fig (aka:[phil])

https://bsky.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/bad-example.com

art and transistors, they/them plant-mom

making and running community infra for the atmosphere @microcosm.blue: hubble, constellation, slingshot, UFOs, spacedust, lightrail, some relays, plc mirrors, and more!

dm for atproto consulting or service SLA

🌉 [bridged](https://fed.brid.gy/bsky/bad-example.com ) from 🦋 [bad-example.com](https://bsky.app/profile/bad-example.com ), follow Bridgy Fed for the Atmosphere (Bluesky) (npub1pqr…2sck) to interact

Web site: https://bsky.app/profile/bad-example.com
Link: https://bad-example.com

Public Key

npub17yfwkvcdfa2k5n7pyqpdcjdmtgdy62srw5v9wm2xffpsvakjgj6s5sgwt8

NIP-05 Address

bad-example.com_at_bsky.brid.gy@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs0zyhtxvx574t2flqjqqkufxa45xjd9gph2xzhd4ry5scxwmfyfdgpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dss5dmft

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub17yfwkvcdfa2k5n7pyqpdcjdmtgdy62srw5v9wm2xffpsvakjgj6s5sgwt8

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-10-27 23:09:01 UTC

Weigh in, we're stabilizing STARs
[STAR: settling the details - D...](https://data-service-diaries.pckt.blog/star-settling-the-details-tc12qge )

2026-10-20 15:37:15 UTC

all atproto server-side apps/services: you are affected.
- pds: service proxying is outbound tls requests
- firehose consumers: tls to relays/jetstream
- relays etc: tls to pdses, plc
- identity resolution: tls to plc and did:web hosts
- etc
if you only ship code to the browser, you are ok.
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:x2nsupeeo52oznrmplwapppl/post/3myctk2uu4c2z

2026-10-08 16:22:14 UTC

whoaaaaa, the original STAR-L0 was essentially like n0's bao/chunk group=2; STAR-L1 like chunk-group=4 (structurally)
(bao is lucky that the number of children in the tree is fixed and chunk sizes are fixed though)
outboard proofs are neat and could be interesting for MSTs next to STAR archives 👀
[BLAKE3 and bao deep dive](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk4nefmguZk )

2026-10-05 15:36:12 UTC

roast my spec
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:izttpdp3l6vss5crelt5kcux/post/3mx4oqko5kk2k
#note1yaz…ggdd

2026-09-29 18:15:10 UTC

normal github
https://porcini.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:hdhoaan3xa3jiuq4fg4mefid&cid=bafkreiexxgkyvmnoa27btjcj72qiry54r6lsziu6vc522n2udxn65yldf4

2026-09-17 18:55:45 UTC

- reply

(my *guesses* at CID motivation were that you can seek/skip over blocks to find a specific one (validate it lazily), or build an index over contents (on disk?) without knowing in advance which CID type you want for each block)

2026-09-17 18:53:11 UTC

- reply

wait wait, put the cids in there like... did you work on inventing CARs? (cool!!!!)

2026-09-16 19:45:59 UTC

alright here it is, my hit-piece on CARs in atproto, with a big ecosystem survey
[War on CARs - Data service dia...](https://pckt.blog/b/data-service-diaries/war-on-cars-5xa5v73 )

2026-09-11 18:35:26 UTC

there are currently 2,891,241,622 bluesky posts in the network
what's a cool $14.5M to export between friends
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4hodhjl2kposuchzvpiviwps/post/3mvamf356pc2g
#note1f0r…kudy

2026-09-06 18:30:35 UTC

record: broken. 21.7K unique identities have published non-bluesky data so far this week, the most ever.
(and we're less than halfway through the ufos-week)
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:hdhoaan3xa3jiuq4fg4mefid/post/3muss7zfukk2v
https://porcini.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:hdhoaan3xa3jiuq4fg4mefid&cid=bafkreihcxwsfv4z6tz4bfv4mr7gtht6p2cqwfqh7gpscam3s4fcadq7544
#note1wa7…f9me

2026-09-06 01:01:50 UTC

- reply

oooooo ya we're only like three days into this ufos-week, and on track to blow past the non-bsky weekly-actives record
https://porcini.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:hdhoaan3xa3jiuq4fg4mefid&cid=bafkreifmpo3ppbwtdpxholiddk23hvyok3v4pqffpba2dmp5trc7jkmzvi

2026-09-03 21:58:58 UTC

oof, a lot of atproto rust ecosystem handle resolution uses hickory, psa
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:htsnmeozwqcgo3ar7z65azjr/post/3mun7l5hyek2c

2026-08-29 19:47:55 UTC

what would you call something that's kind of jetstream-like but not jetstream

2026-08-11 22:47:34 UTC

u can just backfill the whole network from hubble to a cheap vps (plus block storage) in 7h6m
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:hdhoaan3xa3jiuq4fg4mefid/post/3msjph2ay2c2k
https://porcini.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:hdhoaan3xa3jiuq4fg4mefid&cid=bafkreicxnb6vd7owxg6etayll2znbde7xnop64euq42or7poro7upcjyb4
#note1tm9…n2vn

2026-08-07 23:27:44 UTC

u can just backfill the network from scratch in 26h
https://porcini.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:hdhoaan3xa3jiuq4fg4mefid&cid=bafkreicgk4inga4e4i2nuw2mqhseh5wfojoiynaws3hh7il3gifjluwia4

2026-08-01 15:25:25 UTC

24,347,088,288 records in 41,172,356 repos in the reachable network
fits in 1.86TiB in hubble

2026-07-08 12:38:59 UTC

i think the process of doing any full network backfill makes you think you’ve made every possible mistake in the process
im here to tell you: no. there are more possible mistakes to make.

2026-06-25 20:28:14 UTC

just so people have some heads up: gonna have to do a 2x price hike to use microcosm services. this is to keep up with rising tech costs, as everyone is facing.
- $0/mo today
- increasing 2x to $0/mo next month
thanks for your continued support and happy querying

2026-06-23 19:13:02 UTC

hello! yeah! quite a lot of PLC progress (and some left to go). (warning: long thread)
1. there is an official reference read-replica implementation: [github.com/did-method-p...](https://github.com/did-method-plc/go-didplc/tree/main/cmd/plc-replica )
the official read-replica is better than the Allegedly reference-server-wrapper that i made, in two important ways:
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:yokonvs2bnnh4bzfiwuiukxv/post/3moxvsg7qds2g

2026-06-12 15:14:01 UTC

the reachable network is 7.7T as car files as of yesterday

2026-06-11 17:33:42 UTC

ooohhhh yeah baby that's microcosm powering your [mu.social](https://mu.social ) verifications hehehe
https://porcini.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:hdhoaan3xa3jiuq4fg4mefid&cid=bafkreidcuh3qaenspniglp4h26auzyfovykmbtzulcmlf3pxvpg3unyldy

2026-06-11 12:18:36 UTC

trying out [userinput.app](https://userinput.app ), made a microcosm board for constellation:
[userinput.app#/s/did:plc:l...](https://userinput.app/#/s/did:plc:lulmyldiq4sb2ikags5sfb25/3mnz75hfxac2a )
…microcosm probably has too many projects to make boards for each one. should there just be one? or a few by category? or

2026-06-10 23:25:02 UTC

Update! at the Lightrail
pretty embarrassing bug fixed, sorry for all the requests!
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:lulmyldiq4sb2ikags5sfb25/post/3mnxu5lgc422n

2026-06-10 13:28:45 UTC

…and the other thing i’ve been setting up for Eurosky!
managed postgres, rainbow fan-out, 72h replay window, recovery and maintenance plans, and some more i’ll write about soon
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ooensn4mr5mhznzypvxelfa3/post/3mnw5pkpvtk2t
#note1chh…ff9x

2026-05-11 20:50:52 UTC

kicking off a [firehose.club](https://firehose.club ) community relay list, thanks to @npub10vh…kvt5 ! open a PR to add yours!
[firehose.club/3ml2fpb5s6w22](https://tangled.org/firehose.club/3ml2fpb5s6w22 )

2026-04-16 23:44:18 UTC

been monitoring all microcosm services through the day and haven't posted much about it because it's been mostly just fine. nobody has been attacking microcosm today.
traffic is up a lot of course but all the little boxes have been chill.
hugops the the bsky folks, this one must have been rough

2026-04-16 20:07:08 UTC

microcosm relays are public and free to use!
it’s cool to subscribe to both bluesky and microcosm relays if your firehose consumer can do multi-relay ✨
SLA available if you’re a business and need that: get in touch!
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:2zmxikig2sj7gqaezl5gntae/post/3mjn5toe4bs2g
#note1se5…6687

2026-04-02 14:42:41 UTC

psa about covid tests for everyone who was at #atmosphereconf:
if you start feeling anything after your negative test, please take another, 24–48h after the last one.
the rapid tests have a very real false-negative rate, and testing positive has always happened some time *after* symptoms for me

2026-03-31 19:26:45 UTC

someone hold me finishing and publishing this
https://porcini.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:hdhoaan3xa3jiuq4fg4mefid&cid=bafkreidlaoes54esecnoq3asw4kd4rebhcgek22d5bqm7yber3knj5yiay

2026-03-28 18:29:41 UTC

slides for my talk (now-ish) if you want to follow the small-text (or get spoilers)
[atproto infra](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ug-ld9lFwZNnUTUlo0AIeMSxr5Se1UT2h6vcOVbzrBM/edit?usp=sharing )

2026-03-23 16:49:12 UTC

if you are (or have ever been) a financial supporter of microcosm, can i send you a few questions? (last-minute research for my talk)

2026-03-22 22:57:23 UTC

now that lowercase atproto is settled can we fight about “on” vs “in the atmosphere”
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:gotnvwkr56ibs33l4hwgfoet/post/3mhoi2rek5c2z

2026-02-18 22:54:35 UTC

it takes work to keep microcosm services not just online, but reliably online, freely available, at low operating cost, without sacrificing performance or capacity, for a growing user-base.
so grateful for the direct support i receive from the community, which still covers all recurring expenses 💪
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:lulmyldiq4sb2ikags5sfb25/post/3mf64zdf4p22p

2026-02-10 21:09:34 UTC

thinking through the upcoming many-to-many (non-aggregated) constellation query
https://porcini.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:hdhoaan3xa3jiuq4fg4mefid&cid=bafkreibwxya7sosdtnjojsblmt5afn3tmudoxqd4ljgvnk5osyutb6sdz4
https://porcini.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:hdhoaan3xa3jiuq4fg4mefid&cid=bafkreibxgbdq7h2alasx5efay6rbjwycthsgm7i5jjdhqozdso3sb74slu
https://porcini.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:hdhoaan3xa3jiuq4fg4mefid&cid=bafkreie65mculhn4g6bqujgietc77ozdqyi4gs5nmmd6qwmac5hbmahbbi

2026-02-08 18:01:13 UTC

would be cool of bluesky to ship a quick non-perfect display of their already-existing pronouns profile field

2026-02-06 19:11:35 UTC

it’s happening!!! going to be able to share about a big new atproto community infra project very very very soon

2025-12-20 15:35:58 UTC

[debug.hose.cam](https://debug.hose.cam )
[debug.hose.cam](https://debug.hose.cam )

2025-12-02 07:46:55 UTC

gimme your top feature requests and bug reports for [ufos.microcosm.blue](https://ufos.microcosm.blue ), i’m planning a one-week sprint on it in january
[🛸 UFOs: Explore atproto lexico...](https://ufos.microcosm.blue )

2025-11-13 22:05:26 UTC

I think i had some listRepos ordering bias in those numbers. I've now pulled *all* CARs from active repos (~490k) from `morel`:
- 0.5 MiB average CAR size
- 0.015 MiB: median size
top five largest CARs:
1. 650 MiB
2. 490 MiB
3. 330 MiB
4. 290 MiB
5. 260 MiB
(again this is only for morel pds)
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:hdhoaan3xa3jiuq4fg4mefid/post/3m5enw7apoc2h

2025-11-12 21:59:30 UTC

yup that's officially 10 billion atproto backlinks
indexed by constellation
across every lexicon
that you can query
at [constellation.microcosm.blue](https://constellation.microcosm.blue )
https://porcini.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:hdhoaan3xa3jiuq4fg4mefid&cid=bafkreieu2oaghr6y45c3e7h2qmofupnxj3k2a5gxtxhrzoxzq5xc6mnsky

2025-10-16 14:53:38 UTC

how it started
how it’s going
https://porcini.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:hdhoaan3xa3jiuq4fg4mefid&cid=bafkreicby3m2zrifezvr7b653ejusz64m3rhtn67q7od5vor3u6uagt2om

2025-10-03 19:13:41 UTC

ok we are live! constellation can now count by many-to-many link records!!
motivating example was bluemoji, but it's already usable for some general traversal. you can ask,
> what issues on @npub19y6…yh78 have a "good-first-issue" label?
check it:
[Many to Many counts — Constell...](https://constellation.microcosm.blue/xrpc/blue.microcosm.links.getManyToManyCounts?subject=at%3A%2F%2Fdid%3Aplc%3Awshs7t2adsemcrrd4snkeqli%2Fsh.tangled.label.definition%2Fgood-first-issue&source=sh.tangled.label.op%3Aadd%5B%5D.key&pathToOther=subject&limit=25 )

2025-10-03 02:12:26 UTC

this and: the big bet with microcosm is that we can bridge a *lot* of the performance gap and make client-only apps easy to build, with really acceptable performance.
slingshot still needs a lot of work but it’s part of this: it can learn the graph from active users and pre-cache from the firehose
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:fpruhuo22xkm5o7ttr2ktxdo/post/3m2arwuuktk2b
[Slingshot: atproto edge record...](https://slingshot.microcosm.blue/ )
#note1crg…lzwc

2025-09-30 13:46:59 UTC

Blacksky building their own implementations of atproto services is an incredibly good and forward-looking move.

2025-09-29 20:28:49 UTC

[plc.wtf](https://plc.wtf ) reference mirror now has a place for PLC experiments:
- [experimental.plc.wtf](https://experimental.plc.wtf )
experiment #1: upstream op forwarding. submit a PLC op and Allegedly will forward it upstream to `plc.directory` for you.
everything stays in sync, but you don't have to touch the official directory at all
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:hdhoaan3xa3jiuq4fg4mefid/post/3lzorlskrus2d
https://porcini.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:hdhoaan3xa3jiuq4fg4mefid&cid=bafkreiapssp6z32pnhrm3cvf3nm3qciry3zd2uuzpxdpo6vk6rh6ee33tu
#note1hw8…d57g

2025-09-25 20:19:39 UTC

[plc.wtf](https://plc.wtf )
it's alive. prob don't use it quite yet tho.
https://plc.wtf

2025-09-21 15:54:26 UTC

got postgres writing 262k rows/sec so that's probably good enough for fast plc backfill for now

2025-09-19 20:16:57 UTC

Finally publishing this about PLC! On a day with big PLC news!!
I think the news recasts this piece into more "why that's important", and less doom hopefully!
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:44ybard66vv44zksje25o7dz/post/3lz6kko5bnc2l
[Adversarial PLC directory migr...](https://updates.microcosm.blue/3lz7nwvh4zc2u )
#note1pj3…ypq8

2025-09-13 16:02:02 UTC

my expectations for atproto doom me to be tired by everything
what’s that thing about overestimating what can be done in the short-term and underestimating the long-term

2025-09-10 21:35:45 UTC

what's the best place to shorthand-link about "credible exit"?
the ethos page on [atproto.com](https://atproto.com ) is great but credible exit is really buried in there.
ideally from an authoritative (bluesky or atproto) source

2025-08-18 18:32:42 UTC

ops gets a little exhausting y’all
it’s expensive in dollars, time, effort, and on days like today, emotion. planning for resilience takes more of all these—more than money but money helps
[github.com/sponsors/uni...](https://github.com/sponsors/uniphil )
[ko-fi.com/bad_example](https://ko-fi.com/bad_example )
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:lulmyldiq4sb2ikags5sfb25/post/3lwoz4tzia22e

2025-07-26 23:29:12 UTC

whoa, public (no-auth) discover feed is returning empty rn
https://porcini.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:hdhoaan3xa3jiuq4fg4mefid&cid=bafkreihnldqw2o4vdwqshhm56gnkdediwzfy72wg4muhnq74m4w7t5bbwm

2025-07-25 23:51:52 UTC

friday is for demos [bsky.bad-example.com/zero-bluesky...](https://bsky.bad-example.com/zero-bluesky-realtime-embed/ )
[zero bluesky live-updating pos...](https://bsky.bad-example.com/zero-bluesky-realtime-embed/ )

2025-07-25 17:45:49 UTC

spacedust is an atproto firehose of social interactions on atproto, that you can filter by interaction type and *link target*
currently making a bsky post embed widget with it that updates interaction counts in real-time, using zero bsky infra and no backend :)
[spacedust.microcosm.blue](https://spacedust.microcosm.blue/ )
https://porcini.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:hdhoaan3xa3jiuq4fg4mefid&cid=bafkreidbxxkrxli23hfg4zue2yrpuqdqeimuvvkncxwheltmhxn4arht6e

2025-07-14 00:59:28 UTC

think i’ll repurpose the other pi zero tomorrow for no reason in particular
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:oisofpd7lj26yvgiivf3lxsi/post/3ltv6b5kxv22j
#note1j3k…lfvg

2025-06-12 19:22:59 UTC

Launching: 🛸 UFOs, a global ATProto lexicon explorer! 🛸
Find sample records for every collection NSID ever published!
+timeseries stats, unique user counts, and more!
🛸 App: [ufos.microcosm.blue](https://ufos.microcosm.blue )
👾 API: [ufos-api.microcosm.blue](https://ufos-api.microcosm.blue )
[🛸 UFOs: Explore atproto lexico...](https://ufos.microcosm.blue/ )

2025-06-07 18:48:35 UTC

cannot deal with the fact that people are actually sponsoring me on github 😭
five new supporters this week, thank you so much 💕💕💕

2025-06-03 20:23:08 UTC

dataaaaaaaaa 🤤
https://porcini.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:hdhoaan3xa3jiuq4fg4mefid&cid=bafkreihj3epx2aqu6v6fqsaotvgcbmwzqaag54t2p22hczubhai7tt4leq

2025-05-21 13:28:16 UTC

proof that all of the almost 5 billion links in constellation are served by a raspi at my home :(
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:lulmyldiq4sb2ikags5sfb25/post/3lpopc4cxts2c

2025-02-07 22:59:14 UTC

stuff you might want to know about jetstream if you’re building something on atproto that needs to reliably receive all events: [bsky.bad-example.com/consuming-th...](https://bsky.bad-example.com/consuming-the-firehose-correctly/ )
[consuming the jetstream fireho...](https://bsky.bad-example.com/consuming-the-firehose-correctly/ )