What is this repo?

This is the codebase for Bluesky Social, a social media app that works on web browsers, iPhones, and Android phones. If you've used Twitter or similar platforms, Bluesky is a decentralized alternative where users can post, follow each other, and interact in a feed. Instead of one company controlling everything behind the scenes, Bluesky is built on an open protocol called AT Protocol that lets different services and apps interoperate.

How it's built

The app is written primarily in React Native and TypeScript, which are popular tools for building apps that work across multiple platforms from a shared codebase. The developers don't have to write completely separate code for iOS, Android, and web—they write mostly one version and it runs everywhere. The app talks to Bluesky's backend services through AT Protocol packages (open-source libraries also maintained by the Bluesky team, but in a separate repository). There's also a small amount of Go code that serves the web version.

Who uses this and why

If you're a developer who wants to contribute to Bluesky's official app, this is where you do it. You might fix bugs, improve the user interface, or add features. The developers at Bluesky themselves use this repo to build and ship the app to millions of users. If you're interested in forking Bluesky to create your own version (the README explicitly allows this), you'd start here, though you'd need to rebrand everything and set up your own backend systems.

A note on contributions

The team behind this repo is honest that they're resource-constrained and can't review every pull request or issue. They're open to contributions, but they ask that you check for existing issues first and discuss major changes before diving in. They're particularly cautious about refactoring work or large feature additions without prior conversation—they'd rather see focused, well-written fixes to real problems.