Pixelfed

:::info Verified against Pixelfed v0.14.4 (released 2026-09-30), checked 2026-10-15 against Pixelfed's ActivityPub transformers. :::

Pixelfed is a photo sharing platform for the Fediverse, similar to Instagram. The same team builds Loops, a short-video platform.

Overview

Property	Value
Language	PHP (Laravel)
Database	MySQL/PostgreSQL
License	AGPL-3.0
Repository	github.com/pixelfed/pixelfed
Documentation	docs.pixelfed.org

ActivityPub Implementation

Actor Type

{
  "@context": [
    "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams",
    "https://w3id.org/security/v1"
  ],
  "type": "Person",
  "id": "https://pixelfed.social/users/alice",
  "preferredUsername": "alice",
  "name": "Alice",
  "summary": "<p>Photography enthusiast</p>",
  "inbox": "https://pixelfed.social/users/alice/inbox",
  "outbox": "https://pixelfed.social/users/alice/outbox",
  "followers": "https://pixelfed.social/users/alice/followers",
  "following": "https://pixelfed.social/users/alice/following",
  "icon": {
    "type": "Image",
    "url": "https://pixelfed.social/storage/avatars/alice.jpg"
  }
}

Photo Posts

Pixelfed posts are Notes with Image attachments:

{
  "type": "Note",
  "id": "https://pixelfed.social/p/alice/12345",
  "attributedTo": "https://pixelfed.social/users/alice",
  "content": "<p>Beautiful sunset! #photography</p>",
  "published": "2024-01-15T18:30:00Z",
  "to": ["https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams#Public"],
  "cc": ["https://pixelfed.social/users/alice/followers"],
  "sensitive": false,
  "attachment": [
    {
      "type": "Image",
      "mediaType": "image/jpeg",
      "url": "https://pixelfed.social/storage/m/photo.jpg",
      "name": "A colorful sunset over the ocean",
      "width": 1920,
      "height": 1080,
      "blurhash": "LEHV6nWB2yk8pyo0adR*.7kCMdnj"
    }
  ],
  "tag": [
    {
      "type": "Hashtag",
      "href": "https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/photography",
      "name": "#photography"
    }
  ]
}

Collections

Pixelfed's curated collections are a UI feature; v0.14.4 has no ActivityPub transformer for them, so they don't federate.

Stories

Stories are ephemeral (24-hour) and are not sent as Notes. Pixelfed sends followers an Add of a Story that references a bearcap (capability) URL; dereferencing it returns a Story object with expiresAt, duration, can_reply, can_react and a single attachment. See CreateStory.php, StoryVerb.php and the Pixelfed compatibility guide.

{
  "type": "Story",
  "id": "https://pixelfed.social/stories/alice/98765",
  "to": ["https://pixelfed.social/users/alice/followers"],
  "attributedTo": "https://pixelfed.social/users/alice",
  "published": "2026-10-15T10:00:00+00:00",
  "expiresAt": "2026-10-16T10:00:00+00:00",
  "duration": 10,
  "can_reply": true,
  "can_react": true,
  "attachment": {
    "type": "Image",
    "url": "https://pixelfed.social/storage/stories/image.jpg",
    "mediaType": "image/jpeg"
  }
}

Supported Activities

Activity	Support	Notes
Create	✅	Photo posts (Note with Document attachments)
Add	✅	Stories (Story, followers only)
Delete	✅	Post removal
Like	✅	Favorites
Announce	✅	Shares
Follow	✅	Standard
Undo	✅	All reversible

Custom Extensions

Property	Type	Description
blurhash	String	Image placeholder
width	Integer	Image width
height	Integer	Image height
expiresAt	DateTime	Story expiration
commentsEnabled	Boolean	Comments allowed on a post
capabilities	Object	Who may announce, like and reply
location	Place	Optional post location

API Endpoints

Standard Endpoints

GET /.well-known/webfinger
GET /.well-known/nodeinfo
GET /users/{username}
GET /p/{username}/{id}

Collections

GET /users/{username}/outbox
GET /users/{username}/followers
GET /users/{username}/following

Compatibility

Image Handling

• Uses blurhash for placeholders
• Includes dimensions in attachment
• Alt text via name property

Federation Behavior

• Photo posts appear as Notes in Mastodon
• Multiple images shown as attachments
• Collections and stories don't appear on Mastodon (stories use a Pixelfed-specific Story type)

See Also

• Pixelfed Documentation
• PHP Libraries
• Server Software Overview