Hi, I'm new to AT Protocol, and I ran into some issues setting up accounts with Tranquil PDS hosts. I'm playing around with atproto accounts and apps while planning how to implement a project. I want to set up a small family of publications (parent site plus topic-based daughter sites), each of which would have an atproto account for social media and other relevant apps, using my root domain or its subdomains for handles.
I found out about your PDS software because I wanted an account host which offered passkeys and/or TOTP for authentication. Thank you for including those features! I was surprised that Bluesky's software only offers email codes, and that Eurosky only offers passwords. An everything account ought to have passkeys and/or TOTP too, so that it's secure and quick to log into.
The next problem was to find a Tranquil PDS host with open registration. I eventually succeeded by signing up for the Opnshelf app using a password login, but it was tricky getting there:
- There don't seem to be many Tranquil hosts yet, and you have to use PDS directories or web searches to find them through trial and error.
- PDS hosts often aren't clear about if and how they allow new accounts, and don't advertise what kinds of MFA are available. Tranquil's text about this is probably too techie for a general audience, but I'm glad you advertise which options are available!
- It's confusing that plenty of PDS hosts only take registrations through the associated website/app, but the two have different domains. If you go directly to the PDS host, it often asks for an invite code even though it was listed as open registration.
Once signed up with Opnshelf, I was able to add TOTP and a passkey without trouble. I also changed my handle a couple different ways: correcting a typo in the original @name.opnshelf.social handle, then switching it to a custom domain. The help for the latter could improve, but luckily I had Bluesky's guide open as well.
I also tried using the account delegation feature to create those subdomain accounts. It didn't work and there was no error message, so I'm guessing the feature isn't complete yet.
So long as it doesn't put my data in danger, I could stumble into more beginner mistakes and edge cases for you. (I was able to set up automated backups at PDS Moover for the Opnshelf account.) Here's another one I found:
- I tried to make a new account (for one of the subdomains) at https://iris.oyster.cafe. I guessed by the user count that maybe it's your test host.
- I wanted to use a passkey, and wanted to store it in 1Password. Unfortunately, Apple Keychain answered the make-a-passkey prompt, so I cancelled out, hoping to get 1Password to do it or start over. (I should have gone ahead then made another passkey from the admin interface.)
- I wasn't able to try making the passkey again. I also couldn't get up and running by recovering the passkey or the non-existent password -- the recovery emails never arrived.
- I tried making another account, but the handle @luxaudax.iris.oyster.cafe was already taken.
It looks like Tranquil will shape up into a pretty nice product. However, a moderately technical person who isn't familiar with AT Protocol (like me) can definitely stumble into plenty of issues trying to get going. I hope this report helps you, and hopefully you can help me get up and running!
thank you for everything you've written! first things first, iris is absolutely a test instance that is subject to all sorts of freaky experiments, it's on the chopping block for deletion so I'm glad you weren't able to continue with an account there lol
tranquil somewhat purposefully doesn't have a "flagship instance" or necessarily anything open ourselves at all, we're not like, trying to insist on ourselves so much :p
what the business types would call "whitelabelling" is what tranquil would prefer, hence probably why it's so hard to like, find tranquil instances in the wild to sign up / migrate into.