A federated comments section lets a reader reply from Mastodon or another ActivityPub service while your site remains the canonical source of the article.

Comments Endpoint

The comments endpoint returns approved replies and aggregated reactions for a content target.

GET /api/ap/comments?target_type=inform&target_id=docs_node_introduction
Accept: application/json

{
  "comments": [
    {
      "id": "cmt_01",
      "author_name": "Aoife Devlin",
      "actor_handle": "@aoife@mastodon.ie",
      "avatar_url": "https://mastodon.ie/media/avatars/aoife.jpg",
      "profile_url": "https://mastodon.ie/@aoife",
      "note_uri": "https://mastodon.ie/@aoife/113000001",
      "content": "<p>This doc finally made the publishing flow click for me.</p>",
      "published_at": "2026-04-07T08:30:00.000Z",
      "parent_id": null
    }
  ],
  "reactions": {
    "likes": 8,
    "boosts": 3,
    "total": 11
  },
  "pagination": {
    "page": 1,
    "per_page": 50,
    "total": 1,
    "pages": 1
  }
}

Rendered Thread Example

When To Use It

• Developer docs where readers often ask clarifying questions in public
• Community guides where distributed discussion is part of the value
• Announcement posts where the conversation should live near the canonical URL