Not Twitter

This is Not Twitter.

It looks suspiciously like Twitter, scrolls suspiciously like Twitter, and may even trigger the same muscle memory as Twitter. But legally, spiritually, and with a straight face, it is Not Twitter.

Under the trench coat, this is a Bluesky interface built on AT Protocol. The goal is simple: keep the familiar timeline experience, remove the "Everything App" non-sense, and let posts come from a network that is not actively trying to turn every refresh into 50 posts from Elon Musk.

What Is This?

Not Twitter is a frontend for Bluesky.

It keeps the cozy old layout people remember:

• Home timeline
• Profiles
• Replies
• Likes
• Reposts
• Follows
• Search-ish exploration
• Image uploads
• Local bookmarks and theme preferences

But the data comes from Bluesky/AT Protocol, not the platform currently doing side quests as a finance app, video app, hiring app, banking app, and public group chat for people who reply "concerning" to everything.

Why?

Because sometimes you want the old social app experience without the new "Everything App" smell.

Also because making a Bluesky client that looks like Twitter is objectively funny.

Development

Install dependencies:

npm install

Run the local dev server:

npm run dev

Open the printed local URL and sign in with a Bluesky handle or DID.

Self-hosted or alternate PDS deployments can be included in auth handle resolution with a comma-separated list:

NEXT_PUBLIC_ATPROTO_PDS_URLS=https://bsky.social,https://pds.example.com npm run dev

The first URL is used as the default credential-session PDS, and bsky.social stays available as a fallback when it is not listed.

For local OAuth development, use:

http://127.0.0.1:3000

instead of:

http://localhost:3000

Loopback OAuth tokens are development-only and short lived, just like most rebrands.

Static Export

Build the static site:

npm run export

The included GitHub Pages workflow builds out/ with the correct repository base path and writes the hosted AT Protocol OAuth client metadata file for the Pages URL automatically.

For non-loopback deployments outside that workflow, set NEXT_PUBLIC_ATPROTO_CLIENT_ID to a hosted AT Protocol OAuth client metadata URL, or set NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL/NEXT_PUBLIC_URL so the build can generate one.

Important Legal Stuff

Not Twitter is not Twitter, not X, not X Corp, not affiliated with Elon Musk, and not responsible for any sudden urge to post "the old site was better."

Twitter-style words may still appear in the codebase because the original frontend used them and because renaming every internal tweet reference would be a very silly way to spend an afternoon.

Tech Stuff

• Next.js
• React
• Tailwind CSS
• AT Protocol OAuth with PKCE/DPoP
• Bluesky APIs through @atproto/api

Vibe Check

If Twitter is now X, this is Not Twitter.

If someone asks whether this is just Twitter with Bluesky underneath, politely tell them no, this is not Twitter