Your own atproto network.

1Start it

npm install -g @openmeet/snowglobe   # puts the snowglobe command on your PATH
snowglobe up --default               # the first run pulls and builds images, which takes a while

The default snowglobe is one PDS with two test accounts, alice and bob, a PLC directory, Jetstream, Slingshot, PDSls and a page that lists them all. You need Docker with Compose and Node 20 or newer, on Linux or Windows with WSL 2.

To see it in a browser on the same computer, run snowglobe trust and open https://snowglobe.local.snowglobe.at/: every service, every account, and every write as it happens. snowglobe down stops it, and snowglobe down -v deletes its data too.

Read the setup guide

2Try it from the command line

snowglobe account carol CAROL   # makes carol.snowglobe.local.snowglobe.at
curl -s --cacert ~/.local/share/snowglobe/ca/ca.crt --get \
  https://slingshot.snowglobe.local.snowglobe.at/xrpc/com.bad-example.identity.resolveMiniDoc \
  -d identifier=alice.snowglobe.local.snowglobe.at

alice and bob come with the snowglobe; snowglobe account adds more. Each one's handle, DID and password are kept in ~/.local/share/snowglobe/snowglobe/accounts.env, carol's as CAROL_HANDLE, CAROL_PASSWORD and so on.

Every snowglobe has a domain of its own, and its names work for every program on the machine: public DNS sends them to 127.0.0.1, where a name router passes each one to its snowglobe. Here curl asks Slingshot for alice's DID and PDS, and --cacert has it trust the snowglobe's own certificate authority.

3Bring your app

In your app's repo, start from the default file:

cp "$(npm root -g)/@openmeet/snowglobe/snowglobe.default.yml" snowglobe.yml

Give its globe: line a name of its own, myapp here, and add your app with the settings it reads:

apps:
  - name: myapp
    local: { port: 5173 }    # https://myapp.app.myapp.local.snowglobe.at -> your dev server
    env:
      PUBLIC_ATPROTO_PLC_URL: ${services.plc.url}
      PUBLIC_ATPROTO_SIGNUP_PDS: ${pds.main.url}

snowglobe up                # in the app's repo
snowglobe run npm run dev   # the app gets those settings and trusts the snowglobe

Open https://myapp.app.myapp.local.snowglobe.at and sign in as alice.myapp.local.snowglobe.at, on her PDS's own sign-in page, as on the real network. snowglobe run hands the app the settings and the snowglobe's certificate authority; snowglobe env prints the same settings for an app you start some other way.

Use it in your own project · Statusphere, run end to end

Add what your app needs

• More PDSes, with a relay that merges their writes
• The permissioned-spaces alpha PDS
• A group host, and Tap for an app that keeps its own copy of the data
• A lexicon authority, for lexicons that are still drafts

A test suite checks the network works and that no service points at Bluesky.

What a snowglobe.yml can hold