How to Connect Mastodon

How Mastodon Connection Works

Mastodon is decentralized: every account lives on an instance (a server like mastodon.social or fosstodon.org). Your instance is the part after the @ in your full handle — for @[email protected], the instance is mastodon.social.

SocialCal works with any Mastodon instance. You authorize the connection on your own instance via OAuth — your password is never shared with SocialCal.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Go to Settings in your SocialCal dashboard
2. Click on the Social Accounts tab
3. Find Mastodon and click Connect
4. Enter your instance domain (e.g., mastodon.social) — just the domain, no @ or https://
5. You'll be redirected to your instance — log in there if needed and click Authorize
6. You're redirected back to SocialCal with your account connected

You can connect multiple Mastodon accounts, including accounts on different instances.

Posting to Mastodon

• Character limit: 500 characters per post (the Mastodon default)
• Images: Supported (up to 4 per post)
• Video: Supported (one video per post; SocialCal waits for your instance's processing automatically)
• Visibility: Posts publish as public
• Hashtags: The primary discovery mechanism on the Fediverse — 2-3 relevant tags travel far

Troubleshooting

"Doesn't look like a valid Mastodon instance domain"

• Enter just the domain (e.g., mastodon.social), without @, https://, or your username
• If you pasted your full handle ([email protected]), SocialCal extracts the instance automatically — but check for typos

Authorization fails or you're sent back with an error

• Try the Connect flow again — authorization links expire if left open too long
• Make sure you're logged into the right account on your instance before clicking Authorize

Your instance is unreachable

• Smaller instances occasionally go down for maintenance; posts scheduled during downtime are retried automatically