Social Bot Check
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Social Bot Check

Inspect public Bluesky and Mastodon accounts for reply timing, repeated text, posting volume, and other observable patterns, with visible thresholds and linked evidence.

ACTIVE webapp Updated October 1, 2026
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What It Does

Social Bot Check reads public account activity and applies transparent checks for patterns that can occur in automated posting. It supports Bluesky and Mastodon. The report includes the observed values, the threshold for each check, other possible explanations, and links to posts that match a check.

The report counts eligible behavior checks without assigning a probability that an account is a bot. Platform metadata is shown separately. Neither activity patterns nor client formatting can establish AI authorship.

How to Use It

  1. Open Social Bot Check.
  2. Choose Bluesky or Mastodon and enter an account or profile URL.
  3. Choose a sample of up to 100, 500, or 1,000 original posts and select Check account.
  4. Open each signal to read its threshold and evidence. Use Show matching posts to filter the report to the relevant examples.
  5. Open the original posts to review their context. Search or filter the scanned activity, copy a link to run the check again, or download the current JSON report.

Examples:

  • Bluesky: tedt.org, @name.bsky.social, a bsky.app profile or post URL, or a DID.
  • Mastodon: @Ted@tschopp.net or https://tschopp.net/@Ted.

Data and Limits

Requests go directly from your browser to the selected public API without account credentials. This tool does not store reports or request a login.

Private, blocked, deleted, and unavailable posts are outside the sample. Mastodon servers can restrict public API access or block browser requests. Up to 40 recent unique Mastodon parent posts are fetched for reply context; missing context is reported, and edited replies are excluded from timing checks. Activity charts show UTC because the account’s local time zone is unknown.

Share links contain the account and scan settings. Opening one runs a fresh check; the JSON download captures the report at the time it was checked.

Adding Another Site

Each platform has a provider module that parses account addresses and maps its public API data into a shared profile and post format. New providers register in tools/social-bot-check/providers/index.js. The analysis and report renderer are shared; unsupported checks must retain an explicit unavailable state.

The checker is inspired by Simon Willison’s Bluesky reply bot checker. Its implementation and report wording were written for Ted’s Tools.

Details

Tech
  • JavaScript
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • Bluesky public API
  • Mastodon public API
License
MIT
Tags
bluesky mastodon social analysis javascript tools

Features

  • Bluesky handles, DIDs, profile URLs, and post URLs
  • Mastodon account addresses and profile URLs
  • Up to 1,000 original posts, with boosts and reposts tracked separately
  • Visible thresholds, sample sizes, alternative explanations, and evidence posts
  • UTC activity chart with an accessible table of exact counts
  • Post search, type filters, and links to original and parent posts
  • Cancellable checks, partial-result warnings, and explicit missing-data states
  • Shareable account check links and downloadable JSON reports
  • Separate provider modules for adding other public social APIs
  • No login, account changes, API keys, or server-side report storage