Relationship Management

How following and connection relationships are established and managed across federated instances.

Following

When Alice follows Bob:

Algorithm: Follow User

Input: follower_id_tag, target_id_tag
Output: Result<()>

1. Create FLLW action token:
   - issuer: follower's id_tag
   - subject: target's id_tag
   - action type: "FLLW"
   - Sign with follower's private key (ES384)

2. Store action locally:
   - Record in metadata adapter
   - Marks that follower follows target

3. Send to target instance:
   - POST https://cl-o.{target_id_tag}/api/inbox
   - Include signed action token

4. Return success

Connection Establishment

Connections require mutual agreement:

Alice sends CONN to Bob
  ↓
Bob receives, stores CONN
  ↓
Bob sends CONN to Alice
  ↓
Alice receives, detects mutual CONN
  ↓
Connection established (both sides)

Connection vs Following

Aspect	Following	Connection
Direction	One-way	Bidirectional
Consent	None required	Mutual agreement
Trust level	Low	High (auto-approval)
Use case	Content subscription	Direct messaging, trusted sharing

Unfollowing

Unfollowing creates a new action that supersedes the previous follow:

Algorithm: Unfollow User

Input: follower_id_tag, target_id_tag
Output: Result<()>

1. Create FLLW action token with removed=true:
   - issuer: follower's id_tag
   - subject: target's id_tag
   - action type: "FLLW"
   - removed: true (indicates unfollow)
   - Sign with follower's private key (ES384)

2. Store action locally:
   - New FLLW action with removed=true
   - Supersedes previous FLLW action
   - Marks unfollow event

3. Send to target instance:
   - POST https://cl-o.{target_id_tag}/api/inbox
   - Include signed action token

4. Return success

The removed=true flag indicates this action cancels the previous follow.

Disconnecting

Similar to unfollowing, disconnection uses the removed=true flag:

Algorithm: Disconnect

Input: user_id_tag, target_id_tag
Output: Result<()>

1. Create CONN action token with removed=true
2. Store locally (marks disconnection)
3. Send to target instance
4. Target removes connection status