The Atmosphere - my first impressions
table of contents
What is the Atmosphere? #
The Atmosphere is an umbrella-term which refers to all apps, websites and services which uses atproto under the hood. atproto is a protocol which unifies login and data storage for several apps under one roof.
It is driven by nodes called PDS. a PDS is a server that manages one or more accounts in the Atmosphere, and also contains all data for said accounts. A great example is Bluesky (bsky.app). When you create an account, it defaults to using Blueskys PDS server, where you are assigned a handle (username) ending in said PDS, .bsky.social.
These PDS servers are fully selfhostable, personally i decided to selfhost mine at pds.ch0.dev from the very start. Then i created an account on it, and connected my handle via a TXT record so i could have the handle ch0.dev. Now, all my data accross the Atmosphere, for example all my posts, likes and comments on bluesky, are stored on my own personal PDS.
The PDS #
Why would i want to selfhost my own PDS? #
As many things in life, a selfhosted PDS can give great benefits, but also requires some stuff. Because its a selfhosted service (if you dont decide to use some elses, like blueskys PDS) you will need an always-on server that has a route to and from the internet, so you and others can read your data!
One big thing for me is privacy, because all of my data stays on my server, companies cant sell said data. Another advantage is that every authorized app can edit other apps data, and everyone can read your data. This means that if data is standardized (like this blog, its published using the standard.site format to my own PDS!) it can be read and viewed from several apps (for example you read this blog from standard-reader, a reader that can read standard.site formatted posts). This also opens up the possibility for alternate clients, for example alternatives to the bluesky client. You can still post and read other posts, as said alternate client has access to the same data as bluesky.
If you are interested in selfhosting your own PDS, check out the official guide!
Okay, but what actually uses atproto? #
Bluesky #
The best example is the bluesky social platform, theyre the devs behind bluesky after all!
Blog platforms #
While this blog isnt actively using a specific blogging platform, it still pushes its contents to my PBS to be read following the standard.site format, using Sequoia.
There are also dedicated blogging platforms, that let you write and share your blog, using standard.site under the hood most of the time. These include pckt, leaflet and offprint.
Git (yes, really!) #
There is an incredibly interesting project called tangled that is being actively developed, and is already usable and incredibly impressive. It lets you host “knots”, which acts as git servers, and “spindles”, which acts as CI runners, and uses atproto to unify them into a single big index of selfhosted repos and users.
I myself just set up tangled and migrated my 2 latest projects onto there. This blog is mirrored to tangle as well. If youd like to check them out, you can find them on my tangled profile.
I dont want to go too in depth about tangled here, as i am planning on writing a longer post about tangled when i have gotten a taste for it and have more to share.
More #
Obviously, i cant list every single project that uses atproto here, there are too many, and so many new are made all the time! I recommend checking out the atstore for an up to date list of most popular Atmosphere apps.
Final thoughts #
It has been a real blast selfhosting my own PDS, a knot, a spindle and trying out the atproto ecosystem. I will definentely try to integrate it more and more into my homelab, tech stack, daily life and more. It is an awesome concept with an awesome execution and i hope others see how great it is as well.