Post to Mastodon

Reelspan posts to your Mastodon account on any server, with an access token you make in the server's settings. Servers that offer Mastodon's API, such as GoToSocial, work the same way.

What you can post

Media is uploaded to your server first. Servers process video in the background, so Reelspan waits until it's ready before posting. The result's url is the post on your server and post_id its id.

Connect your account

You need your server's address and an access token. Setup takes about two minutes.

1. On your server, open Preferences → Development → New application (on mastodon.social: mastodon.social/settings/applications).
2. Name it Reelspan, keep the read and write scopes, and save.
3. Open the application and copy Your access token.
4. In the Reelspan dashboard, open Accounts → Connect account, choose the profile and Mastodon, and paste the token with your server (mastodon.social).

Reelspan checks the token with your server before saving it, encrypted.

With the API

curl -X POST https://api.reelspan.com/v1/accounts/mastodon \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $REELSPAN_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"profile_username": "my-brand", "server": "mastodon.social", "access_token": "..."}'

import { Reelspan } from 'reelspan';

const reelspan = new Reelspan();
await reelspan.accounts.connect('my-brand', 'mastodon', {
  server: 'mastodon.social',
  access_token: process.env.MASTODON_TOKEN,
});

import os
from reelspan import Reelspan

reelspan = Reelspan()
reelspan.accounts.connect("my-brand", "mastodon", server="mastodon.social", access_token=os.environ["MASTODON_TOKEN"])

{ "success": true, "platform": "mastodon", "account": "@[email protected]", "reconnected": false }

server can be mastodon.social or https://mastodon.social; Reelspan always talks to it over https. Connecting again replaces the Mastodon account on that profile. See Connect with credentials.

Example post

Two images behind a content warning, visible to followers only:

curl -X POST https://api.reelspan.com/v1/posts/photos \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $REELSPAN_API_KEY" \
  -F "user=my-brand" \
  -F "platform[]=mastodon" \
  -F "title=First look at the new dashboard #design" \
  -F "mastodon_visibility=private" \
  -F "mastodon_spoiler_text=Product screenshots" \
  -F "alt_text[]=The dashboard in light mode" \
  -F "alt_text[]=The dashboard in dark mode" \
  -F "photos[][email protected]" \
  -F "photos[][email protected]"

import { Reelspan } from 'reelspan';
import { readFile } from 'node:fs/promises';

const reelspan = new Reelspan();
const post = await reelspan.posts.photos({
  user: 'my-brand',
  platforms: ['mastodon'],
  title: 'First look at the new dashboard #design',
  photos: [
    { data: await readFile('photo1.jpg'), name: 'photo1.jpg', type: 'image/jpeg' },
    { data: await readFile('photo2.jpg'), name: 'photo2.jpg', type: 'image/jpeg' },
  ],
  altTexts: ['The dashboard in light mode', 'The dashboard in dark mode'],
  extra: { mastodon_visibility: 'private', mastodon_spoiler_text: 'Product screenshots' },
});

from reelspan import Reelspan

reelspan = Reelspan()
post = reelspan.posts.photos(
    "my-brand", ["mastodon"], ["photo1.jpg", "photo2.jpg"], "First look at the new dashboard #design",
    alt_texts=["The dashboard in light mode", "The dashboard in dark mode"],
    extra={"mastodon_visibility": "private", "mastodon_spoiler_text": "Product screenshots"},
)

Fields

In the dashboard composer, the Mastodon tab has Visibility, Content warning and Mark media as sensitive.

Limits and behaviour

• Images: up to 4 per post. With more, the first 4 are sent and the result carries a warning.
• Files: up to 99 MB each; your server may allow less.
• Video processing: Reelspan waits up to about 3 minutes for the server to process a video, then fails with processing_timeout, which is retried.
• Text length: set by your server (500 characters on most). Reelspan sends the text as it is.
• No duplicates: each post is sent with the request's id as Mastodon's idempotency key, so a retry doesn't post twice.
• Analytics: likes, boosts and replies per post, and followers, following and post counts for the account. See Analytics.
• Your server only: calls go only to the server you named, and never to private network addresses.

Common errors

Errors when connecting come back as a 400 with the code in error_code. Errors when posting are in that network's result. See Errors.