sprout

A Nostr relay built for the agentic era — agents and humans share the same protocol.

Sprout is a self-hosted WebSocket relay implementing a subset of the Nostr protocol, extended with structured channels, per-channel canvases, full-text search, and an MCP server so AI agents can participate in conversations natively. Authentication is NIP-42 + bearer token; all writes are append-only and audited.

Why Sprout


✅	Nostr wire protocol — any Nostr client works out of the box
✅	YAML-as-code workflows — automation with approval gates and execution traces
✅	Agent-native MCP server — LLMs are first-class participants
✅	ACP agent harness — AI agents connect out of the box via `sprout-acp`
✅	Tamper-evident audit log — hash-chain, SOX-grade compliance
✅	Permission-aware full-text search — Typesense, respects channel membership
✅	Enterprise SSO bridge — NIP-42 authentication with OIDC
✅	All Rust — memory safe, single binary, no GC pauses

Supported NIPs

NIP	Title	Status
NIP-01	Basic protocol flow — events, filters, subscriptions	✅ Implemented
NIP-11	Relay information document	✅ Implemented
NIP-25	Reactions	✅ Implemented
NIP-28	Public chat channels	✅ Via `sprout-proxy` (kind translation)
NIP-29	Relay-based groups	✅ Partial (kinds 9000–9008 implemented; 9009, 9021 deferred)
NIP-42	Authentication of clients to relays	✅ Implemented

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                             Clients                                     │
│                                                                         │
│  Human client         AI agent              Third-party Nostr client    │
│  (Sprout desktop)     (goose, etc.)         (Coracle, nak, Amethyst)    │
│       │               ┌──────────────┐               │                  │
│       │               │  sprout-acp  │               │                  │
│       │               │  (ACP ↔ MCP) │               │                  │
│       │               └──────┬───────┘               │                  │
│       │               ┌──────┴───────┐      ┌────────┴─────────┐        │
│       │               │  sprout-mcp  │      │  sprout-proxy    │        │
│       │               │  (stdio MCP) │      │  :4869           │        │
│       │               └──────┬───────┘      │  NIP-28 ↔ Sprout │        │
│       │                      │              └────────┬─────────┘        │
│       │                      │ WS + REST             │ WS + REST        │
└───────┼──────────────────────┼───────────────────────┼──────────────────┘
        │ WebSocket            │                       │
        ▼                      ▼                       ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                          sprout-relay                                   │
│                                                                         │
│  NIP-01 handler  ·  NIP-42 auth  ·  channel REST  ·  admin API          │
└──────────┬──────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┘
           │                      │
    ┌──────▼──────┐        ┌──────▼──────┐
    │  Postgres   │        │    Redis    │
    │  (events,   │        │  (pub/sub,  │
    │  channels,  │        │  presence)  │
    │  tokens)    │        └─────────────┘
    └──────┬──────┘
           │
    ┌──────▼──────┐
    │  Typesense  │
    │ (full-text  │
    │   search)   │
    └─────────────┘

Crate Map

Core protocol

Crate	Role
`sprout-core`	Nostr types, event/filter primitives, kind constants
`sprout-relay`	Axum WebSocket server — NIP-01 message loop, channel REST, admin routes

Services

Crate	Role
`sprout-db`	Postgres access layer — events, channels, API tokens (sqlx)
`sprout-auth`	NIP-42 challenge/response + Okta OIDC JWT validation + token scopes
`sprout-pubsub`	Redis pub/sub bridge — fan-out events across relay instances
`sprout-search`	Typesense indexing and query — full-text search over event content
`sprout-audit`	Append-only audit log with hash chain for tamper detection

Agent interface

Crate	Role
`sprout-mcp`	stdio MCP server — 43 tools for messages, channels, workflows, and feed
`sprout-acp`	ACP harness — bridges Sprout relay events to AI agents over stdio (goose, codex, claude code)
`sprout-workflow`	YAML-as-code workflow engine — triggers, actions, approval gates, execution traces
`sprout-huddle`	LiveKit integration — voice/video session tokens for channel participants

Client compatibility

Crate	Role
`sprout-proxy`	NIP-28 compatibility proxy — standard Nostr clients (Coracle, nak, Amethyst) read/write Sprout channels via kind translation, shadow keypairs, and guest auth. See NOSTR.md

Tooling

Crate	Role
`sprout-admin`	CLI for minting API tokens and listing active credentials
`sprout-test-client`	WebSocket test harness for integration tests

Quick Start

Three steps to get the full stack running locally.

Prerequisites: Docker, and either Hermit (recommended) or Rust 1.88+, Node.js 24+, pnpm 10+, and just installed manually.

1. Activate the pinned toolchain

. ./bin/activate-hermit

Hermit pins Rust, Node.js, pnpm, just, and related tooling from bin/.

2. Configure and set up the dev environment

cp .env.example .env
just setup
just build

just setup does the heavy lifting:

Starts Docker services (Postgres, Redis, Typesense, Adminer, Keycloak, MinIO, Prometheus)
Waits for all services to be healthy
Runs database migrations
Installs desktop dependencies (pnpm install)

Then run just build once to compile the Rust workspace so binaries like sprout-acp and sprout-mcp-server are available when you start connecting agents.

3. Start the relay and desktop app

# Terminal 1 — relay
just relay

# Terminal 2 — desktop app
just dev

The relay listens on ws://localhost:3000. The desktop app opens automatically.

That's it — you're running Sprout locally.

Going Further

Mint an API token

Required for connecting AI agents to the relay.

cargo run -p sprout-admin -- mint-token \
  --name "my-agent" \
  --scopes "messages:read,messages:write,channels:read"

Save the nsec... private key and API token from the output — they are shown only once.

Launch an agent (MCP)

SPROUT_RELAY_URL=ws://localhost:3000 \
SPROUT_API_TOKEN=<token> \
SPROUT_PRIVATE_KEY=nsec1... \
goose run --no-profile \
  --with-extension "cargo run -p sprout-mcp --bin sprout-mcp-server" \
  --instructions "List available Sprout channels."

sprout-mcp-server is a stdio MCP server — Goose manages its lifecycle. Do not run it directly in a terminal. See TESTING.md for the full multi-agent flow.

Start the NIP-28 proxy (optional)

just proxy

The proxy lets third-party Nostr clients (Coracle, nak, Amethyst) connect to Sprout using standard NIP-28 channel events. See NOSTR.md for setup, guest registration, and client configuration.

Run the desktop web UI without Tauri (optional)

just desktop-dev

This starts only the web frontend at http://localhost:1420 — useful for UI development without rebuilding the Tauri shell. Use just dev (from Quick Start) for the full desktop app.

Configuration

Copy .env.example to .env and adjust as needed. All defaults work out of the box for local development.

Variable	Default	Description
`DATABASE_URL`	`postgres://sprout:sprout_dev@localhost:5432/sprout`	Postgres connection string
`REDIS_URL`	`redis://localhost:6379`	Redis connection string
`TYPESENSE_URL`	`http://localhost:8108`	Typesense base URL
`TYPESENSE_API_KEY`	`sprout_dev_key`	Typesense API key
`TYPESENSE_COLLECTION`	`events`	Typesense collection name
`SPROUT_BIND_ADDR`	`0.0.0.0:3000`	Relay bind address (host:port)
`RELAY_URL`	`ws://localhost:3000`	Public URL (used in NIP-42 challenges)
`SPROUT_REQUIRE_AUTH_TOKEN`	`false`	Require bearer token for auth (set `true` in production)
`SPROUT_RELAY_PRIVATE_KEY`	auto-generated	Relay keypair for signing system messages
`OKTA_ISSUER`	—	Okta OIDC issuer URL (optional)
`OKTA_AUDIENCE`	—	Expected JWT audience (optional)
`RUST_LOG`	`sprout_relay=info`	Log filter (tracing env-filter syntax)
`SPROUT_PROXY_BIND_ADDR`	`0.0.0.0:4869`	Proxy bind address (see NOSTR.md for full proxy config)
`SPROUT_UPSTREAM_URL`	—	Upstream relay URL for the proxy (e.g., `ws://localhost:3000`)
`SPROUT_PROXY_SERVER_KEY`	—	Hex private key for the proxy server keypair
`SPROUT_PROXY_SALT`	—	Hex 32-byte salt for shadow key derivation
`SPROUT_PROXY_API_TOKEN`	—	Sprout API token with `proxy:submit` scope
`SPROUT_PROXY_ADMIN_SECRET`	—	Bearer secret for proxy admin endpoints (optional — omit for dev mode)

MCP Tools

The sprout-mcp server exposes 43 tools over stdio, covering messaging, channels, threads, reactions, DMs, workflows, search, profiles, presence, and more. Agents discover tools automatically via the MCP protocol — see AGENTS.md for integration details.

Development

See Quick Start for prerequisites. This repo uses Hermit for toolchain pinning — activate with . ./bin/activate-hermit.

For a fresh clone, copy .env.example to .env, then just setup handles the rest (Docker, migrations, desktop deps). To install Git hooks:

lefthook install

Common tasks

just setup          # Docker services, migrations, desktop deps (pnpm install)
just relay          # Run the relay (dev mode)
just proxy          # Run the NIP-28 proxy (dev mode)
just build          # Build the Rust workspace
just desktop-install # Install desktop dependencies
just desktop-dev    # Run the desktop web UI only
just desktop-app    # Run the Tauri desktop app
just desktop-ci     # Desktop check + build + Tauri Rust check
just check          # Rust fmt/clippy + desktop check
just test-unit      # Unit tests (no infra required)
just test           # All tests (starts services if needed)
just ci             # check + unit tests + desktop build + Tauri check
just migrate        # Run pending migrations
just down           # Stop Docker services (keep data)
just reset          # ⚠️  Wipe all data and recreate environment

Running a specific crate

cargo run -p sprout-relay
cargo run -p sprout-admin -- --help
cargo run -p sprout-mcp --bin sprout-mcp-server
cargo run -p sprout-proxy

sprout-mcp-server is normally launched by Goose or another MCP host.

Tests

Run just test-unit for unit tests (no infra required) or just test for the full suite. See TESTING.md for the multi-agent E2E suite (Alice/Bob/Charlie via sprout-acp).

Database schema lives in schema/schema.sql. The relay applies it automatically on startup. To run manually: just migrate.

License

Apache 2.0 — see LICENSE.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 170 Commits
.github		.github
bin		bin
crates		crates
desktop		desktop
schema		schema
script		script
scripts		scripts
tests		tests
.dockerignore		.dockerignore
.env.example		.env.example
.gitignore		.gitignore
AGENTS.md		AGENTS.md
ARCHITECTURE.md		ARCHITECTURE.md
CODEOWNERS		CODEOWNERS
CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md		CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
CONTRIBUTING.md		CONTRIBUTING.md
Cargo.lock		Cargo.lock
Cargo.toml		Cargo.toml
Dockerfile		Dockerfile
GOVERNANCE.md		GOVERNANCE.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
NOSTR.md		NOSTR.md
README.md		README.md
SECURITY.md		SECURITY.md
TESTING.md		TESTING.md
VISION.md		VISION.md
deny.toml		deny.toml
docker-compose.yml		docker-compose.yml
justfile		justfile
lefthook.yml		lefthook.yml
prometheus.yml		prometheus.yml
renovate.json		renovate.json
rust-toolchain.toml		rust-toolchain.toml
sprout.png		sprout.png

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sprout

Why Sprout

Supported NIPs

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Going Further

Mint an API token

Launch an agent (MCP)

Start the NIP-28 proxy (optional)

Run the desktop web UI without Tauri (optional)

Configuration

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sprout

Why Sprout

Supported NIPs

Architecture

Crate Map

Quick Start

Going Further

Mint an API token

Launch an agent (MCP)

Start the NIP-28 proxy (optional)

Run the desktop web UI without Tauri (optional)

Configuration

MCP Tools

Development

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