Getting Started

zig-nostr is a Nostr protocol library for Zig . It targets Zig 0.16 and is pre-alpha (v0.3.5).

Install

Fetch the library into your project’s build.zig.zon:


zig fetch --save https://github.com/zig-nostr/nostr/archive/refs/tags/v0.3.5.tar.gz

Then wire the module in build.zig:


const nostr = b.dependency("nostr", .{ .target = target, .optimize = optimize });
your_module.addImport("nostr", nostr.module("nostr"));

The library vendors and compiles bitcoin-core’s libsecp256k1 and LMDB from source, so no system packages are required.

Quickstart: sign and verify an event


const std = @import("std");
const nostr = @import("nostr");
 
pub fn main() !void {
    var arena = std.heap.ArenaAllocator.init(std.heap.page_allocator);
    defer arena.deinit();
    const allocator = arena.allocator();
 
    // A Signer wraps the libsecp256k1 context; deinit it when done.
    var signer = nostr.keys.Signer.init();
    defer signer.deinit();
 
    // Load a keypair from a 32-byte secret key.
    const secret: nostr.keys.SecretKey = your_secret_key; // 32 bytes
    const keypair = try signer.keyPairFromSecretKey(secret);
 
    // Build and sign a kind:1 text note (no tags, deterministic nonce).
    const note = try nostr.event.create(
        allocator,
        signer,
        keypair,
        std.time.timestamp(),
        1,
        &.{},
        "hello from zig-nostr",
        null,
    );
 
    // Verify: recompute the canonical id, then check the Schnorr signature.
    std.debug.assert(try nostr.event.verify(allocator, signer, note));
 
    // Serialize to the wire JSON form.
    const json = try nostr.event.toJson(allocator, note);
    std.debug.print("{s}\n", .{json});
}

What’s in the box

The nostr module re-exports focused namespaces:

keys — secp256k1 keys and BIP-340 Schnorr sign/verify
event — the NIP-01 event model, canonical id, JSON encode/decode
nip19 / bech32 — npub/nsec/note/nprofile/nevent/naddr encoding
nip06 / bip39 — mnemonic key derivation
nip49 — encrypted key storage at rest (ncryptsec)
nip44 — v2 payload encryption
nip46 — remote signing (“bunker”) protocol
nip42 — client authentication to relays
relay / websocket / message / filter — live transport & subscriptions
nip65 — relay lists and outbox routing
store — the local-first, memory-mapped event store

See Architecture for how these fit together.

Build from source


git clone https://github.com/zig-nostr/nostr
cd nostr
zig build test    # run the suite