You own it
Your look lives on your account, not locked inside an app. Change it, share it, or point at someone else’s — it travels with you.
standard.mode.place
Publish your look once, and carry it with you across every app in the ATmosphere.
Every app has its own look, and today that look is trapped inside it — your dark-mode preference, a brand’s seasonal colors, none of it comes with you. This standard — built on the Mise en Mode approach — makes a look something you own: describe it once, save it to your own account, and any app that speaks the standard can render your content your way.
Why it’s different
Section titled “Why it’s different”Described by intent
You name what a value is for — a primary action, body text — not a raw color or size. Naming the job is what lets one look fit every app.
Any app can honor it
A shared vocabulary means your one description renders the same way everywhere it’s supported. Nothing to re-build per app.
Looks compose cleanly
When several looks meet on a page — yours, an author’s, an app’s — they resolve by whose is whose, aspect by aspect. No muddy blends.
Find your way
Section titled “Find your way”What is a mode?The whole idea, in plain language — start here.
See it runningThe Mode Contract, live in your browser — toggle a viewer's look and watch it win.
The Mode ContractThe precise rules for resolving and rendering a look.
Publish a themeSave a look to your account for any app to honor.
Render themes in your appIngest people's looks and render content their way.
Schema referenceEvery record and field, in full.
Common expressionsExamples of the concepts a look can serve, and how to name your own.
FAQShort answers to the questions people ask first.
standard.mode.place is an open standard, built on the AT Protocol — the network Bluesky is built on. It’s developed in the open, and everything needed to adopt it — the schemas, this specification, the reference workflows — is on the network itself. The approach it’s based on, Mise en Mode — dressing a page in nested expressions — is set out in the book, available here.