PDS#

Welcome to the repository for the official Bluesky PDS (Personal Data Server). This repository includes container images and documentation designed to assist technical people with self-hosting a Bluesky PDS.

Table of Contents#

• FAQ
  • What is Bluesky?
  • What is AT Protocol?
  • Where is the code?
  • What is the current status of federation?
  • What should I know about running a PDS in the developer sandbox?
• Self-hosting PDS
  • Preparation for self-hosting PDS
  • Open your cloud firewall for HTTP and HTTPS
  • Configure DNS for your domain
  • Check that DNS is working as expected
  • Installer on Ubuntu 20.04/22.04 and Debian 11/12
  • Verifying that your PDS is online and accessible
  • Creating an account using pdsadmin
  • Creating an account using an invite code
  • Using the Bluesky app with your PDS
  • Updating your PDS

FAQ#

What is Bluesky?#

Bluesky is a social media application built on AT Protocol.

Please visit the Bluesky website for more information.

What is AT Protocol?#

The Authenticated Transfer Protocol, aka atproto, is a protocol for large-scale distributed social applications.

Please visit the AT Protocol docs for additional information.

Where is the code?#

• TypeScript code
• Go code

What is the current status of federation?#

As of Feb, 2024, the AT Protocol data service (PDS) is now open to federation for self-hosters!

✅ Federated domain handles (e.g. @nytimes.com)

✅ Federated feed generators (custom algorithms)

✅ Federated relays (event firehose)

✅ Federated app views (API service)

✅ Federated data for self-hosters (PDS hosting)

🟩 Federated moderation (labeling) (coming soon)

🟩 Federated data for large service providers (coming soon)

What should I know about running a PDS in the developer sandbox?#

Developers may now run self-hosted PDS hosts on the production network!

Though it is still recommended to run experiments in the developer sandbox network.

Read the SANDBOX.md for an overview of the sandbox network.

Self-hosting PDS#

Self-hosting a Bluesky PDS means running your own Personal Data Server that is capable of federating with the wider Bluesky social network.

Preparation for self-hosting PDS#

Launch a server on any cloud provider, Digital Ocean and Vultr are two popular choices.

Ensure that you can ssh to your server and have root access.

Server Requirements

• Public IPv4 address
• Public DNS name
• Public inbound internet access permitted on port 80/tcp and 443/tcp

Server Recommendations

Note: It is a good security practice to restrict inbound ssh access (port 22/tcp) to your own computer's public IP address. You can check your current public IP address using ifconfig.me.

Open your cloud firewall for HTTP and HTTPS#

One of the most common sources of misconfiguration is not opening firewall ports correctly. Please be sure to double check this step.

In your cloud provider's console, the following ports should be open to inbound access from the public internet.

• 80/tcp (Used only for TLS certification verification)
• 443/tcp (Used for all application requests)

Note: there is no need to set up TLS or redirect requests from port 80 to 443 because the Caddy web server, included in the Docker compose file, will handle this for you.

Configure DNS for your domain#

From your DNS provider's control panel, set up a domain with records pointing to your server.

Note:

• Replace example.com with your domain name.
• Replace 12.34.56.78 with your server's IP address.
• Some providers may use the @ symbol to represent the root of your domain.
• The wildcard record is required when allowing users to create new accounts on your PDS.
• The TTL can be anything but 600 (10 minutes) is reasonable

Check that DNS is working as expected#

Use a service like DNS Checker to verify that you can resolve domain names.

Examples to check (record type A):

• example.com
• random.example.com
• test123.example.com

These should all return your server's public IP.

Installer on Ubuntu 20.04/22.04 and Debian 11/12#

On your server via ssh, download the installer script using wget:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bluesky-social/pds/main/installer.sh

or download it using curl:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bluesky-social/pds/main/installer.sh >installer.sh

And then run the installer using bash:

sudo bash installer.sh

Verifying that your PDS is online and accessible#

You can check if your server is online and healthy by requesting the healthcheck endpoint.

You can visit https://example.com/xrpc/_health in your browser. You should see a JSON response with a version.

For example:

{"version":"0.2.2-beta.2"}

Creating an account using pdsadmin#

Using ssh on your server, use pdsadmin to create an account if you haven't already.

sudo pdsadmin account create

Creating an account using an invite code#

Using ssh on your server, use pdsadmin to create an invite code.

sudo pdsadmin create-invite-code

When creating an account using the app, enter this invite code.

Using the Bluesky app with your PDS#

You can use the Bluesky app to connect to your PDS.

1. Get the Bluesky app
   • Bluesky for Web
   • Bluesky for iPhone
   • Bluesky for Android
2. Enter the URL of your PDS (e.g. https://example.com/)

Note: because the subdomain TLS certificate is created on-demand, it may take 10-30s for your handle to be accessible. If you aren't seeing your first post/profile, wait 30s and try to make another post.

Updating your PDS#

It is recommended that you keep your PDS up to date with new versions, otherwise things may break. You can use the pdsadmin tool to update your PDS.

sudo pdsadmin update