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Connect Lemmy to Fondoo

Live4 min readUpdated

Connecting Lemmy lets your business submit posts to one Lemmy community, the way you would post to a forum or subreddit. Your AI agent can help draft posts and check them against the community's rules, but every post needs your approval. Fondoo posts through its Upload-Post account using a Lemmy account you provide.

What Fondoo can do with it

  • Submit posts to one community: a text post, or a post with one image (8 MB or less). Each post needs a title of 3 to 200 characters and can have a body of up to 10,000 characters.
  • Check community rules: for every post you supply the community's current rules text. Fondoo scans it and flags self-promotion days, self-promotion bans, required flair and bans on AI-written content. If the rules ban AI content and the draft is marked as AI-assisted, Fondoo refuses to post it.
  • Avoid copy-paste spam: Fondoo blocks near-identical text across different accounts on the same network.
  • Draft and schedule: draft_social_posts (one AI post unit per idea), save_social_draft, schedule_social_posts. Web links become Fondoo tracked links.
  • Plan: get_social_calendar, get_post, get_publishing_capacity.

What it does not do:

  • No stats: Upload-Post does not offer Lemmy analytics.
  • No deleting after posting. Delete the post on Lemmy if needed.
  • It does not read comments or reply.

What needs your approval:

  • Every Lemmy post needs the owner's approval, even if you set Lemmy to automatic in your posting rules. This is fixed in Fondoo because community posts carry a high risk of breaking rules.
  • Only the owner can add the account (configure_upload_post_platform) and change posting rules (update_distribution_rules).

Before you start

  • Pick an instance and a community. Lemmy is made of many independent servers (instances). Each has its own rules, and each community has extra rules in its sidebar (Lemmy getting started). Read both before posting.
  • Use a dedicated account. Fondoo needs the account's username and password, so create a separate Lemmy account for your business rather than using a personal one. Some instances require email confirmation or an admin review before the account works.
  • Two-factor authentication: Upload-Post signs in with username and password only. If the account has two-factor sign-in turned on, the connection may fail. Upload-Post does not document this, so it may differ for your account.
  • Self-promotion: many communities limit promotional posts. Check the rules and post only where your content fits.
  • Cost: Lemmy is free. Posting is part of your Fondoo plan. Your plan sets how many social sets you can have (Builder and Launch: one, Growth: three, Agency: ten), with one Lemmy community per social set.

Step by step: get your credentials

You need four values: instance URL, username, password and community.

  1. Choose an instance (see join-lemmy.org/instances) and click Sign Up at the top right. Create the business account and confirm the email if asked.
  2. Write down the instance URL, for example https://lemmy.world.
  3. Write down the username and password. Use a strong, unique password from your password manager.
  4. If the instance lets you mark an account as a bot in your profile settings, consider doing so; some communities require it for automated posting.
  5. Find the community. Its name is the part after /c/ in its address. For https://lemmy.world/c/technology the community is technology (the example Upload-Post uses). Communities hosted on other instances may need a different form; this may differ for your account.
  6. Copy the community's current rules from its sidebar. You will paste them into each post as rulesText.

These go into instance_url, username, password and community. An optional name sets the label shown in Fondoo.

Connect it in Fondoo

(a) In the dashboard

The Connections page does not have a Lemmy tile yet. Start with your agent or the REST API below. Once connected, the account appears under Connected.

(b) By asking your agent

Set up Lemmy for the main site. Create the social connection and give me its connectionId so I can add the login myself.

Your agent runs:

connect_service({provider:"lemmy", siteId:"YOUR-SITE-UUID"})   // signed 15-minute instructions link
connect_social({siteId:"YOUR-SITE-UUID", provider:"upload_post", network:"lemmy",
                redirectUrl:"https://your-site.example/connected"})
  -> { connectionId, url }

Then you, the owner, add the login. Never paste a password into an agent chat. Use the REST API with your owner credentials:

curl -X POST https://api.getfondoo.com/v1/ops/configure_upload_post_platform \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FONDOO_OWNER_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"siteId":"YOUR-SITE-UUID","connectionId":"CONNECTION-UUID","network":"lemmy","credential":{"instance_url":"https://lemmy.world","username":"acme_team","password":"YOUR-PASSWORD","community":"technology","name":"Lemmy c/technology"}}'

Then run refresh_social_accounts({siteId, connectionId}). Lemmy does not use add_connection_key or test_connection; refresh_social_accounts is the check.

Turn Lemmy on. The owner adds Lemmy to the posting rules with update_distribution_rules. Defaults: one post per day, 09:00 to 17:00 UTC, text only. Add image to formats for image posts.

Each post needs two extra details: lemmy_title (3 to 200 characters) and rulesText (the community rules you copied). Mark AI-written drafts with aiAssisted: true so the rule check is accurate.

Test that it works

  1. list_social_accounts should show the Lemmy connection.
  2. Save a draft with save_social_draft, including details:{lemmy_title:"...", rulesText:"..."}. Read any flags Fondoo returns.
  3. Schedule it and approve it. When due, check get_post for published, then view the post in the community.

Troubleshooting

  • "lemmy requires lemmy_title" or "lemmy: invalid title": add a title of 3 to 200 characters to the post details.
  • "Supply current community rules for each post": add rulesText to the post details.
  • "Community rules prohibit AI-assisted content": the rules ban AI content and the draft is marked AI-assisted. Write it yourself or choose another community.
  • "lemmy: media limit exceeded": Lemmy takes one image, 8 MB or less.
  • Login fails: wrong password, unconfirmed email, account still awaiting admin approval, or two-factor sign-in. Fix it on the instance and send the credentials again.
  • "Invalid platform credentials": all four fields are required: instance_url, username, password, community.

Limits, data and security

  • Limits: 200-character titles, 10,000-character bodies, one image. Fondoo sets no daily cap for Lemmy; your cadence setting controls volume. Instances may rate-limit new accounts.
  • Retries: five automatic attempts, then an alert.
  • What Fondoo stores: the connection's name and ID, your posts, rule flags, schedules and results. Fondoo passes the login to Upload-Post, which validates it and stores it encrypted. Fondoo does not keep a copy and never returns it.
  • Rotate or disconnect: change the account's password on the Lemmy instance. Upload-Post can then no longer sign in. To keep posting, send the new password with the same call. Then run refresh_social_accounts. Cancel pending posts with cancel_post first.