NodeInfo is a protocol intended to standardize upon a way to provide server-level metadata to the public. This enables tools and clients to utilize this metadata to assess server health or facilitate end-users choices about servers and software to use on the Fediverse.
This document is a revised version of FEP-f1d5: NodeInfo in Fediverse Software, which was published in 2020.
The key words “MUST”, “MUST NOT”, “REQUIRED”, “SHALL”, “SHALL NOT”, “SHOULD”, “SHOULD NOT”, “RECOMMENDED”, “MAY”, and “OPTIONAL” in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC-2119.
Servers SHOULD implement NodeInfo protocol version 2.1.
Some information contained in the NodeInfo document might be considered sensitive by server operators.
The NodeInfo endpoint could be disabled to hide that information.
All numeric properties in the usage object are optional and could be omitted to hide usage statistics. Note that users property is not optional:
{
"usage": {
"users": {}
}
}
Servers MUST NOT publish incorrect usage statistics.
Servers SHOULD NOT rely on NodeInfo data for protocol negotiation and capability detection because server operators might intentionally disable NodeInfo. Servers MUST NOT infer capabilities from the software field and MUST treat software.name and software.version values as opaque strings.
Protocol-specific capability discovery mechanisms could be used instead.
metadataProperties of the metadata object are not standardized, but some of them are widely used:
nodeName (string): The name of the server.nodeDescription (string): The long form description of the server.staffAccounts (array[string]): The list of staff account IDs (actor IDs for ActivityPub).federation.enabled (boolean): Whether the server is connected to other servers.Example:
{
"metadata": {
"nodeName": "My server",
"nodeDescription": "My server",
"staffAccounts": [
"https://social.example/actors/1"
],
"federation": {
"enabled": true
}
}
}
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
To the extent possible under law, the authors of this Fediverse Enhancement Proposal have waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.