---
title: "Sblurp API: events"
description: "The Sblurp live event stream: Subscribe, sequence numbers, replay and resync, heartbeats, every event kind, who receives it, and unread counts."
nav: "Events"
doc_version: 1
last_updated: 2026-10-16
---

# Events

`ServerService.Subscribe` streams events to a client. One stream carries everything for one member. Clients act with unary calls; the stream only receives.

## Sequence numbers

Every saved event has a server-wide `seq` that only goes up. The client keeps the last seq it applied.

1. Call `GetState`. Its `seq` is the snapshot point.
2. Call `Subscribe` with `afterSeq` set to it.
3. The server first replays every event after that seq that you may see, then streams live ones.
4. After a disconnect, subscribe again with the last seq you applied. Nothing is missed.

Typing, presence and heartbeat events are not saved. Their `seq` is 0.

## Heartbeats

The server sends a `heartbeat` at once, so the response starts without delay, and then every 25 seconds. It keeps proxies from closing the stream.

## Resync

The server keeps the newest 10,000 events, and anything newer than 7 days. If you ask for a seq it no longer has, or a seq from the future, the first event that is not a heartbeat is `resync`. Call `GetState` and continue from its seq. The stream stays open.

## Falling behind

A subscriber more than 512 events behind is dropped with `resource_exhausted`. Reconnect with the last seq.

## Who gets what

Each event is stored with who may see it, and replay uses the same rule as live delivery:

- **Public**: every member. For example, `member_joined`.
- **One channel's members**: message events, and channel events for that channel. A member never receives traffic for a channel they cannot see.
- **One member**: `read_state`, and `channel_created` when they are added to a channel.

## Event kinds

Each `Event` has `seq`, `at_ms` and exactly one of these:

| Kind | Carries | When |
|---|---|---|
| `message_created` | Message | A new message or thread reply. |
| `message_updated` | Message | An edit, a reaction, or a new reply count on a thread root. |
| `message_deleted` | Message | A message was deleted. |
| `channel_created` | Channel | A channel you can now see. Add it. |
| `channel_updated` | Channel | A channel changed. Treat it as an upsert. |
| `channel_deleted` | channel id | A channel is gone for you. Drop it. |
| `member_joined` | Member | Someone joined. |
| `member_updated` | Member | Profile, permission or roles changed. |
| `member_left` | member id | Someone left, was kicked or was banned. |
| `read_state` | ReadState | Your read state changed, for example on another device. |
| `typing` | TypingEvent | Someone is typing. Not saved. |
| `presence` | PresenceEvent | Someone came online, went away or went offline. Not saved. |
| `heartbeat` | true | Every 25 seconds. Not saved. |
| `resync` | true | Call `GetState` again. |
| `role_updated` | Role | A role was made or changed. |
| `role_deleted` | role id | Drop it from members and channels. |
| `channel_mode_changed` | ChannelMode | The community switched between roles and opt-in mode. |
| `server_updated` | true | Description, banner or icon changed. Call `GetServerInfo`. |
| `emoji_changed` | true | Custom emoji were added or deleted. Fetch `GET /emoji` again. |

When a change hides a channel from a member, they get `channel_deleted`. When a change lets them in, they get `channel_created`. Members who still see it get `channel_updated`.

## Unread counts

- Unread counts start when a member joined, so old history is not unread.
- `unread_count` counts top-level messages by others, not thread replies.
- `mention_count` counts `<@member_id>` mentions in any message, thread replies too, and every message in a DM.
- To tell if a message is new, compare its `created_seq` with `last_read_seq`. Do not use `seq`, which edits, reactions and replies bump.
- `MarkRead` with `seq` 0 marks everything read. It sends `read_state` to all of that member's streams.

Tools and agents can read every call and type from [schema.json](/docs/api/schema.json).

## Sitemap

- [Sblurp: chat for communities](https://sblurp.chat/index.md): Sblurp is group chat with channels, threads and roles. Each community runs on its own server, and one Sblurp account signs you in to all of them.
- [About Sblurp](https://sblurp.chat/about.md): Why Sblurp exists: chat for communities that each run their own server, with no ads, no unasked-for AI and an honest word on encryption.
- [Privacy at Sblurp](https://sblurp.chat/privacy.md): What sblurp.chat stores about you, what it never stores, what it shares with communities you join, and how to get a copy or delete it.
- [Terms of use](https://sblurp.chat/terms.md): The terms for a sblurp.chat account: who can sign up, what you must not do, and what we do and do not promise. A first draft.
- [Create your Sblurp account](https://sblurp.chat/signup.md): Create a Sblurp account: one account for every Sblurp community you join. You need an email, a username, a password and to be 13 or older.
- [Sign in to Sblurp](https://sblurp.chat/login.md): Sign in to your Sblurp account with your email or username and password, or with a passkey. One account works in every Sblurp community.
- [Reset your password](https://sblurp.chat/forgot.md): Forgot your Sblurp password? Type the email you signed up with and we send a link to choose a new one. The link works once, for one hour.
- [Sblurp docs](https://sblurp.chat/docs.md): Sblurp documentation: how accounts and communities work, how to run a community server, how to add bots, and the full API reference.
- [Accounts and communities](https://sblurp.chat/docs/accounts.md): How a Sblurp account relates to the communities you join: what sblurp.chat keeps, what each community server sees, and what stays private.
- [Join a community](https://sblurp.chat/docs/join.md): Join a Sblurp community: add it by address or invite link, answer its questions, choose what to share, and join.
- [Sblurp glossary](https://sblurp.chat/docs/glossary.md): The words the Sblurp docs use, from account and community to issuer, track, bot token and seq, each with a link to the page that explains it.
- [Run a Sblurp community](https://sblurp.chat/docs/self-host.md): Run a Sblurp community on your own server: one small program and one data folder. What you need, how to start it, and what it stores.
- [Run a server](https://sblurp.chat/docs/create.md): For developers: start your own Sblurp community. Run the open-source server, join it first to become the owner, then set it up and invite people.
- [Set up a server with AI](https://sblurp.chat/docs/ai.md): Not a developer? Ask an AI assistant such as Claude to set up your Sblurp community server.
- [Sblurp server sizes and costs](https://sblurp.chat/docs/hosting.md): Which server size to rent for a Sblurp community and what it costs each month: measured limits per size and prices at Fly.io, DigitalOcean, Hetzner, OVHcloud and AWS Lightsail.
- [Run Sblurp on Render](https://sblurp.chat/docs/render.md): Run a Sblurp community server on Render: one Starter web service with a persistent disk, the released image, and optional backups to Cloudflare R2.
- [Run Sblurp on Railway](https://sblurp.chat/docs/railway.md): Run a Sblurp community server on Railway: one service from the released image, a volume for /data, and optional backups to Cloudflare R2.
- [Run Sblurp on Fly.io](https://sblurp.chat/docs/fly.md): Run a Sblurp community server on Fly.io: one always-on machine with a volume, h2c streaming, and optional backups to Cloudflare R2.
- [Run Sblurp on any VPS](https://sblurp.chat/docs/vps.md): Run a Sblurp community server on a small virtual server from Hetzner, OVHcloud, Akamai Linode, Vultr, DigitalOcean or any other host, with Docker Compose.
- [Run Sblurp with Docker and Compose](https://sblurp.chat/docs/docker.md): Run a Sblurp community server with Docker Compose and Caddy: the files, the settings, where the data lives, and how to run it behind your own proxy.
- [Run Sblurp with Podman](https://sblurp.chat/docs/podman.md): Run a Sblurp community server with a Podman Quadlet file, with daily automatic updates that roll back when a new image does not start.
- [Sblurp server configuration](https://sblurp.chat/docs/configuration.md): Every flag and environment variable of the Sblurp community server, with defaults, plus the backup variables of the container image and the built-in limits.
- [TLS and reverse proxies for Sblurp](https://sblurp.chat/docs/proxies.md): Put Caddy, nginx or Cloudflare in front of a Sblurp community server without breaking live streams: h2c, no buffering, no compression.
- [Back up a Sblurp server](https://sblurp.chat/docs/backups.md): Back up a Sblurp community server: Litestream copies the database to Cloudflare R2 within 10 seconds, an encrypted backup tool copies the files, or make a plain copy. How to restore.
- [Update a Sblurp server](https://sblurp.chat/docs/updates.md): Release tracks for the Sblurp server image, the daily update check, manual and automatic updates, and how to roll back.
- [Verify a Sblurp release](https://sblurp.chat/docs/provenance.md): Check that a Sblurp server image was built by the public release workflow, with GitHub attestations or cosign.
- [Troubleshooting a Sblurp server](https://sblurp.chat/docs/troubleshooting.md): Fix common problems with a Sblurp community server: sign-in fails, messages arrive late, certificates, file links, and where the logs are.
- [Invites in Sblurp](https://sblurp.chat/docs/invites.md): Make a Sblurp community invite only, create invite links with an expiry and a use limit, and revoke them.
- [Moderation and roles in Sblurp](https://sblurp.chat/docs/moderation.md): Permissions in a Sblurp community (owner, admin, moderator, member), custom roles that limit channels, channel modes, kicks and bans.
- [Safety in Sblurp](https://sblurp.chat/docs/safety.md): Who can read your messages, how to protect your account, what to do about unwanted messages, how to report a message, what moderators can do, age rules, and how to reach sblurp.chat.
- [Your data in Sblurp](https://sblurp.chat/docs/data.md): What sblurp.chat stores about your account, what a community server stores, who controls each, how long data is kept, backups, export and deletion.
- [Sblurp bots](https://sblurp.chat/docs/bots.md): Two ways to add a bot to a Sblurp community: a JavaScript plugin on the server, or a program anywhere that uses the API with a bot token.
- [Sblurp bot tokens](https://sblurp.chat/docs/bot-tokens.md): Make a Sblurp bot with a token, run the example bot, and call the API from any language: subscribe to events and reply to mentions.
- [Connect an AI agent to Sblurp](https://sblurp.chat/docs/agents.md): How to connect a self-hosted AI agent, such as OpenClaw, NanoClaw or Hermes Agent, to a Sblurp community with a bot token. No built-in connector exists yet.
- [Use Sblurp from Claude Code and other MCP clients](https://sblurp.chat/docs/mcp.md): Add a Sblurp community to Claude Code, Claude Desktop, VS Code or another MCP client by URL, sign in with your sblurp.chat account, and let the agent read and post as you.
- [Sblurp plugins](https://sblurp.chat/docs/plugins.md): Write a Sblurp bot as one JavaScript file and install it in the app, with the API or in the plugins folder: hooks for joins, messages, slash commands and timers, replies, limits and the dice example.
- [Sblurp API: protocol and transport](https://sblurp.chat/docs/api.md): How clients and bots talk to a Sblurp community server: Connect RPC over HTTP, the proto contract, JSON and binary bodies, auth, streaming and versioning.
- [Sblurp API explorer](https://sblurp.chat/docs/api/explorer.md): Browse and try every call of the Sblurp community server API in your browser, from the OpenAPI 3.1 description in openapi.json.
- [Sblurp API: sign-in and tokens](https://sblurp.chat/docs/api/auth.md): How sign-in works across Sblurp: OAuth 2.0 with PKCE at sblurp.chat, per-server access tokens, JWT claims, refresh token rotation, JWKS, and bot tokens.
- [Sblurp API: events](https://sblurp.chat/docs/api/events.md): The Sblurp live event stream: Subscribe, sequence numbers, replay and resync, heartbeats, every event kind, who receives it, and unread counts.
- [Sblurp API: uploads and files](https://sblurp.chat/docs/api/files.md): The plain HTTP endpoints of a Sblurp community server: uploads, signed file URLs, custom emoji, invite links and the health check.
- [Sblurp API: errors and rate limits](https://sblurp.chat/docs/api/errors.md): Error codes the Sblurp community server returns, what each one means for a client, and the rate limits for people and bots.
- [ServerService API reference](https://sblurp.chat/docs/api/server-service.md): Every ServerService call of the Sblurp community server: what it does, who may call it, and its request and response fields.
- [ChatService API reference](https://sblurp.chat/docs/api/chat-service.md): Every ChatService call of the Sblurp community server: what it does, who may call it, and its request and response fields.
- [BotService API reference](https://sblurp.chat/docs/api/bot-service.md): Every BotService call of the Sblurp community server: what it does, who may call it, and its request and response fields.
- [API types](https://sblurp.chat/docs/api/types.md): The messages and enums the Sblurp community server API shares between calls, with every field.
