Documentation is at [docs.gotosocial.org](https://docs.gotosocial.org). You can skip straight to the API documentation [here](https://docs.gotosocial.org/en/latest/api/swagger/).
## Table of Contents <!-- omit in toc -->
- [What is GoToSocial?](#what-is-gotosocial)
- [Federation](#federation)
- [History and Status](#history-and-status)
- [Features](#features)
- [Mastodon API compatibility](#mastodon-api-compatibility)
- [Granular post settings](#granular-post-settings)
- [Customizability for admins](#customizability-for-admins)
GoToSocial provides a lightweight, customizable, and safety-focused entryway into the [Fediverse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fediverse), and is comparable to (but distinct from) existing projects such as [Mastodon](https://joinmastodon.org/), [Pleroma](https://pleroma.social/), [Friendica](https://friendica.net), and [PixelFed](https://pixelfed.org/).
If you've ever used something like Twitter or Tumblr (or even Myspace!) GoToSocial will probably feel familiar to you: You can follow people and have followers, you make posts which people can favourite and reply to and share, and you scroll through posts from people you follow using a timeline. You can write long posts or short posts, or just post images, it's up to you. You can also, of course, block people or otherwise limit interactions that you don't want by posting just to your friends.
**GoToSocial does NOT use algorithms or collect data about you to suggest content or 'improve your experience'**. The timeline is chronological: whatever you see at the top of your timeline is there because it's *just been posted*, not because it's been selected as interesting (or controversial) based on your personal profile.
GoToSocial is not designed for 'must-follow' influencers with tens of thousands of followers, and it's not designed to be addictive. Your timeline and your experience is shaped by who you follow and how you interact with people, not by metrics of engagement!
Because GoToSocial uses [ActivityPub](https://activitypub.rocks/), you can hang out not just with people on your home server, but with people all over the [Fediverse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fediverse), seamlessly.
Federation means that your home server is part of a network of servers all over the world that all communicate using the same protocol. Your data is no longer centralized on one company's servers, but resides on your own server and is shared -- as you see fit -- across a resilient web of servers run by other people.
This federated approach also means that you aren't beholden to arbitrary rules from some gigantic corporation potentially thousands of miles away. Your server has its own rules and culture; your fellow server residents are your neighbors; you will likely get to know your server admins and moderators, or be an admin yourself.
GoToSocial advocates for many small, weird, specialist servers where people can feel at home, rather than a few big and generic ones where one person's voice can get lost in the crowd.
This project sprang up in 2021 out of a dissatisfaction with the safety + privacy features of other Federated microblogging/social media applications, and a desire to implement something a little different.
The project is still in prerelease, but is already deployable and very useable, and it federates cleanly with most other Fediverse servers (not yet all).
The Mastodon API has become the de-facto standard for client communication with federated servers, so GoToSocial has implemented and extended the API with custom functionality.
- Built-in, automatic support for secure HTTPS with [LetsEncrypt](https://letsencrypt.org/).
- Strict privacy enforcement for posts and strict blocking logic.
- Import and export allowlists and denylists. Subscribe to community-created blocklists (think Adblocker, but for federation!).
- HTTP signature authentication: GoToSocial requires [HTTP Signatures](https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-cavage-http-signatures-01.html) when sending and receiving messages, to ensure that your messages can't be tampered with and your identity can't be forged.
GoToSocial supports [OpenID Connect (OIDC)](https://openid.net/connect/) identity providers, meaning you can integrate it with existing user management services like [Auth0](https://auth0.com/), [Gitlab](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/integration/openid_connect_provider.html), etc, or run your own and hook GtS up to that (we recommend [Dex](https://dexidp.io/)).
Unlike other federated server projects, GoToSocial doesn't include an integrated client front-end (ie., a webapp).
Instead, like Matrix.org's [Synapse](https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse) project, it provides a relatively generic backend server implementation, some beautiful static pages for profiles and posts, and a [well-documented API](https://docs.gotosocial.org/en/latest/api/swagger/).
On top of this API, web developers are encouraged to build any front-end implementation or mobile application that they wish, whether Tumblr-like, Facebook-like, Twitter-like, or something else entirely.
## Wishlist
These cool things will be implemented if time allows (because we really want them):
- **Groups** and group posting!
- Reputation-based 'slow' federation.
- Community decision making for federation and moderation actions.
- User-selectable custom templates for rendering public posts:
For now (if you want to run it pre-alpha, like a beast), check out the [quick and dirty getting started guide](https://docs.gotosocial.org/en/latest/installation_guide/quick_and_dirty/).
You wanna contribute to GtS? Great! ❤️❤️❤️ Check out the issues page to see if there's anything you wanna jump in on, and read the [CONTRIBUTING.md](./CONTRIBUTING.md) file for guidelines and setting up your dev environment.
For questions and comments, you can [join our Matrix channel](https://matrix.to/#/#gotosocial:superseriousbusiness.org) at `#gotosocial:superseriousbusiness.org`. This is the quickest way to reach the devs. You can also mail [admin@gotosocial.org](mailto:admin@gotosocial.org).
For bugs and feature requests, please check to see if there's [already an issue](https://github.com/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/issues), and if not, open one or use one of the above channels to make a request (if you don't have a Github account).
- [buckket/go-blurhash](https://github.com/buckket/go-blurhash); used for generating image blurhashes. [GPL-3.0 License](https://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-3.0-only.html).
- [microcosm-cc/bluemonday](https://github.com/microcosm-cc/bluemonday); HTML user-input sanitization. [BSD-3-Clause License](https://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause.html).
- [mitchellh/mapstructure](https://github.com/mitchellh/mapstructure); Go interface => struct parsing. [MIT License](https://spdx.org/licenses/MIT.html).
- [modernc.org/sqlite](https://gitlab.com/cznic/sqlite); cgo-free port of SQLite. [Other License](https://gitlab.com/cznic/sqlite/-/blob/master/LICENSE).
- [modernc.org/ccgo](https://gitlab.com/cznic/ccgo); c99 AST -> Go translater. [BSD-3-Clause License](https://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause.html).
- [stretchr/testify](https://github.com/stretchr/testify); test framework. [MIT License](https://spdx.org/licenses/MIT.html).
- [superseriousbusiness/exifremove](https://github.com/superseriousbusiness/exifremove) forked from [scottleedavis/go-exif-remove](https://github.com/scottleedavis/go-exif-remove); EXIF data removal. [MIT License](https://spdx.org/licenses/MIT.html).
- [superseriousbusiness/oauth2](https://github.com/superseriousbusiness/oauth2) forked from [go-oauth2/oauth2](https://github.com/go-oauth2/oauth2); oauth server framework and token handling. [MIT License](https://spdx.org/licenses/MIT.html).
GoToSocial is free software, licensed under the [GNU AGPL v3 LICENSE](LICENSE). We encourage forking and changing the code, hacking around with it, and experimenting.
See [here](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-affero-gpl.html) for the differences between AGPL versus GPL licensing, and [here](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html) for FAQ's about GPL licenses, including the AGPL.
If you modify the GoToSocial source code, and run that modified code in a way that's accessible over a network, you *must* make your modifications to the source code available following the guidelines of the license:
> \[I\]f you modify the Program, your modified version must prominently offer all users interacting with it remotely through a computer network (if your version supports such interaction) an opportunity to receive the Corresponding Source of your version by providing access to the Corresponding Source from a network server at no charge, through some standard or customary means of facilitating copying of software.
