# Nostr

a truly censorship-resistant alternative to Twitter that has a chance of working

Repository: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nostr
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/nostr
License Family: other
Topics: nostr
Last push: 2025-06-27T20:23:51+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 35/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 28, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2123, "days_push": 432, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 12006, forks 418 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:50.650618+00:00)

## What it is
Nostr (Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays) is an open, simple protocol for building a censorship-resistant global social network. Users sign notes with cryptographic keys and publish them to independently operated relays, with no central trusted server.

## Use cases
- build a censorship-resistant social network
- post short notes without a central platform
- self-host a relay server for social content
- follow people by public key across relays
- implement a Nostr client or relay from the NIP specs

## When to choose
- you want decentralized, tamperproof social publishing without P2P complexity
- you need an open protocol with many independent clients and relays
- you want identity based on cryptographic keys rather than platform accounts

## When to avoid
- you need a turnkey social app with moderation and rich features out of the box
- you require guaranteed content availability, since relays are voluntary and may drop data
- you need strong privacy, as notes are public and signed by design

## Facets
- artifact type: service
- maturity: active
- function: networking, cryptography, p2p
- domain: social-media, censorship-circumvention, privacy, self-hosted
- platform: cross-platform, self-hosted
- tags: nostr, protocol, decentralized-social-network, relays, open-protocol, microblogging, web-server

## Member repositories
- nostr-protocol/nostr (main) score 35
- nostr-protocol/nips (docs) score 77

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:50.650618+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:15:00.598023+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nostr (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:50.650618+00:00, sha 19c3f8f9b301)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.