trend-bluesky

name	trend-bluesky
title	Bluesky Trend Harvester Playbook
description	Platform-specific intel for harvesting Bluesky trends — AT-Proto repost-driven amplification, custom-feed targeting, harvest URLs, scoring on repost-to-like ratio (no view counts), hook taxonomy tuned to Bluesky's technical / anti-marketing audience, and dead patterns in 2026. Activates inside an octoweb:trend session whenever the user names Bluesky.
license	Apache-2.0
compatibility	Octoweb browser access. Signed-in Bluesky session needed for Discover and Following surfaces; logged-out works for search and tag pages.
capabilities	octoweb memory-read memory-write
domains	octoweb
rules	["session(trend) content(bluesky)","match(\\bbluesky\\s+(trend|trends|harvest|brief|post)\\b)","match(\\b(harvest|scan|analyze)\\s+bluesky\\b)","match(\\bbsky\\.app\\b)"]

Overview

This skill carries the platform-specific mechanics the octoweb:trend agent needs to harvest Bluesky — current AT-Proto ranking signals, harvest URLs including custom feeds, scoring on repost paths (no view counts), hook taxonomy for Bluesky's technical / anti-marketing audience, dead patterns, timing. The agent owns the shared DNA loop; this skill plugs the Bluesky parameters in.

Mental model

Bluesky is repost-graph + custom-feed driven, not algorithmic-feed driven. There is no global For You by default — Discover is opt-in and most niche users live on community-curated custom feeds. Reach is built by reposts (Bluesky's term for shares) and by getting picked up by curator-maintained feeds. View counts aren't surfaced. Anchor accounts and curators drive >50% of niche post amplification — one repost from an anchor can dwarf algorithmic reach. The audience skews more technical, more left-leaning, more dev/foss-heavy, and more skeptical of marketing than X. Marketing voice gets ignored or muted fast.

Rules

Current ranking and amplification signals (2026)

Signal	Effect
Reposts	Primary amplification mechanism (no algorithmic feed by default)
Repost-to-like ratio	>0.10 strong distribution, >0.20 breakout
Quote-post with commentary	Highest-quality amplification — preserves context + adds new audience
Cross-feed surfacing	Posts in 3+ custom feeds simultaneously = real federation amplification
Hashtag follows	1–2 relevant hashtags help discovery; 3+ reads spam
External link in root	NOT suppressed — Bluesky treats links normally
Anchor-account repost	Single repost from a well-followed niche account = significant lift
View counts	Not surfaced — do not score on them

Harvest surfaces (run in parallel)

Surface	URL	Yields
Discover (signed-in)	https://bsky.app/feed/discover	Algorithm-mixed surface
Following	https://bsky.app/	User's peers (only if follow-graph exists)
Topic search	https://bsky.app/search?q=<topic>	Last-day live posts
Hashtag pages	https://bsky.app/hashtag/<tag>	Topic communities (Bluesky uses real hashtags)
Custom feeds (niche)	https://bsky.app/profile/<curator>/feed/<feed>	Curator-maintained niche surfaces
Anchor profiles	https://bsky.app/profile/<handle>	Last 7 days per anchor

For the user's AI / agents / LLM / RAG / startup niche, identify and harvest 3–5 niche custom feeds at runtime via search before relying on them. Custom-feed names rotate quarterly.

Run 5–7 surfaces in parallel. Scroll 2–3× per tab before snapshotting.

Scoring rubric (Bluesky-specific signals)

Virality axis 0–5:

• Repost-to-like ratio — primary federation signal
• Absolute repost count (>20 reposts in 48h on a <5k account = climbing)
• Quote-post density — highest-quality amplification
• Reply-thread depth — top-level replies that themselves get replies
• Cross-feed surface — same post in 3+ custom feeds = federation-viral

Niche-fit axis 0–5 — universal scale.

Do not score on view counts — Bluesky doesn't surface them.

Hook taxonomy currently winning

1. Honest technical observation — "After X weeks running Y, here's what surprised me"
2. Contrarian-but-substantive — "Everyone says X. I tried it. Here's where it fails."
3. Specific artifact + receipt — image / chart / code + 1–2 lines
4. The honest admission — "I was wrong about X. Here's why I changed my mind."
5. The reasoned recommendation — "Switched from A to B. Specific tradeoffs:"
6. The thoughtful question with context — Bluesky audience replies seriously
7. The quote-post commentary — adds substantive view to existing post

Dead patterns

• X / Twitter residue ("RTs appreciated", "via X user @...")
• Engagement bait ("Drop a 🔥")
• Hashtag stacks (>2 hashtags)
• Marketing voice — Bluesky filters this fast
• AI vocabulary in hook line
• "Birdsite" complaining — dead pattern as of 2024+

Format and length

Goal	Length (cap 300)	Format
Quick take	100–250 chars	Single
Thread / chain	3–6 self-replies	Native threads, no markers needed
Image-attached	200–280 chars + image	Strong lift
Quote-post commentary	100–250 chars	High amplification

Custom-feed targeting

For each recommended post, name 2–3 custom feeds it's likely to surface in. Increase odds by:

• Including topic vocabulary the feed's algorithm filters on
• Adding 1–2 hashtags that the feed targets
• Posting when the feed's curator is active (some are manually curated)

Anchor accounts

Identify 5–10 niche-relevant well-followed accounts whose repost would amplify the user's post. Note follower band and recent repost behavior on each.

Timing

• Best windows (US/EU mix): Tue–Thu 9 AM–12 PM ET and 4–7 PM ET
• Slower than X — give a post 24–48h to develop before judging it dead
• One thread per day max

Saturated-take detection

Bluesky's tech-niche saturated takes in 2026 cluster around: "AT-Proto vs ActivityPub," generic "Why I left Twitter" posts, "AI is a bubble" / "AI is the new electricity" cycles, anti-OpenAI / anti-Anthropic tribal posts. Verify saturation live.

Examples

Example 1: Full DNA + amplification-path call

Bad — count without path:

@dev.bsky.social got 80 reposts on a post about RAG.

Good — repost path, custom-feed surfacing, anchor noted:

@dev.bsky.social (4.1k followers) — 412❤ / 87🔁 / 38💬 / 14🗨
Repost-to-like ratio: 0.21 — breakout
Surfaced via: Discover (initial) → reposted into 2 niche custom feeds (Tech feed by @curator-a, LLM feed by @curator-b)
Reposted by anchor @ml-anchor.bsky.social (38k followers) at the 4h mark — drove ~60% of total amplification
> Six weeks of running a RAG eval harness against real customer queries. The retrieval recall numbers everyone quotes are measured wrong.
Hook type: honest technical observation + receipt promise
Length: 224 chars
Format: single post + chart screenshot reply with alt-text
DNA: dev-tone + specific timeframe + named-counterpoint to common belief

Example 2: Marketing-voice rejection

Surface a post that has high counts but fails the audience-fit gate:

@brand.bsky.social — 850❤ / 12🔁 (repost ratio 0.014, far below 0.10 floor)
Hook: "Unlock the power of next-gen AI agents with our cutting-edge platform 🚀"
Failure: marketing voice, AI-vocabulary in hook, rocket emoji, near-zero repost ratio.
The like count is shallow (likely company employees + bot accounts). Bluesky's audience is filtering this. Exclude from recommendations and avoid the pattern.

Checklist

Before returning the Bluesky section of the brief:

• Every cited post has full federated handle (@user.bsky.social), like count, repost count, reply count, quote count, URL
• Repost-to-like ratio computed and used as primary signal
• Amplification path noted on every cited example (Discover / custom feed / anchor repost)
• No score depends on view counts
• (Opt-in mode only) Custom-feed targeting prescribed for every recommended angle (2–3 feed names, verified at runtime)
• Anchor-account repost-path list included (5–10 accounts with follower bands) — research output: shows who currently amplifies in this niche, not who the user should target
• (Opt-in mode only) Hook bank entries each tagged to a taxonomy type from this skill
• Dead-pattern list applied — no recommendation uses X-residue, hashtag stacks (>2), marketing voice, or rocket emojis
• (Opt-in mode only) No more than 2 hashtags prescribed per recommended post
• All background tabs closed

Composition / References

• Pairs with social-bluesky (content domain) for writing the actual post from the brief.
• AT-Proto handles include the instance: always cite @user.bsky.social (or custom domain handle) — not bare @user.
• Use the agent's universal output schema.