orly

README

git.smesh.lol/orly

---

Can Youse Paradigm?

Every hour you don’t zap, a donkey eats another cabbage. You can stop this. 🫏

mleku · npub1fjqqy4a93z5zsjwsfxqhc2764kvykfdyttvldkkkdera8dr78vhsmmleku

Architecture Overview

ORLY supports a modular IPC architecture where core functionality runs as independent gRPC services:

orly launcher (process supervisor)
├── orly db              (gRPC :50051) - Event storage & queries
├── orly acl             (gRPC :50052) - Access control
├── orly bridge          (SMTP :2525)  - Marmot email bridge (DM ↔ SMTP)
├── orly sync distributed (gRPC :50061) - Peer-to-peer sync
├── orly sync cluster    (gRPC :50062) - Cluster replication
├── orly sync relaygroup (gRPC :50063) - Relay group config (Kind 39105)
├── orly sync negentropy (gRPC :50064) - NIP-77 set reconciliation
└── orly                 (WebSocket/HTTP) - Main relay

Benefits:

• Resource isolation: Database, ACL, and sync run in separate processes
• Independent scaling: Scale sync services independently from the relay
• Fault tolerance: Service crashes don't bring down the entire relay
• Modular deployment: Enable only the services you need

See docs/IPC_SYNC_SERVICES.md for detailed API documentation.

Table of Contents

• Architecture Overview
• Bug Reports & Feature Requests
• System Requirements
• About
• Performance & Cryptography
• Building
  • Prerequisites
  • Basic Build
  • Building with Web UI
• Core Features
  • Web UI
  • Sprocket Event Processing
  • Policy System
• Deployment
  • Automated Deployment
  • Network Options
  • systemd Service Management
  • Remote Deployment
  • Configuration
  • Firewall Configuration
  • Monitoring
• Testing
• Command-Line Tools
• Access Control
  • Follows ACL
  • Curation ACL
  • Cluster Replication
• Marmot Email Bridge
  • Client Setup (White Noise, etc.)
• Docker Deployment
• Negentropy Sync (NIP-77)
• Documentation
• Developer Notes

⚠️ Bug Reports & Feature Requests

Bug reports and feature requests that do not follow the protocol will not be accepted.

Before submitting any issue, you must read and follow BUG_REPORTS_AND_FEATURE_REQUEST_PROTOCOL.md.

Requirements:

• Bug reports: Include environment details, reproduction steps, expected/actual behavior, and logs
• Feature requests: Include problem statement, proposed solution, and use cases
• Both: Search existing issues first, verify with latest version, provide minimal reproduction

Issues missing required information will be closed without review.

⚠️ System Requirements

IMPORTANT: ORLY requires a minimum of 500MB of free memory to operate.

The relay uses adaptive PID-controlled rate limiting to manage memory pressure. By default, it will:

• Auto-detect available system memory at startup
• Target 66% of available memory, capped at 1.5GB for optimal performance
• Fail to start if less than 500MB is available

You can override the memory target with ORLY_RATE_LIMIT_TARGET_MB (e.g., ORLY_RATE_LIMIT_TARGET_MB=2000 for 2GB).

To disable rate limiting (not recommended): ORLY_RATE_LIMIT_ENABLED=false

About

ORLY is a nostr relay written from the ground up to be performant, low latency, and built with a number of features designed to make it well suited for:

• personal relays
• small community relays
• business deployments and RaaS (Relay as a Service) with a nostr-native NWC client to allow accepting payments through NWC capable lightning nodes
• high availability clusters for reliability and/or providing a unified data set across multiple regions

Performance & Cryptography

ORLY leverages high-performance libraries and custom optimizations for exceptional speed:

• SIMD Libraries: Uses minio/sha256-simd for accelerated SHA256 hashing
• p256k1 Cryptography: Implements p256k1.mleku.dev for fast elliptic curve operations optimized for nostr
• Fast Message Encoders: High-performance encoding/decoding with templexxx/xhex for SIMD-accelerated hex operations

The encoders achieve 24% faster JSON marshaling, 16% faster canonical encoding, and 54-91% reduction in memory allocations through custom buffer pre-allocation and zero-allocation optimization techniques.

ORLY uses a fast embedded badger database with a database designed for high performance querying and event storage.

Building

ORLY is a standard Go application that can be built using the Go toolchain.

Prerequisites

• Go 1.25.3 or later
• Git
• For web UI: Bun JavaScript runtime

Basic Build

To build the unified binary (relay + all subcommands):

git clone <repository-url>
cd git.smesh.lol/orly
go build -o orly ./cmd/orly

To build the relay-only binary (no subcommands):

go build -o orly .

Building with Web UI

To build with the embedded web interface:

# Build the Svelte web application
cd app/web
bun install
bun run build

# Build the Go binary from project root
cd ../../
go build -o orly ./cmd/orly

The recommended way to build and embed the web UI is using the provided script:

./scripts/update-embedded-web.sh

This script will:

• Build the Svelte app in app/web to app/web/dist using Bun (preferred) or fall back to npm/yarn/pnpm
• Run go install from the repository root so the binary picks up the new embedded assets
• Automatically detect and use the best available JavaScript package manager

For manual builds, you can also use:

#!/bin/bash
# build.sh
echo "Building Svelte app..."
cd app/web
bun install
bun run build

echo "Building Go binary..."
cd ../../
go build -o orly ./cmd/orly

echo "Build complete!"

Make it executable with chmod +x build.sh and run with ./build.sh.

Core Features

Web UI

ORLY includes a modern web-based user interface built with Svelte for relay management and monitoring.

• Secure Authentication: Nostr key pair authentication with challenge-response
• Event Management: Browse, export, import, and search events
• User Administration: Role-based permissions (guest, user, admin, owner)
• Sprocket Management: Upload and monitor event processing scripts
• Real-time Updates: Live event streaming and system monitoring
• Responsive Design: Works on desktop and mobile devices
• Dark/Light Themes: Persistent theme preferences

The web UI is embedded in the relay binary and accessible at the relay's root path.

Web UI Development

For development with hot-reloading, ORLY can proxy web requests to a local dev server while still handling WebSocket relay connections and API requests.

Environment Variables:

• ORLY_WEB_DISABLE - Set to true to disable serving the embedded web UI
• ORLY_WEB_DEV_PROXY_URL - URL of the dev server to proxy web requests to (e.g., localhost:8080)

Setup:

1. Start the dev server (in one terminal):

cd app/web
bun install
bun run dev

Note the port sirv is listening on (e.g., http://localhost:8080).

1. Start the relay with dev proxy enabled (in another terminal):

export ORLY_WEB_DISABLE=true
export ORLY_WEB_DEV_PROXY_URL=localhost:8080
./orly

The relay will:

• Handle WebSocket connections at / for Nostr protocol
• Handle API requests at /api/*
• Proxy all other requests (HTML, JS, CSS, assets) to the dev server

With a reverse proxy/tunnel:

If you're running behind a reverse proxy or tunnel (e.g., Caddy, nginx, Cloudflare Tunnel), the setup is the same. The relay listens locally and your reverse proxy forwards traffic to it:

Browser � Reverse Proxy � ORLY (port 3334) � Dev Server (port 8080)
                              �
                         WebSocket/API

Example with the relay on port 3334 and sirv on port 8080:

# Terminal 1: Dev server
cd app/web && bun run dev
# Output: Your application is ready~!
#         Local: http://localhost:8080

# Terminal 2: Relay
export ORLY_WEB_DISABLE=true
export ORLY_WEB_DEV_PROXY_URL=localhost:8080
export ORLY_PORT=3334
./orly

Disabling the web UI without a proxy:

If you only want to disable the embedded web UI (without proxying to a dev server), just set ORLY_WEB_DISABLE=true without setting ORLY_WEB_DEV_PROXY_URL. The relay will return 404 for web UI requests while still handling WebSocket and API requests.

Sprocket Event Processing

ORLY includes a powerful sprocket system for external event processing scripts. Sprocket scripts enable custom filtering, validation, and processing logic for Nostr events before storage.

• Real-time Processing: Scripts receive events via stdin and respond with JSONL decisions
• Three Actions: accept, reject, or shadowReject events based on custom logic
• Automatic Recovery: Failed scripts are automatically disabled with periodic recovery attempts
• Web UI Management: Upload, configure, and monitor scripts through the admin interface

export ORLY_SPROCKET_ENABLED=true
export ORLY_APP_NAME="ORLY"
# Place script at ~/.config/ORLY/sprocket.sh

For detailed configuration and examples, see the sprocket documentation.

Policy System

ORLY includes a comprehensive policy system for fine-grained control over event storage and retrieval. Configure custom validation rules, access controls, size limits, and age restrictions.

• Access Control: Allow/deny based on pubkeys, roles, or social relationships
• Content Filtering: Size limits, age validation, and custom rules
• Script Integration: Execute custom scripts for complex policy logic
• Real-time Enforcement: Policies applied to both read and write operations

export ORLY_POLICY_ENABLED=true
# Default policy file: ~/.config/ORLY/policy.json

# OPTIONAL: Use a custom policy file location
# WARNING: ORLY_POLICY_PATH MUST be an ABSOLUTE path (starting with /)
# Relative paths will be REJECTED and the relay will fail to start
export ORLY_POLICY_PATH=/etc/orly/policy.json

For detailed configuration and examples, see the Policy Usage Guide.

Deployment

ORLY includes an automated deployment script that handles Go installation, dependency setup, building, and systemd service configuration.

Automated Deployment

The deployment script (scripts/deploy.sh) provides a complete setup solution:

# Clone the repository
git clone <repository-url>
cd git.smesh.lol/orly

# Run the deployment script
./scripts/deploy.sh

The script will:

1. Install Go 1.25.3 if not present (in ~/.local/go)
2. Configure environment by creating ~/.goenv and updating ~/.bashrc
3. Build the relay with embedded web UI using update-embedded-web.sh
4. Set capabilities for port 443 binding (requires sudo)
5. Install binary to ~/.local/bin/orly
6. Create systemd service and enable it

After deployment, reload your shell environment:

source ~/.bashrc

Network Options

ORLY can handle TLS itself (direct mode) or sit behind a reverse proxy. Choose one.

Option A: Reverse Proxy (Recommended)

Run ORLY on localhost and let Caddy, nginx, or another proxy handle TLS termination, WebSocket upgrades, and certificate renewal. This is the production setup used at relay.orly.dev.

Internet (wss://relay.example.com)
    → Caddy/nginx (:443, TLS termination)
        → ORLY (127.0.0.1:3334, plain HTTP/WebSocket)

1. Configure ORLY to listen on localhost only:

export ORLY_LISTEN=127.0.0.1
export ORLY_PORT=3334

Do NOT set ORLY_TLS_DOMAINS — the reverse proxy handles TLS.

2. Install and configure the reverse proxy.

Caddy (recommended — automatic HTTPS, minimal config):

# Install Caddy (Ubuntu/Debian)
sudo apt install -y debian-keyring debian-archive-keyring apt-transport-https
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/gpg.key' | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/caddy-stable-archive-keyring.gpg
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/debian.deb.txt' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/caddy-stable.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install caddy

Create /etc/caddy/Caddyfile:

relay.example.com {
    reverse_proxy 127.0.0.1:3334
}

That's it. Caddy handles TLS certificates, HTTPS, and WebSocket upgrades automatically. No additional configuration needed for WebSocket — Caddy proxies upgrade requests by default.

Reload Caddy:

sudo systemctl reload caddy

nginx alternative:

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name relay.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/relay.example.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/relay.example.com/privkey.pem;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3334;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_read_timeout 86400s;
        proxy_send_timeout 86400s;
    }
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name relay.example.com;
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

With nginx you must obtain certificates separately (e.g., certbot --nginx).

3. Open firewall ports:

sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp

4. Verify:

# Check ORLY is listening on localhost
ss -tlnp | grep 3334

# Check proxy is listening externally
ss -tlnp | grep -E ':(80|443)'

# Test WebSocket connection from outside
wscat -c wss://relay.example.com

Option B: Direct Listening (Built-in TLS)

ORLY handles TLS itself using Let's Encrypt ACME. No reverse proxy needed. ORLY binds directly to ports 80 and 443, which requires setcap since it runs as a non-root user.

Internet (wss://relay.example.com)
    → ORLY (:443 HTTPS/WSS + :80 ACME challenges)

1. Set capabilities on the binary:

# Allow binding to privileged ports without root
sudo setcap 'cap_net_bind_service=+ep' ~/.local/bin/orly

Note: setcap must be re-applied after every binary update.

2. Configure TLS domains:

export ORLY_TLS_DOMAINS=relay.example.com

When ORLY_TLS_DOMAINS is set, ORLY ignores ORLY_PORT and listens on :443 (HTTPS/WSS) and :80 (ACME challenges) instead.

3. Optional: custom certificates:

# Load certificates from files instead of (or in addition to) ACME
export ORLY_CERTS=/path/to/cert1,/path/to/cert2

Certificate files should be named with .pem and .key extensions:

• /path/to/cert1.pem (certificate)
• /path/to/cert1.key (private key)

4. Open firewall ports:

sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp

5. Verify:

# ORLY should be listening on 80 and 443
ss -tlnp | grep orly

# Test WebSocket
wscat -c wss://relay.example.com

Which option to choose

	Reverse Proxy	Direct Listening
TLS management	Caddy/nginx handles it	ORLY's built-in ACME
Multiple services on same IP	Yes (proxy routes by domain)	No (ORLY owns port 443)
WebSocket config	Automatic (Caddy) or manual (nginx)	Built-in
Binary updates	Just restart ORLY	Restart + re-run setcap
Additional software	Caddy or nginx	None
Used at relay.orly.dev	Yes (Caddy)	No

systemd Service Management

The deployment script creates a systemd service for easy management:

# Start the service
sudo systemctl start orly

# Stop the service
sudo systemctl stop orly

# Restart the service
sudo systemctl restart orly

# Enable service to start on boot
sudo systemctl enable orly --now

# Disable service from starting on boot
sudo systemctl disable orly --now

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status orly

# View service logs
sudo journalctl -u orly -f

# View recent logs
sudo journalctl -u orly --since "1 hour ago"

Remote Deployment

You can deploy ORLY on a remote server using SSH:

# Deploy to a VPS with SSH key authentication
ssh user@your-server.com << 'EOF'
  # Clone and deploy
  git clone <repository-url>
  cd git.smesh.lol/orly
  ./scripts/deploy.sh

  # Configure your relay
  echo 'export ORLY_TLS_DOMAINS=relay.example.com' >> ~/.bashrc
  echo 'export ORLY_ADMINS=npub1your_admin_key_here' >> ~/.bashrc

  # Start the service
  sudo systemctl start orly --now
EOF

# Check deployment status
ssh user@your-server.com 'sudo systemctl status orly'

Configuration

After deployment, configure your relay by setting environment variables in your shell profile:

# Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.profile
export ORLY_TLS_DOMAINS=relay.example.com
export ORLY_ADMINS=npub1your_admin_key
export ORLY_ACL_MODE=follows
export ORLY_APP_NAME="MyRelay"

Then restart the service:

source ~/.bashrc
sudo systemctl restart orly

Firewall Configuration

Ensure your firewall allows the necessary ports:

# For TLS-enabled relays
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp   # HTTP (ACME challenges)
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp  # HTTPS/WSS

# For non-TLS relays
sudo ufw allow 3334/tcp # Default ORLY port

# Enable firewall if not already enabled
sudo ufw enable

Monitoring

Monitor your relay using systemd and standard Linux tools:

# Service status and logs
sudo systemctl status orly
sudo journalctl -u orly -f

# Resource usage
htop
sudo ss -tulpn | grep orly

# Disk usage (database grows over time)
du -sh ~/.local/share/ORLY/

# Check TLS certificates (if using Let's Encrypt)
ls -la ~/.local/share/ORLY/autocert/

Testing

ORLY includes comprehensive testing tools for protocol validation and performance testing.

• Protocol Testing: Use relay-tester for Nostr protocol compliance validation
• Stress Testing: Performance testing under various load conditions
• Benchmark Suite: Comparative performance testing across relay implementations

For detailed testing instructions, multi-relay testing scenarios, and advanced usage, see the Relay Testing Guide.

The benchmark suite provides comprehensive performance testing and comparison across multiple relay implementations, including throughput, latency, and memory usage metrics.

Command-Line Tools

ORLY includes several command-line utilities in the cmd/ directory for testing, debugging, and administration.

relay-tester

Nostr protocol compliance testing tool. Validates that a relay correctly implements the Nostr protocol specification.

# Run all protocol compliance tests
go run ./cmd/relay-tester -url ws://localhost:3334

# List available tests
go run ./cmd/relay-tester -list

# Run specific test
go run ./cmd/relay-tester -url ws://localhost:3334 -test "Basic Event"

# Output results as JSON
go run ./cmd/relay-tester -url ws://localhost:3334 -json

benchmark

Comprehensive relay performance benchmarking tool. Tests event storage, queries, and subscription performance with detailed latency metrics (P90, P95, P99).

# Run benchmarks against local database
go run ./cmd/benchmark -data-dir /tmp/bench-db -events 10000 -workers 4

# Run benchmarks against a running relay
go run ./cmd/benchmark -relay ws://localhost:3334 -events 5000

# Use different database backends
go run ./cmd/benchmark -dgraph -events 10000
go run ./cmd/benchmark -neo4j -events 10000

The cmd/benchmark/ directory also includes Docker Compose configurations for comparative benchmarks across multiple relay implementations (strfry, nostr-rs-relay, khatru, etc.).

stresstest

Load testing tool for evaluating relay performance under sustained high-traffic conditions. Generates events with random content and tags to simulate realistic workloads.

# Run stress test with 10 concurrent workers
go run ./cmd/stresstest -url ws://localhost:3334 -workers 10 -duration 60s

# Generate events with random p-tags (up to 100 per event)
go run ./cmd/stresstest -url ws://localhost:3334 -workers 5

blossomtest

Tests the Blossom blob storage protocol (BUD-01/BUD-02) implementation. Validates upload, download, and authentication flows.

# Test with generated key
go run ./cmd/blossomtest -url http://localhost:3334 -size 1024

# Test with specific nsec
go run ./cmd/blossomtest -url http://localhost:3334 -nsec nsec1...

# Test anonymous uploads (no authentication)
go run ./cmd/blossomtest -url http://localhost:3334 -no-auth

aggregator

Event aggregation utility that fetches events from multiple relays using bloom filters for deduplication. Useful for syncing events across relays with memory-efficient duplicate detection.

go run ./cmd/aggregator -relays wss://relay1.com,wss://relay2.com -output events.jsonl

convert

Key format conversion utility. Converts between hex and bech32 (npub/nsec) formats for Nostr keys.

# Convert npub to hex
go run ./cmd/convert npub1abc...

# Convert hex to npub
go run ./cmd/convert 0123456789abcdef...

# Convert secret key (nsec or hex) - outputs both nsec and derived npub
go run ./cmd/convert --secret nsec1xyz...

FIND

Free Internet Name Daemon - CLI tool for the distributed naming system. Manages name registration, transfers, and certificate issuance.

# Validate a name format
go run ./cmd/FIND verify-name example.nostr

# Generate a new key pair
go run ./cmd/FIND generate-key

# Create a registration proposal
go run ./cmd/FIND register myname.nostr

# Transfer a name to a new owner
go run ./cmd/FIND transfer myname.nostr npub1newowner...

policytest

Tests the policy system for event write control. Validates that policy rules correctly allow or reject events based on kind, pubkey, and other criteria.

go run ./cmd/policytest -url ws://localhost:3334 -type event -kind 4678
go run ./cmd/policytest -url ws://localhost:3334 -type req -kind 1
go run ./cmd/policytest -url ws://localhost:3334 -type publish-and-query -count 5

policyfiltertest

Tests policy-based filtering with authorized and unauthorized pubkeys. Validates access control rules for specific users.

go run ./cmd/policyfiltertest -url ws://localhost:3334 \
  -allowed-pubkey <hex> -allowed-sec <hex> \
  -unauthorized-pubkey <hex> -unauthorized-sec <hex>

subscription-test

Tests WebSocket subscription stability over extended periods. Monitors for dropped subscriptions and connection issues.

# Run subscription stability test for 60 seconds
go run ./cmd/subscription-test -url ws://localhost:3334 -duration 60 -kind 1

# With verbose output
go run ./cmd/subscription-test -url ws://localhost:3334 -duration 120 -v

subscription-test-simple

Simplified subscription stability test that verifies subscriptions remain active without dropping over the test duration.

go run ./cmd/subscription-test-simple -url ws://localhost:3334 -duration 120

Access Control

ORLY provides four ACL (Access Control List) modes to control who can publish events to your relay:

Mode	Description	Best For
none	Open relay, anyone can write	Public relays
follows	Write access based on admin follow lists	Personal/community relays
managed	Explicit allow/deny lists via NIP-86 API	Private relays
curating	Three-tier classification with rate limiting	Curated community relays

export ORLY_ACL_MODE=follows  # or: none, managed, curating

Follows ACL

The follows ACL system provides flexible relay access control based on social relationships in the Nostr network.

export ORLY_ACL_MODE=follows
export ORLY_ADMINS=npub1fjqqy4a93z5zsjwsfxqhc2764kvykfdyttvldkkkdera8dr78vhsmmleku
./orly

The system grants write access to users followed by designated admins, with read-only access for others. Follow lists update dynamically as admins modify their relationships.

Curation ACL

The curation ACL mode provides sophisticated content curation with a three-tier publisher classification system:

• Trusted: Unlimited publishing, bypass rate limits
• Blacklisted: Blocked from publishing, invisible to regular users
• Unclassified: Rate-limited publishing (default 50 events/day)

Key features:

• Kind whitelisting: Only allow specific event kinds (e.g., social, DMs, longform)
• IP-based flood protection: Auto-ban IPs that exceed rate limits
• Spam flagging: Mark events as spam without deleting
• Web UI management: Configure via the built-in curation interface

export ORLY_ACL_MODE=curating
export ORLY_OWNERS=npub1your_owner_key
./orly

After starting, publish a configuration event (kind 30078) to enable the relay. The web UI at /#curation provides a complete management interface.

For detailed configuration and API documentation, see the Curation Mode Guide.

Cluster Replication

ORLY supports distributed relay clusters using active replication. When configured with peer relays, ORLY will automatically synchronize events between cluster members using efficient HTTP polling.

export ORLY_RELAY_PEERS=https://peer1.example.com,https://peer2.example.com
export ORLY_CLUSTER_ADMINS=npub1cluster_admin_key

Privacy Considerations: By default, ORLY propagates all events including privileged events (DMs, gift wraps, etc.) to cluster peers for complete synchronization. This ensures no data loss but may expose private communications to other relay operators in your cluster.

To enhance privacy, you can disable propagation of privileged events:

export ORLY_CLUSTER_PROPAGATE_PRIVILEGED_EVENTS=false

Important: When disabled, privileged events will not be replicated to peer relays. This provides better privacy but means these events will only be available on the originating relay. Users should be aware that accessing their privileged events may require connecting directly to the relay where they were originally published.

Marmot Email Bridge

ORLY includes a bidirectional Nostr DM to SMTP email bridge. Users DM the bridge's Nostr pubkey to subscribe (via Lightning payment), send outbound email, and receive inbound email as encrypted DMs.

Features

• Outbound email: Send a DM with To: / Subject: headers to the bridge pubkey — it sends the email via SMTP
• Inbound email: Email sent to npub@yourdomain is delivered as an encrypted DM with a reply link
• Lightning subscriptions: Users pay via NWC (Nostr Wallet Connect) Lightning invoices for 30-day access
• Attachment encryption: Non-plaintext email parts are zipped, encrypted with ChaCha20-Poly1305, and uploaded to Blossom with fragment-key URLs
• DKIM signing: Outbound email is DKIM-signed for deliverability (or use an SMTP smarthost)
• Dual DM protocol: Supports both NIP-04 (kind 4) and NIP-17 gift-wrapped (kind 1059) DMs
• Rate limiting: Sliding-window rate limits per user and globally

Quick Start

# 1. Build the unified binary
go build -o orly ./cmd/orly

# 2. Set environment
export ORLY_BRIDGE_ENABLED=true
export ORLY_BRIDGE_DOMAIN=yourdomain.com
export ORLY_BRIDGE_SMTP_PORT=2525
export ORLY_BRIDGE_NWC_URI="nostr+walletconnect://..."

# 3. Start (bridge runs alongside the relay)
./orly

Or run standalone against any Nostr relay:

export ORLY_BRIDGE_RELAY_URL=wss://relay.example.com
./orly bridge

Bridge Profile

The bridge publishes a kind 0 (profile metadata) event on startup so Nostr clients can discover it. Create a profile.txt in the bridge data directory (or set ORLY_BRIDGE_PROFILE):

name: Marmot Bridge
about: Nostr-Email bridge at yourdomain.com. DM 'subscribe' to get started.
picture: https://yourdomain.com/avatar.png
nip05: bridge@yourdomain.com
lud16: tips@yourdomain.com
website: https://yourdomain.com

See profile.example.txt for a template.

Client Setup (White Noise, etc.)

NIP-17 messaging clients like White Noise need the bridge to have a kind 10002 relay list event (NIP-65) to know where to send DMs. Without it, the client sees the bridge profile but reports the bridge "isn't on White Noise yet."

Until the bridge publishes kind 10002 automatically, publish one manually using nak:

export NOSTR_SECRET_KEY=nsec1...  # Bridge identity
nak event --kind 10002 \
  --tag r='wss://your-relay.com/' \
  --tag r='wss://relay.damus.io/;read' \
  --tag r='wss://nos.lol/;read' \
  wss://your-relay.com wss://relay.damus.io wss://nos.lol

See Bridge Deployment Guide — Client Setup: White Noise for full instructions.

Documentation

• Bridge Deployment Guide — DNS, DKIM, NWC, SMTP smarthost, port 25 workarounds, client setup, Migadu example

Docker Deployment

ORLY ships a single Docker image that serves both the relay and the email bridge. The default entrypoint runs the relay; pass bridge as the command to run the email bridge.

Build the Image

docker build -t orly .

Run as Relay (default)

docker run --rm -p 3334:3334 -v orly-data:/data orly

Run as Email Bridge

docker run --rm -p 2525:2525 --env-file .env.bridge orly bridge

Docker Compose (Bridge)

A ready-made compose file is provided for bridge deployment:

cp .env.bridge.example .env.bridge   # edit with your values
docker compose -f docker-compose.bridge.yml up --build

See .env.bridge.example for all available configuration variables.

Negentropy Sync (NIP-77)

ORLY supports NIP-77 negentropy-based set reconciliation for efficient relay synchronization.

Quick Start

Enable negentropy client support:

export ORLY_NEGENTROPY_ENABLED=true
./orly

Enable peer relay synchronization:

export ORLY_NEGENTROPY_ENABLED=true
export ORLY_SYNC_NEGENTROPY_PEERS=wss://relay.orly.dev,wss://other-relay.com
./orly

Split IPC Mode

For production deployments, run negentropy as a separate service:

# Build binaries
CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o orly-sync-negentropy ./cmd/orly-sync-negentropy

# Configure launcher
export ORLY_LAUNCHER_SYNC_NEGENTROPY_ENABLED=true
export ORLY_LAUNCHER_SYNC_NEGENTROPY_BINARY=/path/to/orly-sync-negentropy
export ORLY_SYNC_NEGENTROPY_PEERS=wss://peer-relay.com

strfry Compatibility

ORLY's negentropy implementation is compatible with strfry:

# Pull events from ORLY using strfry
strfry sync wss://your-orly-relay.com --filter '{"kinds": [0, 1, 3]}' --dir down

For detailed configuration including Docker deployments, filtering options, and troubleshooting, see the Negentropy Sync Guide.

Documentation

Deployment & Operations

Document	Description
Bridge Deployment Guide	DNS, DKIM, NWC, SMTP for Marmot email bridge
Deployment Testing	Deployment verification procedures
Build Platforms	Multi-platform build guide (Linux, macOS, Windows, Android)
Purego Build System	CGO-free build system with runtime library loading
WASM/Mobile Builds	WebAssembly and mobile build targets

Configuration & Access Control

Document	Description
Policy Usage Guide	Event filtering and validation rules
Policy Configuration Reference	Complete policy JSON schema
Policy Troubleshooting	Diagnosing policy issues
Curation Mode Guide	Three-tier publisher classification ACL
HTTP Guard	Bot detection and HTTP rate limiting
Branding Guide	Relay name, icon, NIP-11 customization

Architecture & Internals

Document	Description
IPC Architecture	gRPC split-process design
IPC Sync Services	Sync service API reference
Negentropy Sync Guide	NIP-77 set reconciliation setup
Sync Client Mode	Client-mode relay synchronization
Neo4j Backend	Neo4j database driver setup and tuning
NIP-77 Analysis	NIP-77 implementation details

Protocol Extensions

Document	Description
FIND Names Spec	Free Internet Name Daemon protocol
FIND Implementation	FIND integration architecture and status
NIP-XX Graph Queries	REQ filter extension for graph traversals
NIP-XX Cluster Replication	HTTP polling-based cluster replication
NIP-XX Responsive Images	Image variant protocol extension
NIP Curation	Curation-mode protocol spec
NIP NRC	Nostr Relay Connection protocol

Development & Reference

Document	Description
Glossary	ORLY terminology and domain concepts
Relay Testing Guide	Protocol compliance testing
Web UI Event Templates	Event kind templates for the web UI
Applesauce Reference	Applesauce library integration
Graph Implementation Phases	Graph query feature tracker
Graph Queries Remaining	Outstanding graph query work
Neo4j WoT Spec	Web-of-Trust graph schema
Neo4j Schema Changes	Guide for modifying the Neo4j schema

Developer Notes

Binary-Optimized Tag Storage

The nostr library (git.smesh.lol/orly/pkg/nostr/encoders/tag) uses binary optimization for e and p tags to reduce memory usage and improve comparison performance.

When events are unmarshaled from JSON, 64-character hex values in e/p tags are converted to 33-byte binary format (32 bytes hash + null terminator).

Important: When working with e/p tag values in code:

• DO NOT use tag.Value() directly - it returns raw bytes which may be binary, not hex
• ALWAYS use tag.ValueHex() to get a hex string regardless of storage format
• Use tag.ValueBinary() to get raw 32-byte binary (returns nil if not binary-encoded)

// CORRECT: Use ValueHex() for hex decoding
pt, err := hex.Dec(string(pTag.ValueHex()))

// WRONG: Value() may return binary bytes, not hex
pt, err := hex.Dec(string(pTag.Value()))  // Will fail for binary-encoded tags!

Release Process

The /release command pushes to the origin remote with tags:

git push origin main --tags

License

Licensed under AGPL-3.0-or-later.