Is ClearSky Down? What Happened, and How to See Who Blocked You Now
Yes. ClearSky has been down for about six weeks, and it isn't you. The clearsky.app page still loads, but the API behind it, the part that actually looks up blocks, returns HTTP 503 with the message "This service has been suspended." I checked it on November 9, 2026. ClearSky's own status page shows that API at 0% uptime over the last 30 days, and the monitor StackPulse has logged it as down since September 30, 2026. You can still see who blocked you, though. Bluesky blocks are public records, and a different free index still reads them.
I used ClearSky's API in my own research scripts, so I noticed when every request started coming back with that page. I looked for an official explanation and couldn't find one. Here's what I found instead, plus the replacement I've switched to.
(Disclosure: I make Agent Sky, a Bluesky growth tool. It doesn't check blocks. More on it at the end.)
What Happened to ClearSky? Is It Dead?
Not officially, but ClearSky hasn't said what happened or when it's coming back. This is the timeline from its own accounts and status page:
| Date | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| January 7, 2026 | ClearSky asked for 5,000 supporters at $1/month "to continue basic operations" and said it was working to cut costs | @clearsky.app on Bluesky |
| September 18, 2026 | "We're actively investigating recent performance issues and intermittent access errors" (its most recent post) | @clearsky.app on Bluesky |
| September 30, 2026 | API marked down, still ongoing | StackPulse monitor |
| November 9, 2026 | API returns 503 "This service has been suspended." 0% uptime over 30 days, about 25% over 60 days | My check, plus status.clearsky.app |
The host suspended it. The 503 response carries a x-render-routing: suspend header, which is how Render, ClearSky's hosting provider, marks a service it has suspended. That can follow an owner's action, an unpaid bill or a policy problem, so the header doesn't tell you why. Money is the only public hint: the January appeal, almost nine months earlier, and a May 2025 post ClearSky reposted saying the infrastructure was "paid for out-of-pocket by @thieflord.dev," the developer behind it. The status page lists no incident at all.
So treat ClearSky as unavailable until its account says otherwise. If ClearSky is showing an error, a blank result, or nothing under "blocked by," that's the outage. It doesn't mean nobody blocks you.
How Do I See Who Blocked Me on Bluesky Without ClearSky?
Use pdsls.dev's Backlinks tab. It reads Constellation, a free public index (run by the microcosm project) of records that link to other accounts or records. A block is one of those records, so Constellation can count blocks the way ClearSky did. Here's how:
- Go to pdsls.dev and type your handle into the search box (for example
yourname.bsky.social). No login. - Open your account's Backlinks tab. It lists every collection that links to you, with a count.
- Find
app.bsky.graph.block. That count is the number of accounts blocking you. Open it to see each block record. Each one sits in the blocker's repository, so it tells you who created it. - Check
app.bsky.graph.listitemtoo. Each of those records means you were added to a list. Some are moderation lists that people subscribe to as a block, but many are curation lists and starter packs, so open them before assuming the worst.
It's rawer than ClearSky. You'll see account IDs (did:plc:...) and record keys rather than tidy profile cards, and there's no "top blocked" leaderboard. But you can see who blocked you.
Comfortable with a terminal? You can query Constellation directly. It wants your DID, not your handle, so look that up first:
curl "https://public.api.bsky.app/xrpc/com.atproto.identity.resolveHandle?handle=yourname.bsky.social"
curl -H "Accept: application/json" \
"https://constellation.microcosm.blue/links/count?target=YOUR_DID&collection=app.bsky.graph.block&path=.subject"
Swap /links/count for /links to get the records themselves. One gotcha I hit: pass a handle instead of a DID and it quietly returns {"total":0}, which looks like good news but isn't.
Is Constellation Accurate?
Mostly, yes: 39 of the 40 recent block records I spot-checked still existed. On November 9, 2026, I also pulled block counts for a few big public accounts:
| Account | Followers | Accounts blocking it (Constellation) |
|---|---|---|
| @bsky.app | 35.6 million | 12,264 |
| @nytimes.com | 1.36 million | 21,380 |
| @jay.bsky.team | 594,000 | 9,618 |
| @theonion.com | 1.36 million | 7,519 |
| @aoc.bsky.social | 2.21 million | 6,116 |
| @georgetakei.bsky.social | 1.33 million | 5,457 |
For the spot-check, I took the 40 newest block records against @jay.bsky.team and fetched each one from the blocker's repository. 39 of 40 still existed, so the index isn't full of old, undone blocks. That's a small sample, so don't read it as an accuracy rate. With roughly 1 in 40 stale, treat any count as approximate.
Two things it won't show you:
- Blocks that come from subscribing to a block list. When someone subscribes to a moderation list as a block, their repository stores one record pointing at the list, not at you. You see the list in
listitem, but not each subscriber inblock. (ClearSky did show block-list subscriptions. To get that from Constellation, you'd look up the list itself and count itsapp.bsky.graph.listblockbacklinks.) - Mutes. Mutes are private and stored on Bluesky's servers, not in public records, so nobody outside Bluesky can see them. (Mute vs block covers the difference.)
Can You Stop ClearSky (or Anyone) From Seeing Your Blocks?
No. On Bluesky, blocks are public by design. Bluesky needs a block to work across apps and servers it doesn't control, so each block is written as a public record in the blocker's own repository. Any service reading the network can count them, which is why one index going dark didn't make blocks private. Other indexes, like Constellation, already read the same records.
ClearSky was also never a password risk. When it added a login in November 2025, it used Bluesky's own OAuth screen, so ClearSky never saw your password. If any block checker asks for your actual password, close the tab. When a tool genuinely needs account access, use an app password you can revoke.
For the full walkthrough on blocks, including the signs you can spot inside the app, see who blocked me on Bluesky. Bluesky block lists explains how shared lists spread.
If blocks are piling up and you're growing an account, look at how you follow before you look at who blocked you. Aggressive follow-and-unfollow patterns are one common way accounts end up on shared block lists, and one list can carry thousands of blocks at once. I built Agent Sky to grow an account without that pattern. It follows people in your niche at a pace you set, and checks for a real follow-back before it unfollows anyone. $9 a month, free to start.
Quick FAQ
Is ClearSky down? Yes, the part that matters is. As of November 9, 2026, the clearsky.app page still loads, but the API that does the block lookups answers with HTTP 503 and the text "This service has been suspended." ClearSky's own status page shows the API at 0% uptime for the last 30 days, and the third-party monitor StackPulse has logged it as down since September 30, 2026.
Does ClearSky still work? Not for lookups. The site loads, but searches for who blocked you or which lists you're on depend on the ClearSky API, which has been suspended since about September 30, 2026. ClearSky's last public post, on September 18, said the team was investigating performance issues and intermittent access errors. It hasn't posted an explanation or a return date since.
What is the best ClearSky alternative? pdsls.dev is the easiest free option I've found. Open pdsls.dev, enter your handle, and open the Backlinks tab. Records in the app.bsky.graph.block collection are blocks pointing at your account, and each one names the account that created it. It reads Constellation, a public index of AT Protocol links, so it needs no login.
Is ClearSky safe, and can I block ClearSky from seeing my blocks? ClearSky never saw your password: its login, added in November 2025, went through Bluesky's own OAuth screen, and basic lookups only read public data. You can't opt out of that kind of index. On Bluesky, every block is a public record in the blocker's own repository, so any service that reads the network can count them. That's why tools like pdsls can do the same job while ClearSky is down.