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Directories

fd208ee8c8f283780a9552896e4823cc9dc6bfd442063889577106940fd927c1
silberengel@gitcitadel.com
Published 8/29/2026
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This NKBIP-04 spec describes a Nostr directory system, modeled after kind 30040 publication indexes and inspired by UNIX directories.

Note
UNIX directory system

On UNIX, a directory is a list of names that point at files. Some of those files are themselves directories, so the lists nest into a tree. Opening a directory "folder" means reading that list; a nested directory is just another name in that list.

Kind 30045 is that list on Nostr. It uses the same structure as a 30040 from NKBIP-01: empty content, a d tag, a title tag, and child a / e tags. Nested directories are 30045s listed in those tags.

Directory Event

kind 30045 MUST:

  • have empty content

  • contain a d tag unique for kind + pubkey, normalized to a NIP-54 style slug. This is the directory ID.

  • contain a title tag, the display name shown on the directory

  • events MUST NOT refer to themselves with a-tags or e-tags

MAY have zero or more child tags, using the standard NIP-01 tag format, followed by an optional, human-readable label.

  • Use a tags for addressable children and subdirectories.

  • Use a tags without d-tags for replaceable events, such as profile kind 0.

  • Use e tags for events that are not replaceable (e.g. external files or short text notes).

  • Any kind MAY be a child. A kind 30045 child is a subdirectory.

  • Tag order is the default display order, but your client may choose to display them in a different order or allow sorting by the label or created_at timestamp.

{
  "kind": 30045,
  "pubkey": "f7234bd4c1394dda46d09f35bd384dd30cc552ad5541990f98844fb06676e9ca",
  "content": "",
  "tags": [
    ["d", "planning-2026"],
    ["title", "Alice's Spring 2026 Planning"],
    ["a", "30045:f7234bd4c1394dda46d09f35bd384dd30cc552ad5541990f98844fb06676e9ca:planning-january", "wss://relay.example.com", "January"],
    ["a", "30045:f7234bd4c1394dda46d09f35bd384dd30cc552ad5541990f98844fb06676e9ca:planning-february", "wss://relay.example.com", "February"],
    ["a", "30045:f7234bd4c1394dda46d09f35bd384dd30cc552ad5541990f98844fb06676e9ca:planning-march", "wss://relay.example.com", "March"],
    ["a", "30045:f7234bd4c1394dda46d09f35bd384dd30cc552ad5541990f98844fb06676e9ca:planning-april", "wss://relay.example.com", "April"],
    ["e", "5c83da77af1dec6d7289834998ad7aafbd9e2191396d75ec3cc27f5a77226f36", "wss://relay.example.com", "f7234bd4c1394dda46d09f35bd384dd30cc552ad5541990f98844fb06676e9ca", "Spring Overview"],
    ["a", "0:f7234bd4c1394dda46d09f35bd384dd30cc552ad5541990f98844fb06676e9ca:", "wss://relay.example.com", "My vacation profile"]
  ]
}

Client Recommendations

  • Walk nested directories with a cycle/depth guard.

  • Refer to external files with kind 1063 file metadata events.

  • Link to websites with kind 39701 web bookmarks.

  • Render directories in GUIs as a tree of directory and file icons, but differentiate between Nostr-native events and external files that are merely referenced in an event.

Other authors

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