nak

nak is a command-line tool built by fiatjaf for doing “all things nostr” from a terminal. The repository describes it as a “nostr army knife,” and that framing fits. Developers can use nak to create and sign events, publish them to relays, query and filter relay data, decode and encode NIP-19 identifiers, inspect profiles, generate and encrypt keys, and chain the results into other Unix tools like jq.

Because it is a CLI, nak is useful well beyond app development. It gives client authors, relay operators, bot builders, and power users a fast way to inspect live relay behavior, script repeated tasks, and test new protocol ideas without building a UI first. The project has also grown into a broader toolbox, with commands and code paths for bunker signing, negentropy sync, git-related workflows, Blossom, wallet operations, nsite, nostrfs, and newer features like an MCP server.

Why fund it?

Nostr needs good terminal-native tools. A lot of protocol work starts as quick experiments: publish a test event, inspect replies from several relays, verify a signature, replay a message, or script an admin task. When that work depends on a full client UI or custom one-off code, iteration slows down and fewer people can participate. nak makes the protocol easier to explore, debug, and automate from a shell.

OpenSats supports nak through fiatjaf's long-term support grant. In the announcement for that grant, OpenSats called out nak as one of the side projects that the grant would help him continue to ship alongside nos2x, khatru, eventstore, njump, and other nostr tools.

What's next?

Development is active. nak shipped v0.19.12 on June 9, 2026, and recent commits show continued work on protocol-safety fixes for gift-wrapped events, better kind handling, nsite logging, profile examples in the README, and preliminary podcast support. That pace matches the role nak plays in the ecosystem: a practical tool that keeps absorbing new nostr capabilities as the protocol surface expands.

For ongoing development, see the nak repository and its release history.