diff --git a/cli/src/main/kotlin/com/vitorpamplona/amethyst/cli/Context.kt b/cli/src/main/kotlin/com/vitorpamplona/amethyst/cli/Context.kt
index f0643d25c..ab3ab5976 100644
--- a/cli/src/main/kotlin/com/vitorpamplona/amethyst/cli/Context.kt
+++ b/cli/src/main/kotlin/com/vitorpamplona/amethyst/cli/Context.kt
@@ -121,9 +121,17 @@ class Context(
      * Lazy so commands that don't touch persistent event state pay zero
      * open cost (no `.lock` file, no seed allocation). Closed by
      * [close] when this Context shuts down.
+     *
+     * Files are written pretty-printed (not the compact NIP-01 canonical
+     * form) so `cat`, `jq`, `git diff` are useful out of the box —
+     * humans inspect these files. Verification always re-canonicalises,
+     * so the stored bytes never feed back into a signature check.
      */
     val store: IEventStore by lazy {
-        FsEventStore(dataDir.eventsDir.toPath())
+        FsEventStore(
+            root = dataDir.eventsDir.toPath(),
+            eventToJson = com.vitorpamplona.quartz.nip01Core.jackson.JacksonMapper::toJsonPretty,
+        )
     }
 
     /** Fully-wired manager. Call [prepare] once before use to load persisted state. */
diff --git a/quartz/src/jvmAndroid/kotlin/com/vitorpamplona/quartz/nip01Core/jackson/JacksonMapper.kt b/quartz/src/jvmAndroid/kotlin/com/vitorpamplona/quartz/nip01Core/jackson/JacksonMapper.kt
index 53c981091..b8abc79d8 100644
--- a/quartz/src/jvmAndroid/kotlin/com/vitorpamplona/quartz/nip01Core/jackson/JacksonMapper.kt
+++ b/quartz/src/jvmAndroid/kotlin/com/vitorpamplona/quartz/nip01Core/jackson/JacksonMapper.kt
@@ -141,6 +141,29 @@ class JacksonMapper {
 
         fun toJson(event: Event): String = EventManualSerializer.toJson(event.id, event.pubKey, event.createdAt, event.kind, event.tags, event.content, event.sig)
 
+        /**
+         * Pretty-printed event JSON for human inspection. Uses the
+         * [InliningTagArrayPrettyPrinter] already configured on the
+         * mapper so each tag array stays on its own line (no nested
+         * line-per-element noise) and the seven event fields get their
+         * own indented lines. Re-canonicalisation is the caller's
+         * problem — this output is not canonical NIP-01.
+         */
+        fun toJsonPretty(event: Event): String =
+            mapper
+                .writerWithDefaultPrettyPrinter()
+                .writeValueAsString(
+                    EventManualSerializer.assemble(
+                        event.id,
+                        event.pubKey,
+                        event.createdAt,
+                        event.kind,
+                        event.tags,
+                        event.content,
+                        event.sig,
+                    ),
+                )
+
         fun toJson(event: ArrayNode): String = mapper.writeValueAsString(event)
 
         fun toJson(event: ObjectNode?): String = mapper.writeValueAsString(event)
diff --git a/quartz/src/jvmMain/kotlin/com/vitorpamplona/quartz/nip01Core/store/fs/FsEventStore.kt b/quartz/src/jvmMain/kotlin/com/vitorpamplona/quartz/nip01Core/store/fs/FsEventStore.kt
index d4e866fa7..c5b2aefd1 100644
--- a/quartz/src/jvmMain/kotlin/com/vitorpamplona/quartz/nip01Core/store/fs/FsEventStore.kt
+++ b/quartz/src/jvmMain/kotlin/com/vitorpamplona/quartz/nip01Core/store/fs/FsEventStore.kt
@@ -67,6 +67,14 @@ open class FsEventStore(
      * `SQLiteEventStore`'s relay arg semantics.
      */
     private val relay: NormalizedRelayUrl? = null,
+    /**
+     * How to render an event to JSON before writing the canonical file.
+     * Default is the compact NIP-01 form ([Event.toJson]); CLIs that
+     * surface store files to humans pass a pretty-printer instead. The
+     * stored bytes are not re-used for signature checks anyway —
+     * verification re-canonicalises — so format is purely a UX choice.
+     */
+    private val eventToJson: (Event) -> String = Event::toJson,
 ) : IEventStore {
     private val layout = FsLayout(root)
     private val hasher: TagNameValueHasher
@@ -126,7 +134,7 @@ open class FsEventStore(
         Files.createDirectories(canonical.parent)
         val tmp = Files.createTempFile(layout.staging, event.id, FsLayout.JSON_EXT)
         try {
-            Files.writeString(tmp, event.toJson())
+            Files.writeString(tmp, eventToJson(event))
             try {
                 Files.move(tmp, canonical, StandardCopyOption.ATOMIC_MOVE)
             } catch (_: FileAlreadyExistsException) {
diff --git a/quartz/src/jvmTest/kotlin/com/vitorpamplona/quartz/nip01Core/store/fs/FsEventToJsonTest.kt b/quartz/src/jvmTest/kotlin/com/vitorpamplona/quartz/nip01Core/store/fs/FsEventToJsonTest.kt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..8132aedf3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/quartz/src/jvmTest/kotlin/com/vitorpamplona/quartz/nip01Core/store/fs/FsEventToJsonTest.kt
@@ -0,0 +1,116 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (c) 2025 Vitor Pamplona
+ *
+ * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of
+ * this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in
+ * the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use,
+ * copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the
+ * Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so,
+ * subject to the following conditions:
+ *
+ * The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
+ * copies or substantial portions of the Software.
+ *
+ * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
+ * IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS
+ * FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR
+ * COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN
+ * AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION
+ * WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
+ */
+package com.vitorpamplona.quartz.nip01Core.store.fs
+
+import com.vitorpamplona.quartz.nip01Core.core.Event
+import com.vitorpamplona.quartz.nip01Core.jackson.JacksonMapper
+import com.vitorpamplona.quartz.nip01Core.relay.filters.Filter
+import com.vitorpamplona.quartz.nip01Core.signers.NostrSignerSync
+import com.vitorpamplona.quartz.nip10Notes.TextNoteEvent
+import com.vitorpamplona.quartz.utils.Secp256k1Instance
+import java.nio.file.Files
+import java.nio.file.Path
+import kotlin.io.path.exists
+import kotlin.io.path.readText
+import kotlin.test.AfterTest
+import kotlin.test.BeforeTest
+import kotlin.test.Test
+import kotlin.test.assertEquals
+import kotlin.test.assertTrue
+
+class FsEventToJsonTest {
+    private val signer = NostrSignerSync()
+    private lateinit var root: Path
+
+    @BeforeTest
+    fun setup() {
+        Secp256k1Instance
+        root = Files.createTempDirectory("fs-fmt-")
+    }
+
+    @AfterTest
+    fun tearDown() {
+        if (root.exists()) {
+            Files.walk(root).use { it.sorted(Comparator.reverseOrder()).forEach { p -> Files.deleteIfExists(p) } }
+        }
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `default formatter writes compact JSON one line`() {
+        val store = FsEventStore(root)
+        try {
+            val n =
+                signer.sign<TextNoteEvent>(
+                    TextNoteEvent.build("hello", createdAt = 100),
+                )
+            store.insert(n)
+            val canonical =
+                root
+                    .resolve("events")
+                    .resolve(n.id.substring(0, 2))
+                    .resolve(n.id.substring(2, 4))
+                    .resolve("${n.id}.json")
+            val raw = canonical.readText()
+            assertEquals(raw.trim(), raw, "compact form has no trailing whitespace")
+            assertTrue(!raw.contains('\n'), "compact form is single-line")
+        } finally {
+            store.close()
+        }
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    fun `pretty formatter writes multi-line indented JSON and round-trips`() {
+        val store =
+            FsEventStore(
+                root,
+                eventToJson = JacksonMapper::toJsonPretty,
+            )
+        try {
+            val n =
+                signer.sign<TextNoteEvent>(
+                    TextNoteEvent.build("hello", createdAt = 100),
+                )
+            store.insert(n)
+            val canonical =
+                root
+                    .resolve("events")
+                    .resolve(n.id.substring(0, 2))
+                    .resolve(n.id.substring(2, 4))
+                    .resolve("${n.id}.json")
+            val raw = canonical.readText()
+            assertTrue(raw.contains('\n'), "pretty form is multi-line")
+            assertTrue(raw.contains("\"id\""), "field labels survive pretty print")
+
+            // Round-trip: parsing pretty output back must produce the same event.
+            val reparsed = Event.fromJson(raw)
+            assertEquals(n.id, reparsed.id)
+            assertEquals(n.content, reparsed.content)
+            assertEquals(n.sig, reparsed.sig)
+
+            // And the store can read it back through its own API.
+            val got = store.query<TextNoteEvent>(Filter(ids = listOf(n.id)))
+            assertEquals(1, got.size)
+            assertEquals(n.id, got[0].id)
+        } finally {
+            store.close()
+        }
+    }
+}