nostr_console

Nostr console client using Dart

This is an experimental or pre-alpha software made to show or know what a Nostr network client would look like. It works 90% of the time everytime; less when relays are not working perfectly.

todo

other longer term todo

parallel connections to relays in different isolate
build appimage for linux use
have spam rules file, which user can add and block spam

Running Nostr Console using Docker

First check out or unzip the code to a directory, cd to that directory, and from there type the following commands: (make sure Docker desktop is running in the background)

docker build  -t nostr_console .

Then run using

docker run -it nostr_console start

Prebuilt Docker Images

Prebuilt docker image from the main branch of this repository can be found here.

docker pull ghcr.io/vishalxl/nostr_console:main

and then

docker run -it ghcr.io/vishalxl/nostr_console:main

Use

Easiest way to run nostr_console: Go to releases and get an executable for your platform.

Otherwise do following:

Install Flutter SDK, or Dart SDK
git clone this repository
From the project folder, run command dart pub get which gets all the dependencies
Run command dart run bin/nostr_console.dart, which will run it with default settings.
Further you can create an executable for your platform by dart compile exe bin/nostr_console.dart which will create an executable for your platform. You can invoke that exe with required parameters. On Windows, you can create a shortcut to it with your desired command line arguments mentioned in it.

Usage:

usage: dart run bin/nostr_console.dart [OPTIONS] 

  OPTIONS

      -p, --pubkey  <public key>    The hex public key of user whose events and feed are shown. Default is a hard-coded
                                    public key derived from a well known private key. When given, posts/replies can't be sent. 
      -k, --prikey  <private key>   The hex private key of user whose events and feed are shown. Also used to sign events 
                                    sent. Default is same-as-above hard-coded well known private key. 
      -r, --relay   <relay urls>    The comma separated relay urls that are used as main relays. If given, these are used
                                    rather than the default relays.
      -d, --days    <N as num>      The latest number of days for which events are shown. Default is 1.
      -q, --request <REQ string>    This request is sent verbatim to the default relay. It can be used to receive all events
                                    from a relay. If not provided, then events for default or given user are shown.
      -f, --file    <filename>      Read from given file, if it is present, and at the end of the program execution, write
                                    to it all the events (including the ones read, and any new received).
      -s, --disable-file            When turned on, even the default file is not read from.
      -t, --translate               Translate some of the recent posts using Google translate site ( and not api). Google 
                                    is accessed for any translation request only if this flag is present, and not otherwise.
      -l, --lnqr                    If set any LN invoices starting with LNBC will be printed as a QR code. Will set 
                                    width to 140, which can be reset if needed with the --width argument. Wider space is 
                                    needed for some qr codes.
      -g, --location                The given value is added as a 'location' tag with every kind 1 post made. Shortcut g for
                                    geographic location.
      -h, --help                    Print help/usage message and exit. 
      -v, --version                 Print version and exit.

  UI Options                                
      -a, --align  <left>           When "left" is given as option to this argument, then the text is aligned to left. By default
                                    the posts or text is aligned to the center of the terminal. 
      -w, --width  <width as num>   This specifies how wide you want the text to be, in number of columns. Default is 100. 
                                    Can't be less than 60.
      -m, --maxdepth <depth as num> The maximum depth to which the threads can be displayed. Minimum is 2 and
                                    maximum allowed is 12. 
      -c, --color  <color>          Color option can be green, cyan, white, black, red and blue.

  Advanced
      -y, --difficulty <number>     The difficulty number in bits, only for kind 1 messages. The next larger number divisible by 4 is 
                                    taken as difficulty. Can't be more than 32 bits, because otherwise it typically takes too much 
                                    time. Minimum and default is 0, which means no difficulty.
      -e, --overwrite               Will over write the file with all the events that were read from file, and all newly received. Is
                                    useful when the file has to be cleared of old unused events. A backup should be made just in case
                                    of original file before invoking.

Command line examples

To 'login' as a user with private key K:

nostr_console.exe  --prikey=K

To get ALL the latest messages on relays for last 3 days (on bash shell which allows backtick execution), for user with private key K:

nostr_console.exe  --prikey=K --request=`echo "[\"REQ\",\"l\",{\"since\":$(date -d '-3 day' +%s)}]"`

To get all encrypted messages:

./nostr_console_elf64 --prikey=K --request='["REQ","cn",{"limit":20000,"kinds":[104,140,141,142],"since":1663417739}]' # run on linux/bash

To run unit tests using Dart, in main/top level directory, run:

dart run test  -r expanded

Troubleshooting

In case program is not sending events:

Make sure you are running the latest version. ( versions from 0.2.6 to 0.2.9 were very unstable)
Delete or backup the events file. Specially if its is more than 50 MB or has more than 50k events.
Right after starting, go to social network menu, and press 1 or such menu a couple of times (to print events) to allow some background processing, so that events can be processed. Once all "notifications" or new events have come in, then try sending your event(s)

In case program is not fetching events:

Give it other or more relays' using --relay argument.
If event file is more than 50 MB, delete/backup it and start again.

Configuring Proxy

When you are in an network which blocks outgoing HTTPS (e.g. company firewall), but there is a proxy you can set environment variable before running nostr_console. Examples below use authentication. Drop username:password if not required.

Linux

$ export HTTP_PROXY=http://username:[email protected]:1234
$ export HTTPS_PROXY=http://username:[email protected]:5678

To make permanent add to your shell profile, e.g. ~/.bashrc or to /etc/profile.d/

Windows

C:\setx HTTP_PROXY=http://username:[email protected]:1234
C:\setx HTTPS_PROXY=http://username:[email protected]:5678

Using setx to set an environment variable changes the value used in both the current command prompt session and all command prompt sessions that you create after running the command. It does not affect other command shells that are already running at the time you run the command.

Use set to set an environment variable changes the value used until the end of the current command prompt session, or until you set the variable to a different value.