https://fedtail.dmesg.online/en/tags/design/Recent content in Design on fedtailHugoen-UShttps://fedtail.dmesg.online/en/docs/architecture/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://fedtail.dmesg.online/en/docs/architecture/<p>fedtail is engineered for people who value conversation context, non-jumping chronological timelines, and complete discussion threads.</p> <h2 id="foundational-principles">Foundational Principles</h2> <ol> <li><strong>Nothing jumps.</strong> Opening a lane places you at the first unread post. New arrivals never push what you are currently reading. You consume feeds in order, just like RSS.</li> <li><strong>Every reply knows its parent.</strong> A quote strip above each response shows the origin post; a single click expands the entire tree.</li> <li><strong>Lanes are segregated.</strong> People, bots, direct replies, and mentions are cleanly partitioned into distinct feeds.</li> <li><strong>Private by default.</strong> New posts target followers only. Replies never exceed the visibility level of the parent note.</li> <li><strong>Config-driven.</strong> Every behavior is governed by explicit settings in <code>config.toml</code> rather than GUI preference dialogs.</li> <li><strong>No client tokens sent to third-party instances.</strong> Missing thread data fetched via ActivityPub is retrieved anonymously without leaking user tokens.</li> <li><strong>Headless core.</strong> The application engine is fully decoupled from presentation. Frontends (Qt, TUI, Web) interact via events and futures.</li> <li><strong>One profile per account.</strong> Profiles remain isolated; multiple profiles can be switched easily or merged into a single window.</li> <li><strong>No patronizing moderation (arts mode).</strong> In tribute to @arts (founder of Point.im), content is presented as-is with full user agency.</li> </ol> <hr> <h2 id="architectural-components">Architectural Components</h2> <ul> <li><strong>Core Engine (<code>fedtail/core</code>)</strong>: Headless orchestration of networking, storage, polling, and event dispatch.</li> <li><strong>Data Persistence</strong>: Local SQLite database storing cached status entities, thread graph relationships, read markers, and subscriptions.</li> <li><strong>Thread Reassembly</strong>: Fetches missing conversational branches directly from origin author instances when home servers lack federated context.</li> <li><strong>Frontends (<code>fedtail/frontends</code>)</strong>: <ul> <li><code>qt</code>: Native desktop UI built on PySide6.</li> <li><code>tui</code>: Terminal text-mode interface.</li> <li><code>web</code>: Embedded lightweight browser interface.</li> <li><code>cli</code>: Scriptable terminal commands (<code>fedtail tail</code>, <code>fedtail show</code>, etc.).</li> </ul> </li> </ul>