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Handles ​

Handles are a way to represent DIDs in a human readable format.

Handles are just internet domains that resolve to DIDs.

Resolution: Handle -> DID ​

There are two methods for resolving a handle to a DID:

You can alternatively use the com.atproto.identity.resolveHandle XRPC method to resolve a handle to a DID, which will use the above methods under the hood.

ts
import {
	CompositeHandleResolver,
	DohJsonHandleResolver,
	WellKnownHandleResolver,
	XrpcHandleResolver,
} from "@atcute/identity-resolver";

const did = await handleResolver.resolve("bsky.app");
// -> "did:plc:z72i7hdynmk6r22z27h6tvur"

DNS TXT Records ​

A DNS lookup is performed under the _atproto subdomain of the handle"s domain.

The TXT record should have the contents did=<DID> where <DID> is the DID that the handle resolves to.

For example, to resolve the handle deniz.blue to a DID, a DNS TXT lookup is performed for the record _atproto.deniz.blue. If the record contains did=did:example:123, then the handle deniz.blue resolves to the DID did:example:123.

HTTPS .well-known Endpoint ​

An HTTP GET request is made to the /.well-known/atproto-did endpoint of the handle"s domain.

Content-Type of the response must be text/plain and the body of the response should be the DID that the handle resolves to.

For example, to resolve the handle deniz.blue to a DID, an HTTP GET request is made to https://deniz.blue/.well-known/atproto-did. If the response body contains did:example:123, then the handle deniz.blue resolves to the DID did:example:123.