# bluesky-pds

<!-- metadata -->

* **Category**: Apps
* **Status**: 0
* **Image**: ghcr.io/bluesky-social/pds
* **Healthcheck**: Yes
* **Backups**: No
* **Email**: No
* **Tests**: No
* **SSO**: No

<!-- endmetadata -->

## About

A [Bluesky PDS](https://github.com/bluesky-social/pds) (Personal Data Server)
is a self-hosted server for the AT Protocol, allowing you to own your social
data and federate with the Bluesky network.

## Basic usage

1. Set up Docker Swarm and [`abra`]
2. Deploy [`coop-cloud/traefik`]
3. `abra app new bluesky-pds` (do **not** use `--secrets` yet, see below)
4. `abra app config YOURAPPDOMAIN` - set `DOMAIN` to something that resolves to
   your Docker swarm box
5. Generate the PLC rotation key and create secrets (see below)
6. `abra app deploy YOURAPPDOMAIN`
7. Verify the PDS is running: `curl https://YOURAPPDOMAIN/xrpc/_health`

## Generating secrets

The JWT secret and admin password can be generated automatically:

```bash
abra app secret generate YOURAPPDOMAIN pds_jwt_secret v1
abra app secret generate YOURAPPDOMAIN pds_admin_password v1
```

The PLC rotation key is a secp256k1 private key and must be generated manually:

```bash
openssl ecparam --name secp256k1 --genkey --noout --outform DER | \
  tail --bytes=+8 | head --bytes=32 | xxd --plain --cols 32
```

Then store it as a secret:

```bash
abra app secret insert YOURAPPDOMAIN pds_plc_rotation_key v1 <THE_KEY_HEX>
```

## Account management

Create an account on your PDS:

```bash
abra app run YOURAPPDOMAIN app -- \
  goat pds admin account create \
    --admin-password "$(abra app secret get YOURAPPDOMAIN pds_admin_password v1)" \
    --handle user.YOURAPPDOMAIN \
    --email user@example.com \
    --password yourpassword
```

Create an invite code:

```bash
abra app run YOURAPPDOMAIN app -- \
  goat pds admin account create-invite \
    --admin-password "$(abra app secret get YOURAPPDOMAIN pds_admin_password v1)"
```

## Handle configuration

User handles on a PDS can work in two ways:

1. **Subdomain handles** (e.g. `user.pds.example.com`): The default. Requires a
   wildcard DNS record (`*.pds.example.com`) pointing to your server. TLS is
   handled automatically by the Caddy sidecar (see below).

2. **Domain handles** (e.g. `user.com`): Users can use their own domain as a
   handle by adding a DNS TXT record at `_atproto.user.com` with the value
   `did=did:plc:<their-did>`. This works without any additional server
   configuration.

## TLS architecture (Caddy sidecar)

This recipe uses a **Caddy sidecar** for TLS instead of letting Traefik terminate
TLS directly. This is needed because Bluesky subdomain handles require TLS
certificates for each `user.pds.example.com` subdomain, and Traefik cannot issue
on-demand per-subdomain certificates.

The architecture:

1. **Traefik** receives TLS connections on port 443 and does **TCP passthrough**
   (no TLS termination) for traffic matching `DOMAIN` and `*.DOMAIN`, forwarding
   the raw TLS stream to Caddy.
2. **Caddy** terminates TLS using **on-demand certificates** — it automatically
   obtains a Let's Encrypt certificate for each subdomain the first time a
   connection arrives, using the TLS-ALPN-01 challenge.
3. **Caddy** reverse proxies the decrypted HTTP traffic to the PDS on port 3000.

This matches how the [upstream PDS](https://github.com/bluesky-social/pds) is
designed to work (it ships with Caddy), adapted for Co-op Cloud's Traefik-based
routing. The PDS exposes a `/tls-check` endpoint that Caddy consults before
issuing a certificate, preventing abuse.

**Note:** The first request to a new subdomain handle may take 10-30 seconds while
Caddy obtains the TLS certificate from Let's Encrypt. Subsequent requests are instant.

No changes to the Traefik recipe are needed — the TCP passthrough is configured
entirely via deploy labels on the Caddy service in this recipe's `compose.yml`.

## DNS setup

At minimum, create an A record pointing your PDS domain to your server:

```
pds.example.com    A    <server-ip>
```

For subdomain handles, also add a wildcard record:

```
*.pds.example.com  A    <server-ip>
```

[`abra`]: https://git.coopcloud.tech/coop-cloud/abra
[`coop-cloud/traefik`]: https://git.coopcloud.tech/coop-cloud/traefik