MCP Server + CLI

Trust-aware Nostr MCP for AI and humans

Sovereign Nostr identity for AI agents and humans. 238 tools. Model-agnostic. Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Cursor, or any MCP client.

$ npx nostr-bray click to copy
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238 Tools
27 Groups
3 Trust Layers
96% Coverage

Nostr has no trust layer.

Pubkeys prove ownership. They do not prove identity, reputation, or intent. Every Nostr user, human or AI, runs into the same three gaps.

🎭

Who is this person?

Anyone can claim to be anyone. Impersonation is trivial. Without verifiable attestations, there is no way to tell a real person from a bot or an impostor.

📡

Spam drowns everything

Your Web of Trust lives in your head. There is no machine-readable social graph distance, so every feed is a flood and moderation is all-or-nothing.

📋

No middle ground between public and private

You can post publicly or encrypt to one person. There is no way to share content with a trusted tier (members, subscribers, crew) without bespoke infrastructure.

🗝

Key loss is permanent

Lose your nsec, lose your identity forever. No recovery, no recourse. Your entire social graph, reputation, and history, gone.

🛡

No coercion resistance

If forced to hand over your key, the attacker gets everything. There is no way to comply under duress while signalling the situation.

📨

AI agents have no identity

AI agents share your key or generate throwaway ones. No hierarchy, no recovery, no context separation. The agent's actions are indistinguishable from yours.

Three dimensions of trust,
woven into every interaction.

Bray combines three independent trust signals into a single, unified surface. Each dimension answers a different question.

Verification

Are they real?

Four-tier progressive identity verification via the Signet protocol. From simple self-declaration through peer vouches up to cryptographic attestation. Every claim is machine-verifiable, revocable, and auditable.

Signet · 7 tools
Proximity

Do I know them?

Web of Trust graph distance and endorsement weight, computed from your follow graph. Filter feeds, weight replies, and make moderation decisions based on social proximity, not platform policy.

WoT · Trust group
Access

What can they see?

Epoch-based encrypted content tiers via the Dominion protocol. Share with members, subscribers, or a trusted crew, without a server or a database. Keys rotate on epoch change. Revocation is instant.

Vault · 9 tools

Three dimensions of trust

Not workarounds. Proper cryptographic primitives across three axes: who you are, how close you are, and what you can see.

1

Progressive identity verification

Seven Signet tools let any agent fetch, vouch, challenge, and enforce identity claims. Policy checks gate access by verification tier. No hand-rolled logic required.

Signet
2

WoT-scored feeds and moderation

Trust scores derived from your social graph weight every interaction. Filter spam by graph distance. Endorse peers. Surface content from people you actually know.

trust-score
3

Encrypted access tiers

Eight Vault tools create Dominion-encrypted content channels. Tiered keys are derived per epoch. Revoke a member's access and their old keys cannot decrypt new content.

Vault
4

Hierarchical identity derivation

One master secret generates unlimited child key pairs via nsec-tree. Derive personas for work, personal, anonymous use, each cryptographically independent.

nsec-tree
5

Shamir Secret Sharing recovery

Split your master secret into BIP-39 word shards. Distribute them to trusted parties. Any threshold subset reconstructs the original. No single point of failure.

shamir-words
6

Gift-wrapped DMs by default

NIP-17 gift wrapping hides sender, recipient, and conversation metadata. No opt-in required; it is the default for every DM.

NIP-17
7

Duress personas

Configure an alternative identity that activates under coercion. Indistinguishable from a normal persona switch. The attacker cannot tell you have complied under duress.

canary-kit
8

Key zeroisation

Private keys are cryptographically zeroed from memory on identity eviction and process shutdown. LRU cache ensures minimal key material exposure at any given moment.

IdentityContext

238 tools. 27 groups.
One coherent surface.

Every tool operates as the active identity. Switch persona, and your posts, DMs, attestations, and payments all follow. No configuration changes needed.

Identity

17 tools

Create, derive, switch, prove, backup, restore, and migrate Nostr identities. Guided setup, Shamir recovery, NIP-05 lookup and verification.

whoami identity-setup identity-derive-persona identity-switch identity-prove identity-backup-shamir identity-recover identity-migrate identity-list nip05-lookup

Social

35+ tools

Posts, DMs, contacts, profiles, notifications, feeds, Blossom media, and NIP-29 groups. Name-based lookups across your contact graph. Scheduled posting with cron support.

social-post social-feed dm-send dm-by-name contacts-search social-notifications blossom-upload post-schedule

Trust

22 tools

Verifiable attestations, ring signatures for anonymous proofs, spoken verification tokens, linkage proofs, deep attestation and ring analysis.

trust-attest trust-ring-prove trust-spoken-challenge trust-verify trust-revoke trust-score trust-attest-deep trust-ring-prove-deep

Zap

9 tools

Lightning payments via Nostr Wallet Connect. Send, receive, invoice, check balances, decode bolt11. Per-identity wallet configuration.

zap-send zap-balance zap-make-invoice zap-decode zap-wallet-set zap-wallet-clear

Relay

12 tools

Per-identity relay lists with NIP-65 management. Query events with NIP-50 search, NIP-45 counting, NIP-42 authentication, relay intelligence and health monitoring.

relay-list relay-set relay-query relay-info relay-count relay-auth relay-discover relay-compare relay-diversity

Safety

14 tools

Duress personas for coercion resistance, plus CANARY liveness proofs for dead-man's-switch assurance.

safety-configure safety-activate canary-create canary-check canary-renew canary-revoke

Blossom

10 tools

Media uploads to Blossom servers. Upload, list, delete, mirror, verify, repair, discover servers, and manage storage.

blossom-upload blossom-list blossom-delete blossom-mirror blossom-verify blossom-discover blossom-repair blossom-servers-get blossom-usage blossom-check

Groups

4 tools

NIP-29 group chat. Fetch metadata, read messages, send to groups, list members.

group-info group-chat group-send group-members

NIPs

2 tools

Publish and read community-proposed Nostr Implementation Possibilities (kind 30817).

nip-publish nip-read

Utility

19 tools

Encode, decode, encrypt, verify, filter, fetch. NIP-44 encryption, NIP-49 key encryption, event verification.

decode nip44-encrypt verify-event key-encrypt fetch count

Signet

7 tools

Progressive identity verification. Fetch badges, issue vouches, run challenges, enforce policy. Four tiers from self-declaration to cryptographic attestation.

signet-badge signet-vouch signet-credentials signet-policy-check signet-policy-set signet-verifiers signet-challenge

Vault

9 tools

Epoch-based encrypted access control via Dominion. Create content tiers, manage members, rotate keys, and revoke access, all without a server or a database.

vault-create vault-encrypt vault-share vault-read vault-revoke vault-members vault-config vault-rotate

Moderation

16 tools

Labels, mute lists, pin lists, follow sets, and bookmarks. Content moderation building blocks for agents that need to curate, filter, or organise.

label-create label-search mute-add mute-list pin-add bookmark-add followset-create

Privacy

10 tools

Pedersen commitments and zero-knowledge range proofs. Prove properties about values (age, balance, reputation) without revealing the values themselves.

privacy-commit privacy-range-prove privacy-age-verify privacy-range-verify

Marketplace

12 tools

Discover, probe, call, and publish L402/x402 paid services. Lightning-gated API access with automatic payment negotiation.

marketplace-discover marketplace-probe marketplace-call marketplace-publish

Dispatch

13 tools

Model-agnostic AI-to-AI collaboration over encrypted Nostr DMs. Send tasks, check inboxes, return results, publish and discover capabilities via NIP-89.

dispatch-send dispatch-check dispatch-reply dispatch-status dispatch-capability-publish dispatch-capability-discover

Encrypted collaboration
over Nostr DMs.

Dispatch lets AI agents send tasks to other AI agents, check for incoming work, and return results. All communication is NIP-17 gift-wrapped. Discovery uses NIP-89 application handlers. 13 tools, model-agnostic, works across any MCP client.

Send & receive

Send thinking or implementation tasks to collaborators. Check your inbox. Reply with results. All encrypted, all auditable.

dispatch-send dispatch-check dispatch-reply dispatch-ack

Lifecycle

Track status, cancel requests, refuse tasks, report failures. Full state machine for task coordination.

dispatch-status dispatch-cancel dispatch-refuse dispatch-failure dispatch-query

Capabilities

Publish what your agent can do. Discover other agents by capability. NIP-89 application handler discovery built in.

dispatch-capability-publish dispatch-capability-discover dispatch-capability-read dispatch-propose

Name, NIP-05, npub, or hex.
Every tool understands all four.

Stop converting between formats. Pass a display name, a NIP-05 address, an npub, or a raw hex pubkey to any tool that takes an identity. Bray resolves it for you.

Display name
dm-send --to "alice"
NIP-05
dm-send --to "alice@nos.social"
npub
dm-send --to "npub1..."
Hex pubkey
dm-send --to "ab12..."

Deep protocol support.

Bray implements or integrates with these Nostr Implementation Possibilities. Not just read support; full signing, encryption, and verification where the NIP requires it.

NIP-04 Legacy DMs
NIP-05 DNS identity
NIP-17 Gift-wrapped DMs
NIP-23 Long-form content
NIP-29 Group chat
NIP-42 Relay auth
NIP-44 Encryption
NIP-45 Event counting
NIP-46 Bunker auth
NIP-49 Key encryption
NIP-50 Search
NIP-52 Calendar events
NIP-54 Wiki pages
NIP-58 Badges
NIP-65 Relay lists
NIP-72 Communities
NIP-89 App handlers
NIP-96 File storage
NIP-99 Classified listings

Sign now, publish later.

Schedule posts, articles, and DMs with cron expressions or specific timestamps. Events are signed immediately with your current identity, then held until the scheduled time. No background process required on your machine.

# post at a specific time
npx nostr-bray post "good morning" --at "2026-04-01T09:00:00Z"

# post on a cron schedule
npx nostr-bray post "weekly update thread" --cron "0 9 * * MON"

# schedule via MCP (any AI agent)
post-schedule content="launching tomorrow" at="2026-04-01T12:00:00Z"

Two interfaces.
Same engine.

Use bray as an MCP server for AI agents (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Cursor, Windsurf) or as a standalone CLI. The MCP server exposes all 238 tools; the CLI surfaces the most common operations. Both share the same handlers, identity engine, and security guarantees.

MCP

AI Agent Mode

// claude_desktop_config.json
// Option A: Heartwood or NIP-46 bunker (safest)
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nostr": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["nostr-bray"],
      "env": {
        "BUNKER_URI": "bunker://<pubkey>?relay=wss://relay.damus.io"
      }
    }
  }
}
// Option B: file-based secret
// Replace BUNKER_URI with:
//   "NOSTR_SECRET_KEY_FILE": "~/.nostr/secret.key",
//   "NOSTR_RELAYS": "wss://relay.damus.io"
CLI

Terminal Mode

# start your bunker (runs in background)
npx nostr-bray bunker &

# connect to it
export BUNKER_URI="bunker://<pubkey>?relay=wss://relay.damus.io"

# go
npx nostr-bray whoami
npx nostr-bray post "hello from bray"
npx nostr-bray persona work
npx nostr-bray prove blind

Privacy by default.
Not by configuration.

Bray assumes a hostile environment. Every default is the most private option. Every key operation has a zeroing path. Secrets never appear in tool responses.

NIP-17 by default

Gift-wrapped DMs hide sender, recipient, and metadata. NIP-04 requires explicit opt-in via environment variable.

Device-first signing

Best with Heartwood (dedicated signing appliance with nsec-tree derivation), then any NIP-46 bunker, then ncryptsec, then key file. Your private key never leaves your signer.

Key zeroisation

Private keys are cryptographically zeroed from memory on LRU eviction and process shutdown. Minimal exposure window.

Minimal secret exposure

Tool responses never return raw private keys. Mnemonics are returned only during identity creation (store securely). Shamir shards are written to files, not returned as text.

Env cleanup

Secrets loaded from files are scrubbed from process.env immediately after parsing. No lingering plaintext in memory.

Signature verification

NIP-65 relay list events are signature-verified before use. Relay information documents are validated against NIP-11.

signet-protocol dominion-protocol nsec-tree @forgesworn/ring-sig @forgesworn/shamir-words nostr-attestations canary-kit spoken-token nostr-tools NIP-44 NIP-49 secp256k1

Standing on shoulders

Bray stands on existing Nostr tooling. It does not replace nostr-tools or nak. It adds a narrow, opinionated identity layer on top.

nostr-tools

838 stars · 1.2M monthly npm downloads

Our primary dependency. Handles event creation, signing, NIP-44 encryption, relay connections, and most protocol-level heavy lifting. If you are building a Nostr client in JavaScript, nostr-tools is the standard.

nak

by fiatjaf (the Nostr protocol creator) · Go

The definitive Nostr Swiss Army knife. Covers far more ground than bray: MuSig2 collaborative signing, built-in relay with negentropy sync, FUSE filesystem, NIP-60 Cashu wallet, smart outbox routing, PoW mining, NIP-86 relay admin, and a full bunker with persistence and QR codes. If you want a power-user CLI for Nostr, nak is it.

What bray adds

A narrow set of capabilities that revolve around one theme: trust-aware Nostr for AI and humans.

Progressive identity verification (Signet)
Encrypted access tiers (Dominion Vault)
WoT-scored feeds and moderation
Hierarchical identity derivation (nsec-tree)
Persona switching mid-session
Ring signatures (anonymous group proofs)
Shamir secret sharing backup
Duress detection (canary-kit)
Verifiable attestations (NIP-VA kind 31000)
Linkage proofs (blind + full)
NWC Lightning payments
Test relay server + NIP-46 bunker
NIP-46 bunker auth (key never leaves signer)

All bundled into a single MCP server with 238 tools, so an AI agent gets a complete trust-aware Nostr identity out of the box without stitching together multiple tools.

Up and running in 60 seconds

1

Install

# no install needed, npx runs it directly
npx nostr-bray --help

# or install globally
npm install -g nostr-bray
2

Authenticate

Three options, safest first:

# RECOMMENDED: NIP-46 bunker (key never touches bray)
# Terminal 1: start the bunker with your key
npx nostr-bray bunker

# Terminal 2: connect to it
export BUNKER_URI="bunker://<pubkey>?relay=wss://relay.damus.io"
npx nostr-bray whoami
# GOOD: file-based secret (protected by file permissions)
echo "nsec1..." > ~/.nostr/secret.key
chmod 600 ~/.nostr/secret.key
export NOSTR_SECRET_KEY_FILE="~/.nostr/secret.key"
export NOSTR_RELAYS="wss://relay.damus.io,wss://nos.lol"
# QUICK (testing only): env var
export NOSTR_SECRET_KEY="nsec1..."
export NOSTR_RELAYS="wss://relay.damus.io,wss://nos.lol"
3

Use

# check your identity
npx nostr-bray whoami

# derive a work persona
npx nostr-bray persona work

# post as that persona
npx nostr-bray post "hello from my work identity"

# create a shamir backup
npx nostr-bray backup-shamir --shares 5 --threshold 3
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