Octosphere (Octopus → AT Proto bridge)

Experimental — Exploring what distributed science on AT Protocol could look like.

This proof-of-concept service syncs Octopus publications to the ATProto network.

Contents

• app.py FastHTML UI with ORCID login and “sync all live publications” flow.
• cli.py CLI for batch syncs.
• lexicon/com.octopus.publication.json AT Proto lexicon.

Environment

Set these environment variables before running the UI or CLI:

export OCTOPUS_API_URL="https://api.example.org"
export OCTOPUS_WEB_URL="https://octopus.example.org"
export ORCID_CLIENT_ID="..."
export ORCID_CLIENT_SECRET="..."
export ORCID_REDIRECT_URI="http://localhost:5001/callback"
export ORCID_BASE_URL="https://orcid.org" # optional
export ORCID_TOKEN_URL="https://orcid.org/oauth/token" # optional
export ORCID_SCOPE="/authenticate" # optional
export ATPROTO_PDS_URL="https://bsky.social" # optional
export OCTOSPHERE_SESSION_SECRET="replace-me" # optional but recommended

FastHTML UI

uv run --project octosphere uvicorn octosphere.app:app --port 5001
# visit http://localhost:5001

Flow:

1. Login with ORCID (OAuth).
2. Enter your Bluesky handle and app password.
3. Click “Sync all live publications”.

CLI

uv run --project octosphere python -m octosphere.cli \
  --orcid 0000-0002-1825-0097 \
  --handle alice.bsky.social \
  --app-password xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx \
  --octopus-token "<optional api token>"

FastHTML is installed from the latest GitHub main branch (package name python-fasthtml) since it's not published to PyPI yet.

Notes

• The bridge uses Octopus API GET /users/:id/publications and individual publication versions to build AT Proto records.
• Records are created under com.octopus.publication with fields for linked publications, peer review relationships, raw HTML, and plain text/citations.
• This is a PoC. For production, add token refresh, rate limiting, and pagination support.