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#ktistec 198 hashtags
Since all my websites and web-tools use the phenomenal #SimpleCSS framework, I thought it would also make sense to create a theme for #ktistec using those exact colours. Of course, this is also available from my ktistec-tweaks, next to the old purpleish-theme, which I had before.
Also new is the separation of the card-style post theming, which is also shown in the screenshot below, in its own CSS file.
Todd Sundsted posted Dec 7, 2025
I've improved federation support for Lemmy and other servers that support FEP-1b12 Group Federation.
I had to increase the number of available file descriptors on my personal server 4x because of the resultant inbound volume of ActivityPub activities! I liked a federated post and DOSed my server.
Todd Sundsted posted Dec 3, 2025
Release v3.2.2 of Ktistec
The big feature in release v3.2.2 of Ktistec is pinned posts with support for the Mastodon Featured Posts collection. Federation works both ways—pin a post on Ktistec and it will show up as a pinned post on Mastodon and vice versa. When you refresh an actor profile, Ktistec also fetches and updates the actor's pinned posts. This is another small step in the direction of supporting all features that Mastodon-compatible client applications expect to access via the API. It's also useful in its own right.
The other major feature, which I posted a short video demonstrating here, is X-Ray Mode. X-Ray Mode is a developer and power-user tool for inspecting ActivityPub JSON-LD representations of actors, objects, and other content. Pressing Ctrl+Shift+X on any page displays the data behind the page—like an x-ray. You can:
- Cached Version: View the local JSON-LD representation stored in the Ktistec database
- Remote Version: Fetch and view the original JSON-LD representation from the source server
- Navigation: Click on any ActivityPub IRI to navigate to that object
- History: Use
Alt+LeftandAlt+Rightto navigate through your viewing history
This feature is useful for debugging federation issues, understanding ActivityPub structures, and verifying how content is stored and represented.
Here's the full changelog for the release:
Added
- Support for pinned posts and the Mastodon "featured posts" collection.
- X-Ray Mode for viewing and navigating JSON-LD resource (actor, object, etc.) representations.
- Back links on thread pages for easier navigation. (fixes #1)
- License page for LibreJS compliance. (fixes #127)
- Highlighting of recently fetched hashtagged posts.
Changed
- Improved presentation of audio and video media.
- Refactored theming/styling implementation.
The next release will focus on smaller features and bug fixes.
Enjoy!
Todd Sundsted posted Dec 2, 2025
would a "more from this actor" button be helpful on #ktistec? the use case is 1) navigate to an actor you're thinking of following, 2) click on "more from this actor" to fetch ~10 additional, recent posts. is there another feature that would be more useful?
Todd Sundsted posted Nov 30, 2025
I've streamlined theme development in Ktistec. The theming system uses a hierarchy of CSS custom properties and fallbacks. Theme authors can customize a theme at multiple levels:
Base Colors Only
Define only base colors like --text-primary, --bg-primary, --bg-input, --semantic-primary, etc. Derived colors will auto-generate using color-mix formulas. For example:
:root { --semantic-primary: #ffa500; }From this one line, theme-appropriate colors like --bg-accent-code, --anchor-color, etc. auto-generate.
Base Colors Plus Derived Colors
Define base colors and derived colors. Derived colors use custom values when defined. Undefined derived colors auto-generate. For example:
:root {
--text-primary: #333;
--text-primary-2: #ff0000; /* red for this specific shade */
}Given this theme, derived shades like --text-primary-1, --text-primary-3, and --text-primary-4 auto-generate. --text-primary-2 is red.
The simplest possible interesting theme redefines the primary semantic color. The single line above (in Base Colors Only) would result in the following, with button color, link color, disabled, selected, and hover states all derived automatically:
These changes will be in the upcoming release. Existing themes will continue to work, as is.
Todd Sundsted posted Nov 28, 2025
Experimenting with x-ray mode for ktistec.
Todd Sundsted posted Nov 27, 2025
Release v3.2.1 of Ktistec
Release v3.2.1 of Ktistec adds support for bookmarking posts. This was so immediately useful I don't know why it took me so long to get around to it!
Pinned/featured posts are in the works for the next release.
The full changelog:
Added
- Support for bookmarking posts.
Fixed
- Invalidate user's sessions after changing password.
- Ignore supplied languages that don't conform to expected format.
Changed
- Upgrade Kemal.
In other thoughts... I'd like to make followed hashtags more consumable. I follow ~10 hashtags and: 1) it's hard to tell what's new, 2) it feels like they arrive in large batches that are difficult to digest, and 3) the reading experience is meh.
Todd Sundsted posted Nov 21, 2025
commits b9e0658d to d42482bb cut the time required to run all #ktistec tests from ~35 seconds to ~26 seconds, a savings of about 25% (there are currently 5114 tests). the faster tests run, the more you run them, so this is a good outcome.
Todd Sundsted posted Nov 20, 2025
no #ktistec release this week. i have been working on bookmarked posts, pinned/featured posts, as well as some minor performance improvements, but i need to spend time fixing an issue with my libxml extensions that is preventing me from moving to the latest release of #crystallang. i've been putting it off but it's gotta get done, so...
Todd Sundsted posted Nov 13, 2025
Release v3.2.0 of Ktistec
The major feature in v3.2.0 of Ktistec is thread analysis. The previous release, v3.1.2, added support for viewing threads from Lemmy communities. I follow the Open Source community, which leads to many large threads. The thread on FFMpeg and Google has 112 posts and is still growing.
Thread analysis helps me navigate these extensive conversations. It includes: top contributors, a timeline histogram, and notable branches.
The analysis applies several heuristics to identify interesting branches of the main thread. “Interesting” is subjective, but the algorithm currently looks for sudden bursts of activity and highlights those areas. Ktistec uses this to create a table of contents that links directly to those branches. Clicking on one of these links takes you to a branch-only view that focuses on the selected part of the thread.
It's fast—I anticipated needing to cache analyses, but analyzing a thread with over 400 posts takes only about 50 milliseconds on my production server.
This release also addresses an object visibility regression that was introduced in a previous version.
Full Changelog
Added
- Thread analysis that displays key participants, a timeline histogram, and notable branches
- New MCP tools:
analyze_threadandget_thread - Focal point rendering support for image attachments
Fixed
- Regression in object visibility affecting replies to threads
Changed
- Enhanced MCP tool details for likes, dislikes, and announces
- Improved cookie security.