Client.get_followers() & Client.get_follows() don't return number of followers/follows reported by profile

[RedactedCode]

This is probably not this SDK's problem, but worth flagging and asking the question I hope.

Trying a simple bit of code like:

from atproto import Client
auth = Client()

auth.login("whatever", "whatEver")

resp = auth.get_followers("some_handle or did:", cursor=None, limit=100)

print(len(resp.followers))

... the number of follower objects returned is almost always fewer than the 100 limit passed (if, of course, the subject has >= 100 followers)

Making this into a loop to get all followers, I've never seen the total number returned the same as the total number given by a profile enquiry, whether via the API or by simply looking at the subject's account in the Bluesky web or app client.

This issue also occurs with get_follows() btw.

I'm presuming that either Bluesky are suppressing some accounts from being returned (maybe part of their bot or other inauthentic activity moderation), or that there's a problem with how they are reporting follower (and follow) counts.

[MarshalX]

Hi, that's definitely not SDK side problem. Maybe some kind filtering/applying of blocked lists, etc etc. You always can dig into the backend server code to find out https://github.com/bluesky-social/atproto

If you need just a count for follows I would suggest to use aggregate view under app.bsky namespace. They count it for you without need to loop over pages. But again, their filters could apply

Something like this:

from atproto import Client

client = Client()
client.login('your-handle.bsky.social', 'your-password')

profile = client.app.bsky.actor.get_profile(
    params={"actor": "your-handle.bsky.social"}
)

print(f"Posts count:     {profile.posts_count}")
print(f"Followers count: {profile.followers_count}")
print(f"Follows count:   {profile.follows_count}")

Docs: https://atproto.blue/en/latest/atproto/atproto_client.models.app.bsky.actor.defs.html#atproto_client.models.app.bsky.actor.defs.ProfileViewDetailed

Also, keep in mind that get_follows uses app.bsky.graph.get_follows. Which is again under bsky.app, and not at PDS level. So you can try to loop over raw data in collections.

Something like this:

from atproto import Client

client = Client()
client.login('your-handle.bsky.social', 'your-password')

def count_records(repo: str, collection: str) -> int:
    count = 0
    cursor = None

    while True:
        response = client.com.atproto.repo.list_records(
            params={
                "repo": repo,
                "collection": collection,
                "limit": 100,  # max per page
                "cursor": cursor,
            }
        )

        count += len(response.records)

        if not response.cursor:
            break

        cursor = response.cursor

    return count

total = count_records("your-handle.bsky.social", "app.bsky.graph.follow")
print(f"Total records: {total}")

The example above uses atproto.com instead