Bluesky Engagement

Automation for Bluesky reply tracking. The monitor reads; a human (or a queue consumer with explicit approval) writes.

Why this exists

Bluesky is a Zernio-connected channel for publishing, but Zernio does not expose an inbound/comments API. Engagement has to run directly against the open AT Protocol. This skill owns that path so future sessions don't re-ask for credentials or re-derive the PDS routing.

Credentials

Both are set in .env at repo root (git-ignored):

Var	Source	Notes
BLUESKY_HANDLE	bsky profile URL	e.g. iganapolsky.bsky.social
BLUESKY_APP_PASSWORD	https://bsky.app/settings/app-passwords	Scoped, revocable. Never use the account login password.

Rotation: revoke the old app password at the settings URL above, generate a new one named thumbgate-replies, and replace the value on the BLUESKY_APP_PASSWORD= line of .env. No other files need updating.

Architecture

launchd (com.thumbgate.bluesky-reply-monitor)
  └─ every 900s ─> node scripts/social-reply-monitor-bluesky.js
                    ├─ com.atproto.server.createSession (bsky.social)
                    │  └─ reads didDoc to find user's real PDS
                    ├─ app.bsky.notification.listNotifications (user's PDS)
                    ├─ filter reason in {reply, mention, quote}
                    ├─ dedupe against .thumbgate/reply-monitor-state.json
                    ├─ generateReply() — shared with Reddit/X monitor
                    └─ append to .thumbgate/reply-drafts.jsonl

Federation note: authenticated AT Protocol calls must hit the user's own PDS (session.didDoc.service[].serviceEndpoint), not bsky.social. Hitting bsky.social returns 502 UpstreamFailure. This was the first bug.

Transient failures: Bluesky's appview returns 502 during incidents. The monitor detects 5xx / UpstreamFailure / ECONNRESET and exits 0 so launchd doesn't mark the agent failed.

File layout

Path	Purpose	Tracked?
scripts/social-reply-monitor-bluesky.js	The monitor itself	yes
~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.thumbgate.bluesky-reply-monitor.plist	15-min schedule	no (user-scope)
.thumbgate/reply-monitor-state.json	Dedupe state (also used by Reddit/X monitor)	no
.thumbgate/reply-drafts.jsonl	Human-review queue	no
.thumbgate/bluesky-monitor-stdout.log	launchd stdout	no
.thumbgate/bluesky-monitor-stderr.log	launchd stderr (transient 502 warnings land here)	no

Commands

# One-off dry run (no state mutation, logs what would be queued)
node scripts/social-reply-monitor-bluesky.js --dry-run

# One-off real run (appends to .thumbgate/reply-drafts.jsonl)
node scripts/social-reply-monitor-bluesky.js

# Reload the launchd agent after editing the plist
launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.thumbgate.bluesky-reply-monitor.plist
launchctl load   ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.thumbgate.bluesky-reply-monitor.plist

# Check the agent is alive
launchctl list com.thumbgate.bluesky-reply-monitor

# Tail the logs
tail -f .thumbgate/bluesky-monitor-stderr.log

# Inspect queued drafts
cat .thumbgate/reply-drafts.jsonl | jq -r 'select(.platform=="bluesky") | "\(.createdAt) @\(.notification.authorHandle): \(.incomingText[0:80])"'

Draft-queue consumption

The monitor NEVER auto-posts. Drafts sit in .thumbgate/reply-drafts.jsonl with autoPost: false. Human workflow:

1. Review the queue.
2. For each draft you want to send, open the notification URI in Bluesky and reply manually (or later, build a send-reply-queue.js consumer that hits com.atproto.repo.createRecord with app.bsky.feed.post — keep the root/parent CID+URI pair the monitor already stored).

Auto-sending is deliberately deferred until there's a UI approval step. This is how we stay off the bot-slop/banned list.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
Bluesky auth failed (status=401)	app password revoked or rotated elsewhere	regenerate per Rotation steps above
listNotifications failed on bsky.social: 502	hitting the wrong host	the script auto-routes to PDS; if you see this, the didDoc parsing broke — inspect session.didDoc.service
listNotifications failed on <user-pds>: 502 UpstreamFailure	Bluesky appview incident	nothing to do; soft-fails, next tick retries
stderr log grows but no drafts appear	all notifications already in state file or all reasons are like/follow (we only handle reply/mention/quote)	inspect state file: jq '.repliedTo.bluesky' .thumbgate/reply-monitor-state.json

CI wiring (Ralph Loop)

As of 2026-04-21 this monitor also runs hourly in GitHub Actions via .github/workflows/ralph-loop.yml → scripts/ralph-loop.js → step id reply-monitor-bluesky. The step is gated on requiredEnvAll: ['BLUESKY_HANDLE', 'BLUESKY_APP_PASSWORD'] (GitHub repo secrets) and writes the same draft file the local launchd agent does. Never auto-posts in either path.

Voice guardrail (2026-04-21)

First autonomous-posting attempt (scripts/bluesky-send-replies.js, removed 2026-04-21) was reverted after the CEO thumbs-downed the AI-pitch tone on a live reply. All 6 live replies were deleted via scripts/bluesky-delete-replies.js (calls com.atproto.repo.deleteRecord). The lesson, captured as memory mem_1776790570289_oc2z6g: do not write replies that open with "Exactly"/"Right —", do not name-drop ThumbGate features inside conversational replies, keep replies to 1–2 sentences in the voice of a human peer. Until this is enforced by a gate rule, the monitor stays draft-only and a human sends the actual reply.

Related

• scripts/social-reply-monitor.js — Reddit, X, LinkedIn monitor. Shares generateReply() and the draft file.
• scripts/bluesky-list-actionable.js — one-shot dump of un-replied notifications for human triage.
• scripts/bluesky-delete-replies.js — one-shot rollback; reads postedUri entries out of .thumbgate/reply-monitor-state.json and calls com.atproto.repo.deleteRecord.
• scripts/social-analytics/publishers/zernio.js — publishes Bluesky posts via Zernio. Separate concern.
• CLAUDE.md → "Social stack: Zernio canonical" — explains why publishing uses Zernio but engagement doesn't (Zernio Inbox is dashboard-only, no public API as of 2026-04-21).