How your server federates

# Limited federation

Connect only to the domains your server approves.

-   Your allowlist controls both inbound and outbound federation.
-   ActivityPub reads need a valid signature from an allowed domain.
-   You can switch modes without restarting the server.

If the allowlist is empty, ordinary federation is blocked. Peers have to sign their fetches. A Lemmy peer needs federation\_signed\_fetch enabled.

![The Access tab with Limited federation selected, its explanation, a domain field with an Add domain button, and three allowlisted domains.](https://welley.com/assets/media/admin-demo-federation-limited-1200.06a64eb7.webp)

With limited federation, your server exchanges content only with the domains on your allowlist.

![The limited federation form shows its allowlist and the optional purge control. No settings were saved and no content was removed.](https://welley.com/assets/media/admin-demo-federation-allowlist-1200.2789afc8.webp)

The limited federation form shows the allowlist and the optional purge control. Nothing was saved and no content was removed.

[Previous: Open federation](https://welley.com/federation/federation-open/) [Next: Closed federation](https://welley.com/federation/federation-closed/) [Back to How your server federates](https://welley.com/federation/#federation-controls)