1.1.1 ELPA

You should be able to directly install with:

‘M-x package-refresh-contents RET’

‘M-x package-install RET mastodon RET’

1.1.2 MELPA

Add ‘MELPA’ to your archives:

(require 'package)
(add-to-list 'package-archives
             '("melpa" . "http://melpa.org/packages/") t)

Update and install:

‘M-x package-refresh-contents RET’

‘M-x package-install RET mastodon RET’

1.1.3 Repo

Clone this repository and add the lisp directory to your load path. Then, require it and go.

(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/mastodon.el/lisp")
(require 'mastodon)

Or, with ‘use-package’:

(use-package mastodon
  :ensure t)

The minimum Emacs version is now 28.1. But if you are running an older version it shouldn’t be very hard to get it working.

1.1.4 Emoji

Since Emacs 28, it has builtin emoji support with ‘emoji.el’. If you prefer to use Emojify, ‘require’ it and set ‘mastodon-use-emojify’ to non-nil to display emoji in timelines and to use it when composing toots. ‘Emoji.el’ is the better option, but for now only ‘emojify’ supports downloading and using custom emoji from your instance. From personal experience, ‘emojify’ also tends to result in less TOFU.

1.1.5 Discover

‘mastodon-mode’ can provide a context menu for its keybindings if Discover is installed. It is not required.

if you have Discover, add the following to your Emacs init configuration:

(require 'mastodon-discover)
(with-eval-after-load 'mastodon (mastodon-discover))

Or, with ‘use-package’:

(use-package mastodon
  :ensure t
  :config
  (mastodon-discover))

1.2.1 Logging in to your instance

You need to set 2 variables in your init file to get started:

1. ‘mastodon-instance-url’
2. ‘mastodon-active-user’

(see their doc strings for details). For example If you want to post toots as "example_user@social.instance.org", then put this in your init file:

(setq mastodon-instance-url "https://social.instance.org"
      mastodon-active-user "example_user")

Then restart Emacs and run ‘M-x mastodon’. Make sure you are connected to internet before you do this. If you have multiple mastodon accounts you can activate one at a time by changing those two variables and restarting Emacs.

If you were using mastodon.el before 2FA was implemented and the above steps do not work, delete the old file specified by ‘mastodon-client--token-file’ and restart Emacs and follow the steps again.

1.2.2 Timelines

‘M-x mastodon’

Opens a ‘*mastodon-home*’ buffer in the major mode and displays toots. If your credentials are not yet saved, you will be prompted for email and password. The app registration process will take place if your ‘mastodon-token-file’ does not contain ‘:client_id’ and ‘:client_secret’.

1. Keybindings

   For a full list of commands and variables, see mastodon-index.org.

   Key	Action
   	Help
   ‘?’	Show discover menu of all bindings, if ‘discover’ is available
   	Timeline actions
   ‘n’	Go to next item (toot, notification, user)
   ‘p’	Go to previous item (toot, notification, user)
   ‘M-n=/=<tab>’	Go to the next interesting thing that has an action
   ‘M-p=/=<S-tab>’	Go to the previous interesting thing that has an action
   ‘F’	Open federated timeline (1 prefix arg: hide-replies, 2 prefix args: media only)
   ‘H’	Open home timeline (1 prefix arg: hide-replies)
   ‘L’	Open local timeline (1 prefix arg: hide-replies, 2 prefix args: media only)
   ‘N’	Open notifications timeline
   ‘@’	Open mentions-only notifications timeline
   ‘u’	Update current timeline
   ‘T’	Open thread for toot at point
   ‘#’	Prompt for tag and open its timeline
   ‘A’	Open author profile of toot at point
   ‘P’	Open profile of user attached to toot at point
   ‘O’	View own profile
   ‘U’	update your profile bio note
   ‘;’	view instance description for toot at point
   ‘:’	view followed tags and load a tag timeline
   ‘C-:’	view timeline of all followed tags
   ‘,’	view favouriters of toot at point
   ‘.’	view boosters of toot at point
   ‘/’	switch between mastodon buffers
   ‘\’	prompt for an instance domain and view its local timeline (if poss)
   ‘Z’	report user/toot at point to instances moderators
   	Other views
   ‘s’	search (posts, users, tags) (NB: only posts you have interacted with)
   ‘I’, ‘c’, ‘d’	view, create, and delete filters
   ‘R’, ‘a’, ‘j’	view/accept/reject follow requests
   ‘G’	view follow suggestions
   ‘V’	view your favourited toots
   ‘K’	view bookmarked toots
   ‘X’	view/edit/create/delete lists
   ‘S’	view your scheduled toots
   ‘S-:’	view profile/account settings transient menu
   	Toot actions
   ‘t’	Compose a new toot
   ‘c’	Toggle content warning content
   ‘b’	Boost toot under ‘point’
   ‘f’	Favourite toot under ‘point’
   ‘k’	toggle bookmark of toot at point
   ‘r’	Reply to toot under ‘point’
   ‘v’	Vote on poll at point
   ‘C’	copy url of toot at point
   ‘C-RET’	play video/gif at point (requires ‘mpv’)
   ‘e’	edit your toot at point
   ‘E’	view edits of toot at point
   ‘i’	(un)pin your toot at point
   ‘d’	delete your toot at point, and reload current timeline
   ‘D’	delete and redraft toot at point, preserving reply/CW/visibility
   ‘!’	toggle folding of toot at point
   (‘S-C-’) ‘W’, ‘M’, ‘B’	(un)follow, (un)mute, (un)block author of toot at point
   	Profile view
   ‘C-c C-c’	cycle between statuses, statuses without boosts, followers, and following
   	‘mastodon-profile--add-account-to-list’ (see lists view)
   	Notifications view
   ‘a’, ‘j’	accept/reject follow request
   ‘C-k’	clear notification at point
   	see ‘mastodon-notifications--get-*’ functions for filtered views
   	Quitting
   ‘q’	Quit mastodon buffer, leave window open
   ‘Q’	Quit mastodon buffer and kill window
   ‘C-M-q’	Quit and kill all mastodon buffers

2. Toot byline legend

   Marker	Meaning
   ‘(🔁)’ (or ‘(B)’)	I boosted this toot
   ‘(⭐)’ (or ‘(F)’)	I favourited this toot
   ‘(🔖)’ (or (‘K’))	I bookmarked this toot

1.2.3 Composing toots

‘M-x mastodon-toot’ (or ‘t’ from a mastodon.el buffer) opens a new buffer/window in ‘text-mode’ and ‘mastodon-toot’ minor mode. Enter the contents of your toot here. ‘C-c C-c’ sends the toot. ‘C-c C-k’ cancels. Both actions kill the buffer and window. Further keybindings are displayed in the buffer, and in the following subsection.

Replies preserve visibility status/content warnings, and include boosters by default. If the region is active when you start a reply, it will be yanked into the compose buffer prefixed with ‘>’ to form a rough reply quote.

Server’s max toot length, with running char count, and attachment previews, are shown.

You can download and use your instance’s custom emoji (‘mastodon-toot--download-custom-emoji’, ‘mastodon-toot--enable-custom-emoji’).

If you want to view some of the toot being replied to in the compose buffer, set ‘mastodon-toot-display-orig-in-reply-buffer’ to non-nil.

The compose buffer uses ‘text-mode’ so any configuration you have for that mode will be enabled. If any of your existing config conflicts with ‘mastodon-toot’, you can disable it in the ‘mastodon-toot-mode-hook’. For example, the default value of that hook is as follows:

(add-hook 'mastodon-toot-mode-hook
          (lambda ()
              (auto-fill-mode -1)))

1. Keybindings

   Key	Action
   ‘C-c C-c’	Send toot
   ‘C-c C-k’	Cancel toot
   ‘C-c C-w’	Add content warning
   ‘C-c C-v’	Change toot visibility
   ‘C-c C-n’	Add sensitive media/nsfw flag
   ‘C-c C-a’	Upload attachment(s)
   ‘C-c !’	Remove all attachments
   ‘C-c C-e’	Insert emoji
   ‘C-c C-p’	Create a poll
   ‘C-c C-o’	Cancel poll
   ‘C-c C-l’	Set toot language
   ‘C-c C-s’	Schedule toot

2. Autocompletion of mentions, tags and emoji

   Autocompletion of mentions, tags, and emojis is provided by ‘completion-at-point-functions’ (capf) backends. ‘mastodon-toot--enable-completion’ is enabled by default.

   To trigger completion, type a prefix followed by a few letters, ‘@’ for mentions, ‘#’ for tags, and ‘:’ for emoji (for now this only works when using ‘emojify.el’).

   If you want to enable ‘company-mode’ in the toot compose buffer, set ‘mastodon-toot--use-company-for-completion’ to ‘t’. (‘mastodon.el’ used to run its own native company backends, but these have been removed in favour of capfs.)

   If you don’t run ‘company’ and want immediate, keyless completion, you’ll need to have another completion engine running that handles capfs. A common combination is ‘consult’ and ‘corfu’.

3. Draft toots
   • Compose buffer text is saved as you type, kept in ‘mastodon-toot-current-toot-text’.
   • ‘mastodon-toot--save-draft’: save the current toot as a draft.
   • ‘mastodon-toot--open-draft-toot’: Open a compose buffer and insert one of your draft toots.
   • ‘mastodon-toot--delete-draft-toot’: Delete a draft toot.
   • ‘mastodon-toot--delete-all-drafts’: Delete all your drafts.

1.2.4 Other commands and account settings:

In addition to ‘mastodon’, the following three functions are autoloaded and should work without first loading a ‘mastodon.el’ buffer:

• ‘mastodon-toot’: Compose new toot
• ‘mastodon-notifications-get’: View all notifications
• ‘mastodon-url-lookup’: Attempt to load a URL in ‘mastodon.el’. URL may be at point or provided in the minibuffer.

• ‘mastodon-tl--view-instance-description’: View information about the instance that the author of the toot at point is on.
• ‘mastodon-tl--view-own-instance’: View information about your own instance.
• ‘mastodon-search--trending-tags’: View a list of trending hashtags on your instance.
• ‘mastodon-search--trending-statuses’: View a list of trending statuses on your instance.
• ‘mastodon-search--trending-links’: View a list of trending links on your instance (+ click through to a timeline of posts featuring a given link)
• ‘mastodon-tl--add-toot-account-at-point-to-list’: Add the account of the toot at point to a list.

• ‘mastodon-tl--dm-user’: Send a direct message to one of the users at point.

• ‘mastodon-profile--add-private-note-to-account’: Add a private note to another user’s account.
• ‘mastodon-profile--view-account-private-note’: View a private note on a user’s account.

• ‘mastodon-profile--show-familiar-followers’: Show a list of “familiar followers” for a given account. Familiar followers are accounts that you follow, and that follow the account.

• ‘mastodon-tl--follow-tag’: Follow a tag (works like following a user)
• ‘mastodon-tl--unfollow-tag’: Unfollow a tag
• ‘mastodon-tl--list-followed-tags’: View a list of tags you’re following.
• ‘mastodon-tl--followed-tags-timeline’: View a timeline of all your followed tags.
• ‘mastodon-tl--some-followed-tags-timleine’: View a timeline of multiple tags, from your followed tags or any other.

• ‘mastodon-switch-to-buffer’: switch between mastodon buffers.

• ‘mastodon-tl--get-remote-local-timeline’: View a local timeline of a remote instance.
• ‘mastodon-tl--remote-tag-timeline’: View a tag timeline on a remote instance.

• ‘mastodon-user-settings’: Launch a transient menu to update various account settings.

1.2.5 Notifications

Mastodon from 4.3 supports grouped notifications. These are implemented by ‘mastodon.el’ but disabled by default out of consideration to users on instances that don’t support them. If you are on an instance that implements grouped notifications, set ‘mastodon-group-notifications’ to ‘t’ to enable them.

1.2.6 Customization

See ‘M-x customize-group RET mastodon’ to view all customize options.

• Timeline options:
  • Use proportional fonts
  • Default number of posts displayed
  • Timestamp format
  • Relative timestamps
  • Display user avatars
  • Avatar image height
  • Enable image caching
  • Hide replies in timelines
  • Show toot stats in byline
• Compose options:
  • Completion style for mentions and tags
  • Enable custom emoji
  • Display toot being replied to
  • Set default reply visibility
• Nofitication options:
  • Display user’s profile note in follow requests

1.2.7 Commands and variables index

An index of all user-facing commands and custom variables is available here: mastodon-index.org.

You can also hit ‘?’ in any ‘mastodon.el’ buffer to see the available bindings, or run ‘M-X’ (upper-case ‘X’) to view all commands in the buffer with completion, and call one.

1.2.8 Packages related to ‘mastodon.el’

1. Alternative timeline layout

   The incomparable Nicholas Rougier has written an alternative timeline layout for ‘mastodon.el’.

   The repo is at mastodon-alt.

2. Mastodon hydra

   A user made a hydra for handling basic ‘mastodon.el’ commands. It’s available at https://holgerschurig.github.io/en/emacs-mastodon-hydra/.

3. Narrow to timeline item

   A simple code snippet to enable narrowing to current item in timelines: http://takeonrules.com/2024/10/31/hacking-on-mastodon-emacs-package-to-narrow-viewing/

1.2.9 Live-updating timelines: ‘mastodon-async-mode’

(code taken from mastodon-future.)

Works for federated, local, and home timelines and for notifications. It’s a little touchy, one thing to avoid is trying to load a timeline more than once at a time. It can go off the rails a bit, but it’s still pretty cool. The current maintainer of ‘mastodon.el’ is unable to debug or improve this feature.

To enable, it, add ‘(require 'mastodon-async)’ to your ‘init.el’. Then you can view a timeline with one of the commands that begin with ‘mastodon-async--stream-’.

1.2.10 Translating toots

You can translate toots with ‘mastodon-toot--translate-toot-text’ (‘a’ in a timeline). At the moment this requires lingva.el, a little interface I wrote to lingva.ml, to be installed to work.

You could easily modify the simple function to use your Emacs translator of choice (‘libretrans.el’ , ‘google-translate’, ‘babel’, ‘go-translate’, etc.), you just need to fetch the toot’s content with ‘(mastodon-tl--content toot)’ and pass it to your translator function as its text argument. Here’s what ‘mastodon-toot--translate-toot-text’ looks like:

(defun mastodon-toot--translate-toot-text ()
  "Translate text of toot at point.
  Uses `lingva.el'."
    (interactive)
    (let* ((toot (mastodon-tl--property 'item-json)))
      (if toot
          (lingva-translate nil (mastodon-tl--content toot))
        (message "No toot to translate?"))))

1.2.11 Bookmarks and ‘mastodon.el’

‘mastodon.el’ implements a basic bookmark record and handler. Currently, this means that you can bookmark a post item and later load it in thread view. This could be expanded to any item with an id, but probably not to things like timeline views. If you want to be able to bookmark something, open an issue and ask, as it’s trivial to expand the bookmarking code.

1.5.1 Bug reports

1. ‘mastodon.el’ has bugs, as well as lots of room for improvement.
2. I receive very little feedback, so if I don’t run into the bug it often doesn’t get fixed.
3. If you run into something that seems broken, first try running ‘mastodon.el’ in emacs with no init file (i.e. ‘emacs -q’ (instructions and code for doing this are here) to see if it also happens independently of your own config (it probably does).
4. Else enable debug on error (‘toggle-debug-on-error’), make the bug happen again, and copy the backtrace that appears.
5. Open an issue here and explain what is going on. Provide your emacs version and what kind of server your account is on.

1.5.2 Fixes and features

1. Create an issue detailing what you’d like to do.
2. Fork the repository and create a branch off of ‘develop’.
3. Run the tests and ensure that your code doesn’t break any of them.
4. Create a pull request (to develop) referencing the issue created in step 1.

1.5.3 Coding style

• This library uses an unconvential double dash (‘--’) between file namespaces and function names, which contradicts normal Elisp style. This needs to be respected until the whole library is changed.
• Use ‘aggressive-indent-mode’ or similar to keep your code indented.
• Single spaces end sentences in docstrings.
• There’s no need for a blank line after the first docstring line (one is added automatically when documentation is displayed).