Bluesky Personal Data Server

[jeff]

Federation is no longer just the sandbox; it's network-wide. PDSs are now self-host-able.

[jeff]

+1 for packaging. The drama re: Dorsey is juvenile. Congrats to Bluesky on releasing federation support.

[rmdes]

It's almost funny to see all the rage against Bluesky by the purists, rage filled with disinformation and more beliefs and self-projection about Bluesky than actual facts by the way, but anyhow, this is one more vote for having bluesky on cloudron !

the deployment from what I understand is Docker first, even tho there is already ways to do without

[ekevu123]

Considering its recent surge in popularity, maybe it is worth revisiting whether bluesky can be set up in Cloudron.

[jdaviescoates]

@ekevu123 I doubt it'll be possible to do it in a way that works alongside Cloudron any time soon to be honest. For starters self hosting a Relay needs at least 4.5TB space. But also there are lots of moving parts that rely on particular version of things (e.g. Ubuntu 24.04 isn't supported yet etc etc ete). See https://alice.bsky.sh/post/3laega7icmi2q for more info.

[ekevu123]

4,5TB? Wow. I didn't know.

Never mind then

EDIT: However, I was referring to Bluesky Personal Data Server, which has reasonable requirements and can be run inside docker -
https://atproto.com/guides/self-hosting

[marcusquinn]

Now, of course, we have AI to read Ts & Cs for gotchas.

[gerard]

@shanelord01 Maybe the title of the app request could be updated to "Bluesky Personal Data Server" ? As this is the docker container that would be self-hosted through Cloudron.
I've watched this recent how-to video of someone installing Bluseky PDS on a raspberry pi and it seems that the docker installation and setup has become pretty straight forward.

[timconsidine]

The provided Dockerfile does not seem complex, especially if the multi-stage build can be used (seems this is now a permissible approach for Cloudron).

[scooke]

Seeing how many help requests on here because ppl don't understand what "fresh server" means, and how many are using under-powered 2GB RAM servers, as well as trying to explain what the PDS is, I can't really blame the CLoduron team for seeming to be disinterested in making this available.

[rmdes]

What about this approach : https://github.com/itaru2622/bluesky-selfhost-env

[nebulon]

I don't have a clear view yet on what a bluesky setup all includes, but at least that Personal Data Server, which can apparently federate, does not have outlandish requirements on the system https://github.com/bluesky-social/pds?tab=readme-ov-file#preparation-for-self-hosting-pds

However it does not appear to have stable releases yet.

[jdaviescoates]

@jdaviescoates said in Bluesky Personal Data Server:

For starters self hosting a Relay needs at least 4.5TB space.

As per https://whtwnd.com/bnewbold.net/3lbvbtqrg5t2t this has already increased to 16TB!

So, yeah, hosting a Bluesky Relay not really a viable thing to individually self host.

But I guess the PDS more viable.

BTW this thread and the linked blog exchanges well worth a read

https://social.coop/@cwebber/113647109852249805

In short: Bluesky / ATproto is not (and will not be) really very decentralized. Still better than X though.

[scooke]

@jdaviescoates said in Bluesky Personal Data Server:

Still better than X though

Anything is better than X, on principle!

[rmdes]

Most people would be more interested to run their own PDS than a Relay I think, it's probably going to be bit by bit, i'm not expecting Bluesky to be born in a desired state of perfection because nothing on the internet is ever born that way but I do hope that over time more and more parts of Bluesky will able to be run by users if they choose so

[nichu42]

What advantages does it have to self-host a PDS?

[jdaviescoates]

@rmdes said in Bluesky Personal Data Server:

I do hope that over time more and more parts of Bluesky will able to be run by users if they choose so

If you read that thread and linked posts it's pretty clear that it'll never be very decentralised.

[bmann]

@shanelord01 thanks for bringing this up Shane. I would like to see it packaged, it will probably need to start as a custom app.

I installed one myself taking over a full KVM-1 VPS at Hostinger ($4/month).

I'm an AT Protocol expert and maintain a tech talks Ghost blog at https://atprotocol.dev (hosted on my Cloudron server!).

There are some misunderstandings in this thread about architecture and frankly I'm not going to argue about decentralization. Running a PDS means user ownership of your data, which seems very on mission for Cloudron.

It also handles auth, acting as your OAuth server wherever you log into with your account. There are multiple non-Bluesky apps with different data types (called Lexicons). A few of my favourites:

• Smoke Signal - events & RSVP https://smokesignal.events
• White Wind - markdown blogs https://whtwnd.com
• Frontpage - link ranking & discussion https://frontpage.fyi
• Recipe Exchange - recipe storage https://recipe.exchange

When you log into other AT Prototocol powered apps, the data is written to your own PDS. Here's my (Bluesky hosted) account with all the data types: https://atproto-browser.vercel.app/at/bmann.ca

It is also extremely low resource usage. Runs on NodeJS and SQL lite and some web socket connections.

I haven't gotten far in learning Cloudron packaging myself yet, but I'll update this thread if I get something guying.