A Full-Network Bluesky/ATProto Relay for $34 a Month
a day ago
- #relay
- #atproto
- #VPS
- Sync v1.1 updates reduce disk I/O requirements for atproto relays, simplifying hosting setups.
- Community members have successfully run relays on Raspberry Pis and $19/month VPS servers.
- A $34/month VPS demo instance was set up with 8 vCPU, 16 GB RAM, and 160 GB disk.
- Current atproto network firehose throughput peaks at ~600 events/sec, with past rates up to 2000 events/sec.
- Relay memory usage starts low and increases, mostly due to identity caching, which can be configured.
- Sustained bandwidth for a firehose WebSocket is ~30 Mbps, with recommendations for 200 Mbps unmetered servers.
- Disk usage is now manageable with configurable backfill windows (e.g., 1hr to 72hr).
- Provisioning steps include Ubuntu 24.04 setup, PostgreSQL configuration, and Caddy as a reverse proxy.
- The relay can be built from source using Go and managed via a web UI or command-line tool 'goat'.
- Resource usage on the demo relay shows low CPU utilization and manageable memory and disk consumption.