nak - Nostr Army Knife

Work with the Nostr protocol using the nak CLI tool.

GitHub: https://github.com/fiatjaf/nak

Installation

To install (or upgrade) nak:

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fiatjaf/nak/master/install.sh | sh

Core Concepts

Based on analyzing extensive real-world usage, here are the fundamental concepts distilled down, then branched out:

CONCEPT 1: Query & Discovery

"Finding events and data on Nostr"

Basic:

• Fetch by identifier: "Get event/profile without knowing relays"
  • nak fetch nevent1... (uses embedded relay hints)
  • nak fetch alex@gleasonator.dev (NIP-05 resolution)
• Query by event ID: "I want THIS specific event from a relay"
  • nak req -i <event_id> <relay>
• Query by author: "Show me everything from this person"
  • nak req -a <pubkey> <relay>
• Query by kind: "Show me all profiles/notes/videos"
  • nak req -k <kind> <relay>

Intermediate:

• Fetch addressable events: "Get event by naddr/nprofile"
  • nak fetch naddr1... (kind, author, identifier encoded)
  • nak fetch -r relay.primal.net naddr1... (override relays)
• Filter by multiple criteria: "Find posts by author X of kind Y"
  • nak req -k 1 -a <pubkey> <relay>
• Tag-based queries: "Find events tagged with bitcoin"
  • nak req --tag t=bitcoin <relay>

Advanced:

• Search with ranking: "Find trending/top content"
  • nak req --search "sort:hot" <relay>
  • nak req --search "popular:24h" <relay>
• Live monitoring: "Watch events in real-time"
  • nak req --stream <relay>
• Cross-protocol queries: "Find bridged Bluesky content"
  • nak req --tag "proxy=at://..." <relay>

Use cases: Discovering content, debugging relay data, testing search algorithms, monitoring live feeds

CONCEPT 2: Broadcast & Migration

"Moving/copying events between relays"

Basic:

• Publish a single event: "Put this on relay X"
  • cat event.json | nak event <relay>
• Query and republish: "Copy event from relay A to relay B"
  • nak req -i <id> relay1 | nak event relay2

Intermediate:

• Batch migration: "Copy all events of kind X"
  • nak req -k 30717 source_relay | nak event dest_relay
• Paginated backup: "Download everything from a relay"
  • nak req --paginate source_relay | nak event backup_relay
• Multi-relay broadcast: "Publish to multiple relays at once"
  • cat event.json | nak event relay1 relay2 relay3

Advanced:

• Selective migration: "Copy follow list members' data"
  • Loop through follow list, query each author, republish to new relay
• Filter and migrate: "Copy only tagged/searched content"
  • nak req --tag client=X relay1 | nak event relay2
• Cross-relay synchronization: "Keep two relays in sync"
  • nak sync source_relay dest_relay

Use cases: Seeding new relays, backing up data, migrating content between relays, bridging Mostr/Fediverse content

CONCEPT 3: Identity & Encoding

"Working with Nostr identifiers and keys"

Basic:

• Decode identifiers: "What's inside this npub/nevent?"
  • nak decode npub1...
  • nak decode user@domain.com
• Encode identifiers: "Turn this pubkey into npub"
  • nak encode npub <hex_pubkey>

Intermediate:

• Generate keys: "Create a new identity"
  • nak key generate
  • nak key generate | nak key public | nak encode npub
• Extract hex from NIP-05: "Get the raw pubkey from an address"
  • nak decode user@domain.com | jq -r .pubkey
• Create shareable references: "Make a nevent with relay hints"
  • nak encode nevent <event_id> --relay <relay>

Advanced:

• Complex naddr creation: "Create addressable event reference with metadata"
  • nak encode naddr -k 30717 -a <author> -d <identifier> -r <relay>
• Multi-relay nprofile: "Create profile with multiple relay hints"
  • nak encode nprofile <pubkey> -r relay1 -r relay2 -r relay3

Use cases: Converting between formats, sharing references with relay hints, managing multiple identities, extracting pubkeys for scripting

CONCEPT 4: Event Creation & Publishing

"Creating and signing new events"

Basic:

• Interactive creation: "Create an event with prompts"
  • nak event --prompt-sec <relay>
• Simple note: "Publish a text note"
  • nak event -k 1 -c "Hello Nostr" <relay>

Intermediate:

• Events with tags: "Create tagged content"
  • nak event -k 1 -t t=bitcoin -t t=nostr <relay>
• Event deletion: "Delete a previous event"
  • nak event -k 5 -e <event_id> --prompt-sec <relay>
• Replaceable events: "Create/update a profile or app data"
  • nak event -k 10019 -t mint=<url> -t pubkey=<key> <relay>

Advanced:

• Remote signing with bunker: "Sign without exposing keys"
  • nak event --connect "bunker://..." <relay>
• Batch event creation: "Generate many events via script"
  • for i in {1..100}; do nak event localhost:8000; done
• Complex events from JSON: "Craft specific event structure"
  • Modify JSON, then cat event.json | nak event <relay>

Use cases: Testing event creation, developing apps (kind 31990, 37515), wallet integration (kind 10019), moderation (kind 5), bunker/remote signing implementation

CONCEPT 5: Development & Testing

"Building on Nostr"

Basic:

• Local relay testing: "Test against dev relay"
  • nak req localhost:8000
  • nak event ws://127.0.0.1:7777

Intermediate:

• Inspect JSON: "Examine event structure"
  • nak req -i <id> <relay> | jq .
• Test search: "Verify search functionality"
  • nak req --search "<query>" localhost:8000
• Admin operations: "Manage relay content"
  • nak admin --prompt-sec banevent --id <id> <relay>

Advanced:

• Protocol bridging: "Query/test ATProto integration"
  • nak req --tag "proxy=at://..." eclipse.pub/relay
• Git over Nostr: "Use git with Nostr transport"
  • nak git clone nostr://...
  • nak req -k 30617 git.shakespeare.diy
• Performance testing: "Measure query speed"
  • time nak req -k 0 -a <pubkey> <relay>
• Custom event kinds: "Test proprietary event types"
  • nak req -k 37515 -a <author> -d <id> ditto.pub/relay

Use cases: Relay development (Ditto), testing bridges (Mostr/Bluesky), developing video platforms, implementing Git-over-Nostr, testing search ranking algorithms, performance benchmarking

CONCEPT 6: Analytics & Monitoring

"Understanding Nostr data"

Basic:

• Count results: "How many events match?"
  • nak req -k 1 <relay> | wc -l
  • nak count -k 7 -e <event_id> <relay>

Intermediate:

• Live monitoring: "Watch relay activity"
  • nak req --stream <relay>
  • nak req -l 0 --stream relay1 relay2 relay3
• Client analytics: "What apps are posting?"
  • nak req --tag client=<app> <relay>

Advanced:

• Event chain analysis: "Track engagement"
  • nak count -k 7 -e <event_id> <relay> (reactions)
  • nak req -k 6 -k 7 -e <event_id> <relay> (reposts + reactions)
• Content ranking: "Find top/hot content"
  • nak req --search "sort:top" <relay>
• Cross-relay comparison: "Compare event availability"
  • Query same event from multiple relays, compare results

Use cases: Monitoring relay health, tracking client usage (Ditto, noStrudel, moStard), analyzing engagement, testing ranking algorithms

Summary: The 6 Core Mental Models

1. Query & Discovery: "How do I find things?"
2. Broadcast & Migration: "How do I move things?"
3. Identity & Encoding: "How do I represent things?"
4. Event Creation: "How do I make things?"
5. Development & Testing: "How do I build things?"
6. Analytics & Monitoring: "How do I measure things?"

Command Shapes and Edge-Cases

Non-obvious patterns and edge cases for nak commands.

Signing Methods

Using environment variable:

export NOSTR_SECRET_KEY=<hex_key>
nak event -c "hello"  # Automatically uses $NOSTR_SECRET_KEY

Reading key from file:

nak event -c "hello" --sec $(cat /path/to/key.txt)

Content from File

Using @ prefix to read content from file:

echo "hello world" > content.txt
nak event -c @content.txt

Tag Syntax

Tag with multiple values (semicolon-separated):

nak event -t custom="value1;value2;value3"
# Creates: ["custom", "value1", "value2", "value3"]

Filter Output Modes

Print bare filter (JSON only):

nak req -k 1 -l 5 --bare
# Output: {"kinds":[1],"limit":5}

Filter from stdin can be modified with flags:

echo '{"kinds": [1]}' | nak req -l 5 -k 3 --bare

Unlimited stream:

nak req -l 0 --stream wss://relay.example.com

Relay Specification

Local relays and WebSocket schemes:

nak req localhost:8000
nak req ws://127.0.0.1:7777
nak req relay.example.com  # Assumes wss:// if not specified

Encoding

Encode from JSON stdin (auto-detects type):

echo '{"pubkey":"<hex>","relays":["wss://relay.example.com"]}' | nak encode

Key Operations

Complete key generation pipeline:

nak key generate | tee secret.key | nak key public | nak encode npub
# Saves private key to file AND prints the public npub

Verification

Verify and pipe:

nak event -c "test" --sec <key> | nak verify && echo "Valid"

Fetch vs Req

nak fetch uses relay hints from identifiers:

nak fetch nevent1...  # Uses relays encoded in nevent
nak fetch naddr1...   # Uses relays encoded in naddr  
nak fetch alex@gleasonator.dev  # Resolves NIP-05
nak fetch -r relay.primal.net naddr1...  # Override relays

nak req requires explicit relay specification:

nak req -i <event_id> wss://relay.example.com

Edge Cases

No relays specified (prints event without publishing):

nak event -c "test" --sec <key>  # Just prints the event JSON

Tag order matters for addressable events:

# The first 'd' tag is the identifier
nak event -k 30023 -d first -d second  # "first" is the identifier

Timestamp override:

nak event --ts 1700000000 -c "backdated" --sec <key>
nak event --ts 0 -c "genesis" --sec <key>  # Event at Unix epoch

Kind 0 (profile) requires JSON content:

nak event -k 0 -c '{"name":"Alice","about":"Developer"}' --sec <key>

POW (Proof of Work):

nak event --pow 20 -c "mined event" --sec <key>
# Will compute hash until difficulty target is met

NIP-42 AUTH:

nak req --auth -k 1 wss://relay.example.com
nak event --auth -c "test" --sec <key> wss://relay.example.com
# Automatically handles AUTH challenges

Stdin takes precedence over flags:

echo '{"content":"from stdin"}' | nak event -c "from flag" --sec <key>
# Uses "from stdin" (stdin overrides flags)