mass-downloader-for-bluesky

mass-downloader-for-bluesky (mdfb) is a Python cli application that can download large amounts of posts from bluesky from any given account.

Installation

You will need Python to be installed to use this CLI.

You can install via pip by:

pip install mdfb

Manual

Have Poetry installed.

Then clone the project, open a poetry shell and then install all dependencies.

git clone git@github.com:IbrahimHajiAbdi/mass-downloader-for-bluesky.git
cd mdfb
poetry shell
poetry install

Usage

mdfb works by using the public API offered by bluesky to retrieve posts liked, reposted or posted by the desired account.

mdfb will download the information for a post and the accompanying media, video or image(s). If there is no image(s) or video, it will just download the information of the post. The information of the post will be a JSON file and have lots of accompanying data, such as the text in the post, creation time of the post and author details. Currently, the retrieved posts start from the latest post to the oldest.

You will need to be inside a poetry shell to use mdfb if installed manually

Examples

Some example commands would be:

mdfb download --handle bsky.app -l 10 --like --threads 3 --format "{RKEY}_{HANDLE}" ./media/

mdfb download -d did:plc:z72i7hdynmk6r22z27h6tvur --archive --like --threads 3 --format "{DID}_{HANDLE}" ./media/

mdfb download --handle bsky.app --update --like --threads 3 --format "{RKEY}_{HANDLE}" ./media/

mdfb download --restore bsky.app --like --threads 3 --format "{RKEY}_{HANDLE}" ./media/

Naming Convention

By default, mdfb's naming convention is: "{rkey}_{handle}_{text}". If it is downloading a post with multiple images then the naming will be: "{rkey}_{handle}_{text}_{i}", where "i" represents the order of the images in the post ranging from 1 - 4. In addition, the filenames are limited to 256 bytes and will be truncated down to that size.

However, you can specify the name of the files by using the --format flag and passing a valid format string, e.g. "{RKEY}_{DID}". You can put anything in the format string inbetween the keywords. This is case-sensitive.

For --format, the valid keywords are:

• RKEY
• DID
• HANDLE
• TEXT
• DISPLAY_NAME

Download Amount

When specifying the limit, this will be true for all types of post downloaded. For example:

mdfb download --handle bsky.app -l 100 --like --repost --post ./media/

This would download 100 likes, reposts and post, totalling 300 posts downloaded.

Furthermore, you can archive whole accounts. For exmaple:

mdfb download --handle bsky.app --archive --like --repost --threads 3 --format "{DID}_{HANDLE}" ./media/

This would download all likes and reposts.

Database

When downloading posts, mdfb inserts into the database some post identifiers. This allows for you to download only new posts from an account that you haven't downloaded yet.

However, there are some constraints, if you delete a file, this is not reflected in the database and thus, if you use the --update flag, it will not redownload it. Furthermore, the posts identifiers are only committed to the database once all posts have been downloaded, so if mdfb topples over during downloading, none of the posts downloaded will be reflected into the database.

The database is stored in: (Linux) ~/.local/share/mdfb/, (Windows) C:\\Users\\$USER\\AppData\\Local\\mdfb and (macOS) /Users/$USER/Library/Application Support/mdfb.

Example

mdfb db --delete_user bsky.app

Feed

When using the feed subcommand ,there are a few quirks. One of them being that since it is a generator there is not guaranteed order that the posts will be returned. This has the implication of doing the same command will likely produce different sets of downloaded content. This is up the person who owns the feed and how they decide it is generated.

Furthermore, you need to login using the login subcommand, this requires you to generate a app password for the account you want to authenticate as. The subcommand login is only required when using the feed subcommand. The app password will be valid as long as the password for the account does not change or is revoked by the user. The subcommand feed will use the app password provided until changed.

There can be multiple accounts in the config yaml with their own app password.

You can generate an app password here.

The config yaml is stored in: (Linux) ~/.config/mdfb/, (Windows) C:\\Users\\$USER\\AppData\\Local\\mdfb and (macOS) /Users/$USER/Library/Application Support/mdfb.

Note

IMPORTANT: When using the feed subcommand, None of the posts downloaded will be added to the database. Meaning that the update flag cannot be used and if the same posts pops up on someone elses feed, it will be downloaded.

Example

mdfb feed --handle bsky.app --url 'https://bsky.app/profile/bsky.app/feed/whats-hot' --limit 100 media/ -t 3 

Note

The maximum number of threads is currently 3, that can be changed in the mdfb/utils/constants.py file. Furthermore, there are more constants that can be changed in that file, such as delay between each request and the number of retries before marking that post as a failure and continuing.

Subcommands and arguments

• download

  • --handle
    • The handle of the target account.
  • --did, -d
    • The DID of the target account.
  • --limit, -l
    • The amount of posts that want to be downloaded.
  • --archive
    • Downloads all posts from the selected post type.
  • --update, -u
    • Downloads all of the latest posts that haven't been downloaded.
  • directory
    • Positional argument, where all the downloaded files are to be located. Required.
  • --threads, -t
    • The amount of threads wanted to download posts more efficiently, maximum number of threads is 3.
  • --format, -f
    • Format string that file's will use for their name. Furthermore the keywords used are case-sensitive and should be all upper case.
  • --like
    • To retrieved liked posts
  • --repost
    • To retrieved reposts
  • --post
    • To retrieved posts
  • --media-types
    • Only download posts that contain this specified type of media. Valid keywords are: image, video and text.
  • --include, -i
    • Whether to include only json information or media from the post.
  • --restore
    • Downloads all posts stored in the database, can optionally pass a did or handle to only restore posts from that account.

• db

  • --delete_user
    • Deletes all posts associated with the given user from the database. Have to pass the handle of the user.

• login

  • This is only a subcommand and is needed to use fetch subcommand, needed to add the app password which can be found here

• feed

  • --url
    • The URL of the feed, e.g. https://bsky.app/profile/skyfeed.xyz/feed/mutuals. Required.
  • --handle
    • Handle of the user to login in as. Required.
  • --limit, -l
    • Number of posts to download. Required.
  • --media-types
    • Only download posts that contain this specified type of media. Valid keywords are: image, video and text.
  • --include, -i
    • Whether to include only json information or media from the post.
  • directory
    • Positional argument, where all the downloaded files are to be located. Required.

• generic commands

  • --resource, -r
    • Logs resource usage for memory and cpu every 5 seconds.

Note

At least one of the flags: --like, --repost, --post are required (when using download).

Both (--did, -d and --handle) and (--archive, --limit, -l and --update) are mutually exclusive, and one of each of them is required as well (when using download).

The argument --media-types needs to be either before or after any positional arguments. E.g.

mdfb download --handle bsky.app --update --like --threads 3 --media-types image --format "{RKEY}_{HANDLE}" ./media/`

Furthermore, if you want to filter by text and image or media and then use --include by media, this would not include any post filter by text. E.g.

mdfb download --handle bsky.app --update --like --threads 3 --media-types image text -i media ./media/`

This would just download images only.

When using feed, another example of a valid command is:

mdfb feed --handle bsky.app --url 'https://bsky.app/profile/bsky.app/feed/whats-hot' --limit 5 media/ -t 3 --media-types video --include media

This would download the first 5 posts that contain a video and only download the media, not the accompanying metadata json