Version 1.8.1

Betula 1.8.1 is the eleventh release of Betula. It was released on 2026-07-04, two days before a month after v1.8.0.

• Git ref + Executable files for all OS
• bouncepaw/betula:v1.8.1 (Docker Hub)
• Mastodon announcement

See the installation guide.

Changes

• Generally speaking, this release introduces no new features. We opted to polish older features this time.

• Incoming bookmarks with text/plain descriptions are supported now. This improves compatibility with Ties, Omnom, Postmarks.

• Profiles from non-Betula servers with their rich HTML descriptions are now properly rendered. Betula now federates HTML descriptions of profiles too. The HTML sanitization algorithm is inspired by Mastodon's one.

• In some views (all bookmarks, profile view), there's a <link> to the Activity Streams Actor object.

• Some bugs were fixed, including:

  • Logging settings being forgotten on startup

  • HTTP Signatures implementation, that was inherited from Honk, now accepts expires and created fields. This improves compatibility with servers using Lemmy's library, including Ties.

• Some internal database requests were optimized, our big refactoring of how database connection is structured is also finally done.

• Internally, on Codeberg, we moved from Forgejo Actions to Woodpecker. This might seem like a step backward, but the whole setup has become much faster and more reliable.

• Some views were redesigned, including the following:

  • The local profile view now looks better and features both RSS links:

    

    This page is also linked as Follow in the right sidebar for visitors.

  • Bookmarklet and Sessions are now found in Settings:

    

    

  • Followers and Following are redesigned and have (un-)follow buttons:

    

    

Social bookmarking standardization

We propose FEP-4772: Representing bookmarks. The document describes how bookmarks should be federated.

We also contributed patches to all other maintained federated bookmark managers out there. That is, Ties, Omnom, Postmarks. You will be able to fully follow these bookmark managers starting their next versions and with Betula v1.8.1.

The future of social bookmarking is federated.

Funding

This release was funded through Open Social Fund, a fund established by NLnet. Learn more at the NLnet project page.

Developers

• bouncepaw worked on the FEP, contributed to other projects, worked on the redesigns, on remote profile descriptions, on database communication refactoring. Follow @bouncepaw@links.bouncepaw.com.

• danilax86 worked on the CI, remote profile descriptions, and optimized a database operation. Follow @danila@links.danilax86.space.

• hugmouse fixed the logs bug and improved the way notifications are rendered.

Thank you. Join us for the next release!