Handles

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

Handles are just internet domains that resolve to DIDs.

Where handles defined

Handles are defined in the alsoKnownAs property of a DID Document, like so:

"alsoKnownAs": [
	"at://example.com"
]

Generally, applications will only use the first at:// handle in the alsoKnownAs array as the primary handle for the DID.

Where handles are used

Applications generally use handles as a more user friendly way to refer to DIDs. For example, instead of showing a user"s DID, an application may show the user's handle.

BlueSky also uses handles while mentioning another user in a post. The mention data will still contain the DID of the mentioned user, however, the post's text content will contain the handle of the mentioned user.

Handles to DIDs

See Resolving Handles to DIDs for more information on how just the handles themselves are resolved to DIDs.