Mastodon is a free, open-source GNU social-compatible social network server. A decentralized alternative to commercial platforms, it avoids the risks of a single company monopolizing your communication. Anyone can run Mastodon and participate in the social network seamlessly.

Documentation

Using Mastodon

• Frequently Asked Questions
• List of Mastodon instances (Alternative list)
• List of apps for Mastodon (or just search for Mastodon in your app store of choice)
• User guide

Using the API

• API documentation
• Streaming API documentation
• Testing the API with cURL
• OAuth details
• Tips for app developers
• Push notifications
• Libraries

Running Mastodon

In production

Please note: It is highly recommended to run a tagged release of Mastodon and not run off the current master branch.

• Before you start: Examples of resource usage from other live instances
• If you want to use Docker: Installation using Docker
• If you want to run it standalone: Standalone installation
• There are other options:
  • Mastodon on Heroku
  • Mastodon on Scalingo
  • Mastodon on Nanobox
• After installation:
  • Administrating a Mastodon instance
  • Tuning Mastodon performance
  • List of terminal commands
  • Customizing the look
• Advanced:
  • Serving Mastodon from a subdomain
  • Scaling up with PgBouncer

The aforementioned guides presume using certain software, like Nginx. But using alternatives is possible: Alternative system configurations

In development

• Setting up a development environment
• There are other options:
  • Using Vagrant
  • Using Nanobox

Contributing to Mastodon

• 🎉 List of Sponsors - thank you to these people! 🎉
• Translate Mastodon to your language
• Report bugs and submit ideas

Protocols

• List of used specs and RFCs for the federation
• Extensions of the above protocols