# Mastodon

Your self-hosted, globally interconnected microblogging community

Repository: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/mastodon
Homepage: https://joinmastodon.org
Language: Ruby
License: AGPL-3.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: mastodon, docker, microblog, activity-stream, webfinger, social-network, activitypub, fediverse, social-web
Last push: 2026-08-26T21:26:50+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 95/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:39:23.370411+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 86, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3845, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 13, "gap_med": 0, "n_releases_24m": 96}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 50254, forks 7489 (observed 2026-08-28T04:12:11.772240+00:00)

## What it is
Mastodon is a free, open-source, self-hosted social network server for microblogging built on the ActivityPub protocol, written in Ruby on Rails. Servers federate into the Fediverse, letting users on different instances and even different ActivityPub software follow and interact with each other.

## Use cases
- self-host a decentralized twitter alternative
- run a community microblogging server
- federate with other ActivityPub social networks
- host a private social network for my organization
- build a third-party fediverse client using the REST API
- escape vendor lock-in on social media

## When to choose
- you want full control and ownership of your social data
- you need federation and interoperability via ActivityPub
- you want built-in moderation, safety tools, and OAuth2 REST/Streaming APIs
- you can operate a server with Docker, Ruby, and PostgreSQL/Redis

## When to avoid
- you want a zero-maintenance hosted service without running infrastructure
- you need a centralized network with a single global namespace
- you lack resources for server administration, moderation, and scaling

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: stable
- function: http-server, web-framework, api-framework, websocket, auth, search-engine, self-hosted
- domain: social-media, web-development, backend, self-hosted, apis
- platform: windows, cross-platform, self-hosted
- tags: activitypub, fediverse, microblogging, social-network, federation, ruby-on-rails, decentralized, oauth2, media, web-server, docker, linux, macos, ios, android

## Member repositories
- mastodon/mastodon (main) score 95
- mastodon/mastodon-ios (frontend) score 95
- mastodon/mastodon-android (frontend) score 98
- mastodon/documentation (docs) score 76

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:12:11.772240+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T16:19:56.681295+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon (fetched 2026-08-28T04:12:11.772240+00:00, sha d2a2c800e1c9)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.