The TNS alert system

I will describe the functionalities of the IAU Transient Name Server (TNS) as a portal for public discovery and classification reports of transients. The TNS currently handles about 3000 new transients every month, from all major active surveys as well as from the amateur community, and designates unique IAU-approved names for each. The system naturally associates reports on the same event from different sources, keeping track of internal names reported by different surveys. The TNS has been set up to work with brokers and currently accepts reports from 4 different brokers reporting discoveries based on the ZTF alert stream. I will outline recent developments of the system, including automated astrometric refinement of reported transient locations and support for the FRB community needs. The TNS is set up to handle the expected LSST discovery stream and could be easily expanded to support additional community requirements, as needed.