Solution

The Lemmy server appears to have a database limit of 255 characters [2]; however, individual instances appear to put their own limits on username length though the frontend [3] and/or the API [4.1][4.2].

Original Post

If you know, please also provide relevant documentation.

UPDATE (2025-02-02T06:06Z): I did some brute-force testing, and, at least for sh.itjust.works, it seems that the maximum username length is 50, and the maximum password length is 60 [1].

References
  1. “Sign Up”. sh.itjust.works. Lemmy. Accessed: 2025-02-02T08:49Z. https://sh.itjust.works/signup.
    • When creating an account on sh.itjust.works, the sign-up form will throw this error if the provided password is greater than 60 characters in length.
  2. @TootSweet@lemmy.world To: [“[SOLVED] What is the maximum username length for a Lemmy account?”. “Kalcifer” @Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works. “Lemmy Support” !lemmy_support@lemmy.ml. sh.itjust.works. Lemmy. Published: 2025-02-03T00:54:51Z. https://sh.itjust.works/post/32085936.]. Published: 2025-02-02T05:57:26Z. Accessed: 2025-02-03T00:44Z. https://sh.itjust.works/post/32085936/16442382.

    It might be 255 characters? […]

    • They pointed to code on GitHub for the Lemmy server which outlines the length of the username data in the SQL database.
  3. “[SOLVED] What is the maximum username length for a Lemmy account?”. “Kalcifer” @Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works. “Lemmy Support” !lemmy_support@lemmy.ml. sh.itjust.works. Lemmy. Published: 2025-02-03T00:54:51Z. Accessed: 2025-02-03T00:46Z. https://sh.itjust.works/post/32085936.
    • §“Original Post”. ¶2.

      […] I did some brute-force testing, and, at least for sh.itjust.works, it seems that the maximum username length is 50 […]

      • The maximum username length for sh.itjust.works was found to be 50 characters by brute-force testing the length limit.
  4. “Andrew” @andrew_s@piefed.social To [“[SOLVED] What is the maximum username length for a Lemmy account?”. “Kalcifer” @Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works. “Lemmy Support” !lemmy_support@lemmy.ml. sh.itjust.works. Lemmy. Published: 2025-02-03T00:54:51Z. https://sh.itjust.works/post/32085936.] Published: 2025-02-02T19:57:49Z. Accessed: 2025-02-03T00:59Z. https://sh.itjust.works/post/32085936/16453656.

    1. curl -L http://lemmy.world/api/v3/site | jq -r .site_view.local_site.actor_name_max_length (26)

      • The maximum username length for Lemmy.world was found to be 26 characters via an API request.

    2. curl -L http://sh.itjust.works/api/v3/site | jq -r .site_view.local_site.actor_name_max_length (50)

      • The maximum username length for sh.itjust.works was found to be 50 characters via an API request.
  • Kalcifer@sh.itjust.worksOP
    1·
    3 days ago

    […] reaching for it as evidence that I might be confused is such a stretch […]

    I suspect this statement is the source of all of this. When I sent this comment, I wasn’t trying to do some “gotcha”. I thought we were, in a sense, investigating together through documentation to try an find the right answer to the question. From my perspective, you provided an idea of what it could be, and I was trying to work with you to narrow down if that was for sure what we were looking for by providing some documentation that I came across. I wasn’t trying to insult your intelligence, or belittle you or your help. I simply thought we were brainstorming together.