The Complete Guide to Bluesky AT Protocol: 4 Free Tools for Developers

Bluesky has grown from 10M to 41M users in one year (+302%). Built on the AT Protocol, it is the only major social network with a completely open, free API — no API keys, no rate limits on public data, no approval process. Here are 4 free tools I built for working with Bluesky data, plus code examples you can use right now. Why Bluesky for Developers? Open protocol — public.api.bsky.app is free and open No auth for public data — profiles, posts, feeds are all accessible without login Decentralized — data is portable, not locked to one platform Growing fast — 41M+ users and counting JSON API — clean, structured responses The AT Protocol Basics Every Bluesky user has a DID (Decentralized Identifier) and a handle (like a username). The flow: Handle → DID → Profile/Posts/Feed Step 1: Resolve Handle to DID const res = await fetch ( `https://public.api.bsky.app/xrpc/com.atproto.identity.resolveHandle?handle=bsky.app` ); const { did } = await res . json (); // did: \"did:plc:z72i7hdynmk6r22z2