How Bluesky Feeds Work in BA6

A custom Bluesky feed is not a live search and not a real‑time scan of the entire network.

In BA6, a feed is a deterministic pipeline with four stages:

1. Source selection — whose posts are eligible
2. Indexing — which posts BA6 knows about
3. Filtering rules — which indexed posts qualify
4. Feed delivery — how Bluesky requests and displays results

If any stage returns nothing, the feed is empty. This is expected behavior, not a bug.

1) Feed Sources: defining who the feed watches

Every BA6 feed starts by defining sources.

A source is usually:

• a Bluesky account (DID)
• added manually or automatically when the feed is created

Examples:

• “Only my posts”
• “These 25 journalists”
• “This curated list of accounts”

Internally, BA6 stores sources as a list of account DIDs tied to the feed.

Important rule If a feed has no valid sources, it returns nothing. Feeds never default to “everything on Bluesky.”

This prevents accidental global feeds and keeps behavior predictable.

2) Indexing: how BA6 learns about posts

Feeds do not query Bluesky live every time someone opens them.

Instead, BA6 maintains an index — a database of posts it has already seen.

How posts enter the index

There are two paths:

A) Scheduled posts (immediate)

When you post through the BA6 scheduler:

1. BA6 publishes the post to Bluesky
2. BA6 immediately records it in the index
3. The post appears in relevant feeds right away

This path is instant and guaranteed.

B) Manual posts (background sync)

When you post directly in the Bluesky app:

1. The post exists on Bluesky
2. BA6 does not see it instantly
3. A background indexer periodically checks your account
4. New posts are pulled in and added to the index

This usually happens within a few minutes, depending on system load.

3) Feed rules: deciding which posts qualify

Once posts are indexed, feed rules determine what appears.

Keyword rules (most common)

Example rule:

• Keyword: trump
• Case‑insensitive
• Applied only to posts from the feed’s sources

What this means:

• The feed shows posts by the selected accounts
• Only if the post text contains the keyword

If no rules are defined:

• The feed shows all indexed posts from the sources

Rules never expand the feed beyond its sources.

4) Feed delivery: how Bluesky gets the feed

When someone opens your feed in Bluesky:

1. Bluesky calls BA6’s feed endpoint using the AT Protocol
2. BA6:
   • identifies the feed by its slug
   • loads the feed’s sources and rules
   • queries the index
   • returns a list of post URIs
3. Bluesky fetches the full post content and displays it

BA6 does not send post text or media to Bluesky — only references. This keeps feeds fast and scalable.

Why feeds can appear “empty”

An empty feed does not mean something is broken.

Common reasons:

• No sources are configured
• Sources exist but no posts are indexed yet
• Keyword rules don’t match recent posts
• Manual posts haven’t been indexed yet

In all cases, the feed is behaving correctly based on its configuration.

Scheduler vs Feed (important distinction)

The scheduler creates posts. Feeds observe posts that already exist.

Why BA6 uses indexing instead of live search

This design is intentional:

• Predictable results
• No rate‑limit explosions
• Lower latency
• No accidental global scraping
• Clear user control over sources

It also enables future upgrades without changing feed behavior.

Current scope vs future expansion

Current (Level 2)

• Feeds watch curated account lists
• Posts are pulled via standard Bluesky RPC calls
• Ideal for topic tracking with high signal

Future (Level 3)

• Feeds can ingest the network‑wide firehose
• Same rules, same UI
• Only the ingestion layer changes

Your feed logic does not need to change to support this later.

Mental model to remember

Feeds don’t watch Bluesky. Feeds watch what BA6 has indexed from Bluesky.

If a post isn’t indexed yet, it doesn’t exist to the feed.

Mobile wallets (iPhone / Android)

Mobile Safari/Chrome usually cannot detect MetaMask/Phantom because those browsers don’t support wallet injection.

On mobile, use one of:

• MetaMask in-app browser (opens BA6 inside MetaMask)
• Phantom in-app browser (opens BA6 inside Phantom)
• WalletConnect (EVM) when enabled
• Magic wallets (email/social) if supported

If you see “no wallet detected” on mobile, it usually means you’re in Safari/Chrome. Open BA6 inside the wallet app browser instead.

Visual: The Feed Pipeline

Quick Version (One Page)

• A feed shows posts from specific sources. If no sources, it’s empty.
• BA6 only shows posts it has indexed. Scheduled posts index instantly; manual posts index in the background.
• Rules filter the indexed posts. Rules never expand beyond your sources.
• Bluesky requests a list of post URIs. BA6 doesn’t send post text, only references.

If your feed is empty, check sources → indexing → rules in that order.

For Non‑Technical Creators

Think of a feed like a playlist:

• Sources = the artists you’re following
• Index = the songs you’ve downloaded
• Rules = your filters (only upbeat, only acoustic, etc.)
• Feed delivery = the music player showing the playlist

If the playlist is empty, it’s usually because:

• you didn’t add any artists,
• you haven’t downloaded anything yet, or
• your filters are too strict.

The fix is simple: add sources, give the indexer a few minutes, and loosen rules if needed.