Bluesky announces a new relay and firehose fan-out, later partly superseded

What changed

On November 18, 2024 the AT Protocol team described replacing the relay with one started from scratch, so ordering and sequence numbers would differ, plus firehose fan-out services such as Rainbow. The post carries a January 2025 note that many of the described operational changes were not implemented, and it is superseded by the May 2025 post, so what took effect and when is unclear from this page.

What it means

Firehose consumers were told to expect different sequence numbers and to support HTTP redirects for websocket connections.

Who is affected

Developers who consume the Bluesky firehose, such as feed generators, analytics and labeling services.

What to do

Support HTTP redirects on websocket connections and follow the later relay posts for current guidance. The original post is marked as superseded by the May 2025 relay post.