Words you'll see

Skyreader borrows a few words from the open network it runs on, and has a few of its own. If a page here uses one you don’t know, it’s probably below.

The Atmosphere

• The Atmosphere: The open network Skyreader runs on, also called the AT Protocol. Bluesky is the best-known app on it. Apps on it share one kind of account, and what you publish there isn’t locked inside the app you used.
• Atmosphere account: The login you use for any app on the Atmosphere, Bluesky’s included. Your handle is its name, like you.bsky.social or a domain you own. If you have a Bluesky account, you already have one.
• PDS: Your Personal Data Server, where your Atmosphere account keeps the records you publish. Anything in your PDS is public and any Atmospheric app can read it. Skyreader writes there only for the things this site says are public. See Your data.
• Atmospheric sync: An optional switch that also keeps your subscription list in your PDS, so it’s backed up and other apps can use it. It makes the list public. It covers subscriptions only. See Your data.
• standard.site: A shared format for blogs and publications on the Atmosphere. A standard.site publication is a blog you can follow in Skyreader like an RSS feed, usually with the full text.
• Leaflet: An app for writing and publishing on the Atmosphere. Leaflet publications use standard.site, so you can follow them in Skyreader.
• Semble and Margin: Two Atmospheric apps for keeping and annotating what you read in public. Semble collects links into collections and lets people connect one article to another. Margin collects links too, and holds highlights and notes on web pages. You don’t need either to use Skyreader. If you do use them, Skyreader can keep your saves or a collection in step with one, which makes it public.

In Skyreader

• Source: Anything that brings you things to read: an RSS feed, a standard.site publication, a newsletter, your Bluesky likes or bookmarks, or the links people you follow share. See Adding sources.
• Channel: A saved view over your sources and saves, like “Newsletters” or “Long reads”, one click away in the sidebar. See Reading.
• Library: Everything you’ve saved. You see it two ways, the Queue and the Shelf. See Your Library.
• Queue: Your Library as a to-read list, newest first. Archive moves something out of the Queue’s inbox once you’re done with it.
• Shelf: Your Library as a place to keep things you come back to, like books, papers and references. Finishing something doesn’t take it off.
• Collection: A group of things on your Shelf, like a course’s readings. Private unless you link it to Semble or Margin.
• Daily: A magazine issue Skyreader builds from your saves, sized to the time you have. See Reading.
• Discussion: The section at the end of an article that gathers what people across the Atmosphere have said about it. See Reading.
• Review deck: A small handful of your old highlights at a time, so they come back to you. See The review deck.
• Linkblog: Your public page of links you’ve shared, each with what you had to say. See Sharing and your linkblog.
• Recommend: A one-tap, public “this is worth reading”, with no note.
• Reading room: A public list of articles that people read together, showing who’s reading along. See Reading rooms.