It's not so much that we expect the developers of Lemmy apps to retool. The hope is that, if we can provide a sensible, well-documented API, then it will appeal to front-end developers looking for a project. Also, if there are any devs of Lemmy mobile apps who are unhappy with Lemmy's API for any reason, then getting involved with PieFed's whilst it's still in development, offers them a chance to shape one to their desires.

Speaking of Thunder though - I've been able to compile it for desktop, and get it working with PieFed's API in the state it's in now. I've no experience with Flutter / Dart or front-end development, so it suggests that - for open source Lemmy apps, at least - it doesn't need to be the original author who ports it, and that the actual details a particular API are only a relatively small part of creating a good mobile app.

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I'm guessing you had to make some changes? I get a url error when putting in piefed.social but the logo appears.

[–] andrew_s@piefed.social 3 points 21 hours ago

Oh yeah, sorry. I didn't mention that the API isn't available on production sites like piefed.social. I've been messing around with a build of Thunder on my dev instance, and - among other things - the app doesn't uses the same V3 endpoint that Lemmy does, so it'd always need to be a different version than the one that's currently available for Lemmy.