Vernissage Curated

Curated directory of public Vernissage instances.

This repository is intentionally small. It does not contain application code, backend logic, or deployment setup. Its purpose is to maintain a single source of truth for known Vernissage instances that can be shown to users during sign in, sign up, or account switching flows.

What This Repository Contains

• instances.json - curated list of public Vernissage instances
• README.md - contribution and maintenance notes for developers

How This Fits Into Vernissage

This repository sits next to the main Vernissage projects and provides shared instance metadata for clients and websites.

• users or instance maintainers submit changes through pull requests,
• maintainers review and merge updates to instances.json,
• downstream consumers can use the curated list to present known servers to users,
• one example is the iOS app, which can display these instances during the first login flow or when adding another account.

Related repositories:

• VernissageMobile
• VernissageServer
• VernissageWeb
• Project website

Data Format

Each item in instances.json is a JSON object with the following fields:

Field	Required	Description
name	yes	Human-readable instance name, usually the domain name
url	yes	Base URL of the instance
img	yes	Public image URL used as the server thumbnail
category	yes	Short category label, for example General
language	yes	Main language of the instance, for example EN or DE
description	yes	Short user-facing description of the instance

Example entry:

{
  "name": "vernissage.photos",
  "url": "https://vernissage.photos",
  "img": "https://joinvernissage.org/images/servers/84grngkm.png",
  "category": "General",
  "language": "EN",
  "description": "Official Vernissage server, run by the platform's creator."
}

Contribution Guidelines

If you want to add a new instance or update an existing one:

1. Fork the repository.
2. Edit instances.json.
3. Keep the JSON valid and the formatting consistent with existing entries.
4. Open a pull request with a short explanation of the change.

Recommended rules for entries:

• use the canonical public base URL of the instance,
• prefer https for public instances,
• make sure the thumbnail URL is public and stable,
• keep the description short, factual, and useful to end users,
• avoid duplicate entries for the same instance.

Local Validation

Before opening a pull request, validate the JSON locally:

jq . instances.json

If jq is not available, any JSON validator or editor with JSON parsing support is enough.