A community based topic aggregation platform built on atproto
bretton.dev
1# Communities PRD: Federated Forum System
2
3**Status:** In Development
4**Owner:** Platform Team
5**Last Updated:** 2025-10-16
6
7## Overview
8
9Coves communities are federated, instance-scoped forums built on atProto. Each community is identified by a scoped handle (`!gaming@coves.social`) and owns its own atProto repository, enabling true portability and decentralized governance.
10
11## Architecture Evolution
12
13### ✅ V2 Architecture (Current - 2025-10-10)
14
15**Communities own their own repositories:**
16- Each community has its own DID (`did:plc:xxx`)
17- Each community owns its own atProto repository (`at://community_did/...`)
18- Each community has its own PDS account (managed by Coves backend)
19- Communities are truly portable - can migrate between instances by updating DID document
20
21**Repository Structure:**
22```
23Repository: at://did:plc:community789/social.coves.community.profile/self
24Owner: did:plc:community789 (community owns itself)
25Hosted By: did:web:coves.social (instance manages credentials)
26```
27
28**Key Benefits:**
29- ✅ True atProto compliance (matches feed generators, labelers)
30- ✅ Portable URIs (never change when migrating instances)
31- ✅ Self-owned identity model
32- ✅ Standard rkey="self" for singleton profiles
33
34---
35
36## ✅ Completed Features (2025-10-10)
37
38### Core Infrastructure
39- [x] **V2 Architecture:** Communities own their own repositories
40- [x] **PDS Account Provisioning:** Automatic account creation for each community
41- [x] **Credential Management:** Secure storage of community PDS credentials
42- [x] **Encryption at Rest:** PostgreSQL pgcrypto for sensitive credentials
43- [x] **Write-Forward Pattern:** Service → PDS → Firehose → AppView
44- [x] **Jetstream Consumer:** Real-time indexing from firehose
45- [x] **V2 Validation:** Strict rkey="self" enforcement (no V1 compatibility)
46
47### Security & Data Protection
48- [x] **Encrypted Credentials:** Access/refresh tokens encrypted in database
49- [x] **Credential Persistence:** PDS credentials survive server restarts
50- [x] **JSON Exclusion:** Credentials never exposed in API responses (`json:"-"` tags)
51- [x] **Password Hashing:** bcrypt for PDS account passwords
52- [x] **Timeout Handling:** 30s timeout for write operations, 10s for reads
53
54### Database Schema
55- [x] **Communities Table:** Full metadata with V2 credential columns
56- [x] **Subscriptions Table:** Lightweight feed following
57- [x] **Memberships Table:** Active participation tracking
58- [x] **Moderation Table:** Local moderation actions
59- [x] **Encryption Keys Table:** Secure key management for pgcrypto
60- [x] **Indexes:** Optimized for search, visibility filtering, and lookups
61
62### Service Layer
63- [x] **CreateCommunity:** Provisions PDS account, creates record, persists credentials
64- [x] **UpdateCommunity:** Uses community's own credentials (not instance credentials)
65- [x] **GetCommunity:** Fetches from AppView DB with decrypted credentials
66- [x] **ListCommunities:** Pagination, filtering, sorting
67- [x] **SearchCommunities:** Full-text search on name/description
68- [x] **Subscribe/Unsubscribe:** Create subscription records
69- [x] **Handle Validation:** Scoped handle format (`!name@instance`)
70- [x] **DID Generation:** Uses `did:plc` for portability
71
72### Jetstream Consumer
73- [x] **Profile Events:** Create, update, delete community profiles
74- [x] **Subscription Events:** Index user subscriptions to communities
75- [x] **V2 Enforcement:** Reject non-"self" rkeys (no V1 communities)
76- [x] **Self-Ownership Validation:** Verify owner_did == did
77- [x] **Error Handling:** Graceful handling of malformed events
78
79### Testing Coverage
80- [x] **Integration Tests:** Full CRUD operations
81- [x] **Credential Tests:** Persistence, encryption, decryption
82- [x] **V2 Validation Tests:** Rkey enforcement, self-ownership
83- [x] **Consumer Tests:** Firehose event processing
84- [x] **Repository Tests:** Database operations
85- [x] **Unit Tests:** Service layer logic, timeout handling
86
87---
88
89## 🚧 In Progress / Needs Testing
90
91### XRPC API Endpoints
92**Status:** All core endpoints E2E tested! ✅
93
94**✅ E2E Tested (via community_e2e_test.go):**
95- [x] `social.coves.community.create` - Full E2E test with real PDS
96- [x] `social.coves.community.get` - E2E test validates HTTP endpoint
97- [x] `social.coves.community.list` - E2E test with pagination/filtering
98- [x] `social.coves.community.update` - E2E test verifies write-forward + PDS update
99- [x] `social.coves.community.subscribe` - E2E test verifies subscription in user's repo
100- [x] `social.coves.community.unsubscribe` - E2E test verifies PDS deletion
101
102**📍 Post-Alpha:**
103- [ ] `social.coves.community.search` - Handler exists, defer E2E testing to post-alpha
104
105**✅ OAuth Authentication Complete (2025-10-16):**
106- User access tokens now flow through middleware → handlers → service
107- Subscribe/unsubscribe operations use correct user-scoped credentials
108- All E2E tests validate real PDS authentication with user tokens
109
110---
111
112## ⚠️ Alpha Blockers (Must Complete Before Alpha Launch)
113
114### Critical Missing Features
115- [ ] **Community Blocking:** Users can block communities from their feeds
116 - Lexicon: ❌ Need new record type (extend `social.coves.actor.block` or create new)
117 - Service: ❌ No implementation (`BlockCommunity()` / `UnblockCommunity()`)
118 - Handler: ❌ No endpoints
119 - Repository: ❌ No methods
120 - **Impact:** Users have no way to hide unwanted communities
121
122### ✅ Critical Infrastructure - RESOLVED (2025-10-16)
123- [x] **✅ Subscription Indexing & ContentVisibility - COMPLETE**
124 - **Status:** Subscriptions now fully indexed in AppView with feed slider support
125 - **Completed:** 2025-10-16
126 - **What Was Fixed:**
127 1. ✅ Fixed critical collection name bug (`social.coves.actor.subscription` → `social.coves.community.subscription`)
128 2. ✅ Implemented ContentVisibility (1-5 slider) across all layers (handler, service, consumer, repository)
129 3. ✅ Production Jetstream consumer now running ([cmd/server/main.go:220-243](cmd/server/main.go#L220-L243))
130 4. ✅ Migration 008 adds `content_visibility` column with defaults and constraints
131 5. ✅ Atomic subscriber count updates (SubscribeWithCount/UnsubscribeWithCount)
132 6. ✅ DELETE operations properly handled (unsubscribe indexing)
133 7. ✅ Idempotent operations (safe for Jetstream event replays)
134 8. ✅ atProto naming compliance: singular namespace + `subject` field
135 - **Impact:**
136 - ✅ Users CAN subscribe/unsubscribe (writes to their PDS repo)
137 - ✅ AppView INDEXES subscriptions from Jetstream in real-time
138 - ✅ Can query user's subscriptions (data persisted with contentVisibility)
139 - ✅ Feed generation ENABLED (know who's subscribed with visibility preferences)
140 - ✅ Subscriber counts accurate (atomic updates)
141 - **Testing:**
142 - ✅ 13 comprehensive integration tests (subscription_indexing_test.go) - ALL PASSING
143 - ✅ Enhanced E2E tests verify complete flow (HTTP → PDS → Jetstream → AppView)
144 - ✅ ContentVisibility clamping tested (0→1, 10→5, defaults to 3)
145 - ✅ Idempotency verified (duplicate events handled gracefully)
146 - **Files:**
147 - Implementation Doc: [docs/IMPLEMENTATION_SUBSCRIPTION_INDEXING.md](docs/IMPLEMENTATION_SUBSCRIPTION_INDEXING.md)
148 - Lexicon: [internal/atproto/lexicon/social/coves/community/subscription.json](internal/atproto/lexicon/social/coves/community/subscription.json)
149 - Consumer: [internal/atproto/jetstream/community_consumer.go](internal/atproto/jetstream/community_consumer.go)
150 - Connector: [internal/atproto/jetstream/community_jetstream_connector.go](internal/atproto/jetstream/community_jetstream_connector.go)
151 - Migration: [internal/db/migrations/008_add_content_visibility_to_subscriptions.sql](internal/db/migrations/008_add_content_visibility_to_subscriptions.sql)
152 - Tests: [tests/integration/subscription_indexing_test.go](tests/integration/subscription_indexing_test.go)
153
154### Critical Security (High Priority)
155- [x] **OAuth Authentication:** ✅ COMPLETE - User access tokens flow end-to-end
156 - ✅ Middleware stores user access token in context
157 - ✅ Handlers extract and pass token to service
158 - ✅ Service uses user token for user repo operations (subscribe/unsubscribe)
159 - ✅ All E2E tests pass with real PDS authentication
160 - **Completed:** 2025-10-16
161
162- [ ] **Token Refresh Logic:** Auto-refresh expired PDS access tokens
163 - **Impact:** Communities break after ~2 hours when tokens expire
164 - **See:** [PRD_BACKLOG.md P1 Priority](docs/PRD_BACKLOG.md#L31-L38)
165
166---
167
168## 📍 Beta Features (High Priority - Post Alpha)
169
170### Posts in Communities
171**Status:** Lexicon designed, implementation TODO
172**Priority:** HIGHEST for Beta 1
173
174- [ ] `social.coves.post` already has `community` field ✅
175- [ ] Create post endpoint (decide: membership validation?)
176- [ ] Feed generation for community posts
177- [ ] Post consumer (index community posts from firehose)
178- [ ] Community post count tracking
179- [ ] Decide membership requirements for posting
180
181**Without posts, communities exist but can't be used!**
182
183---
184
185## 📍 Beta Features (Lower Priority)
186
187### Membership System
188**Status:** Lexicon exists, design decisions needed
189**Deferred:** Answer design questions before implementing
190
191- [ ] Decide: Auto-join on first post vs explicit join?
192- [ ] Decide: Reputation tracking in lexicon vs AppView only?
193- [ ] Implement membership record creation (if explicit join)
194- [ ] Member lists endpoint
195- [ ] Reputation tracking (if in lexicon)
196
197### Community Management
198- [ ] **Community Deletion:** Soft delete / permanent delete
199- [ ] **Wiki System:** Lexicon exists, no implementation
200- [ ] **Advanced Rules:** Separate rules records, moderation config
201- [ ] **Moderator Management:** Assign/remove moderators (governance work)
202- [ ] **Categories:** REMOVE from lexicon and code (not needed)
203
204### User Features
205- [ ] **Saved Items:** Save posts/comments for later
206- [ ] **User Flairs:** Per-community user flair (design TBD)
207
208### Instance Moderation
209- [ ] **Delist Community:** Remove from search/directory
210- [ ] **Quarantine Community:** Show warning label
211- [ ] **Remove Community:** Hide from instance AppView
212- [ ] **Moderation Audit Log:** Track all moderation actions
213
214---
215
216## ⏳ TODO Before V1 Production Launch
217
218### Community Discovery & Visibility
219- [ ] **Visibility Enforcement:** Respect public/unlisted/private settings in listings
220- [ ] **Federation Config:** Honor `allowExternalDiscovery` flag
221- [ ] **Search Relevance:** Implement ranking algorithm (members, activity, etc.)
222- [ ] **Directory Endpoint:** Public community directory with filters
223- [ ] **Rate Limiting:** Prevent community creation spam (e.g., 5 per user per hour)
224- [ ] **Handle Collision Detection:** Prevent duplicate community handles
225- [ ] **DID Validation:** Verify DIDs before accepting create requests
226
227### Token Refresh & Resilience
228- [ ] **Retry Mechanism:** Retry failed PDS calls with backoff
229- [ ] **Credential Rotation:** Periodic password rotation for security
230- [ ] **Error Recovery:** Graceful degradation if PDS is unavailable
231
232### Performance & Scaling
233- [ ] **Database Indexes:** Verify all common queries are indexed
234- [ ] **Query Optimization:** Review N+1 query patterns
235- [ ] **Caching Strategy:** Cache frequently accessed communities
236- [ ] **Pagination Limits:** Enforce max results per request
237- [ ] **Connection Pooling:** Optimize PDS HTTP client reuse
238
239### Documentation & Deployment
240- [ ] **API Documentation:** OpenAPI/Swagger specs for all endpoints
241- [ ] **Deployment Guide:** Production setup instructions
242- [ ] **Migration Guide:** How to upgrade from test to production
243- [ ] **Monitoring Guide:** Metrics and alerting setup
244- [ ] **Security Checklist:** Pre-launch security audit
245
246### Infrastructure & DNS
247- [ ] **DNS Wildcard Setup:** Configure `*.communities.coves.social` for community handle resolution
248- [ ] **Well-Known Endpoint:** Implement `.well-known/atproto-did` handler for `*.communities.coves.social` subdomains
249
250---
251
252## Out of Scope (Future Versions)
253
254### V3: Federation & Discovery
255- [ ] Cross-instance community search
256- [ ] Federated moderation signals
257- [ ] Trust networks between instances
258- [ ] Moderation signal subscription
259
260### V4: Community Governance
261- [ ] Community-owned governance (voting on moderators)
262- [ ] Migration voting (community votes to move instances)
263- [ ] Custom domain DIDs (`did:web:gaming.community`)
264- [ ] Governance thresholds and time locks
265
266---
267
268## Recent Critical Fixes (2025-10-10)
269
270### Security & Credential Management
271**Issue:** PDS credentials were created but never persisted
272**Fix:** Service layer now immediately persists credentials via `repo.Create()`
273**Impact:** Communities can now be updated after creation (credentials survive restarts)
274
275**Issue:** Credentials stored in plaintext in PostgreSQL
276**Fix:** Added pgcrypto encryption for access/refresh tokens
277**Impact:** Database compromise no longer exposes active tokens
278
279**Issue:** UpdateCommunity used instance credentials instead of community credentials
280**Fix:** Changed to use `existing.DID` and `existing.PDSAccessToken`
281**Impact:** Updates now correctly authenticate as the community itself
282
283### V2 Architecture Enforcement
284**Issue:** Consumer accepted V1 communities with TID-based rkeys
285**Fix:** Strict validation - only rkey="self" accepted
286**Impact:** No legacy V1 data in production
287
288**Issue:** PDS write operations timed out (10s too short)
289**Fix:** Dynamic timeout - writes get 30s, reads get 10s
290**Impact:** Community creation no longer fails on slow PDS operations
291
292---
293
294## Lexicon Summary
295
296### `social.coves.community.profile`
297**Status:** ✅ Implemented and tested
298
299**Required Fields:**
300- `handle` - atProto handle (DNS-resolvable, e.g., `gaming.communities.coves.social`)
301- `name` - Short community name for !mentions (e.g., `gaming`)
302- `createdBy` - DID of user who created community
303- `hostedBy` - DID of hosting instance
304- `visibility` - `"public"`, `"unlisted"`, or `"private"`
305- `federation.allowExternalDiscovery` - Boolean
306
307**Note:** The `!gaming@coves.social` format is derived client-side from `name` + instance for UI display. The `handle` field contains only the DNS-resolvable atProto handle.
308
309**Optional Fields:**
310- `displayName` - Display name for UI
311- `description` - Community description
312- `descriptionFacets` - Rich text annotations
313- `avatar` - Blob reference for avatar image
314- `banner` - Blob reference for banner image
315- `moderationType` - `"moderator"` or `"sortition"`
316- `contentWarnings` - Array of content warning types
317- `memberCount` - Cached count
318- `subscriberCount` - Cached count
319
320### `social.coves.community.subscription`
321**Status:** ✅ Schema exists, consumer TODO
322
323**Fields:**
324- `community` - DID of community being subscribed to
325- `subscribedAt` - Timestamp
326
327### `social.coves.post` (Community Extension)
328**Status:** ⏳ TODO
329
330**New Field:**
331- `community` - Optional DID of community this post belongs to
332
333---
334
335## Success Metrics
336
337### Pre-Launch Checklist
338- [ ] All XRPC endpoints have E2E tests
339- [ ] OAuth authentication working on all protected endpoints
340- [ ] Rate limiting prevents abuse
341- [ ] Communities can be created, updated, searched, and subscribed to
342- [ ] Jetstream consumer indexes events in < 1 second
343- [ ] Database handles 10,000+ communities without performance issues
344- [ ] Security audit completed
345
346### V1 Launch Goals
347- Communities can be created with scoped handles
348- Posts can be made to communities (when implemented)
349- Community discovery works on local instance
350- All three visibility levels function correctly
351- Basic moderation (delist/remove) works
352
353---
354
355## Technical Decisions Log
356
357### 2025-10-11: Single Handle Field (atProto-Compliant)
358**Decision:** Use single `handle` field containing DNS-resolvable atProto handle; remove `atprotoHandle` field
359
360**Rationale:**
361- Matches Bluesky pattern: `app.bsky.actor.profile` has one `handle` field
362- Reduces confusion about which handle is "real"
363- Simplifies lexicon (one field vs two)
364- `!gaming@coves.social` display format is client-side UX concern, not protocol concern
365- Follows separation of concerns: protocol layer uses DNS handles, UI layer formats for display
366
367**Implementation:**
368- Lexicon: `handle` = `gaming.communities.coves.social` (DNS-resolvable)
369- Client derives display: `!${name}@${instance}` from `name` + parsed instance
370- Rich text facets can encode community mentions with `!` prefix for UX
371
372**Trade-offs Accepted:**
373- Clients must parse/format for display (but already do this for `@user` mentions)
374- No explicit "display handle" in record (but `displayName` serves this purpose)
375
376---
377
378### 2025-10-10: V2 Architecture Completed
379- Migrated from instance-owned to community-owned repositories
380- Each community now has own PDS account
381- Credentials encrypted at rest using pgcrypto
382- Strict V2 enforcement (no V1 compatibility)
383
384### 2025-10-08: DID Architecture & atProto Compliance
385- Migrated from `did:coves` to `did:plc` (portable DIDs)
386- Added required `did` field to lexicon
387- Fixed critical `record_uri` bug
388- Matches Bluesky feed generator pattern
389
390---
391
392## References
393
394- atProto Lexicon Spec: https://atproto.com/specs/lexicon
395- DID Web Spec: https://w3c-ccg.github.io/did-method-web/
396- Bluesky Handle System: https://atproto.com/specs/handle
397- PLC Directory: https://plc.directory