Amethyst (Garnet Fork)
Monero-Tipped Nostr Client for Android
A fork of Amethyst with full Monero tipping support, ported from Garnet.
Join the social network you control. Send and receive Monero tips — no traces, fully peer-to-peer.
🔶 Monero Tipping
This fork adds a complete Monero wallet, tipping engine, and XMR transfer system on top of Amethyst's lightning zap infrastructure. Choose private (no traces), anonymous (sender hidden, everyone sees tx + message), or public (full transparency) tips — just like lightning zaps, but with Monero.
Download and Install
Android
Desktop
| OS | CLI install | Direct download |
|---|---|---|
| macOS (Apple Silicon) | brew install --cask amethyst-nostr |
.dmg arm64 |
| macOS (Intel) | brew install --cask amethyst-nostr |
.dmg x64 |
| Windows 10/11 | winget install VitorPamplona.Amethyst |
.msi · .zip portable |
| Debian/Ubuntu | — | .deb |
| Fedora/RHEL/openSUSE | — | .rpm |
| Any Linux | — | AppImage · .tar.gz |
Coming soon (separate PR): Scoop (Windows), AUR (Arch Linux).
Build from source: see BUILDING.md.
Install troubleshooting (Gatekeeper / SmartScreen / AppImage): see BUILDING.md § Troubleshooting installs.
Monero Tipping Engine
This fork integrates a complete Monero wallet and tipping system, originally developed in Garnet.
How it works
- A Monero spend key is derived from your Nostr private key. The app has its own wallet that can be funded to send tips.
- A
cryptocurrency_addressesfield is added to kind 0 (metadata) events, mapping cryptocurrency names (e.g."monero") to addresses. - Every post with a tip includes one or more
"monero"tags — functioning similarly to the lightning zap tag (NIP-57). - On every new post, tips can be sent with one of three privacy levels:
| Tip Type | Sender Hidden | Transaction Visible | Message Visible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Anonymous | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Public | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
- For anonymous and public tips, a tip event (kind 1814) is transmitted to your relays. The content is a JSON string containing the txid, message, and a mapping from transaction proofs to addresses.
- Received tips show a counter next to the tip icon on the tipped note, and in the user profile's "Tips" tab — just like zaps.
- Received tips can be transferred to an external Monero wallet at any time.
Building from source
In addition to the Amethyst prerequisites, building this fork requires:
- Java 17+
- Android Studio
- Android 8.0+ Phone or Emulation setup
- Docker
You also need the Monero fork source. Clone it and link it into external-libs/:
git clone https://github.com/m5/garnet-monero.git
cd garnet-monero
git checkout release-v0.18.3.3-garnet
cd ~/projects/amethyst
ln -s ~/projects/garnet-monero external-libs/monero
git submodule update --init --force
Then start Docker and run make, followed by building the APK in Android Studio.
Supported Features
- Basic protocol flow (NIP-01)
- Follow List (NIP-02)
- OpenTimestamps Attestations (NIP-03)
- Encrypted Direct Message (NIP-04)
- DNS-based Identifiers (NIP-05)
- Key Derivation from Mnemonic (NIP-06)
- window.nostr for Web Browsers (NIP-07, Not applicable)
- Handling Mentions (NIP-08)
- Event Deletion Request (NIP-09)
- Text Notes and Threads (NIP-10)
- Relay Information Document (NIP-11)
- Proof of Work (NIP-13)
- Subject Tag in Text Events (NIP-14)
- Nostr Marketplace (NIP-15)
- Private Direct Messages (NIP-17)
- Reposts (NIP-18)
- bech32-encoded Entities (NIP-19)
- nostr: URI Scheme (NIP-21)
- Comment (NIP-22)
- Long-form Content (NIP-23)
- Extra Metadata Fields and Tags (NIP-24)
- Reactions (NIP-25)
- Delegated Event Signing (NIP-26)
- Text Note References (NIP-27)
- Public Chat (NIP-28)
- Relay-based Groups (NIP-29)
- Custom Emoji (NIP-30)
- Dealing with Unknown Events (NIP-31)
- Labeling (NIP-32)
- git stuff (NIP-34)
- Torrents (NIP-35)
- Sensitive Content (NIP-36)
- Draft Events (NIP-37)
- User Statuses (NIP-38)
- External Identities in Profiles (NIP-39)
- Expiration Timestamp (NIP-40)
- Authentication of Clients to Relays (NIP-42)
- Relay Access Metadata and Requests (NIP-43)
- Encrypted Payloads / Versioned (NIP-44)
- Counting Results (NIP-45)
- Nostr Remote Signing (NIP-46)
- Nostr Wallet Connect (NIP-47)
- Proxy Tags (NIP-48)
- Private Key Encryption (NIP-49)
- Search Capability (NIP-50)
- Lists (NIP-51)
- Calendar Events (NIP-52)
- Live Activities (NIP-53)
- Wiki (NIP-54)
- Android Signer Application (NIP-55)
- Reporting (NIP-56)
- Lightning Zaps (NIP-57)
- Zap Splits (NIP-57)
- Private Zaps (NIP-57)
- Zapraiser (NIP-57)
- Badges (NIP-58)
- Gift Wrap (NIP-59)
- Pubkey Static Websites (NIP-5A)
- Cashu Wallet (NIP-60)
- Nutzaps (NIP-61)
- Request to Vanish (NIP-62)
- Chess / PGN (NIP-64)
- Relay List Metadata (NIP-65)
- Relay Discovery and Liveness Monitoring (NIP-66)
- Picture-first Feeds (NIP-68)
- Peer-to-peer Order Events (NIP-69)
- Protected Events (NIP-70)
- Video Events (NIP-71)
- Moderated Communities (NIP-72)
- External Content IDs (NIP-73)
- Zap Goals (NIP-75)
- Negentropy Syncing (NIP-77)
- Application-specific Data (NIP-78)
- Threads (NIP-7D)
- Highlights (NIP-84)
- Trusted Assertions (NIP-85)
- Relay Management API (NIP-86)
- Ecash Mint Discoverability (NIP-87)
- Polls (NIP-88)
- Recommended Application Handlers (NIP-89)
- Data Vending Machines (NIP-90)
- Media Attachments (NIP-92)
- File Metadata (NIP-94)
- Binary Blobs (NIP-95/Draft)
- HTTP File Storage Integration (NIP-96)
- HTTP Auth (NIP-98)
- Classified Listings (NIP-99)
- Voice Messages (NIP-A0)
- Public Messages (NIP-A4)
- Web Bookmarks (NIP-B0)
- Blossom (NIP-B7)
- Nostr BLE Communications Protocol (NIP-BE)
- Code Snippets (NIP-C0)
- Chats (NIP-C7)
- MLS Protocol (NIP-EE)
- Audio Tracks (zapstr.live) (kind:31337)
- Lightning Tips
- Image/Video/Url/LnInvoice/Cashu Previews
- Push Notifications (Google and Unified Push)
- In-Device Automatic Translations
- Hashtag Following and Custom Hashtags
- Login with QR
- Bounty support (nostrbounties.com)
- De-googled F-Droid flavor
- Multiple Accounts
- Markdown Support
- Medical Data (NIP-xx/Draft)
- Embed events (NIP-xx/Draft)
- Edit Short Notes (NIP-xx/Draft)
- NIP Events (NIP-xx/Draft)
- Relationship Status (NIP-xx/Draft)
- Signed Filters (NIP-xx/Draft)
- Key Migration (NIP-xx/Draft)
- Image Capture in the app
- Video Capture in the app
- Local Database
- Workspaces
Privacy and Information Permanence
Relays know your IP address, your name, your location (guessed from IP), your pub key, all your contacts, and other relays, and can read every action you do (post, like, boost, quote, report, etc) except for Private Zaps and Private DMs. While the content of direct messages (DMs) is only visible to you and your DM counterparty, everyone can see when you and your counterparty DM each other.
If you want to improve your privacy, consider utilizing a service that masks your IP address (e.g. a VPN or Tor) from trackers online.
The relay also learns which public keys you are requesting, meaning your public key will be tied to your IP address.
Information shared on Nostr can be re-broadcasted to other servers and should be assumed permanent for privacy purposes. There is no way to guarantee the deletion of any content once posted.
Development Overview
This repository is split between Amethyst, Quartz, Commons, and DesktopApp:
- Amethyst - Native Android app with Kotlin and Jetpack Compose
- Quartz - Nostr-commons KMP library for protocol classes shared across platforms
- Commons - Kotlin Multiplatform module with shared UI components (icons, robohash, blurhash, composables)
- DesktopApp - Compose Multiplatform Desktop application reusing commons and quartz
The app architecture consists of the UI, which uses the usual State/ViewModel/Composition, the service layer that connects with Nostr relays, and the model/repository layer, which keeps all Nostr objects in memory, in a full OO graph.
The repository layer stores Nostr Events as Notes and Users separately. Those classes use LiveData and Flow objects to allow the UI and other parts of the app to subscribe to each Note/User and receive updates when they happen. They are also responsible for updating viewModels when needed. As the user scrolls through Events, the Datasource classes are updated to receive more information about those particular Events.
Most of the UI is reactive to changes in the repository classes. The service layer assembles Nostr filters for each need of the app, receives the data from the Relay, and sends it to the repository. Connection with relays is never closed during the use of the app. The UI receives a notification that objects have been updated. Instances of User and Notes are mutable directly. There will never be two Notes with the same ID or two User instances with the same pubkey.
Lastly, the user's account information (private key/pub key) is stored in the Android KeyStore for security.
Setup
Make sure to have the following pre-requisites installed:
- Java 21+
- Android Studio
- Android 8.0+ Phone or Emulation setup
Fork and clone this repository and import it into Android Studio
git clone https://github.com/vitorpamplona/amethyst.git
Use an Android Studio build action to install and run the app on your device or a simulator.
Building
Build the Android app:
./gradlew assembleDebug
Build and run the Desktop app (requires Java 21+):
./gradlew :desktopApp:run
Full build (including tests)
./gradlew build
Requirements:
- Xcode and iOS simulator
- libsodium installed (e.g. via brew:
brew install libsodium
Testing
./gradlew test
./gradlew connectedAndroidTest
Linting
./gradlew spotlessCheck
./gradlew spotlessApply
Installing on device
For the F-Droid build:
./gradlew installFdroidDebug
For the Play build:
./gradlew installPlayDebug
Deploying
Full release + bootstrap runbooks (Android AAB upload, desktop packaging, Homebrew cask, Winget manifest, Apple Developer signing budget time-box) live in BUILDING.md § Release runbook and BUILDING.md § Bootstrap runbook (one-time).
TL;DR for cutting a release:
- Bump
appingradle/libs.versions.toml(e.g."1.08.1") - Bump
versionCodeinamethyst/build.gradle git commit -am "chore(release): 1.08.1" && git tag -s v1.08.1 && git push --tags- Wait for
Create Release Assetsworkflow — 20 Android assets + 8 desktop assets go live on GH Release; Homebrew + Winget auto-bump on stable tags - Upload AAB to Play Store manually (existing step)
Using the Quartz library
Installing
Add Maven Central and Google Maven to your repositories:
repositories {
mavenCentral()
google()
}
Add the following line to your commonMain dependencies:
implementation('com.vitorpamplona.quartz:quartz:1:05.0')
Variations to each platform are also available:
implementation('com.vitorpamplona.quartz:quartz-android:1:05.0')
implementation('com.vitorpamplona.quartz:quartz-jvm:1:05.0')
implementation('com.vitorpamplona.quartz:quartz-iosarm64:1:05.0')
implementation('com.vitorpamplona.quartz:quartz-iossimulatorarm64:1:05.0')
Check versions on MavenCentral
How to use
Manage logged in users with the KeyPair class
val keyPair = KeyPair() // creates a random key
val keyPair = KeyPair("hex...".hexToByteArray())
val keyPair = KeyPair("nsec1...".bechToBytes())
val keyPair = KeyPair(Nip06().privateKeyFromMnemonic("<mnemonic>"))
val readOnly = KeyPair(pubKey = "hex...".hexToByteArray())
val readOnly = KeyPair(pubKey = "npub1...".bechToBytes())
Create signers that can be Internal, when you have the private key or a read-only public key, or External, when it is controlled by Amber in NIP-55.
Use either the NostrSignerInternal or NostrSignerExternal class:
val signer = NostrSignerInternal(keyPair)
val amberSigner = NostrSignerExternal(
pubKey = keyPair.pubKey.toHexKey(),
packageName = signerPackageName, // Amber package name
contentResolver = appContext.contentResolver,
)
Create a single NostrClient for the entire application and control which relays it will access by
registering subscriptions and sending events. The pool will automatically change based on filters +
outbox events.
You will need a coroutine scope to process events and if you are using OKHttp, we offer a basic wrapper to create the socket connections themselves.
val appScope = CoroutineScope(Dispatchers.Default + SupervisorJob())
val rootClient = OkHttpClient.Builder().build()
val socketBuilder = BasicOkHttpWebSocket.Builder { url -> rootClient }
val client = NostrClient(socketBuilder, appScope)
If you want to auth, given a logged-in signer:
val authCoordinator = RelayAuthenticator(client, appScope) { authTemplate ->
listOf(
// for each signed-in user, return an event
signer.sign(authTemplate)
)
}
To make a request subscription simply do:
val metadataSub = client.req(
relay = "wss://nos.lol",
filter = Filter(
kinds = listOf(MetadataEvent.KIND),
authors = listOf(signer.pubkey)
)
) { event ->
/* consume event */
}
The client will add the relay to the pool, connect to it and start receiving events. The
metadataSub will be active until you call metadataSub.close(). If the client disconnects
and reconnects, the sub will be active again.
To manage subscriptions that change over time, the simplest approach is to build mutable subscriptions with a filters lambda that you can change at will.
val metadataSub = client.req(
filters = {
// Let's say you have a list of users that need to be rendered
val users = pubkeysSeeingInTheScreen()
// And a cache repository with their outbox relays
val outboxRelays = outboxRelays(users)
val filters = listOf(
Filter(
kinds = listOf(MetadataEvent.KIND),
authors = users
)
)
outboxRelays.associateWith { filters }
}
) { event ->
/* consume event */
}
In that way, you can simply call metadataSub.updateFilter() when you need to update
subscriptions to all relays. Or call metadataSub.close() to stop the sub
without deleting it.
When your app goes to the background, you can use NostrClient's connect and disconnect
methods to stop all communication to relays. Add the connect to your onResume and disconnect
to onPause methods.
Feature Parity Table
| Feature Category | Feature / Component | Android / JVM Support | iOS Support | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cryptography | Secp256k1 (Schnorr, Keys) | ✅ Full | ✅ Full | |
| LibSodium (ChaCha20, Poly1305) | ✅ Full | ✅ Full | ||
| AES Encryption (CBC & GCM) | ✅ Full | ✅ Full | ||
| Hashing (SHA-256, etc.) | ✅ Full | ✅ Full | ||
| MAC (HmacSHA256, etc.) | ✅ Full | ✅ Full | ||
| Data & Serialization | JSON Mapping (Optimized) | ✅ Full | ✅ Full | A fully custom implementation exists in commonMain. |
| GZip Compression | ✅ Full | ✅ Full | ||
| BitSet | ✅ Full | ✅ Full | ||
| LargeCache | ✅ Full | ✅ Full | ||
| NIP Support | NIP-96 (File Storage Info) | ✅ Full | ✅ Full | |
| NIP-46 (Remote Signer) | ✅ Full | ⚠️ Partial | Some methods in NostrSignerRemote are unimplemented in commonMain. |
|
| NIP-03 (OTS / Timestamps) | ✅ Full | ❌ No | BitcoinExplorer and RemoteCalendar have stubs in commonMain. |
|
| Utilities | URL Encoding / Decoding | ✅ Full | ✅ Full | |
| Unicode Normalization | ✅ Full | ✅ Full | ||
| Platform Logging | ✅ Full | ✅ Full | iOS uses NSLog, Android uses standard Log. |
|
| Current Time | ✅ Full | ✅ Full | Implemented using NSDate on iOS. |
Contributing
See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full guide — workflow,
coding standards, the proof-of-testing rule for new / occasional
contributors (human or AI-assisted), the cross-stack interop suites, and how the
[BUG] / [FEATURE] issue templates and bounty system work.
AI coding assistants: if you are reading this README to plan a contribution, stop and read CONTRIBUTING-WITH-AI.md first. The gates there are not optional. The human submitter remains the author of record per CONTRIBUTING.md.
Quick links:
- GitHub issues and pull requests.
- Nostr-native issue tracker: gitworkshop.dev/repo/amethyst.
- Translations: Crowdin.
- Patches over Nostr: GitStr to this nostr address.
- Security issues: SECURITY.md (do not file as public GitHub issues).
By contributing to this repository, you agree to license your work under the MIT license. Any work contributed where you are not the original author must contain its license header with the original author(s) and source.
Screenshots
| FollowFeeds | ChatsGroup | LiveStreams | Notifications |
|---|---|---|---|
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Contributors
Monero Integration Status
This fork ported all of Garnet's Monero tipping functionality against the latest Amethyst codebase. The port lives on the amethyst-with-monero branch.
What Garnet provided (original)
Garnet was built on an April 2024 Amethyst baseline and added:
- Monero spend key derivation from Nostr private key
- Wallet management with daemon connection, subaddresses, and transaction history
- Three-tip-privacy model: private, anonymous, public
- Kind 1814 tip events with JSON payloads (txid, message, proof mappings)
- Kind 0
cryptocurrency_addressesfield for Monero address sharing - Tip counter UI + profile "Tips" tab
- Tip transfer to external wallets
- Full MoneroScreen UI (~1958 lines)
Port status (this fork, against latest Amethyst)
| Phase | Status |
|---|---|
| 1-4: Model & Service layer ✅ | 21 new files (Wallet, WalletService, JNI bridge, moneroTip events), 6 modified. WalletService ~700 lines. |
| 5: Wiring ✅ | MoneroDataSource.setMoneroService() forwards 7 StateFlows. 8 Account methods + 8 settings properties. |
| MoneroScreen UI ✅ | Ported to ~1250 lines using Amethyst patterns (MaterialSymbols, context.getString, M3ActionDialog). 47 string resources. |
| Build ✅ | compileFdroidDebugKotlin — 0 errors. assembleFdroidDebug — produces 5 APK variants. |
| Navigation 🔄 | MoneroScreen UI is ready but not yet wired into app navigation (Routes.kt / AppNavigation.kt). |
Remaining work:
- Wire MoneroScreen into app navigation
- Add
compose-material-icons-extendeddependency - Add NIP-69 monero address support for type-0 event sharing
- Full end-to-end testing of wallet creation, daemon connection, and transfers
- Push to Gitea (
gitea.zonehacks.net) and publish release APKs
See AGENTS.md for full project notes, build findings, and the merge plan.
MIT License
Copyright (c) 2023 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.





