Obelisk

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What it is

A Next.js app whose browser side talks directly to Nostr relays. Channels, members, admins, messages, DMs, voice, zaps, all reconstructed from NIP-29 / NIP-17 / NIP-04 events. There is no Postgres, no session server, no Socket.io: just the browser, a relay, and your keys.

Why

• 🔑 No personal data. Identity is a Nostr keypair. No email, phone, name, or device fingerprint.
• 🛰️ No backend to trust. Group state lives on relays you choose. Anyone can run one.
• 🌐 Self-hostable. npm run build + npm start, behind any reverse proxy.

Demo

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/4b6e31a9-a30d-43b3-b18a-dd21c1cf9c15

Screenshots

Full guided tours: obelisk.ar/desktop · obelisk.ar/mobile.

Desktop

Mobile

Try it

Live	obelisk.ar: the client, pointed at a public relay I operate
La Crypta	A community of 20+ migrated from Discord
Self-host	git clone + npm run build + npm start. Bring your own relay.

Run locally

git clone https://github.com/obelisk-app/obelisk.git
cd obelisk
npm install
npm run dev          # http://localhost:3000

No .env is required for local development. New installs currently start with wss://public.obelisk.ar and wss://lacrypta-relay.obelisk.ar; optional relay suggestions come from NEXT_PUBLIC_RECOMMENDED_RELAYS.

For HTTPS dev (needed for NIP-07 / mobile testing): npm run dev:raise (requires a Cloudflare tunnel, see docs/operations/cloudflare-tunnel.md).

Architecture

• Frontend: Next.js 16 + Tailwind v4, in English, Spanish and Portuguese (next-intl). Public site pages are prerendered per deployment; chat and signed-in viewer interactions run over the bridge. Public relay-backed viewers also fetch server-rendered content. The one API route, /api/link-preview, unfurls OpenGraph cards so a link you only view never reaches a third-party service.
• Relay hub (src/lib/relay-hub/): the one owner of every relay socket: one socket per relay per identity, NIP-42 AUTH once per relay and key, shared subscriptions, bounded caches.
• Bridge (src/services/nostr-bridge/): identity, the session, group and DM state, subscriptions, and the React hooks, reached through @/services/nostr-bridge and <BridgeProvider>. Read this first if you're contributing.
• Voice: P2P mesh by default; switches to mediasoup SFU automatically when one is advertised on the channel (obelisk-app/obelisk-sfu).
• Cache: immutable public HTML with build-bound CSP hashes; dynamic app/viewer documents use fresh nonces. Browser relay data uses localStorage stale-while-revalidate for fast first paint.
• Identity: comes from the bridge: useIsLoggedIn, useMyPubkey, useSignerReady. Don't introduce a backend session.

See architecture, UI conventions and operations. AGENTS.md is the repository rules reference.

The Obelisk family

Repo	What
obelisk-app/obelisk	This repo: the chat app (relay-only)
obelisk-app/obelisk-relay	NIP-29 groups relay (Rust, fork of verse-pbc/groups_relay)
obelisk-app/obelisk-sfu	mediasoup SFU for voice channels (Node, Nostr-RPC signaling)
obelisk-app/obelisk-agents	Nostr bots for NIP-29 groups (price ticker, admin/welcome bots, agent-friendly CLI)
obelisk-app/obelisk-sky	A 3D village that is an Obelisk client (sky.obelisk.ar)
obelisk-app/obelisk-apps	Games and apps published as Nostr events, run sandboxed by the client
obelisk-app/obelisk-menhir	Host a private chat server from your own computer, over Tor (MVP)
obelisk-app/obelisk-design	Design system, security workflows and development style
obelisk-app/obelisk-classic	Retired July 28, 2026: the original Postgres + Socket.io stack

Auth

Three methods, all client-side:

Method	How
NIP-07 extension	Click "Connect"; auto-detected (button hides if no extension)
nsec	Paste nsec1...
NIP-46 bunker	Paste a bunker:// URL or scan a Nostr Connect QR

The session record lives in localStorage, but its secrets (an nsec, a bunker URL) are sealed first with a non-extractable AES-GCM key kept in IndexedDB, so nothing secret is stored in the clear. NIP-42 AUTH is answered once per relay and key by the relay hub.

Features

• Real-time chat (groups, channels, reactions, mentions, NIP-50 search)
• Voice channels (P2P mesh, optional SFU for larger rooms)
• Encrypted DMs (NIP-17 gift wraps by default, NIP-04 per thread on request; NIP-65 / kind 10050 relay routing) and 1:1 voice and video calls
• Bitcoin zaps in chat and paying invoices posted in chat (NIP-57 zaps, paid by a wallet connected with Nostr Wallet Connect in Settings > Wallet, else a WebLN browser extension; the connection link is sealed in the browser and no Obelisk server is in the payment path)
• Operator-controlled branding & layout (NIP-78, kind 30078)
• Image uploads (Blossom, BUD-01 auth)

NIPs used

NIP-01 · NIP-04 · NIP-05 · NIP-07 · NIP-11 · NIP-17 · NIP-29 · NIP-42 · NIP-44 · NIP-46 · NIP-50 · NIP-57 · NIP-59 · NIP-65 · NIP-78

以上为 README 的开头部分。其余内容请阅读原文。 查看完整 README ↗