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https://github.com/benbrown/shuttlecraft

a single user activitypub server - join the federation!
https://github.com/benbrown/shuttlecraft

activitypub benbrown blogging fediverse indieweb microblogging rss socialmedia

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a single user activitypub server - join the federation!

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README 

        
# SHUTTLECRAFT by Ben Brown



This is a project to create an "easy" way to participate in the ActivityPub "Fediverse" and other indie web protocols like RSS.

This was created and is maintained by [Ben Brown](https://benbrown.com).



Currently, this means:



- a stand-alone NodeJS web application 

- with no external service dependencies

- that is hostable on Glitch or commodity virtualhost



Including features:

- Follow people (on Mastodon, other instances)

- Compose posts and deliver on the web, and also via ActivityPub, RSS

- Fave, boost and reply to posts

- View notifications

- Send and receive DMs

- Block people or instances



Not yet supported:

- Media uploads



## Warning: Experimental Software! 



This software should be considered an EXPERIMENTAL PROTOTYPE.

Do not use it to store or exchange sensitive information.



- This software creates publicly available web endpoints.

- This software sends outbound web requests.

- This software reads and writes to the filesystem!

- This software has not been audited for potential security problems!!



Because of the way the Mastodon works, once you start to engage with

users on other instances, you will start to receive traffic from a

wide array of other instances -- not all of which is necessary or 

relevant to you. As a result, operating this software on a small basis

may result in unexpected amounts of incoming traffic.



## Warning: Known limitations!



My goal with this app is to not use any major external services.

As a result, all data is written as PLAIN TEXT FILES to the disk.



Right now, the app builds an IN-MEMORY INDEX of EVERY SINGLE POST.

This will work for several thousand posts, but ... maybe not for 10,000s of posts.

I'm not sure how far it will go. I have ideas about being able to

shard the index into multiple files and page through it, etc. But.



ALSO, there is nothing fancy happening in terms of queuing or rate

limiting outgoing posts. When you post, it will send out HTTP requests

right away, all at once. This may cause issues.



## Acknowledgements



This project owes a great debt to @dariusk's excellent [express-activitypub](https://github.com/dariusk/express-activitypub) repo.

My work started from his reference implementation, and there are many lines of code cribbed from his work.



## Bug Reports & Contributions



Please file bugs on Github:

https://github.com/benbrown/shuttlecraft/issues



Please read the [contributor's guide](CONTRIBUTING.md) before sending pull requests.



## Install



Quick start: [Remix on Glitch](#easiest-glitch)



Clone the repo:

`git clone [email protected]:benbrown/shuttlecraft.git`



Enter folder:

`cd shuttlecraft`



Install node dependencies:

`npm install`



You are ready to run! But first, set your configuration.



When you are ready to start, run:

`npm start`



## Config



Initial configuration of your instance is done by editing the

.env file to include your desired USERNAME, PASSWORD, and DOMAIN NAME.

These values MUST BE SET before you launch the application, as

they are used to generate your account details, including your

Fediverse actor ID.



In the .env file, put:



```

USERNAME=yourusername

PASS=yourpasswordforadmintools

DOMAIN=yourdomainname

PORT=3000

```



USERNAME and PASS are required to login to the private dashboard tools.



When you launch the app for the first time, these values will be used

to create the `.data/account.json` file which is the source of your

public account information, and will be used for many operations.



There is currently no UI built to view or manage your account. If you

need to make updates, edit the JSON directly.



HOWEVER PLEASE NOTE that your ID is a real URL, and it must reflect

the real URL served by this app. Also note that it is embedded in

every post you write - so if you change values in the `account.json` file,

your previous posts may break.



## Login



To login, visit `https://yourdomain.com/private` and provide the username and password from your .env file



## Debugging



If you want more logging or want to see what is happening in the background,

enable debugging by adding DEBUG=ono:* to the .env file, or starting the app

with:



`DEBUG=ono:* npm start`



## Where is my data?



All of the data is stored in the `.data` folder in JSON files.



Incoming activities will be in `.data/activitystream`. Each incoming

post is in a dated folder, for example `2022/12-01/GUID.json`



Local posts are in `.data/posts`



Cached user information is in `.data/users`



Follower list, following list, like list, boost list, block list,

and notifications can all be found in their own files at the root

of the `.data` folder. This is your data! Back it up if you care 

about it.



## Host



This is a node app that runs by default on port 3000, or the port

specified in the .env file.



In order to play nice with the fediverse, it must be hosted on an

SSL-enabled endpoint.



### Easiest: Glitch



Use Glitch to create a new project! Glitch will provide you with hosting for your instance of Shuttlecraft,

and you can start for FREE!



It all starts when you click this link -> [Remix this project on Glitch](https://glitch.com/edit/#!/import/github/benbrown/shuttlecraft) <--



WHOA! What happened? Well, a copy of the Shuttlecraft code was sent to a new, unique, owned-by-you web server and it started getting set up. You just need to make it yours by following these steps:



1. First, make sure the URL of your Glitch project is the one you like. You can change it in the "Settings" menu.

2. Then, configure the options [as described above](#config) using the .env editor.

3. Finally, login to the dashboard at `https://yourdomain.glitch.me/private`.

4. Done!



### Basic: Reverse proxy



1. Clone the repo to your own server.

2. Configure it and set it up to run on a port of your choosing.

3. Configure Caddy or Nginx with a Certbot SSL certificate.

4. Configure your domain to proxy requests to the localhost port.



A sample `Caddyfile` is included in the repo. [Install Caddy](https://caddyserver.com/download) and run:

```

caddy run --config Caddyfile

```



### Advanced: Docker



1. Clone the repo.

2. Build the image:

   ```

   docker build . --tag "${yourRegistryUsername}/shuttlecraft:latest"

   ```

3. Test locally:

   ```

   docker run -e PORT=3000 -e DOMAIN="your-domain.com" -e USERNAME="yourUsername" -e PASS="yourPassword" -p "3000:3000" "${yourRegistryUsername}/shuttlecraft"

   ```

4. Push the image to your registry:

   ```

   docker push "${yourRegistryUsername}/shuttlecraft:latest"

   ```

5. Deploy the image to your container platform with the required environment variables (`DOMAIN`, `USERNAME`, `PASS`). 

6. Configure a web service to proxy requests to the container port and provide HTTPS (see "Reverse proxy" above). 



## Customize



This app uses HandlebarsJS for templating.



Customize the public pages:

- Templates are in `design/public/home.handlebars` and `design/public/note.handlebars` and `design/layouts/public.handlebars`

- CSS is in `public/css/main.css`



Customize your avatar:

- Replace `public/images/avatar.png`

- As necessary, update the url in `.data/account.json` inside the actor.icon.url field



Customize the backend:

- Templates are in `design/dashboard.handlebars` and `design/notifications.handlebars` and `design/layouts/private.handlebars`

- Some common components in `design/partials`

- CSS in `public/css/secret.css`



To block users or instances:

- Add an entry to the file at `.data/blocks`

- You can block a user using their actor ID (something like https://foo.bar/@jerk) or their entire domain (https://foo.bar/)

- Restart the app