# Amy — Amethyst CLI `amy` is the non-interactive command-line face of Amethyst. It speaks the same Nostr protocol as the Android and Desktop apps, shares the same `quartz` and `commons` code, and aims to eventually expose every feature the GUI offers as a command you can script. Amy exists for three audiences at once: 1. **Humans** using Amethyst from a terminal or remote shell. 2. **Agents / LLMs** driving a Nostr account through a deterministic, JSON-typed interface — no interactive prompts, no screen scraping. 3. **Interop test harnesses** that put Amethyst side-by-side with the other ~100 Nostr clients publishing and consuming the same events. Any flow that is tested in the Amethyst app should be reproducible through `amy` — that's the bar. > Today Amy covers identity, relay config, account bootstrap, and > Marmot / MLS group chat (MIP-00 / NIP-445). Everything else from the > Android app is on the roadmap — see [ROADMAP.md](./ROADMAP.md). > > To extend Amy, see [DEVELOPMENT.md](./DEVELOPMENT.md). --- ## Output contract What every caller — user, script, agent, CI — can rely on: - **stdout is JSON. One line. One object.** Stable snake_case keys. Pipe it into `jq`, parse it from Python, hand it to an agent. - **stderr is for humans.** Progress, warnings, per-relay ACK traces. Safe to discard. - **Exit codes are the real signal.** - `0` — success - `1` — runtime error (JSON `{"error":"…","detail":"…"}` on stderr) - `2` — bad arguments - `124` — `await` timed out - **No interactive prompts, ever.** Passwords, names, keys — all flags. - **Data-dir is the whole world.** All state (identity, relays, MLS epochs, message archives, run cursors) lives under `--data-dir PATH`. Delete to reset; copy to move; `AMETHYST_CLI_DATA` env var overrides the default `./amy`. The rationale behind each of these lives in [DEVELOPMENT.md](./DEVELOPMENT.md). Breaking any of them is a breaking change to Amy's public API. --- ## Install Until Amy ships as a signed native binary (see [cli/plans/2026-04-21-cli-distribution.md](./plans/2026-04-21-cli-distribution.md)), run it from source: ```bash # One-shot run — positional args go after `--args`, quoted as one string ./gradlew :cli:run --quiet --args="whoami" # Or build a runnable distribution and use the generated launch script ./gradlew :cli:installDist ./cli/build/install/amy/bin/amy whoami ``` The `installDist` tree under `cli/build/install/amy/` is self-contained (JVM launcher + jars) and is what downstream packaging will wrap. **Requirements:** JDK 21. --- ## Quick start ```bash # 1. Create a data-dir with a full Amethyst-style account. # Generates a keypair, seeds default NIP-65 / inbox / key-package # relays, and publishes the nine bootstrap events. amy --data-dir ./alice create --name "Alice" # 2. Publish a fresh MLS KeyPackage so others can invite you. amy --data-dir ./alice marmot key-package publish # 3. Create a group, invite someone, send a message. amy --data-dir ./alice marmot group create --name "Test Group" amy --data-dir ./alice marmot group add npub1...bob amy --data-dir ./alice marmot message send "hello" # 4. On the receiving side — poll until Bob sees the invite. amy --data-dir ./bob marmot await group --name "Test Group" --timeout 60 amy --data-dir ./bob marmot message list ``` Compose with `jq` to chain commands: ```bash GID=$(amy --data-dir ./alice marmot group create --name "Test" | jq -r .group_id) ``` For an interop-test script template, see [DEVELOPMENT.md § Testing](./DEVELOPMENT.md#testing). The runnable harnesses live under [`cli/tests/`](./tests/README.md) — `cli/tests/marmot/` for MLS group messaging vs whitenoise-rs, `cli/tests/dm/` for NIP-17 DMs between two `amy` clients. --- ## Command reference Run `amy --help` for the canonical list. As of today: | Verb | Summary | |---|---| | `init [--nsec NSEC]` | Create or import a bare identity. Does not publish anything. | | `create [--name NAME]` | Provision a full account + publish the nine Amethyst bootstrap events. | | `login KEY [--password X] [--private]` | Import `nsec` / `ncryptsec` / BIP-39 mnemonic / `npub` / `nprofile` / hex / NIP-05. Read-only when no secret material is supplied. | | `whoami` | Print the identity stored in `--data-dir`. | | `relay add URL [--type T]` | `T = nip65 \| inbox \| key_package \| all`. | | `relay list` | Dump configured relays by bucket. | | `relay publish-lists` | Publish kind:10002 (NIP-65) + kind:10050 (DM inbox) + kind:10051 (KeyPackage relay list). | | `marmot key-package publish` | Publish a fresh MLS KeyPackage (kind:30443) to the configured `key_package` bucket (fallback: NIP-65 outbox). | | `marmot key-package check NPUB` | Look up NPUB's kind:10051 / kind:10002 on bootstrap relays, then fetch their KeyPackage from those relays. | | `marmot group create [--name NAME]` | New empty group with you as sole admin. | | `marmot group list` | All groups you're a member of. | | `marmot group show GID` | Full group state (members, admins, epoch, metadata). | | `marmot group members GID` | Members only. | | `marmot group admins GID` | Admins only. | | `marmot group add GID NPUB [NPUB…]` | Fetch KeyPackages for the npubs and commit an add. | | `marmot group rename GID NAME` | Commit a metadata change. | | `marmot group promote GID NPUB` | Make an existing member an admin. | | `marmot group demote GID NPUB` | Revoke admin. | | `marmot group remove GID NPUB` | Remove a member. | | `marmot group leave GID` | Self-remove. | | `marmot message send GID TEXT` | Publish a kind:9 inner event into the group. | | `marmot message list GID [--limit N]` | Decrypted inner events, oldest first. | | `marmot await key-package NPUB` | Block until a KeyPackage is seen on NPUB's advertised relays (kind:10051 / kind:10002). | | `marmot await group --name NAME` | Block until we're added to a group with that name. | | `marmot await member GID NPUB` | Block until NPUB is in GID's member set. | | `marmot await admin GID NPUB` | Block until NPUB is an admin of GID. | | `marmot await message GID --match TEXT` | Block until a message containing `TEXT` lands. | | `marmot await rename GID --name NAME` | Block until GID's name matches. | | `marmot await epoch GID --min N` | Block until GID's MLS epoch is ≥ N. | | `dm send RECIPIENT TEXT [--allow-fallback]` | Send a NIP-17 gift-wrapped text DM (kind:14 inside kind:1059). Default delivers only to the recipient's kind:10050 (per NIP-17); pass `--allow-fallback` to fall back to kind:10002 read marker → bootstrap pool. | | `dm send-file RECIPIENT --file PATH --server URL [--mime-type M] [--allow-fallback]` | Encrypt the local file with a fresh AES-GCM cipher, upload the ciphertext to the Blossom server, then publish a kind:15 NIP-17 file message referencing the returned URL. The auto-detected hash, size, dimensions, and blurhash from the upload are folded into the event. The response also surfaces the encryption key + nonce so the same blob can be re-shared without re-uploading. | | `dm send-file RECIPIENT URL --key HEX --nonce HEX [--mime-type M] [--hash H] [--original-hash H] [--size N] [--dim WxH] [--blurhash S] [--allow-fallback]` | Reference-mode variant: the file is already uploaded; `--key`/`--nonce` carry the AES-GCM material that recipients use to decrypt the bytes at `URL`. Useful when the upload happened elsewhere or to re-publish a previously-uploaded blob. | | `dm list [--peer NPUB] [--since TS] [--limit N] [--timeout SECS]` | Drain and decrypt gift wraps on our inbox relays. Returns kind:14 (text) and kind:15 (file) messages with a `type` discriminator. With neither `--peer` nor `--since` the gift-wrap cursor in `state.json` is advanced to the newest message seen. | | `dm await --peer NPUB --match TEXT [--timeout SECS]` | Block until a DM from NPUB containing TEXT arrives (matches text content for kind:14, URL for kind:15). Timeout exits 124. | All `await` verbs accept `--timeout SECS` (default 30). Timeout exits 124 so scripts can distinguish "condition never happened" from "the command itself crashed". ### Global flags - `--data-dir PATH` — defaults to `./amy` or `$AMETHYST_CLI_DATA`. Always an absolute path after resolution. - `--help` / `-h` — usage summary. --- ## Relay routing Amy follows the Marmot protocol's per-event routing rules so two users with completely disjoint relay configurations can still marmot each other. No event ever ships blindly to "our configured relays" — Amy looks up the right relay set per event per recipient. | Event | Publish to | Fetch from | |---|---|---| | kind:30443 (our own KeyPackage) | `key_package` bucket → NIP-65 outbox → any configured | — | | kind:30443 (someone else's KeyPackage) | — | Their kind:10051 → their kind:10002 write → our bootstrap pool | | kind:10051 / 10050 / 10002 (our own lists) | All configured relays (broadcast) | — | | kind:10051 / 10050 / 10002 (someone else's) | — | Our bootstrap pool = configured relays ∪ Amethyst defaults | | kind:1059 Welcome gift wrap (kind:444 inside) | Recipient's kind:10050 → their kind:10002 read → `DefaultDMRelayList` → our outbox | — | | kind:1059 gift wraps addressed to us | — | Our kind:10050 | | kind:445 Group Event (Commit / Proposal / chat) | Group's MIP-01 `relays` field | Same | **Bootstrap pool**: when Amy needs to discover a user it's never talked to, it queries `configured relays ∪ Amethyst's default NIP-65 set ∪ Amethyst's default DM-inbox set`. These defaults come from `commons.defaults.AmethystDefaults` and match what the Android/Desktop UI publishes to on first run, so any fresh Amethyst account is reachable via the bootstrap pool even before Amy has seen any of their events. --- ## Data-dir layout ``` / ├── identity.json # nsec/npub/hex — the account ├── relays.json # nip65 / inbox / key_package buckets ├── state.json # sync cursors (giftWrapSince, groupSince) └── marmot/ ├── keypackages.bundle # MLS KeyPackage bundles (NostrSignerInternal) └── groups/ ├── .mls # MLS group state per group └── .log # decrypted inner events (one JSON per line) ``` All files are plain JSON or framed binary — human-inspectable, easy to diff across two data-dirs in a test run. --- ## Troubleshooting - **`no identity`** — run `init`, `create`, or `login` first, or pass a different `--data-dir`. - **`not_member`** — the group GID is unknown to this data-dir. Run `marmot group list` to confirm, or `marmot await group --name …` to wait for an invite to arrive. - **Hang on a network verb** — Amy connects to the relays in `relays.json`; verify with `amy relay list`. Every network-bound operation has a timeout — use `--timeout` for `await`, or wrap the whole command in `timeout(1)` if you're scripting. - **Nothing seems to publish** — inspect stderr; each publish prints per-relay `OK` / `REJECT` via the `[cli] …` traces.