TUIstr (Nostr topical communities)

A lightweight terminal client for browsing open topical Nostr communities (kind 1111 posts with NIP-73 identifiers) and their NIP-22 comment threads. Built with Bubble Tea and powered by go-nostr. TUIstr is a fork of https://github.com/tonymajestro/reddit-tui.

Open topical communities working spec: https://github.com/damus-io/dips/pull/2/files

Features

• Featured feed across multiple relays and community identifiers.
• Jump directly to a specific community (t:, u:, or g: NIP-73 ids).
• View comment threads (NIP-22) with nested replies.
• Publish new posts to topic communities and reply to threads (requires a Nostr private key).
• Keyboard-driven navigation (vim-style) and modal search for communities.
• Configurable relays, timeouts, and featured communities via a TOML config.

Installation

git clone https://github.com/tonymajestro/TUIstr.git tuistr
cd tuistr
./install.sh

To remove the binary:

./uninstall.sh

Usage

# Open the featured communities feed
tuistr

# Jump to a specific community (NIP-73 id)
tuistr --community t:linux

# Open a specific event by ID (kind 1111)
tuistr --event <event_id>

Keybindings

• Navigation: h, j, k, l or arrow keys
• Jump: g (top), G (bottom)
• Community search modal: s
• New post: n (from timelines)
• Load more posts: L
• Home: H
• Comments: enter on a post, o to open the event in a browser
• Reply to thread: r (while viewing comments)
• Collapse/expand replies: c while viewing a thread
• Back: backspace / esc
• Quit: q / esc

Configuration

On first run, a config is created at ~/.config/tuistr/communities.toml:

[core]
logLevel = "Warn"

[nostr]
relays = ["wss://relay.damus.io", "wss://nos.lol", "wss://relay.snort.social"]
timeoutSeconds = 10
limit = 50
# Provide a hex or nsec private key to publish posts/replies
# secretKey = ""

[communities]
# NIP-73 identifiers: topics (t:), relays (u:), geohashes (g:)
featured = ["t:nostr", "t:bitcoin", "t:linux"]
default = "t:nostr"

• Featured feed: Queries kind 1111 events tagged with any I value in communities.featured.
• Community page: Queries kind 1111 events with a root I tag matching the selected identifier.
• Threads: Fetches NIP-22 replies (kinds 1/1111) referencing the root event (e/E tags).
• Publishing: Posts are kind 1111 with an I tag (topics only for now); replies are kind 1 with e/E tags back to the root.

Notes

• No Reddit APIs or email logins remain—everything is fetched from Nostr relays via go-nostr.
• Kind 1111 post URLs are rendered as https://nostr.eu/<nevent> for easy sharing/opening.

Why aren't you using NIP-29 relay based groups?

NIP-29 is a great foundation to build a moderated discord alternative (see example implementation flotilla). Open topical communities aims to solve a different problem in public townsquare forums. See a direct comparison below:

Property	NIP-29 Relay-Based Groups	Open Topical Communities (DIP)
Governance model	Admin-owned, relay-enforced	Completely ownerless; no admins
Moderation	Admins can kick, ban, delete posts	No server-side moderation; only client filtering
Structure	Group metadata + event kinds (40, 41, etc.)	Purely tag-based: NIP-73 + NIP-22
Posting rules	Relay controls membership & posting	Anyone can post by using the correct I tag
Relay dependence	High — requires a specific group relay	Optional — events can come from any relay
Censorship resistance	Medium — admin/relay can censor or remove group	High — no group to censor; content exists across relays
Threading	Group-specific event structure	Standard NIP-22 threading
Discoverability	Join group → get group feed	Browse topics/hashtags → feed auto-aggregates
Use-case fit	Moderated group chats, project teams	Open-topic discovery, public-square conversations
Dealing with spam	Admin tools can remove content & ban users at the relay level	No centralized control → requires client-side spam filtering, heuristics, muting, reputation systems
UX expectation	Structured, rule-based group	Freeform Reddit/Twitter-like topic feeds
Implementation complexity for clients	Medium–high (new event kinds, admin flows, membership UI)	Low (reuse existing NIP-73/NIP-22)
Complexity of implementing a Reddit-style Topic UI	Not applicable; groups are not topic feeds	Moderate — requires topic directory, trending topics, per-topic timelines, but no new protocol requirements
Community survivability	Depends on group relay’s longevity	Very high — any relay can host posts; topics are global