relay coverage comparison — 2026-03-05#
relays tested#
| relay |
operator |
firehose |
collectiondir |
notes |
| relay.waow.tech |
nate (Go/indigo) |
yes |
yes |
Ashburn VA |
| zlay.waow.tech |
nate (Zig) |
yes |
yes |
Hillsboro OR |
| bsky.network |
Bluesky |
yes |
yes |
reference relay |
| europe.firehose.network |
sri |
yes |
no |
firehose only |
sri returns empty/404 for listReposByCollection — pure firehose relay.
- Pulsar (mackuba) — subscribes to multiple relay firehoses simultaneously, counts events + unique DIDs over a time window
- coldir-compare script — compares
listReposByCollection across relay, zlay, bsky.network for all indie NSIDs from lexicon garden
1. firehose coverage (Pulsar, 2 min window)#
| relay |
events |
unique DIDs |
| relay.waow.tech |
53,966 |
21,797 |
| zlay.waow.tech |
52,779 |
21,469 |
| europe.firehose.network |
46,129* |
19,727* |
* sri hit a ConsumerTooSlow disconnect ~100s into the 120s window, so its totals are undercounted.
relay and zlay within ~2% of each other. Both well ahead of sri's partial window.
2. collection directory — io.atcr.*#
| collection |
relay |
zlay |
bsky |
| io.atcr.manifest |
19 |
25 |
26 |
| io.atcr.tag |
19 |
25 |
26 |
| io.atcr.sailor.profile |
83 |
90 |
89 |
| io.atcr.repo.page |
17 |
19 |
21 |
relay still trails due to ghosts + deactivated accounts it hasn't pruned. bsky gained 1 DID on manifest/tag since yesterday. zlay leads on sailor.profile.
3. collection directory — all indie NSIDs (lexicon garden)#
Paginated counts where initial query hit 1000 cap.
zlay leads#
| collection |
relay |
zlay |
bsky |
notes |
| com.whtwnd.blog.entry |
427 |
698 |
530 |
zlay +32% over bsky |
| blue.linkat.board |
305 |
447 |
304 |
zlay +47% |
| app.bsky.labeler.service |
504 |
667 |
417 |
zlay +60% over bsky |
| com.shinolabs.pinksea.oekaki |
312 |
481 |
314 |
zlay +53% |
| place.stream.broadcast.origin |
331 |
519 |
518 |
zlay = bsky |
| blue.trilinesat.like |
54 |
100 |
100 |
zlay = bsky |
| blue.trilinesat.diary |
83 |
141 |
141 |
zlay = bsky |
| site.standard.graph.subscription |
735 |
1,350 |
1,353 |
zlay ≈ bsky |
| site.standard.publication |
1,166 |
2,071 |
2,077 |
zlay ≈ bsky |
| social.drydown.fragrance |
8 |
13 |
13 |
zlay = bsky |
| social.drydown.review |
8 |
14 |
14 |
zlay = bsky |
| app.fitsky.* |
1-5 |
2-6 |
2-6 |
zlay = bsky |
tied / close#
| collection |
relay |
zlay |
bsky |
| fyi.unravel.frontpage.post |
75 |
75 |
73 |
| fyi.unravel.frontpage.vote |
189 |
189 |
189 |
| tech.manos.twmirror.post |
5 |
6 |
6 |
| cx.vmx.matadisco |
1 |
1 |
1 |
| za.co.ciaran.cumulus.* |
1 |
1 |
1 |
| garden.lexicon.exultant-zebra.* |
1 |
1 |
1 |
relay leads#
| collection |
relay |
zlay |
bsky |
| xyz.statusphere.status |
848 |
815 |
815 |
zlay gaps (0 results where others have data)#
| collection |
relay |
zlay |
bsky |
| fyi.unravel.frontpage.comment |
78 |
0 |
43 |
| social.psky.feed.post |
42 |
0 |
0 |
| studio.voyager.account.autonomy |
11 |
0 |
13 |
| xyz.atpoke.feed.poke |
1 |
0 |
2 |
| com.crabdance.nandi.post |
1 |
0 |
2 |
| social.drydown.house |
8 |
0 |
14 |
Long-tail collections that zlay's backfill hasn't picked up — either not in lexicon garden's llms.txt or not on bsky.network (psky). social.drydown.house is a new gap since yesterday.
bsky leads#
| collection |
relay |
zlay |
bsky |
| fm.plyr.actor.profile |
94 |
94 |
148 |
| site.standard.document |
677 |
6,051 |
6,094 |
| xyz.blogosphere.post |
0 |
0 |
1 |
changes since 2026-03-04#
| metric |
03-04 |
03-05 |
delta |
| Pulsar: relay events (2 min) |
44,871 |
53,966 |
+20% |
| Pulsar: zlay events (2 min) |
44,999 |
52,779 |
+17% |
| bsky io.atcr.manifest |
25 |
26 |
+1 |
| zlay drydown.house |
12-13 |
0 |
gap appeared |
| zlay fm.plyr.actor.profile |
93 |
94 |
+1 |
| bsky fm.plyr.actor.profile |
146 |
148 |
+2 |
summary#
zlay wins#
- collection directory coverage on most indie NSIDs — often 30-60% more DIDs than relay, matching or beating bsky.network
- firehose parity with relay (within ~2%)
- site.standard.document: 6,051 (vs relay's 677) — nearly matching bsky's 6,094
zlay gaps#
- 6 long-tail collections with zero results (frontpage.comment, psky, voyager, atpoke, crabdance, drydown.house)
- fm.plyr.actor.profile trails bsky by ~36%
- statusphere trails relay by ~4% (815 vs 848)
relay (Go/indigo) gaps#
- trails on most collection directory counts due to uncleared ghosts/deactivated accounts
- statusphere is the one collection where relay leads
sri#
- firehose-only relay, no collection directory support
- hit ConsumerTooSlow during Pulsar test — may indicate capacity limits