Nostr Relay Setup Guide
This guide walks through setting up strfry — a fast, lightweight Nostr relay — on a Linux server with a domain name and TLS certificate.
On This Page
1. Prerequisites
- • A Linux server (Ubuntu 22.04+ or Debian 12+ recommended)
- • A domain name pointed at your server's IP (e.g.
relay.yourdomain.com) - • SSH access with sudo privileges
- • Ports 80 and 443 open in your firewall
💡 Tip
Budget VPS providers like Hetzner, BuyVM, or 1984 Hosting offer suitable servers for $3–5/month. Avoid providers known for censoring content.
2. Install strfry
Terminal
# Install build dependencies sudo apt update sudo apt install -y git build-essential cmake libssl-dev zlib1g-dev \ liblmdb-dev libflatbuffers-dev libsecp256k1-dev # Clone strfry git clone https://github.com/hoytech/strfry.git cd strfry # Build git submodule update --init make setup-golpe make -j$(nproc) # Install sudo cp strfry /usr/local/bin/ sudo mkdir -p /etc/strfry sudo cp strfry.conf /etc/strfry/
3. Configure the Relay
/etc/strfry/strfry.conf (key settings)
# Database location
db = "/var/lib/strfry/data/"
# Bind to localhost (nginx will proxy)
relay {
bind = "127.0.0.1"
port = 7777
info {
name = "Rev Now Community Relay"
description = "A relay supporting censorship-resistant media"
contact = "admin@yourdomain.com"
}
}
# Event limits
relay {
maxWebsocketPayloadSize = 131072 # 128 KB
maxFilterLimit = 500
}Terminal
# Create data directory sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/strfry/data sudo chown -R nobody:nogroup /var/lib/strfry
4. Nginx Reverse Proxy + TLS
Terminal
# Install nginx and certbot sudo apt install -y nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx # Get TLS certificate sudo certbot --nginx -d relay.yourdomain.com
/etc/nginx/sites-available/nostr-relay
upstream strfry_backend {
server 127.0.0.1:7777;
}
server {
listen 443 ssl http2;
server_name relay.yourdomain.com;
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/relay.yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/relay.yourdomain.com/privkey.pem;
location / {
proxy_pass http://strfry_backend;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_read_timeout 86400s;
proxy_send_timeout 86400s;
}
}
server {
listen 80;
server_name relay.yourdomain.com;
return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}Terminal
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/nostr-relay /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ sudo nginx -t sudo systemctl reload nginx
5. Systemd Service
/etc/systemd/system/strfry.service
[Unit] Description=strfry Nostr Relay After=network.target [Service] Type=simple User=nobody ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/strfry relay WorkingDirectory=/etc/strfry Restart=on-failure RestartSec=5 LimitNOFILE=65536 [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target
Terminal
sudo systemctl daemon-reload sudo systemctl enable strfry sudo systemctl start strfry # Check it's running sudo systemctl status strfry
6. Whitelist Rev Now's Pubkey
If you're running a community relay (not a public relay), you can restrict which pubkeys can publish to your relay. strfry supports write policy plugins:
/etc/strfry/write-policy.sh
#!/bin/bash
# Simple write policy: allow only whitelisted pubkeys
# Rev Now's hex pubkey (convert npub to hex at nostr.com/tools)
ALLOWED_PUBKEYS=(
"YOUR_HEX_PUBKEY_HERE"
# Add more pubkeys as needed
)
# Read event JSON from stdin
EVENT=$(cat)
PUBKEY=$(echo "$EVENT" | jq -r '.event.pubkey')
for pk in "${ALLOWED_PUBKEYS[@]}"; do
if [ "$PUBKEY" = "$pk" ]; then
echo '{"action":"accept"}'
exit 0
fi
done
echo '{"action":"reject","msg":"Not on whitelist"}'Find Rev Now's npub on our Access page. Convert it to hex format using a tool like nostr.com/tools ↗.
7. Test Your Relay
Terminal
# Test WebSocket connection
websocat wss://relay.yourdomain.com
# Or use wscat (Node.js)
npx wscat -c wss://relay.yourdomain.com
# Send a REQ to test
# Type this into the WebSocket connection:
["REQ","test",{"limit":5}]
# You should see EOSE (end of stored events):
["EOSE","test"]You can also test from browser-based tools:
- • nostr.watch ↗ — relay testing and monitoring
- • nostrrr.com ↗ — relay directory and health checks
8. Monitoring & Maintenance
Terminal
# Check logs sudo journalctl -u strfry -f # Check database size du -sh /var/lib/strfry/data/ # Check connected clients ss -tnp | grep :7777 | wc -l # Update strfry cd ~/strfry git pull make -j$(nproc) sudo cp strfry /usr/local/bin/ sudo systemctl restart strfry
⚠ Warning
Back up your relay database regularly. A corrupt LMDB database can lose all stored events. Use strfry export to dump events to a JSON Lines file for backup.