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Clarify that clients must avoid producing ambiguous matrix.to URIs #2396

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Clarify that clients must avoid producing ambiguous matrix.to URIs #2396

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Clarify that clients must avoid producing ambiguous matrix.to URIs
HarHarLinks Jun 10, 2026
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Create 2396.clarification
HarHarLinks Jun 15, 2026
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Merge branch 'main' into patch-10
HarHarLinks Jun 23, 2026
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1 change: 1 addition & 0 deletions changelogs/appendices/newsfragments/2396.clarification
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Clarify that clients must avoid producing ambiguous matrix.to URIs. Contributed by @HarHarLinks.
11 changes: 6 additions & 5 deletions content/appendices.md
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Expand Up @@ -887,20 +887,21 @@ https://matrix.to/#/<identifier>/<extra parameter>?<additional arguments>

The identifier may be a room ID, room alias, or user ID. The
extra parameter is only used in the case of permalinks where an event ID
is referenced. The matrix.to URI, when referenced, must always start
is referenced. The matrix.to URI, when referenced, MUST always start
with `https://matrix.to/#/` followed by the identifier.

The `<additional arguments>` and the preceding question mark are
optional and only apply in certain circumstances, documented below.
OPTIONAL and only apply in certain circumstances, documented below.

Clients should not rely on matrix.to URIs falling back to a web server
if accessed and instead should perform some sort of action within the
Clients SHOULD NOT rely on matrix.to URIs falling back to a web server
if accessed and instead SHOULD perform some sort of action within the
client. For example, if the user were to click on a matrix.to URI for a
room alias, the client may open a view for the user to participate in
room alias, the client MAY open a view for the user to participate in
the room.

The components of the matrix.to URI (`<identifier>` and
`<extra parameter>`) MUST be percent-encoded as per RFC 3986.
Clients MUST NOT produce incorrectly encoded URIs to avoid ambiguous interpretation.

@anoadragon453 anoadragon453 Jun 23, 2026

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Suggested change
Clients MUST NOT produce incorrectly encoded URIs to avoid ambiguous interpretation.
Clients MUST NOT produce incorrectly encoded URIs to avoid ambiguous
interpretation.

@anoadragon453 anoadragon453 Jun 23, 2026

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What point is this making other than making the previous statement harder to skim over? Assuming that "incorrectly encoded" means "not percent-encoded".

@HarHarLinks HarHarLinks Jun 24, 2026

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historically, major implementations have ignored this:

@HarHarLinks HarHarLinks Jun 30, 2026

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"incorrectly encoded" means "not encoded according to spec" 🤷


Examples of matrix.to URIs are:

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