Add Mastodon Author Attribution to Your Articles

Mastodon 4.3 added author attribution for links. When a compatible instance reads an article, it can show the author’s name and Mastodon profile alongside the link preview.

The setup has two sides: the page names the author, and the Mastodon account allows the website to make that claim.

Add the meta tag

Put a fediverse:creator tag in the article’s <head>:

<meta name="fediverse:creator" content="@yourusername@mastodon.social">

Replace the value with the author’s full Mastodon handle, including both @ characters. On a site with several authors, generate the value from each article’s author data rather than placing one global account on every page.

Allow the website in Mastodon

In the Mastodon account settings, open the public profile verification area and find Author attribution. Add the domain that publishes the articles.

Both steps matter. A meta tag alone would let any site claim any author, so the profile setting acts as the other half of the connection.

Test with a fresh URL

Share a newly published article and inspect its link preview. An older URL may already be cached by the Mastodon instance, which can make a correct change look broken.

The exact setting names may move in later Mastodon versions, and individual instances can update at different times. Still, the underlying setup is small: one meta tag on the page and one approved domain in the author’s account.

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