atproto in five minutes

airspace is built on atproto, the protocol behind Bluesky. These are the only terms you need.

PDS Your personal data server: the machine holding your account, your data, your login and your files. Run your own, or use one someone else runs, such as bsky.social.

Handle and DID Two names for your account. A handle, such as roe.dev, is a domain you control. A DID, such as did:plc:jbeaa5kdaladzwq3r7f5xgwe, never changes, and your data is filed under it.

Repo All of your data, stored on your PDS as JSON. Anyone can read it; only you can write to it.

Collection and record A repo is split into collections. A collection holds records, and a record is one JSON object.

Record key Identifies a record in its collection, and often shortened to rkey. It defaults to a timestamp, so records sort by creation time. The fixed key self is for something there is only one of, such as a profile.

AT URI The address of one record: at://did:plc:jbeaa…/dev.roe.project/3kabc….

Lexicon The schema for a record type, written in TypeScript in airspace.

Namespace Collection names are domains in reverse, so roe.dev owns everything under dev.roe.

Blob A file, stored on your PDS. Records hold a reference to it.

Space A private area of your repo, for drafts. Experimental.