ${ctx.actor}!`);
});
// Or, a bot also can actively publish a post:
setInterval(async () => {
await bot.publish(text`Hi, forks! It's an hourly greeting.`);
}, 1000 * 60 * 60);
export default bot;
I'm currently brainstorming a framework for creating fediverse bots called #BotKit, based on #Fedify. It's less flexible than Fedify, but the goal is to make it possible to create simple fediverse bots with much less code. What do you think?
ALT text detailsimport { createBot, mention, text } from "@fedify/botkit";
import { RedisKvStore } from "@fedify/redis";
import { Redis } from "ioredis";
// Create a bot instance:
const bot = createBot({
// The bot will have fediverse handle "@greetbot@mydomain":
username: "greetbot",
// Set the profile icon (avatar):
icon: new URL("https://mydomain/icon.png"),
// Set the bio:
bio: text`Hi, there! I'm a simple fediverse bot created by ${
mention("@hongminhee@hollo.social").}`,
// Use Redis as a key-value store:
kv: new RedisKvStore(new Redis()),
// Use Redis as a message queue:
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(() => new Redis()),
});
// A bot can respond to a mention:
bot.on(/hi|hello|what'?s\s+up/i, (ctx) => {
return ctx.reply(text`Hi, ${ctx.actor}!`);
});
// Or, a bot also can actively publish a post:
setInterval(async () => {
await bot.publish(text`Hi, forks! It's an hourly greeting.`);
}, 1000 * 60 * 60);
export default bot;
I'm currently brainstorming a framework for creating fediverse bots called #BotKit, based on #Fedify. It's less flexible than Fedify, but the goal is to make it possible to create simple fediverse bots with much less code. What do you think?
ALT text detailsimport { createBot, mention, text } from "@fedify/botkit";
import { RedisKvStore } from "@fedify/redis";
import { Redis } from "ioredis";
// Create a bot instance:
const bot = createBot({
// The bot will have fediverse handle "@greetbot@mydomain":
username: "greetbot",
// Set the profile icon (avatar):
icon: new URL("https://mydomain/icon.png"),
// Set the bio:
bio: text`Hi, there! I'm a simple fediverse bot created by ${
mention("@hongminhee@hollo.social").}`,
// Use Redis as a key-value store:
kv: new RedisKvStore(new Redis()),
// Use Redis as a message queue:
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(() => new Redis()),
});
// A bot can respond to a mention:
bot.on(/hi|hello|what'?s\s+up/i, (ctx) => {
return ctx.reply(text`Hi, ${ctx.actor}!`);
});
// Or, a bot also can actively publish a post:
setInterval(async () => {
await bot.publish(text`Hi, forks! It's an hourly greeting.`);
}, 1000 * 60 * 60);
export default bot;
I'm currently brainstorming a framework for creating fediverse bots called #BotKit, based on #Fedify. It's less flexible than Fedify, but the goal is to make it possible to create simple fediverse bots with much less code. What do you think?
ALT text detailsimport { createBot, mention, text } from "@fedify/botkit";
import { RedisKvStore } from "@fedify/redis";
import { Redis } from "ioredis";
// Create a bot instance:
const bot = createBot({
// The bot will have fediverse handle "@greetbot@mydomain":
username: "greetbot",
// Set the profile icon (avatar):
icon: new URL("https://mydomain/icon.png"),
// Set the bio:
bio: text`Hi, there! I'm a simple fediverse bot created by ${
mention("@hongminhee@hollo.social").}`,
// Use Redis as a key-value store:
kv: new RedisKvStore(new Redis()),
// Use Redis as a message queue:
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(() => new Redis()),
});
// A bot can respond to a mention:
bot.on(/hi|hello|what'?s\s+up/i, (ctx) => {
return ctx.reply(text`Hi, ${ctx.actor}!`);
});
// Or, a bot also can actively publish a post:
setInterval(async () => {
await bot.publish(text`Hi, forks! It's an hourly greeting.`);
}, 1000 * 60 * 60);
export default bot;
I'm currently brainstorming a framework for creating fediverse bots called #BotKit, based on #Fedify. It's less flexible than Fedify, but the goal is to make it possible to create simple fediverse bots with much less code. What do you think?
ALT text detailsimport { createBot, mention, text } from "@fedify/botkit";
import { RedisKvStore } from "@fedify/redis";
import { Redis } from "ioredis";
// Create a bot instance:
const bot = createBot({
// The bot will have fediverse handle "@greetbot@mydomain":
username: "greetbot",
// Set the profile icon (avatar):
icon: new URL("https://mydomain/icon.png"),
// Set the bio:
bio: text`Hi, there! I'm a simple fediverse bot created by ${
mention("@hongminhee@hollo.social").}`,
// Use Redis as a key-value store:
kv: new RedisKvStore(new Redis()),
// Use Redis as a message queue:
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(() => new Redis()),
});
// A bot can respond to a mention:
bot.on(/hi|hello|what'?s\s+up/i, (ctx) => {
return ctx.reply(text`Hi, ${ctx.actor}!`);
});
// Or, a bot also can actively publish a post:
setInterval(async () => {
await bot.publish(text`Hi, forks! It's an hourly greeting.`);
}, 1000 * 60 * 60);
export default bot;
I'm currently brainstorming a framework for creating fediverse bots called #BotKit, based on #Fedify. It's less flexible than Fedify, but the goal is to make it possible to create simple fediverse bots with much less code. What do you think?
ALT text detailsimport { createBot, mention, text } from "@fedify/botkit";
import { RedisKvStore } from "@fedify/redis";
import { Redis } from "ioredis";
// Create a bot instance:
const bot = createBot({
// The bot will have fediverse handle "@greetbot@mydomain":
username: "greetbot",
// Set the profile icon (avatar):
icon: new URL("https://mydomain/icon.png"),
// Set the bio:
bio: text`Hi, there! I'm a simple fediverse bot created by ${
mention("@hongminhee@hollo.social").}`,
// Use Redis as a key-value store:
kv: new RedisKvStore(new Redis()),
// Use Redis as a message queue:
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(() => new Redis()),
});
// A bot can respond to a mention:
bot.on(/hi|hello|what'?s\s+up/i, (ctx) => {
return ctx.reply(text`Hi, ${ctx.actor}!`);
});
// Or, a bot also can actively publish a post:
setInterval(async () => {
await bot.publish(text`Hi, forks! It's an hourly greeting.`);
}, 1000 * 60 * 60);
export default bot;
I'm currently brainstorming a framework for creating fediverse bots called #BotKit, based on #Fedify. It's less flexible than Fedify, but the goal is to make it possible to create simple fediverse bots with much less code. What do you think?
ALT text detailsimport { createBot, mention, text } from "@fedify/botkit";
import { RedisKvStore } from "@fedify/redis";
import { Redis } from "ioredis";
// Create a bot instance:
const bot = createBot({
// The bot will have fediverse handle "@greetbot@mydomain":
username: "greetbot",
// Set the profile icon (avatar):
icon: new URL("https://mydomain/icon.png"),
// Set the bio:
bio: text`Hi, there! I'm a simple fediverse bot created by ${
mention("@hongminhee@hollo.social").}`,
// Use Redis as a key-value store:
kv: new RedisKvStore(new Redis()),
// Use Redis as a message queue:
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(() => new Redis()),
});
// A bot can respond to a mention:
bot.on(/hi|hello|what'?s\s+up/i, (ctx) => {
return ctx.reply(text`Hi, ${ctx.actor}!`);
});
// Or, a bot also can actively publish a post:
setInterval(async () => {
await bot.publish(text`Hi, forks! It's an hourly greeting.`);
}, 1000 * 60 * 60);
export default bot;
I'm currently brainstorming a framework for creating fediverse bots called #BotKit, based on #Fedify. It's less flexible than Fedify, but the goal is to make it possible to create simple fediverse bots with much less code. What do you think?
ALT text detailsimport { createBot, mention, text } from "@fedify/botkit";
import { RedisKvStore } from "@fedify/redis";
import { Redis } from "ioredis";
// Create a bot instance:
const bot = createBot({
// The bot will have fediverse handle "@greetbot@mydomain":
username: "greetbot",
// Set the profile icon (avatar):
icon: new URL("https://mydomain/icon.png"),
// Set the bio:
bio: text`Hi, there! I'm a simple fediverse bot created by ${
mention("@hongminhee@hollo.social").}`,
// Use Redis as a key-value store:
kv: new RedisKvStore(new Redis()),
// Use Redis as a message queue:
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(() => new Redis()),
});
// A bot can respond to a mention:
bot.on(/hi|hello|what'?s\s+up/i, (ctx) => {
return ctx.reply(text`Hi, ${ctx.actor}!`);
});
// Or, a bot also can actively publish a post:
setInterval(async () => {
await bot.publish(text`Hi, forks! It's an hourly greeting.`);
}, 1000 * 60 * 60);
export default bot;
I'm currently brainstorming a framework for creating fediverse bots called #BotKit, based on #Fedify. It's less flexible than Fedify, but the goal is to make it possible to create simple fediverse bots with much less code. What do you think?
ALT text detailsimport { createBot, mention, text } from "@fedify/botkit";
import { RedisKvStore } from "@fedify/redis";
import { Redis } from "ioredis";
// Create a bot instance:
const bot = createBot({
// The bot will have fediverse handle "@greetbot@mydomain":
username: "greetbot",
// Set the profile icon (avatar):
icon: new URL("https://mydomain/icon.png"),
// Set the bio:
bio: text`Hi, there! I'm a simple fediverse bot created by ${
mention("@hongminhee@hollo.social").}`,
// Use Redis as a key-value store:
kv: new RedisKvStore(new Redis()),
// Use Redis as a message queue:
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(() => new Redis()),
});
// A bot can respond to a mention:
bot.on(/hi|hello|what'?s\s+up/i, (ctx) => {
return ctx.reply(text`Hi, ${ctx.actor}!`);
});
// Or, a bot also can actively publish a post:
setInterval(async () => {
await bot.publish(text`Hi, forks! It's an hourly greeting.`);
}, 1000 * 60 * 60);
export default bot;
I'm currently brainstorming a framework for creating fediverse bots called #BotKit, based on #Fedify. It's less flexible than Fedify, but the goal is to make it possible to create simple fediverse bots with much less code. What do you think?
ALT text detailsimport { createBot, mention, text } from "@fedify/botkit";
import { RedisKvStore } from "@fedify/redis";
import { Redis } from "ioredis";
// Create a bot instance:
const bot = createBot({
// The bot will have fediverse handle "@greetbot@mydomain":
username: "greetbot",
// Set the profile icon (avatar):
icon: new URL("https://mydomain/icon.png"),
// Set the bio:
bio: text`Hi, there! I'm a simple fediverse bot created by ${
mention("@hongminhee@hollo.social").}`,
// Use Redis as a key-value store:
kv: new RedisKvStore(new Redis()),
// Use Redis as a message queue:
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(() => new Redis()),
});
// A bot can respond to a mention:
bot.on(/hi|hello|what'?s\s+up/i, (ctx) => {
return ctx.reply(text`Hi, ${ctx.actor}!`);
});
// Or, a bot also can actively publish a post:
setInterval(async () => {
await bot.publish(text`Hi, forks! It's an hourly greeting.`);
}, 1000 * 60 * 60);
export default bot;
I'm currently brainstorming a framework for creating fediverse bots called #BotKit, based on #Fedify. It's less flexible than Fedify, but the goal is to make it possible to create simple fediverse bots with much less code. What do you think?
ALT text detailsimport { createBot, mention, text } from "@fedify/botkit";
import { RedisKvStore } from "@fedify/redis";
import { Redis } from "ioredis";
// Create a bot instance:
const bot = createBot({
// The bot will have fediverse handle "@greetbot@mydomain":
username: "greetbot",
// Set the profile icon (avatar):
icon: new URL("https://mydomain/icon.png"),
// Set the bio:
bio: text`Hi, there! I'm a simple fediverse bot created by ${
mention("@hongminhee@hollo.social").}`,
// Use Redis as a key-value store:
kv: new RedisKvStore(new Redis()),
// Use Redis as a message queue:
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(() => new Redis()),
});
// A bot can respond to a mention:
bot.on(/hi|hello|what'?s\s+up/i, (ctx) => {
return ctx.reply(text`Hi, ${ctx.actor}!`);
});
// Or, a bot also can actively publish a post:
setInterval(async () => {
await bot.publish(text`Hi, forks! It's an hourly greeting.`);
}, 1000 * 60 * 60);
export default bot;
I'm currently brainstorming a framework for creating fediverse bots called #BotKit, based on #Fedify. It's less flexible than Fedify, but the goal is to make it possible to create simple fediverse bots with much less code. What do you think?
ALT text detailsimport { createBot, mention, text } from "@fedify/botkit";
import { RedisKvStore } from "@fedify/redis";
import { Redis } from "ioredis";
// Create a bot instance:
const bot = createBot({
// The bot will have fediverse handle "@greetbot@mydomain":
username: "greetbot",
// Set the profile icon (avatar):
icon: new URL("https://mydomain/icon.png"),
// Set the bio:
bio: text`Hi, there! I'm a simple fediverse bot created by ${
mention("@hongminhee@hollo.social").}`,
// Use Redis as a key-value store:
kv: new RedisKvStore(new Redis()),
// Use Redis as a message queue:
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(() => new Redis()),
});
// A bot can respond to a mention:
bot.on(/hi|hello|what'?s\s+up/i, (ctx) => {
return ctx.reply(text`Hi, ${ctx.actor}!`);
});
// Or, a bot also can actively publish a post:
setInterval(async () => {
await bot.publish(text`Hi, forks! It's an hourly greeting.`);
}, 1000 * 60 * 60);
export default bot;
I'm currently brainstorming a framework for creating fediverse bots called #BotKit, based on #Fedify. It's less flexible than Fedify, but the goal is to make it possible to create simple fediverse bots with much less code. What do you think?
ALT text detailsimport { createBot, mention, text } from "@fedify/botkit";
import { RedisKvStore } from "@fedify/redis";
import { Redis } from "ioredis";
// Create a bot instance:
const bot = createBot({
// The bot will have fediverse handle "@greetbot@mydomain":
username: "greetbot",
// Set the profile icon (avatar):
icon: new URL("https://mydomain/icon.png"),
// Set the bio:
bio: text`Hi, there! I'm a simple fediverse bot created by ${
mention("@hongminhee@hollo.social").}`,
// Use Redis as a key-value store:
kv: new RedisKvStore(new Redis()),
// Use Redis as a message queue:
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(() => new Redis()),
});
// A bot can respond to a mention:
bot.on(/hi|hello|what'?s\s+up/i, (ctx) => {
return ctx.reply(text`Hi, ${ctx.actor}!`);
});
// Or, a bot also can actively publish a post:
setInterval(async () => {
await bot.publish(text`Hi, forks! It's an hourly greeting.`);
}, 1000 * 60 * 60);
export default bot;
I'm currently brainstorming a framework for creating fediverse bots called #BotKit, based on #Fedify. It's less flexible than Fedify, but the goal is to make it possible to create simple fediverse bots with much less code. What do you think?
ALT text detailsimport { createBot, mention, text } from "@fedify/botkit";
import { RedisKvStore } from "@fedify/redis";
import { Redis } from "ioredis";
// Create a bot instance:
const bot = createBot({
// The bot will have fediverse handle "@greetbot@mydomain":
username: "greetbot",
// Set the profile icon (avatar):
icon: new URL("https://mydomain/icon.png"),
// Set the bio:
bio: text`Hi, there! I'm a simple fediverse bot created by ${
mention("@hongminhee@hollo.social").}`,
// Use Redis as a key-value store:
kv: new RedisKvStore(new Redis()),
// Use Redis as a message queue:
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(() => new Redis()),
});
// A bot can respond to a mention:
bot.on(/hi|hello|what'?s\s+up/i, (ctx) => {
return ctx.reply(text`Hi, ${ctx.actor}!`);
});
// Or, a bot also can actively publish a post:
setInterval(async () => {
await bot.publish(text`Hi, forks! It's an hourly greeting.`);
}, 1000 * 60 * 60);
export default bot;
I'm currently brainstorming a framework for creating fediverse bots called #BotKit, based on #Fedify. It's less flexible than Fedify, but the goal is to make it possible to create simple fediverse bots with much less code. What do you think?
ALT text detailsimport { createBot, mention, text } from "@fedify/botkit";
import { RedisKvStore } from "@fedify/redis";
import { Redis } from "ioredis";
// Create a bot instance:
const bot = createBot({
// The bot will have fediverse handle "@greetbot@mydomain":
username: "greetbot",
// Set the profile icon (avatar):
icon: new URL("https://mydomain/icon.png"),
// Set the bio:
bio: text`Hi, there! I'm a simple fediverse bot created by ${
mention("@hongminhee@hollo.social").}`,
// Use Redis as a key-value store:
kv: new RedisKvStore(new Redis()),
// Use Redis as a message queue:
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(() => new Redis()),
});
// A bot can respond to a mention:
bot.on(/hi|hello|what'?s\s+up/i, (ctx) => {
return ctx.reply(text`Hi, ${ctx.actor}!`);
});
// Or, a bot also can actively publish a post:
setInterval(async () => {
await bot.publish(text`Hi, forks! It's an hourly greeting.`);
}, 1000 * 60 * 60);
export default bot;
I'm currently brainstorming a framework for creating fediverse bots called #BotKit, based on #Fedify. It's less flexible than Fedify, but the goal is to make it possible to create simple fediverse bots with much less code. What do you think?
ALT text detailsimport { createBot, mention, text } from "@fedify/botkit";
import { RedisKvStore } from "@fedify/redis";
import { Redis } from "ioredis";
// Create a bot instance:
const bot = createBot({
// The bot will have fediverse handle "@greetbot@mydomain":
username: "greetbot",
// Set the profile icon (avatar):
icon: new URL("https://mydomain/icon.png"),
// Set the bio:
bio: text`Hi, there! I'm a simple fediverse bot created by ${
mention("@hongminhee@hollo.social").}`,
// Use Redis as a key-value store:
kv: new RedisKvStore(new Redis()),
// Use Redis as a message queue:
queue: new RedisMessageQueue(() => new Redis()),
});
// A bot can respond to a mention:
bot.on(/hi|hello|what'?s\s+up/i, (ctx) => {
return ctx.reply(text`Hi, ${ctx.actor}!`);
});
// Or, a bot also can actively publish a post:
setInterval(async () => {
await bot.publish(text`Hi, forks! It's an hourly greeting.`);
}, 1000 * 60 * 60);
export default bot;
If you're curious how ActivityPub works exactly (like me) this site does a great job of show and tell.
On the surface it looks like any other Mastodon instance, but on closer inspection, provides you insight into the ActivityPub back and forth going on behind the scenes!
ALT text detailsThe Activity Log shows the ActivityPub objects that are passed back and forth when a follow request is sent from one instance to another.
Introducing #Hollo. Hollo is an #ActivityPub-enabled single-user microblogging software. Although it's for a single user, it also supports creating and running multiple accounts for different topics.
It's headless, meaning you can use existing #Mastodon client apps instead, with its Mastodon-compatible APIs. It has most feature parity with Mastodon. Two big differences with Mastodon is that you can use #Markdown in the content of your posts and you can quote another post.
Introducing #Hollo. Hollo is an #ActivityPub-enabled single-user microblogging software. Although it's for a single user, it also supports creating and running multiple accounts for different topics.
It's headless, meaning you can use existing #Mastodon client apps instead, with its Mastodon-compatible APIs. It has most feature parity with Mastodon. Two big differences with Mastodon is that you can use #Markdown in the content of your posts and you can quote another post.
I'm looking for your opinions from the developers of the fediverse.
A common HTML web page can contain related links via the <link> tag. I would like to do the same for Activity Streams objects, for example:
{
"@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams",
"id": "https://writings.hongminhee.org/ap/2024/12/a-year-with-the-fediverse.json",
"type": "Article",
"name": "A year with the fediverse",
"content": "2024 was truly a year where I was deeply immersed in the fediverse. …",
"url": "https://writings.hongminhee.org/2024/12/a-year-with-the-fediverse/",
"attachment": [
{
"type": "Link",
"rel": "alternate",
"hreflang": "ko",
"href": "https://writings.hongminhee.org/2024/12/a-year-with-the-fediverse/index.ko-hang-kr.html",
"mediaType": "text/html"
},
{
"type": "Link",
"rel": "alternate",
"hreflang": "ja",
"href": "https://writings.hongminhee.org/2024/12/a-year-with-the-fediverse/index.ja.html",
"mediaType": "text/html"
}
]
}
Do you think this makes sense, and would it be appropriate to put Link objects in the attachment?
Still not a fan of Mastodon's hashtag-centric discovery and topical discussion paradigm.
I want to keep up-to-date with goings-on in Ukraine, but the relevant hashtags have been co-opted by tankies and such spreading Russian agitprop.
I hope one day Mastodon "un-nerfs" list functionality so that users can subscribe to well-curated lists created by known and trusted sources/experts and read posts from those people, w/o committing to manually following each member directly.
Developer question: If you build a minimal ActivityPub server for development purposes, do you have to run it on a registered domain with an SSL certificate for it to be able to connect to anything else (like a big Mastodon instance)?
Or is running it on some kind of dynDNS or ngrok type service (so it has a static domain name) enough just to test things out?
I have a question about signature handling in #ActivityPub relays. As I understand it, relays forward activities between instances that aren't directly connected. Let's say we have this flow: foo.com (source) → bar.com (relay) → baz.com (destination). The activity created by foo.com includes HTTP Signatures, but when bar.com forwards it to baz.com, wouldn't the original signature become invalid since the Host header needs to change? How do relay implementations handle this issue?
Added InboxContext.recipient property. It's useful for determining whether it is a shared inbox or a personal inbox, and whose personal inbox is invoked.
Starting with the next release of #Fedify, v1.2.0, we will support traceable logs for easier debugging. Fedify's traceable logs are implemented using the implicit contexts introduced in LogTape 0.7.0, and most of the logs that Fedify records are given a requestId or messageId. This means that logs can be grouped into requests or background tasks for better analysis.
Want to try it out in advance? Try Fedify v1.2.0-dev.468+2e17cd69 (JSR & npm)!
Please roast me for my code and help me get it into a state where we can make this default behavior for masto instances and remove one of the biggest contributors to the reply guy problem on the fedi <3
#FediDev: What’s the point of having separate signing keys for each actor if they all end up getting managed by the same instance?
Ideally (“even if no fedi client does it atm”), should users hold keys in their client, and sign the posts on the local machine before passing them to their server to forward to the recipients?
Added Export class to Activity Vocabulary API. [FEP-9091]
Added service property to the Actor types in the Activity Vocabulary API. [FEP-9091]
The default time window for verifying HTTP Signatures of incoming requests is now an hour (was a minute). This new default window is according to the ActivityPub and HTTP Signatures document.
In the fedify inbox command's web interface, the Raw Activity tab is added to show the raw JSON object of the received activity.
ALT text detailsThere are two kinds of emoji reaction APIs:
Pleroma/Akkoma family
• POST /api/v1/statuses/:id/react/:emoji
• POST /api/v1/statuses/:id/unreact/:emoji
This can be detected by looking up pleroma_emoji_reactions and custom_emoji_reactions from pleroma.metadata.features responded by GET /api/v1/instance, e.g., seafoam.space/api/v1/instance.
Fedibird/kmyblue family
• PUT /api/v1/statuses/:id/emoji_reactions/:emoji
• DELETE /api/v1/statuses/:id/emoji_reactions/:emoji
This can be detected by looking up emoji_reaction from fedibird_capabilities responded by GET /api/v1/instance, e.g., fedibird.com/api/v1/instance, kmy.blue/api/v1/instance.
The value of the form at://… in the alsoKnownAs property of the actor generated by @bsky.brid.gy is not actually a valid URL? It cannot be represented as a URL object in Node.js or Deno.
ALT text detailsNode.js:
> new URL("at://did:plc:x7xdowahlhm5xulzqw4ehv6q")
Uncaught TypeError: Invalid URL
at new URL (node:internal/url:816:29) {
code: 'ERR_INVALID_URL',
input: 'at://did:plc:x7xdowahlhm5xulzqw4ehv6q'
}
Deno:
> new URL("at://did:plc:x7xdowahlhm5xulzqw4ehv6q")
Uncaught TypeError: Invalid URL: 'at://did:plc:x7xdowahlhm5xulzqw4ehv6q'
at getSerialization (ext:deno_url/00_url.js:98:11)
at new URL (ext:deno_url/00_url.js:405:27)
at <anonymous>:1:22
#ClubsAll (a threadiverse/lemmy/mbin/piefed web frontend project) want to open source it and are looking for someone to do a code review/security analysis first... Are you into security and the fediverse *and* stuff being open source? Then respond here!
#Fedify now has an #AMQP driver! This means you can use #RabbitMQ as Fedify's message queue. To use it, first install the @fedify/amqp package, then set it up like below:
import { createFederation } from "@fedify/fedify";
import { AmqpMessageQueue } from "@fedify/amqp";
import { connect } from "amqplib";
const federation = createFederation({
queue: new AmqpMessageQueue(await connect("amqp://localhost")),
// ... other configurations
});
Even though I am a slow coder, it only took me about a month to create most of #Hollo's features in #Fedify. Having a framework makes a huge difference in productivity.
According to the Activity Vocabulary specification, the summary property should be HTML encoded, but #Mastodon is putting plain text in the summary property. #Hollo is putting #HTML in the summary, but should I change Hollo's behavior?
ALT text detailsThe Activity Vocabulary specification says that the summary property is “a natural language summarization of the object encoded as HTML.”
Looks like around a month ago, the developer of Kaiteki, a flutter based fediverse client, closed shop. They left the source code available to anyone that might want to pick it up, however!
If you're an advanced user with programming skills who is wanting to do custom stuff with Fediverse connections (or even wanting to create your own Fedi platform), you might want to check out the activitypub.rocks SocialHub forum:
Introducing Fedify: Build Your Own Fediverse App with Ease! 🚀
Are you excited about the #fediverse but find implementing #ActivityPub daunting? Meet #Fedify, a #TypeScript framework that simplifies building federated server apps. Whether you're creating the next Mastodon, Pixelfed, or something entirely new, Fedify has you covered.
Fedify abstracts away the complexities of ActivityPub, letting you focus on your app's unique features. It's designed to work seamlessly with popular web frameworks like Hono, Express, and Fresh.
Oh gr8, apparently being able to await the results of a batch of sidekiq jobs is an exclusive "sidekiq pro" feature.
So here's the deal: for #FetchAllReplies we need to set some kind of global fetch limit so a maliciously crafted thread tree doesn't keep us fetching forever. Currently it's implemented as a recursive fetch, but I want to move the "expansion" part where we gather the URIs of all the posts to fetch at a top level, and then just dispatch workers to fetch those posts in a flat queue with a global limit
Problem: with current masto impl, you have to already have a status to fetch its replies, so we need to await the results of prior fetch level before starting the next one. Does anyone know how to await sidekiq jobs? We already know the URIs of the posts that are being fetched, but I can't tell how to either a) await the redis job being popped from the queue or b) await a Status object with a matching uri being created. Im also not sure how I could c) use a callback to signal to the initiating worker that a status has been fetched.
Anyone know what the move here is? Im sure there must be some chained workers like this somewhere in masto, but all the examples I can find for sidekiq use the "pro" features.
Fedify, an ActivityPub framework, has finally released its first stable version, 1.0.0! Here are key changes:
Deprecation of the term handle
From this version, the term handle across Fedify will only be used to refer to fediverse handles (e.g., @hongminhee@fosstodon.org). An actor's internal unique ID (e.g., b379dbdc-3b4f-4ef4-88c2-fc25632d1c22) is referred to as an identifier, and the WebFinger name (e.g., hongminhee) is referred to as a username.
The term handle in the API will be maintained for a while for backward compatibility, but deprecation warnings will be logged, and it is planned to be removed in the future.
Linked Data Signatures is an outdated standard, but it's still relied upon by major fediverse implementations such as Mastodon.
In addition to HTTP Signatures and Object Integrity Proofs, Fedify now supports Linked Data Signatures from this version, thus supporting all types of signature methods used in the fediverse. This makes Fedify an ActivityPub implementation with the best interoperability.
However, Fedify users don't need to do anything special to use Linked Data Signatures. If an incoming activity has Linked Data Signatures, it automatically verifies the signature, and all outgoing activities will have signatures in three formats: HTTP Signatures, Linked Data Signatures, and Object Integrity Proofs.
From this version, you can forward activities received in the inbox to other actors using the InboxContext.forwardActivity() method.
At first glance, you might think that you could just resend an activity received in the inbox using the Context.sendActivity() method. However, if you do this, the original signature is removed before the activity is delivered to the inbox, and when sending it, the signature of the forwarding actor is attached instead, causing the receiving side of the forwarded activity to not trust it.
On the other hand, when using the InboxContext.forwardActivity() method, the activity is forwarded with the original signature preserved, avoiding this problem. (Of course, the original activity itself must be signed with Linked Data Signatures or Object Integrity Proofs.)
Sending Delete(Application) on fedify inbox termination
From this version, fedify inbox will send a Delete(Application) activity to all peer servers it encountered when terminated. This is typically an activity sent when deleting an account, which will help prevent residual data related to temporary actors from remaining on other servers.
PostgreSQL drivers
The @fedify/postgres package, which implements PostgreSQL drivers for the KvStore and MessageQueue interfaces, has been released alongside this version.
The PostgreSQL driver is a backend that can be sufficiently used in production, especially recommended for projects already using PostgreSQL.
Additionally, an option to select the PostgreSQL driver has been added to the fedify init command.
Celebrating Fedify 1.0.0
With the release of version 1.0.0, Fedify will now maintain API backward compatibility as much as possible. (Of course, in the long term, there may be a 2.0.0 that breaks backward compatibility.) This should be good news for those who have been hesitant to use Fedify because there hasn't been a stable version until now!
So, hoping that more services will support ActivityPub in the future, I conclude this post!
We were very excited to demo Channel. org & Patchwork at the fourth edition of FediForum - the virtual unconference moving the decentralised social web forwards.
Once the next version of #Fedify, v1.0.0, is released, the API will be stabilized. Are there any features you'd like to see before the API is stabilized?
Once the next version of #Fedify, v1.0.0, is released, the API will be stabilized. Are there any features you'd like to see before the API is stabilized?
alright, after like a year of halfheartedly trying on and off, #FetchAllReplies is pretty much finished - the problem of not being able to see all replies to a post is one of the largest complaints that people have with mastodon in particular but also the fedi in general. It is an especially potent problem for smaller servers, making them feel lonely, and making the whole fedi seem quiet. It is also a large contributor to the 'reply guy' problem where a moderately popular post will get the same replies over and over again and people won't even know they're doing it.
This patch recursively fetches replies using activitypub collections. it does it respectfully, only when someone is explicitly looking at a post (rather than fetching all replies for everything all the time) with some debounce, and spaces out the recursive calls to the other servers in deep threads.
the only thing left is to make the posts get inserted into the web client as they are received, currently you need to refresh to see them.
trying it locally now and it is a game changer.
i'm not "good at ruby" so if you ever wanna see this upstream, kindly spare a code review?
This code was originally a part of Mitra, but over time I moved re-usable functions into independent packages and then started using them in other projects, Activity Connect and fep-ae97-client. Compared to activitypub-federation-rust, it is a low-level library with fewer dependencies, suitable for both servers and clients. The key feature is support for nomadic identity.
Currently there's no documentation and API is not well designed, but I will be improving it. The license is AGPL-3.0
One of the benefits of #Fedify is that you don't have to worry about whether a property of an Activity Vocabulary object has a URL or embeds an actual object. If you need an object, you can call the `getObject()` method (which will fetch a remote object if necessary). If you need a URI, you can access the `objectId` property.
Quick question: would it be okay to embed a collection object in the `as:replies` property of `as:Note` & `as:Article` objects instead of putting the URL to the collection in the `as:replies` property? In theory, it would be okay, but would the actual implementations handle it well?
#Fediforum has a Saturday schedule, and it's starting in less than two hours. You can still register to attend, with some (almost) free tickets available at $1.99 if the regular rate is too high - a bargain for attending a single day of the event.
My favorite part is the demos - you get to see the people behind the sites and apps you use (or will be using), demoing their latest fediverse related projects!
In addition, activities sent with the Context.sendActivity() method will have Linked Data Signatures attached in addition to HTTP Signatures if any RSA-PKCS#1-v1.5 key pairs are present.
We were not motivated by implementing Linked Data Signatures, which is already an outdated standard, but we hope this change will lead to better compatibility and interoperability of Fedify apps!
In a couple of hours we’ll be back at #FediForum and we’re excited to be debuting our new projects on Saturday, Channel. org and Patchwork - opening for early access soon.
ALT text detailsThe combination of HTTP Signatures and Linked Data Signatures is the most widely supported way to sign activities in the fediverse, as of September 2024. Despite Linked Data Signatures is outdated and not recommended for new implementations, it is still widely used in the fediverse due to Mastodon and other major implementations' reliance on it.
However, for new implementations, you should consider using both Object Integrity Proofs and Linked Data Signatures for maximum compatibility and future-proofing.
#Fedify has a side effect that when you call the getter method of an Activity Vocabulary object, the property that was internally a URI is populated with the actual ActivityStreams object. Today, someone at Ghost gave us a cool term for this: #hydration.
The `fedify inbox` command, which is shipped with @fedify/cli, is a tool that creates an ephemeral #ActivityPub server so that you can debug and test the activities you send.
I received a request from @ghost today to add #LDSignatures to @fedify for compatibility with #Mastodon, as Mastodon does not plan to implement Object Integrity Proofs (FEP-8b32) for the near future. 😩
However, Mastodon's implementation of LD Signatures does not even use valid JSON-LD properties (despite the name), so I'm not sure how to make it compatible with Mastodon since #Fedify does JSON-LD processing. 🤔
ALT text detailsThe JSON-LD representation of a Create(Note) activity containing LD Signatures produced by Mastodon and its expanded form. The “signature” property and its child properties are not properly namespaced.
I have a question about the `liked` collection in the #ActivityPub specification. According to section 5.5, the liked collection is “a list of every object from all of the actor's `Like` activities”, whereas the side note in section 5.7 says it is “a collection of `Like` activities performed by the actor”. What is the element type of the liked collection, `Object` or `Like`?
I'm glad that @fediforum added a weekend date. It's tough to get away during the week for me. FYI, the demos are usually first thing in the mornings and are a can't miss - worth the price for those alone IMO.
Check WeDistribute for live coverage of the event!
I often struggle with working on non-trivial, long standing projects because when I sit down to do the work after some hiatus, I can't seem to find the pain points I wanted to fix quickly enough.
It feels like trying to get a bandaid off when you can't find an edge where it comes unstuck easily enough.
The largest piece of bandaid that I wasn't able to get unstuck from the ActivityPub adjacent work is getting the HTTP-signatures working well with the rest of the fediverse (by which I mean Mastodon).
Today I might have got the corner of another little bit of bandaid unstuck which hopefully will help in the long run.
ALT text detailsTable comparing visibility options on Akkoma and Pleroma federated software, detailing who can see posts in different timelines (Direct messages, Home timeline, Public profile, Local timeline, Federated timeline) using various emojis to represent visibility levels.
We just finished drafting a new tutorial for #Fedify! This tutorial will walk you through the steps of creating your own federated #microblog. It's pretty long, though.
I finally finished the first draft of the new #Fedify tutorial, but it's still in Korean. Now I just need to polish it up and translate it into English.
Dear developers of the #fediverse, has anyone ever encountered a case where a personal inbox in #Threads responds with a 404 Not Found for a POST request?
@subclub is a new way to add a paid subscriber link to your fediverse profile, allowing you to create subscriber only content! You get a really nice "Subscribe" button on the Mammoth and Ice Cubes app.
If you are a fediverse app developer and interested in adding this to your app, reach out to subclub directly and they can get your started!
Suddenly, I'm reminded of a service called Yahoo! Pipes from about 15 years ago. If anyone remembers, #Pipes handled #RSS as its primitive, and now I'd like to see something like Pipes handle #ActivityPub as its primitive.
ALT text detailsInspecting ActivityPub objects
BrowserPub
BrowserPub is a browser for debugging ActivityPub and the fediverse. You can punch in any ActivityPub discoverable web URL or fediverse handle, and it will discover and display the underlying ActivityPub.
For example:
• hollo.social/@fedify
• @hongminhee@fosstodon.org
If you want to know further details about BrowserPub, read the creator's Mastodon thread.
fedify lookup command
Fedify provides a CLI toolchain for testing and debugging. The fedify lookup command is a simple tool for looking up an ActivityPub object by its URL or fediverse handle.
For educational purpose, I've created a federated microblog example using #Fedify, with a total of about 30 commits, which you can follow step by step.
Now, I'm starting to write a hands-on Fedify tutorial based on this example code. I'll make it public when I'm done!
I've rewritten #Fedify several times and in several languages. The first time it was written in #TypeScript, then #Python, then C#, then back to TypeScript. (It was codenamed FediKit at the time of development.) I settled on TypeScript for the following reasons:
• It has a decent JSON-LD implementation. • Lots of people use it. (I wanted Fedify to be widely used.) • It's type-safe enough.
Even if I were to build Fedify again, I would choose TypeScript.
In the next version (v0.14.0) of #Fedify, the performance of the Object.toJsonLd() method will be dramatically (~3k ×) faster. This is expected to improve the overall performance of Fedify apps!
I feel that the current abstraction level of #Fedify is not high enough which makes the tutorial lengthy, so I'm considering adding a higher-level API. One way would be to add a façade to the @fedify/fedify package, and another way would be to create a sort of metaframework as a separate package (e.g., @fedify/start?). Which way would be better?
I'm writing a #Fedify tutorial, and I keep saying things like “you don't need to know what Ed25519 is” and “you don't need to know what JWK is for this tutorial.” Would this be okay?
The JSON-LD processor ended up being #Fedify's bottleneck, so I'm in the process of fixing Fedify to generate JSON-LD without the proper JSON-LD processor.
"We want to bring organisations and content creators into the Fediverse, step by step."
Our Foundation co-founder has just published an interesting piece on how we're working to help organisations and content creators find their way to the Fediverse!
Introducing @fedify/express, a package that integrates Express, a popular web framework in Node.js, with Fedify. You can install it with the following command:
npm add @fedify/express
This package provides a middleware called integrateFederation() that allows you to integrate #Fedify with #Express:
import express from "express";
import { integrateFederation } from "@fedify/express";
import { federation } from "./federation"; // Your `Federation` instance
export const app = express();
app.set("trust proxy", true);
app.use(integrateFederation(federation, (req) => "context data goes here"));
This is a milestone worth celebrating! :fediverse: In development as we speak, @forgejo can now federate comments (and tons of other stuff) from issues in repos!!!
@mastometrics is a unique way to look at statistics about your own account - for free. It's even connected directly from your profile in the @IceCubesApp app.
But all that data and storage costs money! Please consider contributing to keep this service going - and if the goal is reached, open sourced to make it self-hostable.
FYI: Abelio will provide couple of ways of publishing visual contents. One of them is part of the article editor and it let's you organise multiple images in a form of a flexible grid you can arrange as needed.
"Our Foundation mission is “knowledge for all for good”. Using social media to share knowledge for the benefit of society."
Our co-founder, @michael , is discussing why The Newsmast Foundation is building new technology to benefit organisations and server admins on the Social Web.
Improved multitenancy (virtual hosting) support: You can now easily determine the host of the current request via the hostname, host, and origin properties of the Context.
When validating HTTP Signatures and Object Integrity Proofs, once fetched public keys are now cached.
It's available on JSR and npm now, and you can upgrade it using the deno add command on Deno:
Since #Fedify v0.12.0, when verifying HTTP Signatures or Object Integrity Proofs, it will cache the public keys once fetched. It is okay even if a cached key becomes outdated because a verification failure due to a cached key will invalidate the cache and force a verification retry.
This feature is available for preview in v0.12.0-dev.307+235629d5 (JSR or npm).
ALT text detailsA demo of the `fedify init` command. The JavaScript runtime choices are Deno, Node.js, and Bun, of which Deno is selected. The web framework choices are Bare-bones, Astro, Fresh, and Hono, with Hono selected. The key-value store options are No cache, Redis, and Deno KV, with Deno KV selected. The message queue options are No background jobs, Redis, Deno KV, and Deno KV is selected. Finally, an Hono project integrated with Fedify is created and the server is started by running the `deno task dev` command.
Just read an email newsletter from @newsmast about their upcoming Patchwork platform. It’s a plugin system to extend existing fediverse platforms.
One of their upcoming plugins will be local only posts. It’s a nice feature I used on Firefish, allowing nonfederated community discussions. Looking forward to it!
This week we want to talk to you about Patchwork, an upcoming project, using technology we developed for Newsmast to make new and existing spaces on the social web more safe, more connected and more fun!
Here’s an update from our Foundation Ambassador @FreddieJ 👇
It’s been a week since the UK General Election. As one of the UK’s leading Fediverse projects, we thought this would be a good time to look into the new government's digital policy and what it could mean for Fedi.
Fedify uses hierarchical categories for fine-grained control over log output. Key categories include ["fedify", "federation", "http"] for HTTP requests/responses and ["fedify", "federation", "inbox"]/["fedify", "federation", "outbox"] for incoming/outgoing activities. (There are more categories.)
With #LogTape integration, you gain valuable insights into your Fedify app's behavior, making troubleshooting and optimization much more straightforward!
This morning I'm working through some trailhead modules for Salesforce. They have a social activity feed called "Chatter" that allows you to follow objects of any kind - people, groups, articles, database records.
Sound familiar? For whatever reason, they put a limitation that each account can only follow up to 500 objects. How many heads would explode if someone built an ActivityPub, Nostr or ATProto plugin for Salesforce? :AngeryCat:
Finally, @ghost has open sourced their #ActivityPub implementation powered by #Fedify! For Fedify users, this means another production-grade example code.
If you'd like to follow updates on #Ghost's ActivityPub implementation, you can do so by following @index!
#Fedify now has a queue for incoming activities and they are automatically retried when they fail. The default retry strategy is good enough (exponential backoff + decorrelated jitter), and it's even fully customizable. Updated also the docs:
In the next version of #Fedify, the #RetryPolicy type is introduced to let you fully customize the retry policy of the task queue for incoming and outgoing activities. Of course, you can also simply adjust the parameters of the built-in exponential backoff + decorrelated jitter policy.
ALT text detailsoutboxRetryPolicy
This API is available since Fedify 0.12.0.
The retry policy for sending activities to recipients' inboxes.
By default, this uses an exponential backoff strategy with a maximum of 10 attempts and a maximum delay of 12 hours.
You can fully customize the retry policy by providing a custom function that satisfies the RetryPolicy type. Or you can adjust the parameters of the createExponentialBackoffRetryPolicy() function, which is a default implementation of the retry policy.
ALT text detailsMaking inbox listeners non-blocking
This API is available since Fedify 0.12.0.
Usually, processes inside an inbox listener should be non-blocking because they may involve long-running tasks. Fortunately, you can easily turn inbox listeners into non-blocking by providing a queue option to createFederation() function. If it is not present, incoming activities are processed immediately and block the response to the sender until the processing is done.
While the queue option is not mandatory, it is highly recommended to use it in production environments to prevent the server from being overwhelmed by incoming activities.
Note: Activities with invalid signatures/proofs are silently ignored and not queued.
In the next version of #Fedify, the Context.hostname, Context.host, and Context.origin properties will be added for better multitenancy/virtual hosting support.
When there is no queue, if the process fails, the inbox can just respond with a 500 server error and the sender will resend it.
But with a queue, by the time the inbox responds, it doesn't know if the process will fail because it hasn't run yet. So the sender won't retry whether it fails or not.
So, should it have its own retry logic when there is a queue?
#Fedify has always been queuing outgoing activities, but not incoming activities. Thanks to @ghost's sponsorship, we are now implementing queues for incoming activities!
#ActivityPub, #FediDev and #security question: If instances generally collect only one copy of each post and then share it with the users that need to see it, does that mean nonoriginating instances are trusted to not show that post to users the poster has blocked (or who shouldn't see it because they're not following etc depending on visibility)?
How do the collecting instances know who should see it? (A cached copy of the poster's follow list?)
Today we created #FediDev KR, a community for Korean people who are not only implementing fediverse servers, but also those who are running them, such as server operators, moderators, client app developers, bot developers, writers, translators, researchers, and more. For now, we're based on a Discord server, but we hope to eventually organize offline meetups and workshops. We'd love your support!
How long (hours, roughly) would it take to implement a basic #ActivityPub server from scratch in #Java — absoluet bare bones, like a proof of concept just capable of sending and receiving posts, which could then be developed more before becoming a finished, user-ready system?
#Fedify is an #ActivityPub server framework in #TypeScript & #JavaScript. It aims to eliminate the complexity and redundant boilerplate code when building a federated server app, so that you can focus on your business logic and user experience.
The key features it provides currently are:
• Type-safe objects for Activity Vocabulary (including some vendor-specific extensions) • #WebFinger client and server • HTTP Signatures • Middleware for handling webhooks • #NodeInfo protocol • #Node.js, #Deno, and #Bun support • CLI toolchain for testing and debugging
If you're curious, take a look at the Fedify website! There's comprehensive docs, a demo, a tutorial, example code, and more:
#Fedify has supported optional queuing for outgoing activities, with two built-in message queue backends: InProcessMessageQueue, which is suitable for development, and DenoKvMessageQueue, which is only available in Deno.
Fedify has also had two built-in cache backends, MemoryKvStore, which is suitable for development, and DenoKvStore, which is only available in Deno.
Now, however, by installing the @fedify/redis package, you can use #Redis as both a message queue backend and a cache backend! Unlike DenoKvMessageQueue and DenoKvStore, it's also available for #Node.js and #Bun.
This feature was made possible with the support of @ghost.
Introducing #Hollo. Hollo is an #ActivityPub-enabled single-user microblogging software. Although it's for a single user, it also supports creating and running multiple accounts for different topics.
It's headless, meaning you can use existing #Mastodon client apps instead, with its Mastodon-compatible APIs. It has most feature parity with Mastodon. Two big differences with Mastodon is that you can use #Markdown in the content of your posts and you can quote another post.
Version 0.10.0 of #Fedify, an #ActivityPub server framework, has been released! Starting with this release, Fedify, previously distributed under AGPL 3.0, is now distributed under the MIT License to encourage wider adoption. Here are the major changes:
• In addition to RSA-PKCS#1-v1.5, Fedify now supports Ed25519 for signing and verifying the activities. • FEP-521a: Multiple key pairs can now be registered for an actor. • FEP-8b32: Implemented Object Integrity Proofs. • Added Arrive and Question classes.
TIL when you upload a video file to Mastodon, it generates a preview thumbnail. The thumbnail isn't passed through to other servers in the ActivityPub payload (similar to preview cards).
Each receiving platform handles this situation differently. Some regenerate a thumbnail (processing again). Some ignore it and don't show one. Others create blank thumbnails to appease the Mastodon API.
A blurhash is passed, tho, and could be used as a placeholder.
#Mastodon sends Create(Question) for the poll, even though the Question itself is an Activity. Does it see Question as a regular Object rather than an Activity?
I'm very excited that the #Ghost team has chosen #Fedify to implement #ActivityPub. I've been working closely with the Ghost team, and it's been a lot of fun, and I can't wait to see the ActivityPub implementation at Ghost.
Thanks to @silverpill, #Fedify is finally FEP-8b32 compliant! Though it's not ready for general release yet, it's passing tests in the latest main branch. I'll test it with Mitra and other FEP-8b32-compliant implementations, and if it works well, it'll be included in 0.10.0.
You can try it out in version 0.10.0-dev.205+0cbca257.
Bonfire, the modular Fediverse platform, is looking for five Elixir developers to act as test subjects to improve the developer onboarding experience. Participants can receive a €50 stipend for their one-hour session.
Please share with your elixir dev friends, and boost!
Actors now have the #assertionMethods property, and the #Multikey class has been added. For example, if you look at the the actor from the Fedify Example Blog (https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example), you can see that it has the assertionMethods property in addition to the publicKey property.
You can try it out in version 0.10.0-dev.196+55cc34d1.
As a first step towards adding Object Integrity Proofs (FEP-8b32) to #Fedify, I've made it support #Ed25519 keys. I've also enabled multiple keys to be associated with an actor. For example, if you look at the actor from the Fedify Example Blog (https://fedify-blog.deno.dev/users/fedify-example), you'll see that it has two public keys, one for RSA and one for Ed25519.
You can try it out in version 0.10.0-dev.190+4dffb89a.
Version 0.9.0 of #Fedify, an #ActivityPub server framework, has been released! Here are the main changes:
• Added Tombstone, Hashtag, and Emoji classes. • Added normalizeActorHandle() function to normalize an actor handle. This is needed when the domain of the actor handle is an IDN, or when the domain contains capital letters. • Added an option to the sendActivity() function, excludeBaseUris, to exclude specified servers from sending activities. This can be used when you don't want to send activities to your own server. • Added Context.parseUri(), a method to parse actor, object, inbox, and collection URIs. • The time window for HTTP Signatures verification is now configurable. • The @fedify/fedify/httpsig module has been renamed to . This is in preparation for implementing additional object integrity proofs other than HTTP Signatures. • Improved interoperability with #Misskey.
I really like these support tables on the FunFedi website. Seeing the support grid and example responses is very helpful.
I know a lot of devs are jumping from chat room to chat room, looking for someone to reply back in their timelines, etc. to get help when a specific platform isn't working quite right.
If you're curious how ActivityPub works exactly (like me) this site does a great job of show and tell.
On the surface it looks like any other Mastodon instance, but on closer inspection, provides you insight into the ActivityPub back and forth going on behind the scenes!
ALT text detailsThe Activity Log shows the ActivityPub objects that are passed back and forth when a follow request is sent from one instance to another.
![{
"@context": [
"https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams"
],
"type": "Profile",
"describes": "acct:reiver@mastodon.social",
"attributedTo": "https://example.com/apps/ratel",
"icon": {
"type": "Icon",
"mediaType": "image/png",
"url": "https://example.com/apps/ratel/img/icon.png"
},
"attachment": [
{
"type": "Label",
"name": "Programmer"
},
{
"type": "Label",
"name": "Canadian"
},
{
"type": "Icon",
"mediaType": "image/png",
"url": "https://example.com/pfp/751f76ed540a40a3b4caae50e50cc867.png"
},
{
"type": "Icon",
"mediaType": "image/png",
"url": "https://example.com/pfp/45f7b459257940f490133070a975924b.png"
}
]
}](https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/822/835/158/629/464/original/d533aeb4132201db.png)
![kopper [according to whom?] :colon_three:'s avatar](https://media.d.on-t.work/misskey/original-22a0c416-c85c-4f01-ab38-ddb7836a776d.png){kind=small}
