Sharing and publishing

Markdown · Agent index

Everything you save starts private. There are two ways to show reading to other people: an unlisted link to chosen items, and a public page under a handle. Both are optional and both need an account.

What other people can see

A shared or public item shows its title, a link to the original source, and the parts of its summary you have accepted. A shared link can also include your highlights when you ask for that. The saved article text, your notes and your reading state are never published.

Public pages carry noindex, which asks search engines not to list them.

Share a link

A share link shows one or more items to anyone who has its address. It is not listed anywhere.

In the web library, open an item, choose Share, then Copy link. From a terminal:

sponge share ITEM --title "Worth reading"
sponge share ITEM ITEM --highlights     # include your highlights
sponge share list
sponge share revoke ID
sponge sync

The link has the form https://account.sponge.computer/s/<id>. A link made in the terminal goes live on the next sponge sync. Revoking removes the page; copies someone already fetched may remain, and the address is never reused.

Your public page

1. In the web library, open Your profile and claim a handle of 2 to 30 characters. You can add a display name and a short bio. A handle is fixed once claimed.
2. Publish items: set an item public in the web library, or run sponge publish ITEM....
3. Sync. Your devices build the page and upload it.

sponge publish                 # what is public, and whether new saves publish
sponge publish ITEM ITEM
sponge unpublish ITEM
sponge sync

Claiming a handle publishes nothing by itself. With at least one published item, these addresses exist:

Address	What it is
https://account.sponge.computer/@handle	Your public reading page
/@handle/feed.json	JSON Feed
/@handle/feed.xml	Atom feed
/@handle/embed	A small list for an iframe on your own site

A handle with nothing published returns 404.

Publish new saves automatically

sponge publish --auto on
sponge publish --auto off

Automatic publishing is off by default. When on, new saves from public web pages are published; pages captured through your signed-in browser stay private. The setting syncs between your devices and is also in Your profile.

Embed your reading

Copy embed code under Share copies an iframe for /@handle/embed. It lists your newest public items. limit accepts 1 to 30 and defaults to 8; theme accepts auto, light or dark.

<iframe src="https://account.sponge.computer/@handle/embed?limit=5&theme=light"
        title="Recent reading" loading="lazy"></iframe>

Host the list yourself

sponge publish --output writes a signed static site with a JSON Feed to a directory, for hosting anywhere.

sponge publish --dry-run
sponge publish --output /absolute/site --title "My reads" --base-url https://reads.example.com/

Taking things down

sponge unpublish ITEM, Revoke on a link, or setting an item private removes its public file on the next sync. Public pages are cached for up to a minute. Sponge cannot recall a copy that someone already fetched or that another service indexed from a link you posted.