3.3 KiB
NIP-65
Relay List Metadata
draft
optional
Defines a replaceable event using kind:10002
to advertise preferred relays for discovering a user's content and receiving fresh content from others.
The event MUST include a list of r
tags with relay URIs and a read
or write
marker. Relays marked as read
/ write
are called READ / WRITE relays, respectively. If the marker is omitted, the relay is used for both purposes.
The .content
is not used.
{
"kind": 10002,
"tags": [
["r", "wss://alicerelay.example.com"],
["r", "wss://brando-relay.com"],
["r", "wss://expensive-relay.example2.com", "write"],
["r", "wss://nostr-relay.example.com", "read"]
],
"content": "",
// other fields...
}
This NIP doesn't fully replace relay lists that are designed to configure a client's usage of relays (such as kind:3
style relay lists). Clients MAY use other relay lists in situations where a kind:10002
relay list cannot be found.
When to Use Read and Write Relays
When seeking events from a user, Clients SHOULD use the WRITE relays of the user's kind:10002
.
When seeking events about a user, where the user was tagged, Clients SHOULD use the READ relays of the user's kind:10002
.
When broadcasting an event, Clients SHOULD:
- Broadcast the event to the WRITE relays of the author
- Broadcast the event to all READ relays of each tagged user
Motivation
The old model of using a fixed relay list per user centralizes in large relay operators:
- Most users submit their posts to the same highly popular relays, aiming to achieve greater visibility among a broader audience
- Many users are pulling events from a large number of relays in order to get more data at the expense of duplication
- Events are being copied between relays, oftentimes to many different relays
This NIP allows Clients to connect directly with the most up-to-date relay set from each individual user, eliminating the need of broadcasting events to popular relays.
Final Considerations
-
Clients SHOULD guide users to keep
kind:10002
lists small (2-4 relays). -
Clients SHOULD spread an author's
kind:10002
event to as many relays as viable. -
kind:10002
events should primarily be used to advertise the user's preferred relays to others. A user's own client may use other heuristics for selecting relays for fetching data. -
DMs SHOULD only be broadcasted to the author's WRITE relays and to the receiver's READ relays to keep maximum privacy.
-
If a relay signals support for this NIP in their NIP-11 document that means they're willing to accept kind 10002 events from a broad range of users, not only their paying customers or whitelisted group.
-
Clients SHOULD deduplicate connections by normalizing relay URIs according to RFC 3986.
-
Clients SHOULD guide users to treat the list as prioritized, with most trusted relays (less probability of censoring events, like a personal relay) at the top.
-
When seeking events from a user, clients SHOULD if possible start by using the relays most at the top of list, since these should be the most trusted by the user.