# I am the Watcher. I am your guide through this vast new twtiverse.
# 
# Usage:
#     https://watcher.sour.is/api/plain/users              View list of users and latest twt date.
#     https://watcher.sour.is/api/plain/twt                View all twts.
#     https://watcher.sour.is/api/plain/mentions?uri=:uri  View all mentions for uri.
#     https://watcher.sour.is/api/plain/conv/:hash         View all twts for a conversation subject.
# 
# Options:
#     uri     Filter to show a specific users twts.
#     offset  Start index for quey.
#     limit   Count of items to return (going back in time).
# 
# twt range = 1 9
# self = https://watcher.sour.is/conv/zqpkfla
Okay folks, I've spent all day on this today, and I _think_ its in "good enough"™ shape to share:

Twtxt v2:

- Specification: https://docs.mills.io/uJXuisaYTRWYDrl8A2jADg?both
- implementation: https://gist.mills.io/prologic/afdec15443da4d7aa898f383f171ec1b

Okay folks, I've spent all day on this today, and I _think_ its in "good enough"™ shape to share:

Twtxt v2:

- Specification: https://docs.mills.io/uJXuisaYTRWYDrl8A2jADg?both
- implementation: https://gist.mills.io/prologic/afdec15443da4d7aa898f383f171ec1b

Example:



$ ./twtxt-v2.sh reply 242561ce02d "Cool! 👌"
Posted twt with hash: b2c938f9838
...
$ ./twtxt-v2.sh timeline
...
prologic@twtxt.net [2024-09-22T07:26:37Z] <242561ce02d> Okay folks, I've spent all day on this today, and I _think_ its in "good enough"™ shape to share:

**Twtxt v2**:

- Specification: https://docs.mills.io/uJXuisaYTRWYDrl8A2jADg?both
- implementation: https://gist.mills.io/prologic/afdec15443da4d7aa898f383f171ec1b

 ![](https://twtxt.net/media/Wb9MtAiQyEkzNQB5dyVvUR.png)
prologic@localhost [2024-09-22T07:51:16Z] <b2c938f9838> Cool! 👌 (reply-to:242561ce02d)


Example:



$ ./twtxt-v2.sh reply 242561ce02d "Cool! 👌"
Posted twt with hash: b2c938f9838
...
$ ./twtxt-v2.sh timeline
...
prologic@twtxt.net [2024-09-22T07:26:37Z] <242561ce02d> Okay folks, I've spent all day on this today, and I _think_ its in "good enough"™ shape to share:

**Twtxt v2**:

- Specification: https://docs.mills.io/uJXuisaYTRWYDrl8A2jADg?both
- implementation: https://gist.mills.io/prologic/afdec15443da4d7aa898f383f171ec1b

 ![](https://twtxt.net/media/Wb9MtAiQyEkzNQB5dyVvUR.png)
prologic@localhost [2024-09-22T07:51:16Z] <b2c938f9838> Cool! 👌 (reply-to:242561ce02d)


It's even sorta/somewhat compatible with our existing feeds (_kind of_) 🤣 -- Bit too stupid to figure out how to write enough correct Bash to make threads display inline nicely in an indented/tree-like fashion, but oh well 😅
It's even sorta/somewhat compatible with our existing feeds (_kind of_) 🤣 -- Bit too stupid to figure out how to write enough correct Bash to make threads display inline nicely in an indented/tree-like fashion, but oh well 😅
@prologic Thanks for writing that up!

I hope it can remain a living document (or sequence of draft revisions) for a good long time while we figure out how this stuff works in practice.

I am not sure how I feel about all this being done at once, vs. letting conventions arise.

For example, even today I could reply to twt abc1234 with "(#abc1234) Edit: ..." and I think all you humans would understand it as an edit to (#abc1234). Maybe eventually it would become a common enough convention that clients would start to support it explicitly.

Similarly we could just start using 11-digit hashes. We should iron out whether it's sha256 or whatever but there's no need get all the other stuff right at the same time.

I have similar thoughts about how some users could try out location-based replies in a backward-compatible way (append the replyto: stuff after the legacy (#hash) style).

However I recognize that I'm not the one implementing this stuff, and it's less work to just have everything determined up front.

Misc comments (I haven't read the whole thing):

- Did you mean to make hashes hexadecimal? You lose 11 bits that way compared to base32. I'd suggest gaining 11 bits with base64 instead.

- "Clients MUST preserve the original hash" --- do you mean they MUST preserve the original twt?

- Thanks for phrasing the bit about deletions so neutrally.

- I don't like the MUST in "Clients MUST follow the chain of reply-to references...". If someone writes a client as a 40-line shell script that requires the user to piece together the threading themselves, IMO we shouldn't declare the client non-conforming just because they didn't get to all the bells and whistles.

- Similarly I don't like the MUST for user agents. For one thing, you might want to fetch a feed without revealing your identty. Also, it raises the bar for a minimal implementation (I'm again thinking again of the 40-line shell script).

- For "who follows" lists: why must the long, random tokens be only valid for a limited time? Do you have a scenario in mind where they could leak?

- Why can't feeds be served over HTTP/1.0? Again, thinking about simple software. I recently tried implementing HTTP/1.1 and it wasn't too bad, but 1.0 would have been slightly simpler.

- Why get into the nitty-gritty about caching headers? This seems like generic advice for HTTP servers and clients.

- I'm a little sad about other protocols being not recommended.

- I don't know how I feel about including markdown. I don't mind too much that yarn users emit twts full of markdown, but I'm more of a plain text kind of person. Also it adds to the length. I wonder if putting a separate document would make more sense; that would also help with the length.
@falsifian No worries! Fell few to contribute to the doc directly I'd you wish 👌
@falsifian No worries! Fell few to contribute to the doc directly I'd you wish 👌