Intro to Building on AT Protocol
Open social tech for developers
Who it's for
Developers & indie builders
Anyone who wants to build on open social infrastructure instead of locked-in APIs.
Community & DevRel teams
People thinking about portable identity, cross-platform reputation and community data ownership.
Product & engineering leads
Teams evaluating AT Protocol as an infrastructure choice for their next product.
What you'll leave with
- A working Bluesky client or PDS record built during the session.
- A clear mental model of AT Protocol's data model, lexicons and DID system.
- Understanding of how community features like follows, feeds and notifications work under the hood.
- A practical sense of what "user-owned data" actually means in code.
- Context on the ecosystem: which apps are building on it and why.
How the day runs
- Morning
Protocol architecture
DIDs, PDS, AppView, lexicons. What makes AT Protocol different from ActivityPub and why that matters.
- Afternoon
Build session
Wire a simple Bluesky client or publish custom records. Work with your own PDS. Ship something.
I've been teaching people how to use tech products since 2006. I've used Bluesky since mid-2024 and have been building on AT Protocol since Q4 2025: Sifa ID (portable professional identity on atproto) and Barazo (open community forums) are both production projects on the network. I hosted an unconference at ATmosphere Conf 2026 in Vancouver. I know where the sharp edges are.
Talk about a workshop