Nyx

Private terminal messenger on Nostr over Tor.

About

Nyx is a private, decentralized terminal messenger built on the Nostr protocol. All traffic is routed through Tor, making it resistant to censorship and surveillance. It features end-to-end encrypted messaging, file transfer, and full Persian/Arabic text support.

Features

• Nostr protocol - Decentralized social protocol with no central servers
• Tor integration - All traffic routed through Tor for anonymity
• End-to-end encryption - NIP-44 v2 encrypted direct messages (NIP-17 gift wrap)
• File transfer - Send and receive files over Blossom protocol with AES-GCM encryption
• Persian/Arabic support - Full BiDi text rendering and Arabic letter shaping
• Multiple themes - 6 built-in color themes (Midnight, Aurora, Sakura, Matrix, Sunset, Forest)
• Bridge support - Auto-fetch obfs4 bridges for censored regions
• Pure Python - No native dependencies, works on Windows/Linux/macOS
• Lightweight - Minimal resource usage, runs in any terminal

Install

pip install nyxchat

Run

nyx

First run auto-installs a local Tor and any missing Python deps.

Keys

How It Works

1. Identity - Generates or imports a Nostr keypair (nsec/npub)
2. Tor - Launches a private Tor process with obfs4 bridges for censorship resistance
3. Relays - Connects to Nostr relays over Tor via WebSocket
4. Messaging - Sends and receives NIP-17 gift-wrapped, NIP-44 encrypted messages
5. Files - Encrypts files with AES-GCM, uploads to Blossom servers over Tor

Config

~/.nyx/key            your nsec  (chmod 600)
~/.nyx/profile.json   display name, username
~/.nyx/contacts.json  contact list
~/.nyx/tor/           private Tor datadir
~/.nyx/bin/tor        private Tor binary

Override with env NYX_HOME=/some/path.

Topics

nostr tor messenger privacy encryption terminal tui chat decentralized censorship-resistance obfs4 bridges persian arabic bidi

License

MIT