atproto utils for zig
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README.md

zat#

AT Protocol building blocks for zig.

this readme is an ATProto record

view in zat.dev's repository

zat publishes these docs as site.standard.document records, signed by its DID.

install#

requires zig 0.16+.

zig fetch --save https://tangled.org/zat.dev/zat/archive/main

then in build.zig:

const zat = b.dependency("zat", .{}).module("zat");
exe.root_module.addImport("zat", zat);

what's here#

string primitives - parsing and validation for atproto identifiers
  • Tid - timestamp identifiers (base32-sortable)
  • Did - decentralized identifiers
  • Handle - domain-based handles
  • Nsid - namespaced identifiers (lexicon types)
  • Rkey - record keys
  • AtUri - at:// URIs
const zat = @import("zat");

if (zat.AtUri.parse(uri_string)) |uri| {
    const authority = uri.authority();
    const collection = uri.collection();
    const rkey = uri.rkey();
}
identity resolution - resolve handles and DIDs to documents
// handle → DID
var handle_resolver = zat.HandleResolver.init(io, allocator);
defer handle_resolver.deinit();
const did = try handle_resolver.resolve(zat.Handle.parse("bsky.app").?);
defer allocator.free(did);

// DID → document
var did_resolver = zat.DidResolver.init(io, allocator);
defer did_resolver.deinit();
var doc = try did_resolver.resolve(zat.Did.parse("did:plc:z72i7hdynmk6r22z27h6tvur").?);
defer doc.deinit();

const pds = doc.pdsEndpoint();       // "https://..."
const key = doc.signingKey();         // verification method

supports did:plc (via plc.directory) and did:web. handle resolution via HTTP well-known and DNS TXT.

CBOR codec - DAG-CBOR encoding and decoding
// decode
const decoded = try zat.cbor.decode(allocator, bytes);
defer decoded.deinit();

// navigate values
const text = decoded.value.getStr("text");
const cid = decoded.value.getCid("data");

// encode (deterministic key ordering)
const encoded = try zat.cbor.encodeAlloc(allocator, value);
defer allocator.free(encoded);

full DAG-CBOR support: maps, arrays, byte strings, text strings, integers, floats, booleans, null, CID tags (tag 42). deterministic encoding with sorted keys for signature verification.

CAR codec - Content Addressable aRchive parsing with CID verification
// parse with SHA-256 CID verification (default)
const parsed = try zat.car.read(allocator, car_bytes);
defer parsed.deinit();

const root_cid = parsed.roots[0];
for (parsed.blocks.items) |block| {
    // block.cid_raw, block.data
}

// skip verification for trusted local data
const fast = try zat.car.readWithOptions(allocator, car_bytes, .{
    .verify_block_hashes = false,
});

enforces size limits (configurable max_size, max_blocks) matching indigo's production defaults.

MST - Merkle Search Tree
var tree = zat.mst.Mst.init(allocator);
defer tree.deinit();

try tree.put(allocator, "app.bsky.feed.post/abc123", value_cid);
const found = tree.get("app.bsky.feed.post/abc123");
try tree.delete(allocator, "app.bsky.feed.post/abc123");

// compute root CID (serialize → hash → CID)
const root = try tree.rootCid(allocator);

the core data structure of an atproto repo. key layer derived from leading zero bits of SHA-256(key), nodes serialized with prefix compression.

crypto - signing, verification, key encoding
// JWT verification
var token = try zat.Jwt.parse(allocator, token_string);
defer token.deinit();
try token.verify(public_key_multibase);

// ECDSA signature verification (P-256 and secp256k1)
try zat.jwt.verifySecp256k1(hash, signature, public_key);
try zat.jwt.verifyP256(hash, signature, public_key);

// multibase/multicodec key parsing
const key_bytes = try zat.multibase.decode(allocator, "zQ3sh...");
defer allocator.free(key_bytes);
const parsed = try zat.multicodec.parsePublicKey(key_bytes);
// parsed.key_type: .secp256k1 or .p256
// parsed.raw: 33-byte compressed public key

ES256 (P-256) and ES256K (secp256k1) with low-S normalization. RFC 6979 deterministic signing. did:key construction and multibase encoding.

OAuth client helpers - ATProto OAuth ceremony without app storage policy
var transport = zat.HttpTransport.init(io, allocator);
defer transport.deinit();

const authserver = try zat.oauth.discoverAuthorizationServer(allocator, &transport, pds_url);
defer allocator.free(authserver);

var metadata = try zat.oauth.fetchAuthorizationServerMetadata(allocator, &transport, authserver);
defer metadata.deinit(allocator);

var secrets = try zat.oauth.prepareAuthRequestSecrets(allocator, io);
defer secrets.deinit(allocator);

var par = try zat.oauth.sendParRequest(allocator, io, &transport, .{
    .par_url = metadata.pushed_authorization_request_endpoint,
    .authserver_issuer = metadata.issuer,
    .client_id = client_id,
    .redirect_uri = redirect_uri,
    .scope = "atproto repo:example.app.record",
    .state = secrets.state,
    .pkce_challenge = secrets.pkce_challenge,
    .login_hint = handle,
    .client_keypair = &client_keypair,
    .dpop_keypair = &secrets.dpop_keypair,
});
defer par.deinit(allocator);

also includes client metadata JSON generation, authorization URL formatting, code/refresh token exchange, DPoP nonce retry, and DPoP-authenticated resource requests. cookies, sessions, redirects, and persistence stay with your application or web framework.

commit verification - check a repo CAR against the account's signing key
// given CAR bytes and the account's public key (see identity resolution)
const result = try zat.verifyCommitCar(allocator, car_bytes, public_key, .{
    .expected_did = did,
    .require_complete_repo = true, // reject CARs with missing MST/record blocks
});
// result.commit_did, result.commit_rev, result.commit_cid, result.record_count

atproto repos are self-authenticating, so anything that accepts one from the network verifies it before trusting it: checks the commit signature, confirms the MST root matches the commit's data CID, and validates every block hash. verifyCommitDiff does the same for the partial CARs on firehose #commit events. this is how zds guards com.atproto.repo.importRepo — an uploaded CAR is verified against the account's DID document before the PDS accepts it.

signCommit is the produce side: it builds and signs the canonical commit block, and round-trips through verifyCommitCar in the test suite.

firehose client - raw CBOR event stream from relay
var client = zat.FirehoseClient.init(io, allocator, .{});
defer client.deinit();

const Handler = struct {
    pub fn onEvent(_: *@This(), event: zat.FirehoseClient.Event) void {
        switch (event.header.type) {
            .commit => {
                // event.body.blocks, event.body.ops, ...
            },
            else => {},
        }
    }
};
var handler: Handler = .{};
try client.subscribe(&handler);

connects to com.atproto.sync.subscribeRepos via WebSocket. decodes binary CBOR frames into typed events. round-robin host rotation with backoff.

jetstream client - typed JSON event stream
var client = zat.JetstreamClient.init(io, allocator, .{
    .wanted_collections = &.{"app.bsky.feed.post"},
});
defer client.deinit();

const Handler = struct {
    pub fn onEvent(_: *@This(), event: zat.JetstreamClient.Event) void {
        if (event.commit) |commit| {
            const record = commit.record;
            // process...
            _ = record;
        }
    }
};
var handler: Handler = .{};
try client.subscribe(&handler);

connects to jetstream (bluesky's JSON event stream). typed events, automatic reconnection with cursor tracking, round-robin across community relays.

xrpc client - call AT Protocol endpoints
var client = zat.XrpcClient.init(io, allocator, "https://bsky.social");
defer client.deinit();

const nsid = zat.Nsid.parse("app.bsky.actor.getProfile").?;
var response = try client.query(nsid, params);
defer response.deinit();

if (response.ok()) {
    var json = try response.json();
    defer json.deinit();
    // use json.value
}
json helpers - navigate nested json without verbose if-chains
// runtime paths for one-offs:
const uri = zat.json.getString(value, "embed.external.uri");
const count = zat.json.getInt(value, "meta.count");

// comptime extraction for complex structures:
const FeedPost = struct {
    uri: []const u8,
    cid: []const u8,
    record: struct {
        text: []const u8 = "",
    },
};
const post = try zat.json.extractAt(FeedPost, allocator, value, .{"post"});

used by#

downstream projects — what's building on zat

firehose consumers (Jetstream)#

project what it does
labelz AT Protocol labeler — keyword-matched, secp256k1-signed, served over XRPC. exists to pressure-test zat as an SDK (live)
coral named-entity recognition over the firehose (live)
pollz polls on AT Protocol (live)
typeahead community actor search (live)
find-bufo bsky bot that quote-posts matching bufo images for opt-in followers

CBOR / CAR / MST users#

project what it does
zlay AT Protocol relay — direct PDS crawl, signature validation, inline collection index (live)
atproto-bench cross-SDK relay benchmarks (zig vs go vs rust vs python)
ken semantic search over your atproto repo — vector index of records, search by meaning (live)

identity + XRPC users#

project what it does
music-atmosphere-feed bsky feed generator for music links — JWT auth for personalized feed
leaflet-search search across leaflet, pckt, offprint, and other standard.site publishers

benchmarks#

zat is benchmarked against the Go (indigo, atmos), Rust (rsky, shrike, jacquard), Python, and Elixir ecosystems in atproto-bench:

  • firehose decode (CID-verified): 226k frames/sec (zat) vs 62k (atmos) vs 53k (rsky) vs 20k (indigo)
  • MST insert + root: 5.7M records/sec, producing the same root bytes as atmos and shrike
  • signature verify: 21.6k verifies/sec — ahead of Go (12k–19k), behind Rust (~27k); ECDSA dominates every SDK's pipeline
  • end-to-end repo verification (handle → signature-checked repo): ~300ms compute (zat) vs ~410ms (indigo) vs ~422ms (rsky crates)

specs#

validation follows atproto.com/specs. passes the atproto interop test suite (syntax, crypto, MST vectors).

versioning#

pre-1.0 semver:

  • 0.x.0 - new features (backwards compatible)
  • 0.x.y - bug fixes

breaking changes bump the minor version and are documented in commit messages.

license#

MIT


devlog · changelog