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GoToSocial

GoToSocial is a lightweight, privacy-focused ActivityPub server written in Go.

Overview​

PropertyValue
LanguageGo
DatabaseSQLite/PostgreSQL
LicenseAGPL-3.0
Repositorygithub.com/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial
Documentationdocs.gotosocial.org

Key Features​

  • Single binary deployment
  • Low resource usage (~256MB RAM)
  • Privacy-focused (no public follower lists by default)
  • Clean codebase (good for learning)

ActivityPub Implementation​

Actor Type​

{
  "@context": [
    "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams",
    "https://w3id.org/security/v1"
  ],
  "type": "Person",
  "id": "https://gts.example/users/alice",
  "preferredUsername": "alice",
  "name": "Alice",
  "summary": "<p>Hello, I'm Alice!</p>",
  "inbox": "https://gts.example/users/alice/inbox",
  "outbox": "https://gts.example/users/alice/outbox",
  "followers": "https://gts.example/users/alice/followers",
  "following": "https://gts.example/users/alice/following",
  "featured": "https://gts.example/users/alice/collections/featured",
  "manuallyApprovesFollowers": false,
  "discoverable": true,
  "publicKey": {
    "id": "https://gts.example/users/alice/main-key",
    "owner": "https://gts.example/users/alice",
    "publicKeyPem": "-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----..."
  }
}

Note​

{
  "type": "Note",
  "id": "https://gts.example/users/alice/statuses/01ABC",
  "attributedTo": "https://gts.example/users/alice",
  "content": "<p>Hello from GoToSocial!</p>",
  "published": "2024-01-15T10:00:00Z",
  "to": ["https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams#Public"],
  "cc": ["https://gts.example/users/alice/followers"],
  "sensitive": false,
  "summary": null,
  "inReplyTo": null,
  "url": "https://gts.example/@alice/statuses/01ABC"
}

Supported Activities​

ActivitySupportNotes
Create✅Notes
Update✅Note edits
Delete✅With Tombstone
Like✅Faves
Announce✅Boosts
Follow✅Accept/Reject
Undo✅All reversible
Block✅Federation block
Flag✅Reports

Privacy Features​

Hidden Collections​

By default, follower/following counts are shown but not lists:

{
  "type": "OrderedCollection",
  "id": "https://gts.example/users/alice/followers",
  "totalItems": 42
  // No "first" or items - requires authentication
}

Local-Only Posts​

Posts can be restricted from federation:

{
  "type": "Note",
  "to": [],
  "cc": ["https://gts.example/users/alice/followers"]
}

API Endpoints​

Discovery​

GET /.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:alice@gts.example
GET /.well-known/nodeinfo
GET /.well-known/host-meta

Actor & Collections​

GET /users/{username}
GET /users/{username}/inbox
POST /users/{username}/inbox
GET /users/{username}/outbox
GET /users/{username}/followers
GET /users/{username}/following
GET /users/{username}/statuses/{id}

Shared Inbox​

POST /inbox

Implementation Details​

Request Signing​

GoToSocial requires HTTP Signatures:

POST /inbox HTTP/1.1
Host: gts.example
Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2024 10:00:00 GMT
Digest: SHA-256=X48E9qOokqqrvdts...
Signature: keyId="https://sender.example/users/bob#main-key",...

Accept Header​

Requires explicit ActivityPub Accept header:

GET /users/alice HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/activity+json

ULID Identifiers​

Uses ULIDs instead of UUIDs:

01HQX5N2F0KQHG1XBWQH2K3Z4T

Interoperability​

With Mastodon​

  • Full compatibility
  • Respects privacy settings
  • Handles all standard activities

Known Differences​

  • No quote posts yet (groundwork landed in v0.21 via the canQuote property)
  • No reactions (only Like)
  • Stricter signature validation

Deployment​

Single Binary​

./gotosocial server start

Docker​

docker run -d \
  -p 443:8080 \
  -v ./data:/gotosocial/storage \
  superseriousbusiness/gotosocial:latest

Resource Usage​

UsersRAMCPU
1~100MBMinimal
10-50~256MBLow
100+~512MBLow

See Also​