How to use GitHub to be verified on Bluesky

Like many scientists, I joined Buesky since X (former Twitter) is becoming a horrible place. Here you don’t need to pay the platform to be verified, you can use just your website as a handle (see here). But what if you don’t own a domain? If you are a developer and use GitHub you can still use your personal GitHub page as a handle.

How to do this? First of all, you need to set up your own GitHub page by creating a repository with the following structure:

https://github.com/USERNAME/USERNAME.github.io

I added some information about me in the README.md page but you can make a whole website. Then you need to activate the GitHub page by going to “settings” -> “Pages”. Your page will be deployed and available at this address.

https://USERNAME.github.io/

Here is mine as an example.

Now we need to link this website to your Bluesky account. Go to https://bsky.app/settings and go to “Account” -> “Handle”. Click on “I have my own domain” -> “No DNS Panel”. In “Enter the domain you want to use” add the handle you want (USERNAME.github.io). At this point, Bluesky generates a string of code in the field named “That contains the following:”. You need to create a file named as indicated in the field “Upload a text file to:” containing just this string of text.

The file needed to be uploaded to the website in the direction indicated:

https://USERNAME.github.io/.well-known/atproto-did

You can do this directly on the GitHub website. You also need to have this directory visible on the website, so you have to add a file named “_config.yml” to your repository with this content:

include: [".well-known"]

Finally, you can push on “include: [“.well-known”]” on Bluesky and enjoy your new “verified” handle.