Syndicator-mastodon only works for Notes post type, others fail

[eclecticpassions]

Description of the bug

I have used @indiekit/syndicator-mastodon with Note post type successfully multiple times. But today I tried to do the same for a Like post type and it failed with an error:

Success
Post at https://myblog.com/likes/2026/1776433268 not updated as no properties changed.
The following targets) did not return a URL: https://mastodon.instance/@myusername

It says "Success" at the top of the notification, but it's not syndicated.

I tried clicking the syndicate to Mastodon button on creation and also after creating (via edit) + clicking again to "activate" it, but both failed. The Like post type had content in the content field, not just the link itself.

Steps to reproduce

1. Create Like post
2. Write some content + the link
3. Tick syndicate
4. See the error
5. Repeat for a Note post
6. It will work

Expected behaviour

After creating the post (having ticked the syndicate to Mastodon checkbox), go back to the post via Edit > and click syndicate at the top to send the copy to Mastodon. It will say:

Success
Post updated at https://myblog.com/notes/2026/0417-214636

Environment

• "@indiekit/indiekit": "^1.0.0-beta.27",
• Browser: Firefox fork
• Content store: Codeberg

Additional context

This problem happens both on the Render.com hosted Indiekit server and also on local server mode with macOS. On both, it failed for Like post type and worked for Note post type.

Update: I've tested this with Replies, Likes, Photos. All fail. Only Notes work.

[eclecticpassions]

This issue is still present in v1.0.0-beta.28. I've just tested it with an RSVP post type and the syndicator to Mastodon wouldn't run when I press the "Syndicate Post" button after publishing the post, with an error message like this:

I've already switched from hosting on Render.com to Docker on my Pi homeserver. Only note post type can be syndicated to Mastodon.

Any ideas where the issue is? Thanks so much.

[rmdes]

I ran into this too and went digging. There look to be two separate causes in syndicator-mastodon, which together explain why notes are the only type that reliably works.

1. Likes and reposts of non-Mastodon URLs return nothing

This is the case @eclecticpassions opened with. lib/mastodon.js:149-157:

if (properties["like-of"]) {
  if (isSameOrigin(properties["like-of"], this.serverUrl)) {
    return this.postFavourite(properties["like-of"]);
  }

  // Do not syndicate likes of other URLs
  return;
}

Reposts do the same at lib/mastodon.js:126-147. If you like something that isn’t already a status on your own server, the bare return yields undefined, which surfaces as:

The following target(s) did not return a URL

Two things go wrong there. The message reads as a failure when the code is actually declining on purpose, so “nothing to do” and “something broke” are indistinguishable from the UI. And the decision is made purely on the property, so a like with real commentary in the content field — as in the original report — is discarded along with a bare like.

2. Replies to non-Mastodon URLs throw

lib/utils.js:64-76:

if (properties["in-reply-to"]) {
  const inReplyTo = properties["in-reply-to"];
  const inReplyToHostname = new URL(inReplyTo).hostname;
  const serverHostname = new URL(serverUrl).hostname;

  if (inReplyToHostname === serverHostname) {
    parameters.inReplyToId = getStatusIdFromUrl(inReplyTo);
  } else {
    throw IndiekitError.badRequest("Not a reply to a URL at this target");
  }
}

Replying to anything that isn’t a status on your own server — someone’s blog, say — throws rather than simply skipping the threading, so the whole syndication fails. This also covers the RSVP case above, since RSVPs carry in-reply-to too.

Together these explain the title: a note carries none of in-reply-to, like-of or repost-of, so it’s the one post type that reaches createStatus untouched.

Photos

I couldn’t account for photos failing from reading the code. getPhotoProperty normalises them to { url, alt } objects and there’s a passing test for posting a status with a photo, so that path looks fine in isolation. @eclecticpassions — when a photo post fails, is there anything in the server logs, and do those posts also have content or a reply context? It may be separate from the two above.

Suggested approach

The reply throw looks unambiguously like a bug — declining to thread a reply shouldn’t abort syndication of the post — so that one seems safe to just fix.

Likes and reposts are more of a design question. The // Do not syndicate likes of other URLs comment reads as deliberate, so I don’t want to assume the default is simply wrong. But the current behaviour gives no way to get the reported case working at all, and reports it as an error besides.

Would it be worth letting people choose which post types are syndicated to a given target? Something like:

"@indiekit/syndicator-mastodon": {
  postTypes: ["note", "article", "photo", "like"],
}

Which types are worth syndicating is quite personal — some people very much want their likes on Mastodon, others definitely don’t — and this seems hard to get right with a fixed rule per property. It would also mean the default could stay exactly as it is today, with anyone wanting external likes opting in, rather than changing behaviour for existing users. And it generalises: #832 is arguably the same shape of request.

Happy to put a PR together, with tests, for whichever of these you’d like — the reply fix on its own, or that plus the post type option if the idea appeals.

[eclecticpassions]

Thank you @rmdes for looking into this long-standing problem!

I am still pretty noob with Node... but I know likes, replies, rsvps do not work. I only posted three photo posts with Indiekit at the beginning of the year—so I just went to it, trying to click the syndicate button and ended up going in a big circle realizing that there's a bug in the endpoint-posts plugin? Where it would fail to load old posts (404 error).

I found your fork @rmdes/indiekit-endpoint-posts and will try to install that now to see if I can try syndicating photo posts (as you say, it is a post type that doesn't link to other people's content, so it might work—I don't recall them having reply context).

Thank you again so, so much Ricardo! 🙌

[eclecticpassions]

@rmdes, I just got your endpoint-posts plugin installed, but I think I messed up something while installing as the /plugin page shows both the default indiekit-endpoint-post plugin and yours (so things like the "Create a new post" menu block on the home page is duplicated). The main two upgrades I noticed is the fixed 404 for older posts and the filter options and search on the posts page.

Anyway, this means I was able to go back to my early photo post, and click syndicate to Mastodon. It works! It syndicated like notes post type. Thanks again for all your help and creating these QoL upgrades for Indiekit users!

Update: I removed the duplicated plugins from my config file as I realized they're already part of the default @indiekit/indiekit package, and the duplicated menu block on the homepage is fixed.

[paulrobertlloyd]

For the avoidance of doubt, the intended behaviour for likes and reposts is for these to use platform-native methods where available, so a post on a Mastodon server would get liked, rather than a post being created linking to that post. That’s an opinionated design choice, and maybe we could add a way to opt out.

There’s a bit more to dig into here. I’d like to get some (all?) of @rmdes fixes in his fork merged into the first-party plugin first.