# 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.

## tools used

- **Pulsar** ([mackuba](https://tangled.org/mackuba.eu/pulsar)) — 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