Ktistec

Ktistec is a lightweight, writing-focused ActivityPub server intended for small numbers of trusted users. It provides a personal/federated publishing platform with rich editing, thread analysis, and basic site administration.

Key Features

• Implements the ActivityPub protocol for federation (publishing, following, liking, announcing, undoing, deleting).
• Two editing modes: rich text editor and Markdown editor with automatic Markdown-to-HTML conversion and hashtag/mention support.
• Image attachments with alt text support and federated focal-point positioning for thumbnails.
• Draft posts, autosave, threaded replies and prioritized self-replies to keep author threads coherent.
• Thread Analysis (key participants, timeline histogram, notable branches) to help navigate large conversations.
• Translations integration (supports external services such as DeepL or LibreTranslate if configured).
• @-mention and #-hashtag autocomplete, custom emoji rendering, polls, bookmarks, pinned posts, and RSS feeds.
• Content discovery and filtering, blocking, control over comment visibility, Open Graph metadata, and pretty URLs.
• MCP (Message Capture Protocol) support and OAuth for integrations; scripting, tasks, metrics, and theming support.

Use Cases

• Run a personal or small-group Fediverse instance for blogging, long-form writing, or microblogging.
• Host a low-volume community or trusted discussion space where every user is an administrator.
• Use as a platform for scripted publishing workflows, archiving notes, or research threads with thread analysis tools.

Limitations and Considerations

• Designed for low-volume, trusted deployments: every account is effectively an administrator and the software is not targeted at large public instances.
• Requires compiling a Crystal-language server binary and building JS/CSS assets (Node.js + Webpack) for development; a prebuilt "dist" branch is available for simpler deployment.
• Relies on SQLite3; some SQLite versions (notably certain 3.39.x and 3.40.x builds) are known to have issues with bloom filters and recursive queries—use a compatible SQLite release.
• Not intended as a drop-in replacement for high-scale ActivityPub servers that depend on separate DBs or queues (e.g., PostgreSQL + Redis).

Ktistec is a compact, developer-friendly option for someone who wants a personal or small-group federated publishing server with rich editing, analysis tools, and scripting facilities. It emphasizes simplicity and minimal runtime dependencies while providing a broad set of social features suitable for low-volume Fediverse usage.