NonGNU ELPA - mastodon

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

mastodon-mode will enable Emojify if it is loaded in your Emacs environment, so there's no need to write your own hook anymore. emojify-mode is not required.

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))

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.

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.

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.

Server's max toot length, 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).

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)))

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

• 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-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-profile--update-display-name: Update the display name for your account.
• mastodon-profile--update-user-profile-note: Update your bio note.
• mastodon-profile--update-meta-fields: Update your metadata fields.
• mastodon-profile--set-default-toot-visibility: Set the default visibility for your toots.
• mastodon-profile--account-locked-toggle: Toggle the locked status of your account. Locked accounts have to manually approve follow requests.
• mastodon-profile--account-discoverable-toggle: Toggle the discoverable status of your account. Non-discoverable accounts are not listed in the profile directory.
• mastodon-profile--account-bot-toggle: Toggle whether your account is flagged as a bot.
• mastodon-profile--account-sensitive-toggle: Toggle whether your posts are marked as sensitive (nsfw) by default.

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

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

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

The repo is at mastodon-alt.

(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-.

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 'toot-json)))
      (if toot
	  (lingva-translate nil (mastodon-tl--content toot))
	(message "No toot to translate?"))))

mastodon.el doesn’t currently implement its own bookmark record and handler, which means that emacs bookmarks will not work as is. Until we implement them, you can get bookmarks going immediately by using bookmark+.el.

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. 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. 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 referencing the issue created in step 1.

• 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).