# antisocial

Reads social posts back to you without the app.

Links to X, Threads, Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky and Reddit get shared constantly, and
opening one means an app interstitial, a login wall, a feed you didn't ask for, and a
pile of tracking. antisocial is the other half of a StopTheMadness rewrite rule: the link gets
redirected here, and you get the post — the media and the words — plus a badge saying
where it came from and a button to copy the original URL if you do want to go there.

Built for one person, on a private network. There is **no authentication of any kind** —
anything that can reach it can drive a browser through it, so put it somewhere only you
can reach. It resolves posts by driving a real headless browser, logged out, exactly as
if you had opened the link yourself.

## StopTheMadness rules

One redirect rule per platform. The host is swapped for antisocial plus a short platform
segment; the rest of the path is left alone, so the original is always recoverable and
readable in your history.

Replace `antisocial.example.com` with wherever you are running it.

Each rule is two fields. Both are on their own line below, and neither needs any
escaping — copy them straight out of this file.

```text
# X
/^https:\/\/(?:www\.|mobile\.)?(?:x|twitter)\.com\/(.*)$/
https://antisocial.example.com/x/$1

# Threads
/^https:\/\/(?:www\.)?threads\.(?:net|com)\/(.*)$/
https://antisocial.example.com/threads/$1

# Instagram
/^https:\/\/(?:www\.)?instagram\.com\/(.*)$/
https://antisocial.example.com/ig/$1

# TikTok
/^https:\/\/(?:www\.|vm\.|vt\.)?tiktok\.com\/(.*)$/
https://antisocial.example.com/tiktok/$1

# Bluesky
/^https:\/\/bsky\.app\/(.*)$/
https://antisocial.example.com/bsky/$1

# Reddit
/^https:\/\/(?:www\.|old\.|new\.|np\.|m\.)?reddit\.com\/(.*)$/
https://antisocial.example.com/reddit/$1

# Reddit short links
/^https:\/\/redd\.it\/(.*)$/
https://antisocial.example.com/reddit/$1
```

A code block rather than a table, because a table cell cannot hold a bare `|` — it has
to be written `\|`, which renders correctly and copies wrongly. The alternation in these
rules is full of them, and a regex whose pipes arrive as literal pipes matches nothing
and says nothing about why.

So `https://x.com/user/status/123` becomes
`https://antisocial.example.com/x/user/status/123`.

Tracking parameters (`igsh`, `utm_*`, `share_id`, `s`, `t`, and friends) are stripped on
arrival, so the URL the copy button gives back is the clean one. TikTok `vm.`/`vt.`
share codes lose their subdomain in the rewrite; a single opaque path segment is
recognised as a share code and rebuilt as `vm.tiktok.com/<code>/`, or `redd.it/<code>`
where it came from Reddit. A Reddit `/r/<sub>/s/<code>` share link is followed to the
post it points at, and that permalink — not the opaque share code — is what the copy
button hands back.

`/` serves these rules with the live hostname already filled in, if you'd rather copy
them from there.

## Opening the original

The rules are indiscriminate, which is the point — but that catches the way back out
too. Tapping "Open on Instagram" in the browser the rules are installed in redirects
straight back here, so the one button meant to get you to the app is the one button that
cannot.

The way past it is to hand the address to a *different* browser, by its own URL scheme.
`/` has a picker for which one:

| Browser | macOS | iOS |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Chrome | `googlechromes://…` | `googlechromes://…` |
| Edge | `microsoft-edge:https://…` | `microsoft-edge-https://…` |
| Orion | `orion://open-url?url=…` | `orion://open-url?url=…` |
| Firefox | — | `firefox://open-url?url=…` |

Firefox on macOS registers no scheme, so it is not offered there; nor is Safari itself,
which is the browser being escaped. The choice is kept in that browser's own
`localStorage` — not a cookie and not synced, because "which browser is installed" is a
fact about the device, not about you, and the phone's answer is not the Mac's.

The link in the page is always the plain `https://` address, and the scheme is swapped in
by the script afterwards; with JavaScript off, or with the default left alone, nothing
changes. Once a browser is chosen the button says which one, because a scheme for a
browser that isn't installed opens nothing at all, and a silent tap needs an
explanation. The URL underneath stays selectable either way.

## How it works

Every request drives a real Chromium page load. One code path, and it survives markup
changes better than parsing HTML from the outside would.

Each adapter layers its extraction, most structured first:

1. **The platform's own API response**, caught as it goes past during the page load.
   Reading the JSON a platform serves its own front end beats scraping what it renders.
2. **An inline payload** in the page — a JSON script tag, or an object buried in a
   bootstrap call (`src/platforms/scan.ts` pulls a balanced object out by key, including
   when it arrives escaped inside a JS string, which is what Instagram does).
3. **The rendered DOM** — whatever is actually on screen is real.
4. **Open Graph tags** — the floor, and enough to show something.

| Platform  | Loads                        | Reads                                                           |
| --------- | ---------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Bluesky   | the public AT Protocol API   | `getPostThread`; falls back to the post page                    |
| X         | `platform.twitter.com` embed | the `cdn.syndication.twimg.com/tweet-result` response           |
| Instagram | `/embed/captioned/`          | `shortcode_media`, then the rendered `<video>`/`<img>`          |
| TikTok    | the post page                | `__UNIVERSAL_DATA_FOR_REHYDRATION__`                            |
| Threads   | the post page                | the Relay payloads in `<script type="application/json">`        |
| Reddit    | the post's own `.json`       | the post and the first page of comments; falls back to the page |

On Bluesky and Threads people write in chains, so where the linked post is part
of one, the author's own follow-ups are shown with it, in the order they were
written, with the post you actually followed marked. Other people's replies are
left out — they are a conversation, not the thing that was shared, and on a busy
post there are hundreds of them.

A post that quotes another shows both, on X and on Bluesky. The quoted post gets its own
author, its own words and its own pictures, in a block inside the one quoting it —
because half the quote posts people share are someone answering a stranger and the other
half are someone continuing a thought from an earlier post, and neither reads with only
one side of it on the page. Showing the quoted picture on its own, which is what used to
happen, put it under the wrong person's name.

X links are un-shortened. Every link in a post is rewritten to a `t.co` before it is
stored, so left alone the page shows `t.co/QdJhOVu4En` and sends you through X's click
tracker to find out where it goes; the real address is in the payload alongside. The
shortlink X staples onto the end of a quote post is dropped rather than expanded, since
the post it points at is already on the page — a link the author put there on purpose
is kept.

On Reddit the thread under the post is usually the reason the link was shared, so
Reddit posts come with it: every comment the first page carried, nested the way it was
written. Each comment is a `<details>` element, so folding one takes its whole subtree
with it, works without JavaScript and works from the keyboard; a collapsed comment says
how many replies it is hiding. "Collapse all" is the one piece that needs the script,
which is why it only appears once the script has run. What was behind a _load more_ is
not fetched — that is a second page and often a third — but it is counted and said out
loud rather than quietly dropped.

Pictures inside comments are shown as pictures. Reddit writes them as a token rather
than an address — a Giphy id, a subreddit emote, or an image uploaded to the comment —
and all three are looked up in the comment's own metadata to find the real file. An
image address someone simply pasted is shown too, which on Reddit is how most of them
arrive. All of it goes through the same `/m/` proxy as everything else, so reading a
comment thread never has your browser talking to Reddit.

Media never gets linked straight at a CDN. Instagram and TikTok reject requests without
a matching `Referer` (and sometimes cookies), and proxying keeps your browser from
talking to the platform at all. Every asset is registered under an opaque `/m/<id>` and
streamed through, with `Range` forwarded so the native video scrubber can seek.

The one exception is Bluesky video, which is an HLS playlist — proxying it would mean
rewriting the manifest and every segment, so it is linked directly. Safari plays HLS
natively; other browsers show a note.

Resolved posts are cached in memory for an hour, so a reload or a back button doesn't
drive the browser again.

## When a platform breaks

It will. Someone else's markup is not a contract.

Start with the CLI, which drives the real browser and prints what came back:

```sh
npm run resolve -- 'https://www.tiktok.com/@user/video/123'
```

If that fails, ask the page what it actually served:

```sh
npm run probe -- 'https://www.instagram.com/reel/ABC123/embed/captioned/'
```

Then `npm test`, which runs every adapter against captured payloads in `test/fixtures/`
without touching the network. If the fixtures pass but the CLI fails, the shape changed
upstream — capture a new payload and work from the diff.

A failed resolve is never a blank error page: the failure card carries the platform, the
original URL and the copy button, so a broken adapter still leaves the link one tap away.

Known rough edges:

- **Instagram is the least reliable.** It only ships the structured payload some of the
  time. When it doesn't, the rendered DOM carries single images and reels fine, but a
  carousel will come back as its first image only.
- **TikTok sometimes answers with a slider puzzle** instead of the post. You get handed
  the puzzle rather than an error — see below.
- **Reddit refuses `.json` to a browser it has never seen.** The first request of a cold
  profile gets a JavaScript challenge, which the page solves by itself on an ordinary
  navigation; the adapter does that once and retries, and the cookie it leaves behind
  serves every later post. If the JSON is still refused, the rendered page is read
  instead — the same comments, without the scores Reddit is withholding.

## Verification puzzles

TikTok will occasionally answer with a "drag the slider to fit the puzzle" challenge
instead of the post. Rather than reporting that as a failure, antisocial gives you the
puzzle to solve.

The page showing it stays open in the server's browser and gets parked. You are
redirected to `/challenge/<id>`, which streams screenshots of just the puzzle and
forwards your pointer events back to be replayed onto that page. Solve it, and you land
back on the post.

What makes this work is that the cookie the challenge issues lands in the shared browser
context, so it is not just this post that unblocks — the next few are fine too. And
because the drag being replayed is your actual drag, at your actual timing, the movement
looks like what it is.

Parked pages hold a browser tab but no concurrency permit, so one waiting on you never
blocks anything else. At most three are kept, and each expires after five minutes.

There is a "give up" button, which closes the tab and leaves you the original link.

Login walls are a different thing and are not passed through: Instagram asking you to
sign in cannot be solved without an account, so those degrade to whatever the post's
link preview offers.

## Development

Needs Node 22+. The container commands below use Apple `container`; `docker` takes the
same arguments if that is what you have.

```sh
npm ci
npx playwright install chromium   # once
npm run dev                       # http://localhost:8080

npm test          # adapters against captured payloads, no network
npm run typecheck
npm run build

container build --tag antisocial:dev .
container run --rm --publish 8080:8080 antisocial:dev
```

There is no ESLint: TypeScript 7 is a year ahead of what `typescript-eslint` supports,
and `tsc` with `strict`, `noUnusedLocals` and `noUncheckedIndexedAccess` covers the
ground for a project this size.

### Configuration

Everything has a working default; the container needs none of it set.

| Variable                     | Default                                    |                                                                                   |
| ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `PORT` / `HOST`              | `8080` / `0.0.0.0`                         |                                                                                   |
| `PROFILE_DIR`                | `./profile` (`/data/profile` in the image) | Chromium cookies and storage, persisted so the browser accumulates ordinary state |
| `MAX_CONCURRENT`             | `2`                                        | page loads at once; the rest queue                                                |
| `NAVIGATION_TIMEOUT_MS`      | `20000`                                    |                                                                                   |
| `RESOLVE_TIMEOUT_MS`         | `30000`                                    | whole resolve, including extraction                                               |
| `CACHE_TTL_MS` / `CACHE_MAX` | `3600000` / `200`                          | resolved posts, in memory                                                         |
| `MEDIA_TOKEN_TTL_MS`         | `21600000`                                 | how long a `/m/` reference stays valid                                            |
| `PUBLIC_ORIGIN`              | `http://localhost:8080`                    | only used to print the rules on `/`                                               |
| `LOG_LEVEL`                  | `info`                                     |                                                                                   |

## Adding a platform

One file in `src/platforms/`, one entry in the table in `src/platforms/index.ts`. The
adapter gets a `Page` and returns a `Post` (`src/types.ts`); everything downstream —
proxying, rendering, caching, the error card — already knows what to do with one.

Set `textPosition` to `'above'` for platforms that lead with words and `'below'` for the
ones that lead with pictures.