Nostr Relay

JSS includes a built-in Nostr relay, enabling your Solid pod to participate in the Nostr network. Clients can connect via WebSocket to publish and subscribe to events.

Quick Start

jss start --nostr

Connect any Nostr client to ws://localhost:3000/relay.

Configuration

Flag	Description	Default
--nostr	Enable Nostr relay	Off
--nostr-path <path>	WebSocket endpoint path	/relay
--nostr-max-events <n>	Max events in memory	1000
--ap-nostr-pubkey <hex>	Link Nostr identity to ActivityPub actor	None

Supported NIPs

NIP	Name	Description
NIP-01	Basic Protocol	EVENT, REQ, CLOSE, EOSE messages
NIP-11	Relay Information	Metadata at /relay/info
NIP-16	Event Treatment	Replaceable, ephemeral, parameterized replaceable kinds
NIP-98	HTTP Auth	Schnorr signature-based HTTP authentication

Event Kinds

The relay handles events differently based on their kind number:

Kind Range	Type	Behavior
0, 3	Replaceable	Stored; newer replaces older for same pubkey
10000–19999	Replaceable	Same as above
20000–29999	Ephemeral	Broadcast to subscribers, not stored
30000–39999	Parameterized Replaceable	Replaced by pubkey + kind + d tag
All others	Regular	Stored in FIFO queue

Protocol

EVENT

Publish an event:

["EVENT", {"id": "...", "pubkey": "...", "kind": 1, "content": "Hello from Solid!", "tags": [], "sig": "..."}]

The relay validates the event signature and stores or broadcasts it based on kind.

REQ

Subscribe to events matching filters:

["REQ", "sub-1", {"kinds": [1], "limit": 10}]

Filters support: ids, authors, kinds, since, until, limit, and tag filters (#e, #p, #d, etc.).

CLOSE

Close a subscription:

["CLOSE", "sub-1"]

Relay Information (NIP-11)

GET /relay/info returns:

{
  "name": "JSS Nostr Relay",
  "description": "Nostr relay integrated with JavaScript Solid Server",
  "supported_nips": [1, 11, 16],
  "software": "https://github.com/JavaScriptSolidServer/JavaScriptSolidServer",
  "version": "0.0.1"
}

Rate Limiting

• 60 events per minute per WebSocket connection
• Exceeded limits return an OK message with rate-limited error

NIP-98 HTTP Authentication

Nostr keys can authenticate HTTP requests to your Solid pod using Schnorr signatures:

Authorization: Nostr <base64-encoded-kind-27235-event>

The signed event must include:

• u tag matching the request URL
• method tag matching the HTTP method
• Timestamp within ±60 seconds

This enables Nostr users to read/write Solid resources using their existing keypair.

Browser Login

The built-in identity provider supports "Sign in with Schnorr" using any NIP-07 compatible signer extension (Podkey, nos2x, Alby).

Identity Linking

Nostr → ActivityPub

Link your Nostr pubkey to your ActivityPub actor:

jss start --activitypub --nostr --ap-nostr-pubkey <hex-pubkey>

This adds alsoKnownAs: "did:nostr:<pubkey>" to your actor profile, enabling cross-protocol identity verification.

did:nostr Resolution

JSS resolves did:nostr:<pubkey> identities by:

1. Fetching the DID document
2. Verifying bidirectional linking (WebID ↔ did:nostr)
3. Caching results for 5 minutes

Storage

Events are stored in memory using a FIFO queue. When the maximum is reached (default 1000), the oldest events are discarded. The relay is ephemeral — events do not persist across restarts.