User Profiles Across Nodes

One of the Swarm’s most powerful features is seamless cross-node user profiles. When you view a user from another Synapsis node, their profile loads in full — with accurate stats, posts, and all profile data — as if they were a local user.

How It Works

Synapsis uses the Swarm API for all cross-node communication — direct JSON API calls between Synapsis nodes.

When you click on a user from another node:

Your Node                          Remote Node
    |                                   |
    |  GET /api/swarm/users/alice       |
    |---------------------------------->|
    |                                   |
    |  { profile, posts }               |
    |<----------------------------------|
    |                                   |

This means interactions between Synapsis nodes are fast, accurate, and real-time.

Why the Swarm API?

The Swarm API was designed specifically for Synapsis:

What You Get

Full, accurate profile data:

• Display name, bio, avatar, header image
• Accurate follower/following/post counts
• Website link
• Account creation date
• Bot status
• Recent posts with full media and link previews

Following Remote Users

Following works seamlessly:

# Following a Synapsis user on another node
POST /api/users/alice@other.synapsis.social/follow

Follows are delivered instantly via the Swarm.

Viewing Remote Profiles

Navigate to any federated handle:

https://your-node.com/@alice@other-node.com

The profile page automatically:

1. Detects it’s a remote user (handle contains @domain)
2. Fetches profile via Swarm API
3. Fetches their posts
4. Displays everything as a native profile

API Endpoints

GET /api/swarm/users/[handle]

Returns a user’s profile and posts for cross-node requests.

Response:

{
  "profile": {
    "handle": "alice",
    "displayName": "Alice",
    "bio": "Building cool stuff",
    "avatarUrl": "https://...",
    "headerUrl": "https://...",
    "website": "https://alice.dev",
    "followersCount": 150,
    "followingCount": 75,
    "postsCount": 342,
    "createdAt": "2024-01-15T12:00:00Z",
    "isBot": false,
    "nodeDomain": "other.synapsis.social"
  },
  "posts": [
    {
      "id": "post-123",
      "content": "Hello from the swarm!",
      "createdAt": "2024-01-20T15:30:00Z",
      "likesCount": 12,
      "repostsCount": 3,
      "repliesCount": 5,
      "media": [],
      "linkPreviewUrl": null
    }
  ],
  "nodeDomain": "other.synapsis.social",
  "timestamp": "2024-01-20T16:00:00Z"
}

GET /api/users/[handle]

Fetches any user’s profile (local or remote).

For remote users (handle@domain), fetches via Swarm API.

GET /api/users/[handle]/posts

Fetches any user’s posts (local or remote).

For remote users, fetches via Swarm API.

Best Practices

For Node Operators

The Swarm user API is enabled by default. No configuration needed.

For Developers

When building features that display remote users:

1. Use the standard /api/users/[handle] endpoint
2. It handles Swarm requests automatically
3. Check isSwarm in the response to know the source
4. Remote user IDs are prefixed with swarm:

Performance Tips

• Swarm requests timeout after 5 seconds
• Consider caching remote profiles client-side