NIP-86 management

The JSON-RPC management API: moderation, access lists, relay identity, roles, invite claims and delegated method grants, with Bearer or NIP-98 authentication.

Enabling

NIP-86 is a JSON-RPC API for managing the relay. It needs one of two authentication methods, otherwise every call is refused:

Method	Setup
Bearer token	Set `rpc.management_token` and send `Authorization: Bearer <token>`
NIP-98	Set `rpc.admin_pubkey` and send a NIP-98 auth event (kind 27235) signed by the admin key in `Authorization: Nostr <base64>` — a `payload` tag is required; each event is single-use within its 60-second window

Calling the API

POST / with Content-Type: application/nostr+json+rpc:

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8080/ \
  -H "Content-Type: application/nostr+json+rpc" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -d '{"method":"supportedmethods","params":[]}'

Methods

Method	Params	Description
`supportedmethods`	[]	List of supported methods
`banpubkey`	["pubkey", "reason (optional)"]	Ban a pubkey from posting (also removes it from the allowlist)
`unbanpubkey`	["pubkey"]	Unban a pubkey
`listbannedpubkeys`	[]	List banned pubkeys and reasons
`allowpubkey`	["pubkey", "reason (optional)"]	Add to the allowlist (also un-bans)
`unallowpubkey`	["pubkey"]	Remove from the allowlist
`listallowedpubkeys`	[]	List the allowlist
`allowkind` / `disallowkind`	[kind]	Allow / disallow a kind
`listallowedkinds` / `listdisallowedkinds`	[]	List allowed / disallowed kinds
`changerelayname` / `changerelaydescription` / `changerelayicon`	["new value"]	Change the relay name / description / icon (persisted to the config file; reports an error when the file cannot be written)
`createrole` / `editrole` / `deleterole`	[id, label, description, color, order]	NIP-43 role management (wrong-typed fields are rejected; deleting a missing role succeeds)
`assignrole` / `unassignrole`	["pubkey", "role id"]	Assign / unassign a role (a duplicate grant or missing revocation succeeds)
`assignmethod` / `unassignmethod`	["pubkey", "method"]	Grant / revoke a NIP-86 method to a non-admin pubkey — only moderation and read methods are grantable
`listmethodassignees`	[]	List method grants (`[{pubkey, methods}]`)
`blockip` / `unblockip`	["ip", "reason (optional)"]	Block / unblock an IP (blocking also drops existing connections)
`listblockedips`	[]	List blocked IPs
`banevent`	["event id", "reason (optional)"]	Ban an event (banning an unknown id pre-bans it; also removes it from the allowlist)
`allowevent`	["event id", "reason (optional)"]	Add an event to the allowlist (also lifts the ban; allowing an unknown id pre-allows it)
`unallowevent` / `unbanevent`	["event id"]	Remove an event from the allow / ban list (a missing entry succeeds)
`listbannedevents`	[]	List banned events (a failed lookup surfaces an error, never an empty list)
`listallowedevents`	[]	List allowed events
`listeventsneedingmoderation`	[]	Events awaiting moderation (always empty on this relay)
`listclaims`	[]	List NIP-43 invite codes
`createclaim` / `deleteclaim`	["claim"]	Issue / revoke a NIP-43 invite code (a kind:28934 carrying a listed code admits its author)

Delegated administration

rpc.admin_pubkey (and the management token) stay the root login with every method. Other pubkeys authenticate with NIP-98 and may only run their assignmethod-granted methods (supportedmethods shows their own subset). Permission, role, invite-claim and relay-identity management stay admin-only, so a grantee can never escalate. A banned pubkey is refused even with grants.

Served on the public POST / routes

The NIP-86 RPC is mounted on the relay's public POST / routes. Mutations are recorded in a rate-limited audit log (at most 600 entries per minute) with the authenticated identity. Requests over rpc.max_admin_body_bytes are refused with 413.