Mastodon is a **free, open-source social network server** based on **open web protocols** like ActivityPub and OStatus. The social focus of the project is a viable decentralized alternative to commercial social media silos that returns the control of the content distribution channels to the people. The technical focus of the project is a good user interface, a clean REST API for 3rd party apps and robust anti-abuse tools.
**Ruby on Rails** is used for the back-end, while **React.js** and Redux are used for the dynamic front-end. A static front-end for public resources (profiles and statuses) is also provided.
**No vendor lock-in: Fully interoperable with any conforming platform**
It doesn't have to be Mastodon, whatever implements ActivityPub or OStatus is part of the social network!
**Real-time timeline updates**
See the updates of people you're following appear in real-time in the UI via WebSockets. There's a firehose view as well!
**Federated thread resolving**
If someone you follow replies to a user unknown to the server, the server fetches the full thread so you can view it without leaving the UI
**Media attachments like images and short videos**
Upload and view images and WebM/MP4 videos attached to the updates. Videos with no audio track are treated like GIFs; normal videos are looped - like vines!
**OAuth2 and a straightforward REST API**
Mastodon acts as an OAuth2 provider so 3rd party apps can use the API
**Fast response times**
Mastodon tries to be as fast and responsive as possible, so all long-running tasks are delegated to background processing
**Deployable via Docker**
You don't need to mess with dependencies and configuration if you want to try Mastodon, if you have Docker and Docker Compose the deployment is extremely easy
Please follow the [development guide](https://github.com/tootsuite/documentation/blob/master/Running-Mastodon/Development-guide.md) from the documentation repository.
You can open issues for bugs you've found or features you think are missing. You can also submit pull requests to this repository. [Here are the guidelines for code contributions](CONTRIBUTING.md)
Copyright (C) 2016-2018 Eugen Rochko & other Mastodon contributors (see AUTHORS.md)
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Seethe GNU Affero General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License along with this program. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
