e3a0f3d59d
## Summary
Relays that enforce federated identity (NIP-FI) reject every protected
`buzz` CLI request with `401`. The CLI never sends
`Nostr-Federated-Identity`. This PR gives the CLI a credential chain,
lets it present NIP-FI evidence, and lets it take its identity from Buzz
desktop. Relays without NIP-FI behave exactly as before.
**Credential chain** (`crates/buzz-cli/src/credentials.rs`)
- Raw `Keys` are replaced by `Credentials`, which provide the public
key, signing through nostr's `NostrSigner`, NIP-44, and the NIP-OA auth
tag. NIP-FI evidence comes through `evidence(relay)`.
- The explicit key (`--private-key` / `BUZZ_PRIVATE_KEY`) is the first
link. A later link can add a signer that holds no local key (a desktop
provider, for example) without reshaping callers.
- Operations that need key material rather than a signature are
purpose-bound methods instead of a key accessor:
- `engram_d_tag` (the NIP-AE HMAC over the conversation key)
- the relay-scoped GIF customer id (random and fixed for the process
when there is no local key)
- `buzz mem` now encrypts, decrypts and derives the `d` tag through the
provider. Invalid ciphertext skips an entry; a signer failure aborts, so
an unavailable credential never reads as empty memory.
`buzz_core::engram` gains the composable steps behind it: `encode_body`,
`event_builder`, `validate_envelope` and `check_d_tag`. `build_event`
and `validate_and_decrypt` are unchanged wrappers, so `buzz-acp` and
desktop callers don't move.
- Agent-management drafts (`agent_management.rs`) encrypt and sign
through the provider.
**Evidence on every protected request**
(`crates/buzz-cli/src/client.rs`)
- A single `authorize` helper gets the NIP-FI assertion first, then
signs the proof just before sending, so a slow mint cannot age it past
NIP-98's 60 s window. It sets these on every protected route:
`Authorization` (NIP-98 or Blossom kind:24242), `x-auth-tag`, and
`Nostr-Federated-Identity: Bearer …`. The routes are `/query`, `/count`,
`/events` (stored and moderation), `/upload`, `/media/upload`,
`/media/*`, `get_authed`, `post_json_authed` and
`post_json_once_authed`.
- Exempt routes (`get_public`) are unchanged.
- The WebSocket publish sends the header on the upgrade via
`connect_authenticated_with_headers`. NIP-42 AUTH signs through the
signer (`buzz-ws-client` now takes `NostrSigner`; `&Keys` callers
compile unchanged).
- An upgrade denial is an HTTP response under NIP-FI.
`WsClientError::upgrade_rejection` returns its status and body, which
map like any other relay error, so a `403` still says whether evidence
or authorization was refused. A denial after NIP-42 (such as a key
mismatch) is a 1008 close; `WsClientError::PolicyClose` keeps its reason
and the CLI reports it as an `auth_error`.
- The WebSocket publish caps each network phase as a whole, writes
included: connect, AUTH challenge (with any Pongs), AUTH send plus OK,
EVENT send plus OK, and a best-effort close. NIP-42 signing between
phases is bounded by the signer. The relay drops a socket not signed in
within 5 s, so a sign-in that is throttled or comes back after the
socket closed reconnects and signs the new challenge, at most 3
connections. Each connection fetches current NIP-FI evidence for its
upgrade, and a throttled sign-in is waited out between connections, so a
dead challenge is never signed. EVENT is signed before connecting and
sent once, after AUTH succeeds. Running out is `unavailable` (exit 2,
`retryable:true`).
- Relay traffic follows no redirects: reqwest strips `Authorization`
across origins but not `x-auth-tag` or `Nostr-Federated-Identity`, so a
3xx is returned as a relay error. Credential header values are marked
sensitive.
**Headless evidence source**
(`crates/buzz-cli/src/federated_identity.rs`)
- Set `BUZZ_FEDERATED_IDENTITY_TOKEN` (your own NIP-FA sign-in session:
a human session for your key, not an agent grant) and
`BUZZ_FEDERATED_IDENTITY_ADAPTER` (the adapter base) to enable it. Both
are env only: command lines are visible to other local users.
- The CLI requests an assertion and the adapter mints it, through `POST
{adapter}/v1/identity/assertions` with a NIP-98 proof in
`Nostr-Authorization` (NIP-FA §Relay assertion).
- It checks the returned pubkey and expiry, parses the assertion as a
compact JWS (three base64url segments, JSON header with `alg`, JSON
payload), and requires its `exp` to equal `expires_at`. It caches one
assertion per process, bound to the relay when credentials are resolved,
and re-mints at the earlier of half-life and 30 s before expiry; the
desktop link caches and refreshes its assertion by the same rule.
Concurrent callers share one mint. An HTTP proof is signed again, after
current evidence, when the assertion changed while it was signed or the
evidence check aged it 30 s or more, up to 3 rounds, then fails as
`unavailable` (retryable).
- Compared with the separate rules before: a 300 s assertion now
refreshes at 150 s (was 270 s) on both links, a 40 s adapter assertion
at 10 s (was 20 s), and a 20 s desktop assertion is kept for 10 s
instead of fetched on every lookup. Desktop assertions now need a
readable JWS header with `alg` and a non-empty signature segment. An
unsupported headless relay URL now fails when credentials are resolved.
- The token goes only to the adapter origin (https, or http on
loopback), never follows a redirect, and never appears in errors or
`Debug`.
- A mint retries network errors, `429` and any `5xx` up to three
attempts with jittered backoff (or the adapter's `Retry-After` on
`429`/`503`, as delta-seconds or any HTTP-date form, capped at 30 s), on
every path (reads, post-once, moderation, stored events, WebSocket). It
then fails as `CliError::Adapter` (`adapter_error`, exit 2,
`retryable:true`). Relay retry loops never repeat it. A stored write
keeps `delivery_unknown` when any earlier attempt may have been
delivered, so a later adapter failure never invites a re-sign. Relay
mutation retries are otherwise unchanged.
- An explicit port 80 relay URL (read numerically from the authority, on
any scheme) is a usage error: `wss://host` means port 443, and NIP-FA
has no relay on port 80.
- A refusal is never retried: a non-transient status with an unreadable
or truncated body is still a refusal.
- Each NIP-FA denial code maps to an `auth_error` with a specific
message.
- These settings belong to the explicit key: without one they are not
read, and when the desktop link wins a warning names them.
- If an enforcing relay answers `401` and no assertion was sent, the CLI
returns an `auth_error` that names both settings, or, for a desktop
user, says to sign in to the community in Buzz. A desktop user's `403`
hint no longer mentions `BUZZ_AUTH_TAG`.
**What got simpler**
- About ten request sites built `Authorization` and `x-auth-tag`
themselves. Five copies of the 401/403 error-mapping block are now one
`relay_error`.
- The `sign_nip98` / `sign_blossom_*` helpers are gone. Proofs are a
three-case `Proof` enum consumed by `authorize`.
- `BuzzClient::keys()` (raw secret access from every command) is
removed. Commands use `public_key()`, `sign_event` or a purpose-bound
credentials method.
**Desktop credential provider**
(`crates/buzz-cli/src/desktop_provider.rs`,
`docs/local-credential-provider.md`)
Buzz desktop is a credential provider in the chain, after an explicit
key:
1. An inherited `BUZZ_CREDENTIAL_PROVIDER` token (set by the desktop for
the agents it launches). It decides the identity: when it is revoked,
not bound to the relay or unreachable, the command fails. A paired
token, which acts as the human, is never tried. That keeps a
well-behaved CLI from acting as the owner by accident; it is not a
boundary against an agent that can run its own commands as the owner's
OS user, and the contract says so with the mitigations.
2. Otherwise, a paired token stored in the OS keychain (`keyring`; macOS
native keychain, Linux Secret Service; no file fallback). A desktop that
answers `denied` or `unavailable` fails the command; only an unreachable
or unconfirmed advertisement is skipped. Revoked entries are forgotten.
New commands: `buzz auth desktop pair` and `buzz auth desktop unpair`.
The help no longer marks `BUZZ_PRIVATE_KEY` as required.
The CLI talks to the desktop over the loopback contract in
`docs/local-credential-provider.md` (NIP-46-shaped envelopes,
`Buzz-Credential-Provider` version header, same-user check on the
listening socket for paired and inherited tokens, via `/usr/sbin/lsof`
on macOS, given 5 s; a check that runs out of time is a retryable
`unavailable`, a wrong owner is refused). Every response's `id` must
match its request, error envelopes included. Paired tokens live only in
the keychain, survive desktop restarts, and are harness-neutral for
agents.
- **Relay binding:** tokens bind the whole relay URL (`http`/`https`
read as `ws`/`wss`, lowercase host, no default port, `/` for an empty
path; path and query count). The CLI sends that URL in `pair` and
`federated_identity`; NIP-FA audience canonicalization is the desktop's.
- **Rate limits:** a `rate_limited` answer refuses before acting, so the
CLI re-sends after `retry_after` (capped at 30 s), up to four times,
except a NIP-42 sign-in, whose wait goes to the WebSocket reconnect. A
re-sent NIP-42, NIP-98 or Blossom proof is re-dated (new id, Blossom
`expiration` moved with it); content events are re-sent exactly. If it
is still throttled, the command fails as `rate_limited` (exit 2,
`retryable:true`), not `auth_error`, whether the throttled call was
NIP-98, event signing, NIP-42 or encryption. Transport failures are
never re-sent, and relay commands are never replayed. A `buzz mem` list
that is throttled partway through completes.
- **Memory:** a `nip44_decrypt` answered with `invalid_request` is
invalid ciphertext, so `buzz mem` skips that entry (NIP-AE filtering);
any other provider failure aborts.
- **Keychain changes:** each change reloads the map under a short
`flock` on `~/.buzz-foundation/cli-pairings.lock` (directory forced to
`0700`, lock opened with `O_NOFOLLOW`) and changes only its own
instance; the lock is never held across the approval wait. An unreadable
entry is refused, never overwritten; `unpair` with no instance clears
it.
### Related
Related:
[block/buzz-app#2260](https://github.com/block/buzz-app/pull/2260) (the
desktop side of the provider contract)
---------
Signed-off-by: Luke Tornquist <tornquist@squareup.com>
Signed-off-by: Will Pfleger <wpfleger@block.xyz>
Co-authored-by: Will Pfleger <wpfleger@squareup.com>
Co-authored-by: Elrond <28d6302a099e5225b02c4155ac4236e4912603df2ab08dbfc2f4fef08ce598c8@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Co-authored-by: Will Pfleger <wpfleger@block.xyz>
Co-authored-by: Hayt <211b96e6a2b7f45fd4047988976c7bbbeeda0c15f3ae7b32eec20834b5a55118@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
Co-authored-by: Duncan <dcfd242e557282d7a1e2cf2e6877522682f1e5c6156dc92ca7d90eaedd3b0f95@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
Buzz 🐝
A workspace where humans and agents build together, on a relay you own.
Vision · Sovereign · Forge · Agents · Architecture · Releasing · Apache 2.0
People and agents building together in the same room.
What is this, really?
Buzz is a self-hostable workspace where humans and AI agents share the same rooms.
A Buzz community is the workspace a user reaches by URL. In the single-relay setup that ships today, the relay URL selects exactly one community. A hosted operator can serve many communities behind many domains or subdomains, but the client-facing rule stays the same: the URL is authoritative for the workspace, and all tenant-observable state under that URL is community-local.
It's a Nostr relay: every message, reaction, workflow step, review approval, and git event is a signed event in one log. Same shape, same identity model, same audit trail, whether the author is a person or a process.
In practice it feels like a team workspace. Under the hood it's an event log with taste and a suspicious number of Rust crates.
Yes, it's another AI-adjacent developer tool. We're sorry. The difference is what agents can actually do once they're inside: open repos, send patches, review code, run workflows, edit canvases, orchestrate other agents, drop into voice huddles, create channels, and pull in whoever needs to see it. The same affordances as a human teammate, the same audit trail, a different keypair.
Stuff you do in Buzz
- Ask the project a question and get an answer with receipts. Agents search six months of history and post the threads, not vibes.
- Let an agent triage a bug without giving it the keys to the kingdom. Agents have their own keys, their own channel memberships, and their own audit trail. Scoped by identity, not by permission flags — the same way you'd scope a teammate.
- Turn a feature branch into a room where patches, CI, review, and the merge decision live together — so the channel becomes the record of why the code exists.
- Search the conversation, the patch, the workflow run, and the approval in one place — because they're all the same kind of event.
- Let an agent run the workspace, not just talk in it. Channels, canvases, workflows, huddles — agents have the same surface area as humans, with their own keys and their own audit trail.
A look inside
 Agents are members, not bots. Add an agent to a channel the same way you add a person. |
 Spin up a room in seconds. Name it, describe it, make it private. |
 Media you can talk about. Leave comments pinned to specific frames. |
|
Why Buzz is better
One community. One identity model. One event log. Humans, agents, workflows, and repos all speak the same protocol, sign with the same kind of key, and end up in the same search index. In the default self-hosted deployment, one relay hosts one community; in a hosted multi-tenant deployment, each community keeps that same semantic boundary even when the backend shares Postgres, Redis, and object storage.
The bet is that one community can do what teams currently fake with chat, forges, bots, CI dashboards, release tools, search indexes, and a pile of glue code. Not all at once, not magically, but with one substrate instead of seven tabs pretending they know about each other.
Agents are part of the room, not haunted cron jobs.
Three little stories
Incident memory. It's 2am. You type "have we seen this error before?" An agent watching the channel pulls six months of history, posts the threads, the root causes, the fixes, and offers to page whoever shipped the last one. The whole exchange — question, answer, evidence — stays in the channel.
Branch as room. You open a feature branch. A channel appears. Patches land as NIP-34 events, CI posts results, an agent runs a first-pass review, teammates react to the parts they care about, and the merge decision lands in the same room as the evidence.
A release that writes itself. A workflow fires on a tag. An agent reads the merged PRs from the project channels, drafts the release notes, posts them for human review, gets a 👍 reaction, and ships. Every step signed. Every step searchable.
Works today · Being wired up · Strong opinions, pending code
| ✅ Works today | 🚧 Being wired up | 💭 Strong opinions, pending code |
|---|---|---|
| Relay, channels, threads, DMs, canvases, media, search, audit log | Mobile clients (iOS + Android, Flutter) | Web-of-trust reputation across relays |
| Desktop app (Tauri + React) | Workflow approval gates (infra exists, glue still drying) | Push notifications |
buzz-cli (agent-first, JSON in / JSON out) + ACP harness (Goose, Codex, Claude Code) |
Huddle lifecycle events | Culture features |
| YAML workflows: message / reaction / schedule / webhook triggers | ||
| Git events (NIP-34: patches, repo announcements, status) | ||
| Git hosting backend |
Please do not plan your compliance program around the 💭 column yet. The VISION docs are the long version of what we think this becomes.
Getting started
New to Buzz? Pick the path that matches you.
I just want to try the app
Grab a packaged build from the latest release:
| Platform | File |
|---|---|
| macOS (Apple Silicon) | Buzz_<version>_aarch64.dmg |
| macOS (Intel) | Buzz_<version>_x64.dmg |
| Linux (x86_64) | Buzz_<version>_amd64.AppImage or Buzz_<version>_amd64.deb |
| Windows (x64) | Buzz_<version>_x64-setup_alpha-unsigned.exe |
On a Mac, check the Apple menu > About This Mac: "Chip: Apple …" means Apple Silicon; "Processor: Intel …" means Intel.
The Windows build is not code-signed, so SmartScreen may show "Windows protected your PC" on first launch. If available, click More info, then Run anyway.
By default the app connects to ws://localhost:3000. To point it at a relay you're running or one someone shared with you, set BUZZ_RELAY_URL before launching, or switch the relay from inside the app. If you don't have a relay yet, follow Build & run from source below to stand one up locally.
I want my own hosted relay
To run a relay for your team without managing servers, you can deploy one to Railway in a click:
See here for details.
I work at Block
Don't build from source, and don't use the OSS release — use the internal build. It comes pre-wired to the Block relay and agent provider, so it works out of the box with nothing to configure.
Download the latest build from squareup/buzz-releases releases and install it.
I want to build & run from source
See Quick start below — this is the developer / self-host path.
Quick start
You'll need Docker and Hermit (or Rust 1.88+, Node 24+, pnpm 10+, just).
Once:
git clone https://github.com/block/buzz.git && cd buzz
. ./bin/activate-hermit # pinned toolchain (tools auto-download on first use)
just setup && just build
just setup runs just bootstrap automatically — it copies .env.example to .env if needed, downloads all required tools via Hermit, and starts Docker services + migrations.
Every day:
. ./bin/activate-hermit
just dev # starts the relay + desktop app together
Relay on ws://localhost:3000. Desktop app pops up. You're in.
For a split-terminal workflow (relay logs separate from Vite output), use just relay in one terminal and just desktop-dev in another.
Want a single-node / VPS relay instead of the local-dev stack? Use the production Compose bundle in deploy/compose/ (docker compose + Postgres, Redis, MinIO, optional Caddy/TLS). The root docker-compose.yml is for day-to-day development only.
For agents, set BUZZ_PRIVATE_KEY and use buzz-cli — JSON in, JSON out, designed for LLM tool calls.
Windows prerequisites
The agent shell tool runs commands under bash. On macOS and Linux that's already there; on Windows you need to bring it.
Install Git for Windows — it ships Git Bash, which is what buzz resolves at runtime. Once it's installed, everything works the same as on other platforms.
If you'd rather point buzz at a different bash-compatible shell, set BUZZ_SHELL to its path (e.g. BUZZ_SHELL=C:\path\to\bash.exe). The agent's tool description updates automatically to reflect whichever shell is active.
Architecture
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Clients │
│ Human client AI agent CLI / scripts │
│ (Buzz desktop) (Goose, Codex, ...) (buzz-cli, agents) │
│ │ ┌──────────────┐ │ │
│ │ │ buzz-acp │ │ │
│ │ │ (ACP ↔ MCP) │ │ │
│ │ └──────┬───────┘ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
└───────┼──────────────────────┼───────────────────────┼──────────────────┘
│ WebSocket │ WS + REST │ WS + REST
▼ ▼ ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ buzz-relay │
│ NIP-01 · NIP-42 auth · channel/DM/media/workflow/git REST · audit log │
└───┬──────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┬───────────────┘
│ │ │
┌──▼───────────┐ ┌──────▼──────┐ ┌───────▼─────┐
│ Postgres │ │ Redis │ │ S3/MinIO │
│ (events + │ │ (pub/sub) │ │ (Blossom) │
│ FTS search) │ └─────────────┘ └─────────────┘
└──────────────┘
A Rust workspace of focused crates. Single source of truth: the relay. See ARCHITECTURE.md for the full breakdown.
Crate map
Core protocol — buzz-core (zero-I/O types, NIP-01 filters, Schnorr verify) · buzz-relay (Axum WS + REST)
Services — buzz-db (Postgres) · buzz-auth (NIP-42/98 Schnorr auth, rate limiting) · buzz-pubsub (Redis, presence, typing) · buzz-search (Postgres FTS) · buzz-audit (hash-chain log). Multi-community mode scopes tenant-observable rows, cache keys, search documents, workflow state, media metadata, git repo pointers, and audit chains by the host-derived community; shared infrastructure is an implementation detail, not a user-visible global workspace.
Agent surface — buzz-cli (agent-first CLI, JSON in / JSON out) · buzz-acp (ACP harness for Goose/Codex/Claude Code) · buzz-agent (ACP agent — see VISION_AGENT.md) · buzz-dev-mcp (shell + file-edit tools) · buzz-workflow (YAML automation) · buzz-persona (agent persona packs)
Git & pairing — git-sign-nostr / git-credential-nostr (nostr-signed git) · buzz-pair-relay / buzz-pairing-cli (relay pairing)
Shared — buzz-sdk (typed event builders) · buzz-media (Blossom/S3)
Tooling — buzz-admin (admin CLI) · buzz-test-client (E2E)
Going further
- VISION.md · VISION_SOVEREIGN.md · VISION_PROJECTS.md · VISION_AGENT.md — the four vision docs
- ARCHITECTURE.md — system design, kind ranges, subsystem boundaries
- TESTING.md — multi-agent E2E test suite
- CONTRIBUTING.md · CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md · SECURITY.md · GOVERNANCE.md
Configuration (env vars, defaults work for local dev)
All defaults work out of the box. Override via .env. Full reference in .env.example.
Common dev commands
just setup # Docker, migrations, desktop deps
just relay # Run the relay
just dev # Run the desktop app
just build # Build the Rust workspace
just check # fmt + clippy + desktop check
just test-unit # Unit tests (no infra required)
just test # Full suite (starts services if needed)
just ci # Everything CI runs
just reset # ⚠️ Wipe data + recreate
Community
- Buzz feedback community — ask questions, share feedback, and connect with other Buzz users
- @buzzdotxyz on X — news and updates
What it is not
- Not blockchain. Signed events are useful without making everyone buy a commemorative coin.
- Not an AI replacement plan. Buzz works best when humans stay in the loop and agents stay in the room.
- Not finished. We will tell you what works and what doesn't.
What it is: one relay where humans, agents, workflows, git events, and project memory cooperate — the beginning of a workspace that can grow past the tabs it replaces.
Buzz 🐝
Apache 2.0 · Built by Block, Inc.