julian@julian@activitypub.space

Reflecting on the existence of httpsig.org

httpsig.org is a site with one sole purpose, to advocate for the adoption of RFC 9421 HTTP Signatures. It has a "Libraries" tab that does exactly what it advertises, it lists a bunch of libraries for you to use so you don't have to roll your own.

If you want to integrate AP today, but you don't want to roll your own everything, where do you go? Who do you ask?

All I know is:

Do we even have a list sorted by language? This would be huge. What other AP frameworks do you know of?

Granted, I didn't do a lot of thinking and deep diving before I listed those two examples, but even then, that's 1 more example than is listed on https://activitypub.rocks, so I think I might be on to something here from a developer advocacy point of view.

If I were looking to integrate AP, one of the first conclusions I'd come to is that the protocol itself is fairly complex and a library or framework might help.

I don't think there is a list that plainly lists supported libraries by language.

www.rfc-editor.orgRFC 9421: HTTP Message Signatures This document describes a mechanism for creating, encoding, and verifying digital signatures or message authentication codes over components of an HTTP message. This mechanism supports use cases where the full HTTP message may not be known to the signer and where the message may be transformed (e.g., by intermediaries) before reaching the verifier. This document also describes a means for requesting that a signature be applied to a subsequent HTTP message in an ongoing HTTP exchange.
Tom Casavant@tom@tomkahe.com

Replying to @⁨julian@activitypub.space⁩

@julian@activitypub.space @hongminhee @mariusor

there was a brief discussion about this in the fedify matrix channel a bit ago.

dev.funkwhale.audio/funkwhale/ (though not sure how active development is for this)

codeberg.org/bovine/bovine/ (also looks dead)

and @julian@fietkau.social is building a library for SciOp (blog.sciop.net/2025-12-08/sfn-)

dev.funkwhale.audio/funkwhale/pyfed
GitLabfunkwhale / pyfed · GitLabGet involved in Funkwhale development!
en
Julian Fietkau@julian@fietkau.social

Replying to @⁨tom@tomkahe.com⁩

@tom @julian@activitypub.space The SciOp implementation and its AP plumbing are led by @jonny, that'll probably stay that way even with me now on board as well. I trust the direction, but I wouldn't count on a plug & play framework release within a plannable timeframe.

There have been other Python ActivityPub frameworks and libraries, from the top of my head I know git.fabiomanganiello.com/black by @fabio and github.com/fedi-libs/apkit by @cocoa. See also delightful.coding.social/delig curated by @smallcircles.

Summary card of repository blacklight/pubby, described as: #ActivityPub federation library for #Python web appsPlatypush Gitpubby#ActivityPub federation library for #Python web apps
julian@julian@activitypub.space

Replying to @⁨julian@fietkau.social⁩

@julian@fietkau.social ah, of course @smallcircles@social.coop has a list for it. That's quite handy, thanks both!

fietkau.socialJulian Fietkau (@julian@fietkau.social)4.59K Posts, 1.7K Following, 1.32K Followers · Human-computer interaction #HCI, computer science & programming, home server & self-hosting, games and other fun stuff. Fediverse tool builder: @encyclia@fietkau.social, @canary@correct.webfinger-canary.fietkau.software, FediRoster, Pinhole, ... see https://fietkau.software/tag/fediverse for more. I also help out with @fedidevs@fosstodon.org. If you do HCI-related research, check out https://directory.hci.social. He/him. Posting mostly in English, but you might see the occasional German boost.