Mastodon with Bird UI

This repository provides an automated GitHub Actions workflow to build and publish a custom Docker image of Mastodon with the Bird UI theme pre-installed and configured as the default theme.

🚀 Key Features

• Automated Upstream Checking: A scheduled cron job runs every 6 hours to check for new stable releases of Mastodon.
• Native Multi-Arch Support: Builds both linux/amd64 and linux/arm64 images using native GitHub runner architectures (no QEMU emulation) for maximum build speed.
• Efficient Caching: Uses Docker Buildx with GitHub Actions caching to reuse layers across builds.
• Clean Theme Separation: Properly resolves duplicate "Mastodon" theme options in the UI, separating them into "Mastodon" (default dark) and "Mastodon Bird UI".
• Default Integration: Sets the Bird UI theme as the default theme automatically.

🐳 How to Use

The built multi-arch Docker image is published to the GitHub Container Registry (GHCR).

You can use it in your docker-compose.yml by replacing the official Mastodon image with this custom one:

services:
  web:
    image: ghcr.io/bedrockdigger/mastodon-with-bird-ui:latest
    # ... rest of your configuration

Supported Tags

• latest: Always points to the image built from the latest stable Mastodon release.
• <version> (e.g., v4.3.0): Points to the image built for a specific Mastodon release version.

🛠️ GitHub Actions Workflow Details

The workflow Build Mastodon with Bird UI performs the following steps:

1. Upstream Release Detection: Queries the GitHub API for the latest release of mastodon/mastodon.
2. Pre-build Check: Checks if the target version tag has already been built and exists in GHCR (skips if it does).
3. Integration:
   • Clones mastodon/mastodon at the target version.
   • Clones rollecode/mastodon-bird-ui.
   • Runs the Bird UI installation script with the -d (default) flag.
   • Creates a dedicated YAML locale file (config/locales/zzz-bird-ui.yml) to correctly rename the default Bird UI theme to "Mastodon Bird UI" and keep the original dark theme as "Mastodon".
4. Multi-Arch Compilation:
   • Compiles the amd64 image on ubuntu-24.04.
   • Compiles the arm64 image on ubuntu-24.04-arm.
   • Uploads build digests as artifacts.
5. Manifest Creation: Merges the platform-specific digests into a single multi-arch manifest tag and pushes it to ghcr.io/bedrockdigger/mastodon-with-bird-ui.

Manual Trigger / Overrides

You can manually run the workflow via the Actions tab on GitHub:

• Force rebuild: Force-rebuilds and overwrites the existing tag in GHCR even if it already exists.
• Custom Tag: Specify a specific Mastodon version tag (e.g., v4.2.9) to build that specific version rather than the latest stable one.

📄 License

This repository is licensed under the MIT License. Mastodon and Bird UI are owned and licensed by their respective creators.