> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.jannis.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Trying to get ActivityPub running as well - URL: https://www.jannis.io/trying-to-get-activitypub-running-as-well/ - Published: 2025-03-02T21:34:48.000Z - Updated: 2025-03-13T08:34:37.000Z - Author: Jannis Fedoruk-Betschki I just read Cathy's blog post about getting ActivityPub started: [Getting ActivityPub running... well, not yet.![](https://www.jannis.io/content/images/icon/witch-hat-icon_rev-1-01-3.png)Spectral Web ServicesCathy Sarisky, Ghost Expert![](https://www.jannis.io/content/images/thumbnail/ghost-with-dog-food-01.jpg)](https://www.spectralwebservices.com/blog/getting-activitypub-running/?ref=jannis.io) Since I want to get ActivityPub running on Magic Pages asap, this has been on my list forever – but well...other things always seem to pop up. Cathy left her blog post with the thought that: > *Maybe, just maybe, I made this harder than it needed to be by running in WSL and with a local install of Ghost. I may need to take another run at it with a 'real' Linux server, because it feels like I got almost there....* Well, let's put that to a test. I am running a non-virtualised Ubuntu 24.04 environment. So...maybe things will run better? Follow along: (I am typing this post as I run the commands on my machine – I am curious how far we get.) First up, install a fresh copy of Ghost in a new folder: ``` ghost install --local ``` Cool, that worked. Meanwhile, install Tailscale. For some reason, the command Cathy ran (`curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh` and `sudo tailscaled` did not work for me): ``` curl -fsSL https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/ubuntu/oracular.noarmor.gpg | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/tailscale-archive-keyring.gpg >/dev/null curl -fsSL https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/ubuntu/oracular.tailscale-keyring.list | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tailscale.list sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install tailscale sudo tailscale up ``` Then, make sure that Ghost is listening to the Tailscale URL: ``` ghost config url https://YOURINFO.tailYOURINFOHERE.ts.net ``` Ghost reminded me that I should restart Ghost for the config to work, so I did just that: ``` ghost restart ``` Next step, get the ActivityPub server running. ``` git clone https://github.com/TryGhost/ActivityPub.git cd ActivityPub yarn dev ``` Docker images are being downloaded – and then started as containers. But...I run into the same issue as Cathy. The Tailscale URL is not connecting to anything. Looking at the `docker-compose.yml` in the ActivityPub repository, I see that NGINX should be started though. A `docker ps` shows no NGINX container running though. Hm... So, I run a `docker logs activitypub-server-nginx-1`: ``` /docker-entrypoint.sh: /docker-entrypoint.d/ is not empty, will attempt to perform configuration /docker-entrypoint.sh: Looking for shell scripts in /docker-entrypoint.d/ /docker-entrypoint.sh: Launching /docker-entrypoint.d/10-listen-on-ipv6-by-default.sh 10-listen-on-ipv6-by-default.sh: info: Getting the checksum of /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf 10-listen-on-ipv6-by-default.sh: info: /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf differs from the packaged version /docker-entrypoint.sh: Sourcing /docker-entrypoint.d/15-local-resolvers.envsh /docker-entrypoint.sh: Launching /docker-entrypoint.d/20-envsubst-on-templates.sh /docker-entrypoint.sh: Launching /docker-entrypoint.d/30-tune-worker-processes.sh /docker-entrypoint.sh: Configuration complete; ready for start up 2025/03/02 19:46:38 [emerg] 1#1: host not found in upstream "host.docker.internal" in /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf:15 nginx: [emerg] host not found in upstream "host.docker.internal" in /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf:15 ``` Okay, this is interesting. The NGINX container couldn't resolve the hostname `host.docker.internal`, which is set in the `nginx/server.conf`. This is makes sense. `host.docker.internal` is a Mac and Windows specific way of telling Docker to access the host. For Linux you'd need to pass this explicitly: [What is the Linux equivalent of “host.docker.internal”?On Mac and Windows, it is possible to use host.docker.internal (Docker 18.03+) inside a container. Is there one for Linux that will work out of the box without passing environment variables or extr…![](https://www.jannis.io/content/images/icon/apple-touch-icon.png)Stack Overflowklor![](https://www.jannis.io/content/images/thumbnail/apple-touch-icon@2.png)](https://stackoverflow.com/a/62431165?ref=jannis.io) I have changed the nginx service in the `docker-compose.yml` to this: ``` nginx: build: nginx ports: - "80:80" depends_on: - activitypub extra_hosts: - "host.docker.internal:host-gateway" ``` And tadaaaa...NGINX is running: ``` /docker-entrypoint.sh: /docker-entrypoint.d/ is not empty, will attempt to perform configuration /docker-entrypoint.sh: Looking for shell scripts in /docker-entrypoint.d/ /docker-entrypoint.sh: Launching /docker-entrypoint.d/10-listen-on-ipv6-by-default.sh 10-listen-on-ipv6-by-default.sh: info: Getting the checksum of /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf 10-listen-on-ipv6-by-default.sh: info: /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf differs from the packaged version /docker-entrypoint.sh: Sourcing /docker-entrypoint.d/15-local-resolvers.envsh /docker-entrypoint.sh: Launching /docker-entrypoint.d/20-envsubst-on-templates.sh /docker-entrypoint.sh: Launching /docker-entrypoint.d/30-tune-worker-processes.sh /docker-entrypoint.sh: Configuration complete; ready for start up ``` Accessing my Tailscale URL I get a 502 error, which is well...better? I mean, before I just didn't get a connection at all. Now, NGINX is telling me that there is no connection to Ghost. So...yay? 😂 I checked with `ghost ls` to make sure Ghost is running. And yes, it is. But...it is listening to the Tailscale URL. That sparks a thought. What if I set the Ghost configuration to have Ghost listen to `0.0.0.0` rather than just `127.0.0.1`? So, changed the configuration, restarted Ghost, opened the Tailscale URL again and... ![](https://www.jannis.io/content/images/2025/03/image-1.png) Woohoo 🎉 Now, next step: activate the ActivityPub alpha. For that, developer experiments need to be activated in Ghost's configuration: ``` "enableDeveloperExperiments": { "enableDeveloperExperiments": true } ``` Then, another `ghost restart` – and the option appears in Ghost's Labs settings: ![](https://www.jannis.io/content/images/2025/03/image-2.png) And...you guessed it. Another `ghost restart`. According to the `README.md` of the ActivityPub repository, this should initialise a handshake between Ghost and ActivityPub. Well, let's see what happens. ``` [2025-03-02 21:16:22] INFO Url configured as: http://jannis-laptop.tail11f393.ts.net/ [2025-03-02 21:16:22] INFO Ctrl+C to shut down [2025-03-02 21:16:22] INFO Ghost server started in 0.242s [2025-03-02 21:16:23] INFO Database is in a ready state. [2025-03-02 21:16:23] INFO Ghost database ready in 0.409s [2025-03-02 21:16:23] INFO Invalidating assets for regeneration [2025-03-02 21:16:23] INFO Adding offloaded job to the inline job queue [2025-03-02 21:16:23] INFO Scheduling job mentions-email-report at 53 37 * * * *. Next run on: Sun Mar 02 2025 21:37:53 GMT+0100 (Central European Standard Time) [2025-03-02 21:16:24] INFO Adding offloaded job to the inline job queue [2025-03-02 21:16:24] INFO Scheduling job clean-expired-comped at 54 45 4 * * *. Next run on: Mon Mar 03 2025 04:45:54 GMT+0100 (Central European Standard Time) [2025-03-02 21:16:24] INFO Adding offloaded job to the inline job queue [2025-03-02 21:16:24] INFO Scheduling job clean-tokens at 14 43 17 * * *. Next run on: Mon Mar 03 2025 17:43:14 GMT+0100 (Central European Standard Time) [2025-03-02 21:16:24] INFO Ghost booted in 1.512s [2025-03-02 21:16:24] INFO URL Service ready in 1021ms [2025-03-02 21:16:24] INFO "GET /ghost/.well-known/jwks.json" 200 10ms [2025-03-02 21:16:25] ERROR Could not get webhook secret for ActivityPub FetchError: invalid json response body at http://jannis-laptop.tail11f393.ts.net/.ghost/activitypub/site reason: Unexpected token 'I', "Internal S"... is not valid JSON [2025-03-02 21:16:25] ERROR No webhook secret found - cannot initialise [2025-03-02 21:16:25] INFO Adding offloaded job to the inline job queue [2025-03-02 21:16:25] INFO Scheduling job update-check at 22 58 1 * * *. Next run on: Mon Mar 03 2025 01:58:22 GMT+0100 (Central European Standard Time) [2025-03-02 21:16:25] INFO Running milestone emails job on Sun Mar 02 2025 21:16:30 GMT+0100 (Central European Standard Time) ``` Hm. No webhook secret found? Well, let's check the logs of the ActivityPub stack in Docker: ``` TypeError: fetch failed Error: connect ECONNREFUSED 100.96.111.34:443 ``` Hm. Similar issue to what Cathy saw. SSL isn't set up. Quick search on how to do that with Tailscale (yeah, never used that before). Ran `sudo tailscale cert mytailscaledomain.com`. And... ``` 500 Internal Server Error: your Tailscale account does not support getting TLS certs ``` 🙃 You need to explicitly enable that here: [https://login.tailscale.com/admin/dns](https://login.tailscale.com/admin/dns?ref=jannis.io) Bit weird, but hey. Ran the command again, and got the certificates. Yay! I reconfigured Ghost to listen to the new URL with `https` by running `ghost config url https://myfancynewtailscaleurlwithhttps.com` and restarted it. ...and I got a `ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED`. Okay, let's take a step back. Have another look at the `README.md`. Oh. It says `tailscale funnel 80` in there. I just did `tailscale up`. Whoopsie. The `funnel` command makes a lot more sense. It just exposes a single port. Oh well. So, I ran `tailscale funnel 80` 🤷 Ghost can now initiate the handshake with the ActivityPub server, it seems: ``` [2025-03-02 22:15:32] INFO Checking ActivityPub Webhook state [2025-03-02 22:15:32] INFO ActivityPub webhooks in correct state ``` Alright. Time to check the new ActivityPub dashboard we have all seen in [Ghost's ActivityPub newsletter](https://activitypub.ghost.org/?ref=jannis.io). ![](https://www.jannis.io/content/images/2025/03/image-4.png) Wooohooo! 🎉 And as it turns out, I can even find this new ActivityPub instance through Mastodon: ![](https://www.jannis.io/content/images/2025/03/image-5.png) Now, I can't seem to get see my posts or notes on Mastodon. But uhhh...we have ActivityPub running. Next step: how the hell will I make this effort scalable for Magic Pages? 😂 --- And while this post shows that it's possible to self-host Ghost's ActivityPub server, I want to stress what the Ghost team published in today's newsletter: > At the moment we're moving quickly and making many breaking changes each week which aren't backwards compatible (like switching to a new DB) – so the app isn't stable. Even if we did document everything, if you self-hosted then it would just break constantly — so it doesn't make much sense for us to try to document and promote self-hosting, because it won't be a good experience for anyone. So, do try this at home, I guess. But don't expect it to work in production.