Most users won't manually craft a NIP-78 kind-30078 event with a d=kez
tag — that needed a nostr client most folks don't have. So verifiers
now look in all three sensible spots and the user picks whichever is
easiest to publish:
1. Kind 0 (profile metadata) — kez fence in the `about` field
2. Kind 1 (text note) — kez fence in the post body
3. Kind 30078 (NIP-78) — envelope as event content (advanced)
Web (kez-chat/web):
• New verifier implementation (replaces the v0.1 stub). Adds nostr-
tools (~108 KB) under dynamic import so it lands in its own chunk
— initial JS only grew 128→130 KB.
• SimplePool.querySync against five public relays (Damus, nos.lol,
primal, snort, nostr.wine), 4s timeout, kinds [0,1,30078] in one
REQ. Returns ✓ on first match, with an evidence_url to njump.me.
• AddClaim instructions for nostr rewritten — "pick whichever is
easiest" with concrete steps for each.
Rust (kez-channels):
• Filter now includes kinds [0, 1, 30078], limit bumped to 200.
• extract_proof_body() pulls the right candidate out of each event:
- kind 0 → JSON-decode content, return `about`
- kind 1 / 30078 → return content as-is
• 4 new unit tests (extract_proof_body for each kind incl. malformed
profile) + 2 new integration tests:
- verifies_proof_from_profile_about_field
- verifies_proof_from_kind_1_post
• Updated existing integration tests for the new filter shape.
All 11 unit + 7 integration nostr tests pass. Live at https://kez.lat.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
KEZ is a portable, decentralized identity graph: a person signs claims
linking their many accounts, publishes those claims in places only the
claimed account can publish to, and anyone can verify the connections
without trusting a central server.
Layout
------
- SPEC.md Language-agnostic protocol spec (v0.2)
- rust/ Rust implementation: kez-core, kez-channels, kez-cli
- nodejs/ TypeScript port at full parity
- rust-sig-server/ Optional axum + SQLite storage server for sigchains
- crosstest.sh Cross-implementation interop harness
Capabilities (both implementations, byte-compatible)
----------------------------------------------------
- Two primary-key algorithms: nostr/secp256k1 Schnorr (BIP-340) and
Ed25519 (RFC 8032). Identifiers: nostr:npub1... and ed25519:<hex>.
- JCS (RFC 8785) canonicalization for everything signed.
- Four proof encodings: JSON envelope, compact (kez:z1:<base64url(zstd(json))>),
Markdown fence, DNS TXT.
- Five channel plugins (no API keys, no auth needed for any of them):
dns: system resolver, _kez.<domain> TXT records
github: public gist scan + <user>/<user> profile README fallback
nostr: kind-30078 events from default relays
bluesky: public AppView author feed
ap: WebFinger + actor JSON (alias mastodon:)
- Identical CLI surface:
kez identity new [--key-type nostr|ed25519]
kez claim create <subject> (--nsec | --ed25519-seed) [--format ...] [--out ...]
kez claim dns <domain> (--nsec | --ed25519-seed)
kez verify file <path>
kez verify id <identifier>
kez sigchain add|revoke|show|export|publish
- Sigchains: append-only signed log per primary, hash-chained per spec §6,
stored locally at ~/.kez/sigchains/, exportable as JSONL or kez:zc1: bundle.
- Sigchain publish destinations: chain server, web (file dump), DNS (zone
record print), nostr (kind-30078 wrapping event).
kez-sig-server
--------------
Optional storage tier. Axum + SQLite, single binary, no external deps.
- No auth — the cryptography is the access control. The server validates
every signature, every seq, every prev hash before storing.
- REST API: POST /v1/sigchains/{scheme}/{id}/events (append signed event,
201 with new head hash or 4xx); GET /{scheme}/{id} (full chain as JSONL);
GET /head; GET /healthz.
- Designed for one central instance for now; the design doesn't preclude
running more later (clients gain a configurable list, verifiers
reconcile per spec §6.2).
- Channel-based publishing remains the always-available fallback if the
server is unavailable.
Tests
-----
- rust/ 99 tests
- rust-sig-server/ 10 integration tests (real HTTP, real SQLite)
- nodejs/ 91 tests (vitest)
- crosstest.sh 19 cross-impl scenarios — proves JCS bytes,
Schnorr + Ed25519 sigs, all four claim encodings,
and the sigchain JSONL bundle are byte-compatible
between Rust and Node in both directions.
What's not done yet
-------------------
- verify id consulting the sigchain for revocations (data path exists,
just not wired into the verifier output).
- rotate and add_device sigchain ops (types reserved).
- expires_at enforcement during claim verification.
- Typed VerificationStatus.status reflecting the five failure modes.
- Auth-required publishers (GitHub gist, Bluesky, ActivityPub).
Jason Tudisco
Tudisco