MOAR (Mother Of All Relays)

A customizable, multi-tenant Nostr relay gateway built in Rust. Run multiple independent relay instances with different policies behind a single server, all managed through a web-based admin interface.

Features

• Multi-Tenant Architecture - Run multiple relays on one server, each with its own database, policies, and subdomain
• Flexible Policy Engine - Per-relay read/write access control, pubkey allow/block lists, event kind filtering, content length limits, proof-of-work requirements, and rate limiting
• Web Admin Dashboard - Manage relays through a browser UI with NIP-98 authentication via Nostr browser extensions
• LMDB Storage - Fast embedded storage with full indexing (by author, kind, tags, timestamp)
• Nostr Protocol Support - NIP-01 (basic protocol), NIP-13 (proof of work), NIP-42 (authentication), NIP-98 (HTTP auth), replaceable and parameterized replaceable events
• TOML Configuration - Human and LLM-friendly config format

Quick Start

Docker (Recommended)

The fastest way to deploy MOAR with automatic TLS:

git clone https://github.com/example/moar.git
cd moar
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env — set MOAR_DOMAIN and ADMIN_PUBKEY
docker compose up -d

This starts MOAR behind Caddy, which automatically provisions TLS certificates for your domain and all relay subdomains. Just point your DNS A record (and *.yourdomain) at your server and open ports 80 + 443.

Or use the one-line installer:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/example/moar/master/install.sh | bash

See DEPLOYMENT.md for full Docker and bare-metal deployment guides.

From Source

Prerequisites: Rust 1.75+ and Cargo

git clone https://github.com/example/moar.git
cd moar
cp moar.example.toml moar.toml   # Create your config from the example
cargo build --release
./target/release/moar start

The gateway starts on http://localhost:8080 by default.

CLI Usage

# Start with default config (moar.toml)
moar start

# Start with a custom config file
moar start --config /path/to/config.toml
moar start -c config.toml

Configuration

MOAR is configured via a TOML file. See moar.example.toml for a complete example.

Global Settings

domain = "relay.example.com"   # Base domain for all relays
port = 8080                    # HTTP listen port

Relay Instances

Each relay is defined under [relays.<id>] and gets its own subdomain, database, and policy:

[relays.outbox]
name = "My Outbox"
description = "Only I can post here"
subdomain = "outbox"                # wss://outbox.relay.example.com/
db_path = "data/outbox.mdb"

Policies

Policies are optional - omitting them defaults to open access.

Write Policy - Control who can publish events:

[relays.outbox.policy.write]
require_auth = false
allowed_pubkeys = ["npub1..."]    # Whitelist (hex or bech32)
blocked_pubkeys = ["npub1..."]    # Blacklist

Read Policy - Control who can query events:

[relays.outbox.policy.read]
require_auth = false
allowed_pubkeys = ["npub1..."]

Event Policy - Filter by event properties:

[relays.outbox.policy.events]
allowed_kinds = [1, 4]            # Only accept these kinds
blocked_kinds = [5]               # Reject these kinds
min_pow = 0                       # NIP-13 proof-of-work difficulty
max_content_length = 10000        # Max content size in bytes

Rate Limiting:

[relays.outbox.policy.rate_limit]
writes_per_minute = 60
reads_per_minute = 120

Common Relay Patterns

Public Relay (open read/write):

[relays.public]
name = "Public Relay"
subdomain = "www"
db_path = "data/public.mdb"

Outbox Relay (public read, whitelisted write):

[relays.outbox]
name = "My Outbox"
subdomain = "outbox"
db_path = "data/outbox.mdb"

[relays.outbox.policy.write]
allowed_pubkeys = ["npub1..."]

DM Relay (authenticated read/write, specific kinds only):

[relays.dms]
name = "DM Relay"
subdomain = "dm"
db_path = "data/dm.mdb"

[relays.dms.policy.write]
require_auth = true
allowed_pubkeys = ["npub1..."]

[relays.dms.policy.read]
require_auth = true
allowed_pubkeys = ["npub1..."]

[relays.dms.policy.events]
allowed_kinds = [4, 1059]

Admin API

The admin dashboard is served on port 8888 (via the admin container). Authentication uses NIP-98 via a Nostr browser extension (nos2x, Alby, etc.).

Endpoints

Method	Path	Description
POST	/api/login	Authenticate with NIP-98 signed event
POST	/api/logout	Clear session
GET	/api/status	Server status and pending restart flag
GET	/api/relays	List all relays
GET	/api/relays/:id	Get relay config
POST	/api/relays	Create relay
PUT	/api/relays/:id	Update relay
DELETE	/api/relays/:id	Delete relay

Changes made via the admin API are persisted to the TOML config file. Some changes require a server restart to take effect (the UI will indicate this).

Architecture

Client (WebSocket)
    │
    ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Gateway (host-based routing)           │
│                                         │
│  relay.example.com → Admin UI/API       │
│  outbox.relay.example.com → Relay WS    │
│  dm.relay.example.com → Relay WS        │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘
    │                │
    ▼                ▼
┌─────────┐   ┌─────────┐
│ Policy  │   │ Policy  │   ← Per-relay policy engine
│ Engine  │   │ Engine  │
└─────────┘   └─────────┘
    │                │
    ▼                ▼
┌─────────┐   ┌─────────┐
│  LMDB   │   │  LMDB   │   ← Independent databases
└─────────┘   └─────────┘

Development

Local Docker Setup

The easiest way to run the full stack locally. Uses plain HTTP (no TLS).

# 1. Set up your environment
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env — set ADMIN_PUBKEY to your hex pubkey

# 2. Create data directories
mkdir -p data config pages

# 3. Start all services
docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up -d --build

This starts three containers:

• server (localhost:8080) — MOAR relay gateway
• admin — Next.js admin panel
• caddy (localhost:8888) — Reverse proxy serving the admin UI with API passthrough

Visit http://localhost:8888 to access the admin panel. Login with a NIP-07 browser extension (nos2x, Alby, etc.) using the pubkey from your .env.

To rebuild after code changes:

docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up -d --build

Bare-Metal

# Run the Rust server
RUST_LOG=debug cargo run -- start

# In another terminal, run the admin dev server (hot reload)
cd admin && npm install && npm run dev

The admin dev server runs on http://localhost:3000 and proxies API calls to localhost:8080.

Tests

cargo test                       # All tests
cargo test --lib policy          # Policy engine tests
cargo test integration_          # Integration tests

Roadmap

• JSONL Import/Export - Bulk import and export events in JSONL format for backups and migration between relays
• Relay Metadata (NIP-11) - Serve relay information documents with operator info, supported NIPs, and policy details
• Onboarding/Setup Wizard - Guided first-run experience to configure your domain, create initial relays, and set up admin access

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.