mastodon/activitypub

This repository contains the core specification documents for ActivityPub, the open protocol that powers decentralized social networking. It serves as the official home for the technical rules that let independent social networks talk to each other, enabling users on one platform to follow, reply to, and interact with users on a completely different platform. The project works by maintaining the documents that define how servers should communicate. When someone on one social network follows or messages someone on another network, their servers exchange standardized messages behind the scenes. This repository holds the HTML documents that outline exactly what those messages should look like and how servers should handle them. It is essentially the instruction manual that developers follow to make sure their own social platforms can successfully connect with others. This is not a tool you would install or use directly. Instead, it is a reference for developers and standards authors who are building decentralized social software. For example, if a startup is creating a new social network and wants it to be compatible with the wider fediverse, their engineers would consult this specification to learn the correct way to build that compatibility. The README itself does not go into detail, as the repository is primarily a collection of the actual specification text rather than a traditional software project. The project's purpose is entirely organizational and documentary, providing a central, version-controlled location for the standards that keep the decentralized web interoperable.