NIPs

NIPs stand for Nostr Implementation Possibilities.

They exist to document what may be implemented by Nostr-compatible relay and client software.

List
Event Kinds
Message Types
- Client to Relay
- Relay to Client
Standardized Tags
Criteria for acceptance of NIPs
Is this repository a centralizing factor?
How this repository works
License

List

Event Kinds

kind	description	NIP
`0`	Metadata	01
`1`	Short Text Note	01
`2`	Recommend Relay	01 (deprecated)
`3`	Follows	02
`4`	Encrypted Direct Messages	04
`5`	Event Deletion	09
`6`	Repost	18
`7`	Reaction	25
`8`	Badge Award	58
`13`	Seal	59
`16`	Generic Repost	18
`40`	Channel Creation	28
`41`	Channel Metadata	28
`42`	Channel Message	28
`43`	Channel Hide Message	28
`44`	Channel Mute User	28
`1021`	Bid	15
`1022`	Bid confirmation	15
`1040`	OpenTimestamps	03
`1059`	Gift Wrap	59
`1063`	File Metadata	94
`1311`	Live Chat Message	53
`1971`	Problem Tracker	nostrocket
`1984`	Reporting	56
`1985`	Label	32
`4550`	Community Post Approval	72
`5000`-`5999`	Job Request	90
`6000`-`6999`	Job Result	90
`7000`	Job Feedback	90
`9041`	Zap Goal	75
`9734`	Zap Request	57
`9735`	Zap	57
`9802`	Highlights	84
`10000`	Mute list	51
`10001`	Pin list	51
`10002`	Relay List Metadata	65
`10003`	Bookmark list	51
`10004`	Communities list	51
`10005`	Public chats list	51
`10006`	Blocked relays list	51
`10007`	Search relays list	51
`10015`	Interests list	51
`10030`	User emoji list	51
`10096`	File storage server list	96
`13194`	Wallet Info	47
`21000`	Lightning Pub RPC	Lightning.Pub
`22242`	Client Authentication	42
`23194`	Wallet Request	47
`23195`	Wallet Response	47
`24133`	Nostr Connect	46
`27235`	HTTP Auth	98
`30000`	Follow sets	51
`30001`	Generic lists	51
`30002`	Relay sets	51
`30003`	Bookmark sets	51
`30004`	Curation sets	51
`30008`	Profile Badges	58
`30009`	Badge Definition	58
`30015`	Interest sets	51
`30017`	Create or update a stall	15
`30018`	Create or update a product	15
`30019`	Marketplace UI/UX	15
`30020`	Product sold as an auction	15
`30023`	Long-form Content	23
`30024`	Draft Long-form Content	23
`30030`	Emoji sets	51
`30063`	Release artifact sets	51
`30078`	Application-specific Data	78
`30311`	Live Event	53
`30315`	User Statuses	38
`30402`	Classified Listing	99
`30403`	Draft Classified Listing	99
`31922`	Date-Based Calendar Event	52
`31923`	Time-Based Calendar Event	52
`31924`	Calendar	52
`31925`	Calendar Event RSVP	52
`31989`	Handler recommendation	89
`31990`	Handler information	89
`34550`	Community Definition	72

Message types

Client to Relay

type	description	NIP
`EVENT`	used to publish events	01
`REQ`	used to request events and subscribe to new updates	01
`CLOSE`	used to stop previous subscriptions	01
`AUTH`	used to send authentication events	42
`COUNT`	used to request event counts	45

Relay to Client

type	description	NIP
`EOSE`	used to notify clients all stored events have been sent	01
`EVENT`	used to send events requested to clients	01
`NOTICE`	used to send human-readable messages to clients	01
`OK`	used to notify clients if an EVENT was successful	01
`CLOSED`	used to notify clients that a REQ was ended and why	01
`AUTH`	used to send authentication challenges	42
`COUNT`	used to send requested event counts to clients	45

Please update these lists when proposing NIPs introducing new event kinds.

Standardized Tags

name	value	other parameters	NIP
`e`	event id (hex)	relay URL, marker	01, 10
`p`	pubkey (hex)	relay URL, petname	01, 02
`a`	coordinates to an event	relay URL	01
`d`	identifier	--	01
`g`	geohash	--	52
`i`	identity	proof	39
`k`	kind number (string)	--	18, 25, 72
`l`	label, label namespace	annotations	32
`L`	label namespace	--	32
`m`	MIME type	--	94
`r`	a reference (URL, etc)	petname
`r`	relay url	marker	65
`t`	hashtag	--
`alt`	summary	--	31
`amount`	millisatoshis, stringified	--	57
`bolt11`	`bolt11` invoice	--	57
`challenge`	challenge string	--	42
`client`	name, address	relay URL	89
`content-warning`	reason	--	36
`delegation`	pubkey, conditions, delegation token	--	26
`description`	invoice/badge description	--	57, 58
`emoji`	shortcode, image URL	--	30
`encrypted`	--	--	90
`expiration`	unix timestamp (string)	--	40
`goal`	event id (hex)	relay URL	75
`image`	image URL	dimensions in pixels	23, 58
`imeta`	inline metadata	--	92
`lnurl`	`bech32` encoded `lnurl`	--	57
`location`	location string	--	52, 99
`name`	badge name	--	58
`nonce`	random	--	13
`preimage`	hash of `bolt11` invoice	--	57
`price`	price	currency, frequency	99
`proxy`	external ID	protocol	48
`published_at`	unix timestamp (string)	--	23
`relay`	relay url	--	42
`relays`	relay list	--	57
`server`	file storage server url	--	96
`subject`	subject	--	14
`summary`	article summary	--	23
`thumb`	badge thumbnail	dimensions in pixels	58
`title`	article title	--	23
`zap`	pubkey (hex), relay URL	weight	57

Criteria for acceptance of NIPs

They should be implemented in at least two clients and one relay -- when applicable.
They should make sense.
They should be optional and backwards-compatible: care must be taken such that clients and relays that choose to not implement them do not stop working when interacting with the ones that choose to.
There should be no more than one way of doing the same thing.
Other rules will be made up when necessary.

Is this repository a centralizing factor?

To promote interoperability, we standards that everybody can follow, and we need them to define a single way of doing each thing without ever hurting backwards-compatibility, and for that purpose there is no way around getting everybody to agree on the same thing and keep a centralized index of these standards. However the fact that such index exists doesn't hurt the decentralization of Nostr. At any point the central index can be challenged if it is failing to fulfill the needs of the protocol and it can migrate to other places and be maintained by other people.

It can even fork into multiple and then some clients would go one way, others would go another way, and some clients would adhere to both competing standards. This would hurt the simplicity, openness and interoperability of Nostr a little, but everything would still work in the short term.

There is a list of notable Nostr software developers who have commit access to this repository, but that exists mostly for practical reasons, as by the nature of the thing we're dealing with the repository owner can revoke membership and rewrite history as they want -- and if these actions are unjustified or perceived as bad or evil the community must react.

How this repository works

Standards may emerge in two ways: the first way is that someone starts doing something, then others copy it; the second way is that someone has an idea of a new standard that could benefit multiple clients and the protocol in general without breaking backwards-compatibility and the principle of having a single way of doing things, then they write that idea and submit it to this repository, other interested parties read it and give their feedback, then once most people reasonably agree we codify that in a NIP which client and relay developers that are interested in the feature can proceed to implement.

These two ways of standardizing things are supported by this repository. Although the second is preferred, an effort will be made to codify standards emerged outside this repository into NIPs that can be later referenced and easily understood and implemented by others -- but obviously as in any human system discretion may be applied when standards are considered harmful.

License

All NIPs are public domain.

19 KiB Raw Blame History