# Setting up ActivityPub server snac in under 15 minutes

Just a few notes on setting up snac, which was remarkably straightforward.

https://neilzone.co.uk/2025/06/setting-up-activitypub-server-snac-in-under-15-minutes/

#snac #ActivityPub #fedimeta

- if I enable proxy_media all images and thumbnails appear instantly on my phone (the server is in another room here).

- if I disable it, I can see the lag fetching them sometimes but at least videos on other accounts play just fine in Mona. They usually fail to play after being proxied (work fine on the web, fail in Mona, most likely because of unsupported http range requests). Also this reveals my home IP to other servers.

What is the easiest way to get a #snac instance for testing it with Tusky

If you're seeing this via a boost from my other account then please consider following the boosted account directly, as I won't be boosting its toots particularly often! ❤️

build-snac-git

Build snac A simple, minimalistic ActivityPub instance written in portable C in static mode with musl-gcc.
Thanks to Giacomo Tesio for introducing me to Snac and for the initial information.

Many thanks of course, to grunfink for snac2.

Original code on MIT license;

Copyright (c) 2022 - 2025 grunfink et al. (Fediverse: @grunfink@comam.es)

repository

• mimalloc support
• commonmark support
• zlib-ng (compat mode) support

Copy all files in script to a folder of your choice and run the .run file. Set the version variables, if you want. Leave blank MIMALLOC_VER and CMARK_VER if you do not want that support.

CURL_VER=8.13.0
SSL_VER=3.5.0
MIMALLOC_VER=v2.2.3
CMARK_VER=0.31.1

ZLIB_PKG=zlib-ng
ZLIB_NG_VER=2.2.4

Binary file: snac-xxxx; is not an official snac2 build

[m]

#snac

#FediMeteoUpdates

Hashtag following also allow URLs to RSS feeds of ActivityPub objects (like e.g. https://mastodon.social/tags/ThankYouTuesday).

Users can now configure a webhook to receive an HTTP POST for every notification. This can be useful for implementing bots that react to activities, like autorepliers, chatbots or interactive textual games (see snac(1) for more information).

The number of pending follow confirmations is shown next to the "people" link.

Faster performance metrics (contributed by dandelions).

Improved lowercasing in hashtags (contributed by postscriptum).

A search-by-url tweak for implementations that return 200 for invalid webfinger queries (e.g. piefed).

Mastodon API: added follow confirmation endpoints, fixed collisions in attachment file names.

Fixed potential crashes in attachment uploads.

https://comam.es/what-is-snac

If you find #snac useful, please consider buying grunfink a coffee or contributing via LiberaPay.

#snacAnnounces #FrugalFediverse

#snac frens: what is the "correct" way to use a custom favicon? I've read and reread the docs and I'm not seeing anything about it. Is it something I'd have to do at the proxy level? (using Caddy BTW)

https://relay.fedi.buzz/

Con el software de ActivityPub que uso (#snac) es muy fácil montar cosas de estas.

I've just noticed that all the #snac instances aren't listed on FediDB anymore (all the FediMeteo ones, the snac BSD Cafe one, etc.)

@dansup - any problem with getting the snac statistics? I see there's an issue already opened: https://github.com/fedidb/issues/issues/58

I've performed some tests, and it's great. #snac and #haproxy are working great together - now with caching of media and json responses, to scale up, and up, and up...and up!
#Varnish is the best tool for caching, but the setup I've tested doesn't require it and it's still good enough.
I think this will be a blog post, as soon as I'll have enough time.

#snac2 #Fediverse #IT #SysAdmin

FediMeteo: How a Tiny €4 FreeBSD VPS Became a Global Weather Service for Thousands

https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/02/26/fedimeteo-how-a-tiny-freebsd-vps-became-a-global-weather-service-for-thousands/

#Fediverse #FreeBSD #RunBSD #Hosting #ITNotes #Networking #NoteHUB #Server #Snac #Snac2 #Social #Web

It gives a daily report of those asteroids with a reasonable probability of crashing into Earth, in case you are not already afraid enough of the future. Of course, using #snac, what else.

It takes its data from a very cool NASA site, so (again) in these days of uncertanty, I'm not sure how long will it work.

Everyone, take care, and have a great week.

https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/02/08/caching-snac-proxied-media-with-nginx/

#Data #Fediverse #Hosting #ITNotes #Networking #Nginx #NoteHUB #Ownyourdata #Server #Snac #Snac2 #Social #Tipsandtricks #Tutorial #Web

Some technical details for those interested:
The entire FediMeteo setup runs on a FreeBSD VM costing around 4 euros per month. It supports almost all major EU countries (plus the UK), with just a few left to complete. Currently, there are 25 separate jails, each running its own instance of snac, totaling 25 instances. The VM load typically stays around 10%, which increases to 30% when updates are published for countries with larger numbers of cities (currently Germany and Italy). The only time the load spikes is when new countries are announced; during that time, all remote instances connect to all cities to download their details.
As for RAM usage, excluding the ZFS cache, it's currently a total of 213 MB. Yes, MB.

#FreeBSD #FediMeteo #snac #Fediverse #Efficiency #RunBSD

#CrazyFediverseAnalogies

Added support for subscribing to LitePub (Pleroma-style) Fediverse Relays like e.g. https://fedi-relay.gyptazy.com to improve federation. See snac(8) (the Administrator Manual) for more information on how to use this feature.

Added support for following hashtags. This is only useful if your instance is subscribed to relays (see above).

Added support for a Mastodon-like /authorize_interaction webpoint entry, that allows following, liking and boosting from another account's Mastodon public web interface. To be able to use it, you must reconfigure your https proxy to redirect /authorize_interaction to snac (see snac(8)).

Some fixes to accept Event objects properly (like those coming from implementations like https://gancio.org/ or https://mobilizon.fr).

Added some caching for local Actor objects.

Hashtags that are not explicitly linked in a post's content are shown below it.

Fixed broken NetBSD build (missing dependency in Makefile.NetBSD).

The user profile can now include longitude and latitude data for your current location.

Mastodon API: implemented limit= on notification fetches (contributed by nowster), implemented faster min_id handling (contributed by nowster), obey the quiet public visibility set for posts, other timeline improvements (contributed by nowster).

Reduced RSA key size for new users from 4096 to 2048. This will be friendlier to smaller machines, and everybody else out there is using 2048.

If the SNAC_BASEDIR environment variable is defined and set to the base directory of your installation, you don't have to include the base directory in the command line.

Fixed a bug in the generation of the top page (contributed by an-im-dugud).

Added support for Markdown headers and underlining (contributed by an-im-dugud).

https://comam.es/what-is-snac

If you find #snac useful, please consider contributing via LiberaPay: https://liberapay.com/grunfink/

#snacAnnounces

This release has been inspired by the song Nine Hundred Miles by #BarbaraDane.

CC: @troed@sangberg.se

https://codeberg.org/grunfink/snac2

#snac #ThankYou

Announcing FediMeteo – Weather in the Fediverse!

UPDATE: I have created an account for updates and other information on FediMeteo - follow the account @admin to stay updated!

UPDATE: Ireland, Poland, Portugal and Switzerland have just been added

Weather has always influenced our lives: from agriculture to outdoor activities, to extreme events that, thanks to modern technology, can now be predicted with greater reliability. Personally, weather plays a significant role in my daily decisions, which is why I decided to create a service tailored for the Fediverse.

FediMeteo uses Open-Meteo data to publish updates every 6 hours, including current weather conditions, forecasts for the next 12 hours, and predictions for the upcoming days. Each country is served by its own dedicated instance (e.g., it.fedimeteo.com for Italy), managed through snac to ensure simplicity and efficiency in publishing.

You can follow FediMeteo directly in the Fediverse (on Mastodon and compatible platforms), via RSS, or by visiting the dedicated page for your city (e.g., fr.fedimeteo.com/paris).

Currently supported countries include:
Austria, Germany, France, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, – with many more regions coming soon!

FediMeteo is hosted on a FreeBSD-based VPS, with each country isolated in its own jail to ensure security and scalability.

Visit the main site to explore the national instances and start following your local weather updates today:
https://fedimeteo.com

Happy weather monitoring to all! 🌦️

FediMeteo is dedicated to my grandfather, who every evening would give me the weather forecast based on TV, radio, and his personal experience. He would convince me that the weather would be bad, so he had an excuse to accompany me to school instead of me going alone.

#FediMeteo #Announcements #FreeBSD #FediMeteo #WeatherForecasts #Weather #Meteo #snac #Fediverse #Mastodon

Más tarde me he dado cuenta de que empleando el correo electrónico las discusiones no tienen sentido y que más allá del duelo al amanecer no merece la pena discutir con gente que se ha construido un personaje público y saca sus garbanzos de ahí. Entre eso y los palmeros, a los que el tuitstar SÍ responde por que necesita tenerles en cuenta, es difícil estar a gusto; de hecho el término "pocosfollower" es el indicativo de una época.

Pero sí que he pasado mucho tiempo allí obteniendo enlaces y enterándome de polémicas para pasar el rato y olvidar cómo estoy y quién soy así que tampoco es que lo haya dejado hasta el sábado. Una vez que tengo mi servidor en el fediverso (con #snac) tengo siempre un lugar que considero mío. Por esa parte estoy cubierto.

Ahora estoy intentando ver qué aparece en BlueSky y de momento están todos con una limpia tremenda de nazis y demás chusma que está funcionando al parecer. También cuentas estupendas que estaban permanentemente candadas en twitter ahora actúan en abierto y son una delicia de seguir. Pero el lugar sigue siendo extraño, como un barrio bajo asedio, y quiero ver dónde terminará cuando los dueños empiecen a monetizar.

#snac #fediverse

A small compendium of the Fediverse platforms I use/know well.

In the past few days, I revisited some of my old Fediverse instances since some friends asked me to help them set up a new one. I also took the chance to perform maintenance on some leftover instances. Here's my experience:

Akkoma: My oldest instance still running, opened in 2022. It was offline for a few months (3/4). I updated everything to the latest version and restarted it. I’m not sure why, but it’s extremely slow, with a heavy load on Postgres and many queries just to open the main page. I like Akkoma - I'll investigate further.

GoToSocial: I updated a friend's instance - GoToSocial itself was up-to-date, but the underlying system wasn’t. I noticed that once it exceeds 2000 followings, it becomes a bit slow. The database is PostgreSQL, but that's not the issue. The GoToSocial process becomes somewhat heavy on the VPS. Still, it's very usable and a software with great potential, in my opinion. The Mastodon API is implemented quite well and works with the major software.

Mitra: It seems well-built. The person had around 1000 followers and followings on a Mastodon account, which they moved from a large instance. No speed issues, though sending a message makes the server “heavy” for a bit, but it’s temporary. The Mastodon API is partially implemented, but the software is advancing quickly, and I find its native interface quite pleasant.

Snac2: I've always had a soft spot for Snac2. The lack of a database and some design choices make it an excellent solution for small instances. For example, sending posts to all known instances increases visibility and interaction. Its basic, JavaScript-free interface is very clear, though it might not be the best for those used to Mastodon. But the Mastodon API is improving version by version, and I think the developer is doing an excellent job. It struggles a bit with larger numbers, but that's due to the underlying file system, not the software itself. If "move" support (both in and out) were added, I would recommend it to anyone starting self-hosting for single-user or small community instances because "move" is one of the options that gives the most freedom in Fediverse software.

Mastodon: My “old” personal instance was stuck at version 4.1.x and had been offline for a few months. I updated the FreeBSD Jail and upgraded Mastodon to 4.2.12 and then to 4.3.0-beta1. No issues. I also helped a friend (who had an old Pleroma-based instance they barely used) migrate. This user has around 5000 followers and followings - Mastodon is running on FreeBSD on a VPS (arm64) for just over 3 euros a month, with no significant issues (apart from media storage, but that's not Mastodon’s fault). Mastodon is sometimes said to be heavy, and that's partly true, but its modularity ensures that even in cases of overload, queues may slow down, but navigation and the local timeline remain reasonably fast. I think this is a good thing for any larger-scale use of an instance.

In short, I think things are moving in the right direction, and the software is evolving nicely. Well done, devs!

#Fediverse #Akkoma #GoToSocial #Mitra #Snac2 #Snac #Mastodon #SelfHosting #InstanceManagement #FreeBSD #OpenSource

https://comam.es/what-is-snac

https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/users/release_candidate/statuses/112140845317198247

I find these "popularity contests" pointless, ridiculous and inherently toxic, and a signature of private social networks where the goal is not to help people communicate between each other.

This is the reason why #snac does not propagate how many followers nor likes a person have.

Dear friends of #BSDCafe and the #Fediverse,
since December 2023, snac.bsd.cafe has been operational, initially in an experimental phase but has proven to be stable and reliable.

Thus, Snac2 is now available as a service of BSD Cafe. It is considered one of the best and most comprehensive "lightweight" implementations of #ActivityPub, offering one of the best ways to interact with the Fediverse without the need for the extensive dependencies and components of Mastodon.

It is now possible to request an account on the snac2 instance of BSD Cafe. There isn't an automatic sign-up process (snac2 does not provide one, as it wasn't designed to create large communities).

For information and details, I suggest reading the relevant page on our Wiki: https://wiki.bsd.cafe/snac.bsd.cafe

Have a great week!

#OpenSource #TechCommunity #DecentralizedSocialMedia #snac #snac2

#snac2 #snac #BSDCafe #BSDCafeServices #FreedomOfChoice