Pull missing responses into Mastodon

This GitHub repository provides a GitHub action that runs every 10 mins, doing the following:

1. It can pull remote replies into your instance, using the Mastodon API. That part itself has two parts:
   1. It gets remote replies to posts that users on your instance have already replied to during the last REPLY_INTERVAL_IN_HOURS hours, and adds them to your own server.
   2. It gets remote replies to the last HOME_TIMELINE_LENGTH posts from your home timeline, and adds them to your own server.
2. It can also backfill posts:
   1. from the last MAX_FOLLOWINGS users that you have followed.
   2. form the last MAX_FOLLOWERS users that have followed you.
   3. form the last MAX_FOLLOW_REQUESTS users that have sent you a follow request.

Each part can be disabled completely, and all of the parameters are configurable.

Be aware, that this script may run for a long time, if these values are too high. Experiment a bit with what works for you, by starting with fairly small numbers (maybe HOME_TIMELINE_LENGTH = 200, REPLY_INTERVAL_IN_HOURS = 12) and increase the numbers as you see fit.

For full context and discussion on why this is needed, read the following two blog posts:

• The original announcement post: Pull missing responses into Mastodon
• The announcement for v3.0.0: Pull missing posts from recently followed accounts into Mastodon

Setup

You can run this script either as a GitHub Action, as a scheduled cron job on your local machine, or from a pre-packed container.

1) Get the required access token:

Regardless of how you want to run this script, you must first get an access token:

1. In Mastodon go to Preferences > Development > New Application
   1. give it a nice name
   2. enable read:search, read:statuses, read:follows, and admin:read:accounts
   3. Save
   4. Copy the value of Your access token

2.1) Configure and run the GitHub Action

To run this script as a GitHub Action:

1. Fork this repository
2. Add your access token:
   1. Go to Settings > Secrets and Variables > Actions
   2. Click New Repository Secret
   3. Supply the Name ACCESS_TOKEN and provide the Token generated above as Secret
3. Provide the required environment variables, to configure your Action:
   1. Go to Settings > Environments
   2. Click New Environment
   3. Provide the name Mastodon
   4. Add environment variables to configure your action as described below.
4. Finally go to the Actions tab and enable the action. The action should now automatically run approximately once every 10 min.

Keep in mind that the schedule event can be delayed during periods of high loads of GitHub Actions workflow runs, and that scheduled workflows are automatically disabled when no repository activity has occurred in 60 days.

2.2) Run this script locally as a cron job

If you want to, you can of course also run this script locally as a cron job:

1. To get started, clone this repository. (If you'd rather not clone the full repository, you can simply download the find_posts.py file, but don't forget to create a directory called artifacts in the same directory: The script expects this directory to be present, and stores information about posts it has already pushed into your instance in that directory, to avoid pushing the same posts over and over again.)
2. Then simply run this script like so: python find_posts.py --access-token=<TOKEN> --server=<SERVER> etc. (run python find_posts.py -h to get a list of all options)

When setting up your cronjob, we are using file based locking to avoid multiple overlapping executions of the script. The timeout period for the lock can be configured using --lock-hours.

If you are running this script locally, my recommendation is to run it manually once, before turning on the cron job: The first run will be significantly slower than subsequent runs, and that will help you prevent overlapping during that first run.

2.3) Run this script from a container

This script is also available in a pre-packaged container, mastodon_get_replies - Thank you @nikdoof.

1. Pull the container from ghcr.io, using Docker or your container tool of choice: docker pull ghcr.io/nanos/mastodon_get_replies:latest
2. Run the container, passing the command line arguments like running the script directly: docker run -it ghcr.io/nanos/mastodon_get_replies:latest --access-token=<TOKEN> --server=<SERVER>

The same rules for running this as a cron job apply to running the container, don't overlap any executions.

An example Kubernetes CronJob for running the container is included in the examples folder.

Configuration options

Please see below for a list of configuration options.

Environment Variable Name (if using GitHub Action)	Command line flag (if using cron, or the container)	Required?	Notes
--	--access-token	Yes	The access token. If using GitHub action, this needs to be provided as a Secret called ACCESS_TOKEN
MASTODON_SERVER	--server	Yes	The domain only of your mastodon server (without https:// prefix) e.g. mstdn.thms.uk.
HOME_TIMELINE_LENGTH	--home-timeline-length	No	Provide to fetch remote replies to posts in the API-Key owner's home timeline. Determines how many posts we'll fetch replies for. (An integer number, e.g. 200)
REPLY_INTERVAL_IN_HOURS	--reply-interval-in-hours	No	Provide to fetch remote replies to posts that have received replies from users on your own instance. Determines how far back in time we'll go to find posts that have received replies. (An integer number, e.g. 24.) Requires an access token with admin:read:accounts
USER	--user	See Notes	Required together with MAX_FOLLOWERS or MAX_FOLLOWINGS: The username of the user whose followers or followings you want to backfill (e.g. michael for the user @michael@thms.uk).
MAX_FOLLOWINGS	--max-followings	No	Provide to backfill profiles for your most recent followings. Determines how many of your last followings you want to backfill. (An integer number, e.g. 80. Ensure you also provide USER).
MAX_FOLLOWERS	--max-followers	No	Provide to backfill profiles for your most recent followers. Determines how many of your last followers you want to backfill. (An integer number, e.g. 80. Ensure you also provide USER).
MAX_FOLLOW_REQUESTS	--max-follow-requests	No	Provide to backfill profiles for the API key owner's most recent pending follow requests. Determines how many of your last follow requests you want to backfill. (An integer number, e.g. 80.). Requires an access token with read:follows scope.
HTTP_TIMEOUT	--http-timeout	No	The timeout for any HTTP requests to the Mastodon API in seconds. Defaults to 5.
--	--lock-hours	No	Determines after how many hours a lock file should be discarded. Not relevant when running the script as GitHub Action, as concurrency is prevented using a different mechanism.

Required Access Token Scopes

• For all actions, your access token must include these scopes:
  • read:search
  • read:statuses
• If you are supplying REPLY_INTERVAL_IN_HOURS / --reply-interval-in-hours you must additionally enable this scope:
  • admin:read:accounts
• If you are supplying MAX_FOLLOW_REQUESTS / --max-follow-requests you must additionally enable this scope:
  • read:follows

Acknowledgments

This script is mostly taken from Abhinav Sarkar, with just some additions and alterations. Thank you Abhinav!