Build the experience.
Create an app for the work people want to do, using NStack’s data and file APIs.
NStack · Bring your own cloud
Your apps.
Your data.
Your cloud.
Build the app. Let people choose the backend.
Great software shouldn’t decide where everyone’s data has to live. NStack separates the application from the infrastructure behind it.
For developersBuild an app without hosting everyone’s data.
For usersOwn your data and choose where it lives.
ONE APP. A CHOICE OF FOUNDATIONS.
Your applicationThe experience people use
Nostr identity + permissions
Your homeInfrastructure you operate
Run NStack on a machine you control. Your data stays with you.
Open sourceNostr identity. Familiar infrastructure.
01 / The idea
The app is the interface.
The backend is your choice.
An application brings the experience. NStack provides the foundation for the data, files and permissions it needs.
Developers build against one backend interface. People and communities choose who runs their NStack: at home, on their own cloud machine, or with a provider.
Nostr supplies a common identity you own, so you can always reach your data and share it with your web of trust.
Choose its foundation.
Connect to an NStack run by you, your community or a provider you trust.
Work together.
Give people and agents access to shared workspace data through explicit permissions.
02 / For developersHere to use an app? ↓
Build the experience.
Open up the backend.
Create useful apps on standard infrastructure — without the burden of hosting everyone’s data forever.
Focus on what makes your application worth using. NStack supplies the records, files and access model behind it.
- Start from the repository. Run the Docker-based stack and explore the code.
- Build on records, files and permissions. Use the workspace data and file-storage APIs with Nostr identity.
- Leave the hosting to your users. They run NStack at home, with a community or through a provider.
Build on records and files.
Work with Postgres-backed workspace data and S3-compatible storage — services your team already understands — for collaborative applications.
Know who is asking. Limit what they can do.
Nostr identities authenticate every request; workspace permissions govern what people and tools can access. No separate identity store for every app.
Make an app without hosting everyone’s work.
You ship the application. The operator your users choose runs the hosting, maintenance and backups.
03 / For usersBuilding an app? ↑
You deserve to
own your data.
Your choice of app shouldn’t decide who holds your files, business records and shared history. With NStack, you and the people you work with make that decision.
A home, a community or a provider.
Run NStack on infrastructure you control, share a community-run service, or choose a provider to look after it. Your data isn’t tied to one host: NStack is being built so you can move to another NStack at any time, and replicate across several for resilience.
Different ways into the same work.
Use a workspace app to coordinate, a focused client to capture material, and authorized tools to help. They all work with the same shared data, so your team’s context serves every experience.
Access on your terms.
Choose the operator and the access rules that suit your group. Give each person, app and agent exactly the access they need.
ChoiceWho runs itBest for
HomeYou, on a machine you controlFull control. You run the updates and backups.
CommunityYour community, for its membersGroups that want to share the work and keep their data together.
ProviderA provider you chooseHands-off hosting from someone you trust.
04 / Familiar foundations
Real applications need
A / DATA
B / FILES
C / ACCESS
D / CONNECTIONS · OPTIONAL
E / EVENTS
F / FILE DELIVERY
G / GIT · EXPERIMENTAL
Real applications need
more than a stream.
Structured state, files and identity belong together. NStack brings familiar services into a modular backend for collaborative apps.
Structured records
Postgres-backed application data and shared workspace state, with each application’s tables kept separate.
Storage that fits
S3-compatible file services for the documents, recordings and other assets your application works with.
Identity & permissions
Nostr identities and workspace access rules for people, applications and delegated operations.
Knowledge graphs
Connect information through relationships, so apps and agents can explore how people, ideas and records relate.
Nostr relays
Store and deliver signed Nostr events. Apps can publish updates, query past events and subscribe to new ones.
Blossom
Store and retrieve files by their content hash: a fingerprint of the file’s bytes. Runs alongside workspace file storage.
GRASP
Git repository hosting with Nostr identity and relay support, in active experimentation.
Choose your modules.
Run the services your apps need. Knowledge graphs are optional, GRASP is experimental, and each service applies its own access rules.
A workspace.
A recorder.
A common foundation.
Ambulando
Chats, tasks, documents, files and canvases give people and agents a place to collaborate. Web and native clients work with shared workspace data through NStack’s identity and permission model.
Explore Ambulando ↗inDialogue
A focused recording and transcription app. It delivers captured material into the workspace conversation you choose, and reads replies from that thread.
06 / Open source
Open source today.
Available now
Roadmap
Open source today.
Growing in the open.
Run it, read it, build on it — and help shape what comes next.
In the stack
- A modular, Docker-based server
- Workspace data and file-storage APIs
- Nostr identity and permissions
- Apps like Ambulando working on shared workspace data
What comes next
- A versioned backend contract and public test fixtures
- SDK and CLI releases
- Interoperability across independent NStacks
- Portable export, import and restore between NStacks
- Replication across NStacks for resilience
- Encryption tooling and encrypted peer backups
Good questions.
Straight answers.
Is NStack a hosting company?
No. NStack is open-source software. Run it yourself, share one with your community, or let a provider run it for you.
Can I connect any application?
Apps connect through NStack’s data, file and permission APIs. Existing apps join in by building that integration.
Can I move between hosts?
That’s the point of NStack: your data isn’t tied to one host. Portable export, import and restore between NStacks are on the roadmap.
Does my Nostr key encrypt my data?
Your Nostr key proves who you are and controls what you can access. Encrypting stored data is a separate layer, with encryption tooling on the roadmap — so choose a host you trust with what you store.
Where should developers start?
Clone the repository, run the stack with Docker, and build against the workspace data and file APIs.
Build on an open foundation
Build something useful.
Build something useful.
Leave the hosting choice open.
Building an app?
Explore the code, run the stack and help shape the common backend contract.
Explore NStack on GitHub ↗
Choosing where your work lives?
See a workspace built on shared, permissioned data — then choose the NStack that suits you.