AT Protocol

For modem commands, see Hayes AT command set.
AT Protocol
Communication protocol
The logo of the AT Protocol, depicting an at sign colored in with an image of a blue sky.
A diagram of the AT Protocol federation architecture as of October 2024.
AbbreviationATProto
PurposeDecentralized social networking
Developer(s)Bluesky Social, PBC
IntroductionOctober 18, 2022; 2 years ago (2022-10-18)
Port(s)80, 443
Websiteatproto.com

The AT Protocol (Authenticated Transfer Protocol, pronounced "at-protocol" and commonly shortened to ATProto)[1][2] is a protocol and open standard for decentralized social networking services.[3] It is under development by Bluesky Social PBC, a public benefit corporation originally created as an independent research group within Twitter to investigate the possibility of decentralizing the service.[4]

The AT Protocol aims to address perceived issues with other decentralized protocols, such as user experience, platform interoperability, discoverability, network scalability, and portability of user data and social graphs.[3] It employs a modular microservice architecture and a federated, server-agnostic user identity to enable seamless movement between protocol services, with the goal of providing an integrated online experience.[5] Platforms can access and serve any user content within the network by fetching content formatted as predefined data schemas from federated network-wide data streams.[6][7]

The AT Protocol powers the Bluesky social network, which was created as a proof of concept for the protocol, and is the main service in an ecosystem of platforms and services built on the AT Protocol referred to as the ATmosphere.[8][9][10] Bluesky Social has pledged to transfer the protocol's development to a standards body such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in the near future.[11]

  1. ^ "The AT Protocol". Bluesky. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference :8 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Kleppmann, Martin; Frazee, Paul; Gold, Jake; Graber, Jay; Holmgren, Daniel; Ivy, Devin; Johnson, Jeromy; Newbold, Bryan; Volpert, Jaz (2024-02-05), Bluesky and the AT Protocol: Usable Decentralized Social Media, arXiv:2402.03239
  4. ^ Robertson, Adi (2022-10-29). "Will Elon Musk keep funding Twitter's most interesting side project?". The Verge. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference :7 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ "Glossary of terms". AT Protocol. Retrieved 2024-09-10.
  9. ^ Robertson, Adi (2019-12-11). "Twitter is funding research into a decentralized version of its platform". The Verge. Retrieved 2024-07-30.
  10. ^ Conger, Kate (2022-03-02). "Twitter Wants to Reinvent Itself, by Merging the Old With the New". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-07-31.
  11. ^ Patel, Nilay (2024-03-25). "Bluesky CEO Jay Graber on breaking free from Twitter and competing with Threads and Mastodon". The Verge. Retrieved 2024-08-04.