Mastodon relays help federate content across instances without requiring direct follows. If you run a small or medium-sized instance, manually following accounts to populate timelines is impractical. A relay subscribes to public posts from connected instances and redistributes them to all peers. This article explains how to deploy Lite-Relay, a lightweight relay server, on your … Read more
If you self-host a Mastodon server, your local timeline may feel empty when your instance is new or small. A Mastodon relay node solves this by automatically sharing public posts among all servers connected to it. This walkthrough covers installing and configuring a relay node on your own Linux server so you can boost content … Read more
Mastodon relays broadcast public posts from one instance to many others. A standard relay sends all public content from participating servers. This creates noise if you only want posts about a specific subject like photography or Linux. FediBuzz Relay solves this by filtering posts based on hashtags before distributing them. This article explains how to … Read more
Mastodon instances can exchange posts using two distinct methods: direct federation and relay-based pub-sub. Direct federation pushes content from one instance to another only when someone follows a user on the remote server. A relay, by contrast, acts as a central hub that broadcasts posts to all subscribed instances, regardless of who follows whom. This … Read more
When you run a small Mastodon server, relays pull in public posts from other instances so your local timeline stays active. Adding multiple relays can flood your timeline with duplicate content if the same post arrives from two different relays. This happens because relays often share overlapping subscriptions and push identical posts to your instance. … Read more
When you subscribe to a Mastodon relay, your instance begins pulling in public posts from every server connected to that relay. Over time, a relay can flood your federated timeline with irrelevant or low-quality content, slowing down your server and overwhelming your moderators. Removing the relay cleanly requires more than just toggling a switch — … Read more
Mastodon relays distribute public posts across instances, but a misconfigured or malicious relay can flood your Sidekiq queue with thousands of jobs per minute. This flood slows down or completely halts federation, local timeline updates, and email delivery. The root cause is usually a relay that sends too many activities or sends them too fast … Read more
Running a Mastodon relay requires careful tuning of Sidekiq worker counts. If you set the worker count too high, your server runs out of RAM and the relay becomes unresponsive. If you set it too low, incoming activities queue up and federation delays grow. This article explains how to calculate the correct Sidekiq worker count … Read more
Moving a Mastodon instance from one relay to another can disrupt federation if not handled correctly. Relays are servers that forward public posts between instances, and changing them improperly may cause missed updates or temporary unreachability. This article explains how to migrate relays smoothly while keeping your instance fully federated and available to users. You … Read more
When you set up a Mastodon relay to boost federation across instances, the relay server must authenticate itself to your instance before it can deliver public posts. Without proper authentication, the relay connection fails silently or produces a 401 Unauthorized error in the logs. This authentication relies on HTTP Signatures, a cryptographic handshake that proves … Read more