Documentation
How DevRel(ish) Works
DevRel(ish) is an index of tech groups and the gatherings they run — in a room, online, or both — across every part of the industry. What the groups here have in common is a commitment to being welcoming and accessible, for everyone: see the code of conduct. It's built on the open AT Protocol — the decentralized standard behind Bluesky and the wider Atmosphere — so your data is portable, your identity travels with you, and events are visible across compatible apps.
Finding & joining the community
Browse groups and events
Head to devrelish.tech/groups to see all active communities, or devrelish.tech/gatherings to browse upcoming events. You'll also find events from other Atmosphere apps — Smoke Signal, atmo.rsvp, OpenMeet — because they all publish to the same open calendar records. No account needed to browse.
Sign in with any Atmosphere account (optional)
You don't need an account to browse, RSVP, or follow a group — skip this step entirely if you like. If you do sign in, DevRel(ish) uses AT Protocol OAuth, so any account in the Atmosphere works: Bluesky, a community-run server, or a PDS you host yourself. There's no separate password. Your handle and identity come from your own Personal Data Server (PDS), so they're yours regardless of what apps you use.
Join a group on ATProto
On any group's page, signed-in members can click Join on ATProto. This writes a membership record directly to your AT Protocol PDS. Your membership lives in your own account, not ours, and it is readable by any compatible app. DevRel(ish) indexes public records to make discovery work; deleting the record from your PDS removes the public membership.
Follow for email updates
You can also enter your email on any group's page to follow via email. You'll receive a confirmation, and from then on you'll be notified when new gatherings are announced. You can unsubscribe at any time from any notification email.
RSVP to a gathering
When a gathering is announced, RSVP directly on the event page. Signed-in users can RSVP with one click via their ATProto account — this writes an RSVP record to your PDS using the open community.lexicon.calendar.rsvp schema. You can also fill out the traditional form if you prefer not to sign in. Where a gathering sets a capacity, spots are first come, first served — some are open to all. If it's an online gathering, the joining link appears once you've RSVP'd; enter the same email again on that page any time to get it back.
Cancel your RSVP if plans change
No account required to cancel. When you RSVP via the form, the confirmation page shows a personal cancellation link — bookmark it or save it somewhere handy. If you lose it, go back to the event's RSVP page and clickCancel your RSVP in the sidebar. Enter the email you registered with and we'll send the cancellation link to your inbox.
Stay in the loop with RSS
Every group has an RSS feed at /groups/[group-slug]/rss.xml. Add it to your feed reader to get gathering announcements without email or a login.
Launching & managing a group
Register your group
Fill out the group registration form. Provide your group's name, a description (50 characters minimum, Markdown supported), a contact email, and optionally a category, tags, and location. Your group goes live instantly — no approval queue, no waiting.
Sign in with your Atmosphere account
Organizing is the one thing that does require an account. Your AT Protocol handle is your organizer login — use the sign-in page to claim your group and access the dashboard. Any provider works; if you don't have an account yet, the sign-in page points you at a few ways to get one. Your account is linked by your decentralized identifier (DID), so it works even if you change your handle or move to a different PDS.
Publish your group to the ATProto network
From the organizer dashboard, publish your group to AT Protocol. This writes a tech.devrelish.group record to the dedicated account you connected for your group, making it discoverable across the Atmosphere and letting members join from their own accounts. Gatherings you create are also published as open calendar records that compatible apps can index.
Set up your group page
In the My Group section of the dashboard you can edit your description, tagline, category, tags, location, and social links at any time. Your group name is set at registration — contact support if you need it changed.
Add a custom short URL
Choose a custom short URL for your group such as devrelish.tech/sf-user-group. This makes it easier to share at events, on slides, or in email signatures. Short URLs can be changed at any time from My Group.
Announce a gathering
Go to Gatherings in the dashboard and click New gathering. Add a title, description, date, and time, then say whether it's in person, online, or both — a venue, a joining link, or both. Capacity is optional; leave it blank for no limit. Once created, the gathering appears on your public group page and is published as an opencommunity.lexicon.calendar.event record — compatible with Smoke Signal and other ATProto calendar apps.
Bring events you've already made elsewhere
Events you created on Smoke Signal, atmo.rsvp, OpenMeet, or any other Atmosphere calendar app live in your own account, not theirs. Use Bring existing events in the Gatherings dashboard and DevRel(ish) reads them straight from your PDS — or paste a singleat:// URI or Smoke Signal link. Nothing is copied or moved: the original record keeps its address, so edits in the original app keep working. We just add a record saying the event belongs to your group.
Import upcoming events from Meetup
Already running a group on Meetup.com? Use the Import from Meetup option in the Gatherings dashboard to pull in your upcoming events directly. Paste your Meetup group URL and DevRel(ish) will pre-fill the title, description, date, and time — you just confirm the venue and capacity before importing.
Manage attendees
In the dashboard you can view the RSVP list for each gathering and export it as a CSV. The attendee list shows name, email, job title, and company for form-based RSVPs.
Add co-organizers
Share the load by inviting co-organizers via the Team page. Co-organizers sign in with their own Atmosphere account and are added as co-organizers on your group's ATProto record. They have the same dashboard access as the primary organizer.
Respond to messages
Community members can send your group a message through the contact form on your public page. Messages land in your Messages inbox in the dashboard.
Common questions
What is AT Protocol?
AT Protocol (atproto) is an open, decentralized protocol for building social apps. The network of apps built on it is often called the Atmosphere; Bluesky is the best-known of them, but it's one app among many. Your identity is a DID (decentralized identifier) that you control, and your data lives on a Personal Data Server (PDS) that can be self-hosted or provided by a service. DevRel(ish) uses ATProto so that your RSVPs, group memberships, and event records belong to you — not a walled garden.
Do I need an account? Does it have to be Bluesky?
No, and no. Browsing groups, viewing events, RSVPing via the form, cancelling an RSVP, and following a group by email all work with no account at all. The only thing that requires signing in is organizing a group.
And when you do sign in, it doesn't have to be Bluesky. DevRel(ish) accepts any AT Protocol account — Bluesky, a community-run PDS, or one you host yourself. Bluesky is just the most common way to get an account, not a requirement. Signing in also upgrades your RSVP: it gets written to your own PDS, so it's portable and readable by any compatible app.
How does interop with other event apps work?
Smoke Signal, atmo.rsvp, and OpenMeet are other Atmosphere event apps, and they use the same open community.lexicon.calendar.event and community.lexicon.calendar.rsvpschemas DevRel(ish) does. Because everyone writes the same shape of record into the same network, events created here show up there and vice versa — no integration, no API keys, no coordination between the projects. This is the practical benefit of open standards: your events aren't siloed.
Why don't I see every event from the network?
Because that calendar schema belongs to the whole Atmosphere, not to tech. The same record type carries book clubs, yoga classes, sound baths, and community potlucks — all real events, none of them what you came here for. So DevRel(ish) shows the ones that are about technology and leaves the rest to the apps they belong on.
The filter reads the event's title and description and looks for signals — a language, a framework, a community name, a practice. It's deliberately simple so it can be checked and corrected, rather than clever and inscrutable. An event a group here has claimed as its own skips the check entirely; the organizer has already said what it is.
It will occasionally be wrong. If a tech event isn't showing up, or something that clearly isn't one is, tell us and we'll fix the vocabulary. Nothing is deleted either way — a direct link to any event on the network still opens here.
Is DevRel(ish) free for organizers?
Yes, the platform is free for all organizers and community members.
What kinds of groups are accepted?
Any group organized around technology and the people who work in it — web and mobile, data and AI, platform and infrastructure, security, game development, design systems, indie projects, developer relations, and plenty that doesn't fit a category. The subject is open; the standard isn't. Groups are expected to meet thecode of conduct, which is mostly about making a room a stranger can walk into.
Groups organized for a specific community — women in tech, underrepresented practitioners, a local language group — are welcome and encouraged. Say who the group is for on your group page.
There is no manual approval step — groups go live immediately after registration, and can be closed afterwards if they don't meet the code of conduct.
Why "DevRel(ish)" if it's for all of tech?
The name started as a joke about job titles — plenty of people do developer relations work without the title, so: DevRel, ish. The site has since broadened well past that, and the "ish" turned out to carry the wider meaning fine. If you organize a Rust meetup, a design-systems group, or a monthly thing for people who just like building software, you're in the right place.
Can I change my group's name?
Group names are set at registration to preserve recognition and existing links. If you have a compelling reason to rename your group, contact us and we'll discuss options.
What happens to follower emails?
Follower emails are only used to notify followers when your group announces a new gathering. Emails are never shared, sold, or used for any other purpose. Every email includes an unsubscribe link.
Can I close or pause my group?
Yes. If your group is no longer active, contact the DevRel(ish) team and we can mark it as closed. Closed groups remain visible but display a notice that the group is no longer active and stop appearing in the main event listings.
Ready to get started?
Browse existing communities or register your own group today.