Protocol Constants & Concepts

Protocol Constants

Event Kinds

Marmot uses specific Nostr event kinds for different purposes:

typescript

import {
  ADDRESSABLE_KEY_PACKAGE_KIND, // 30443
  WELCOME_EVENT_KIND, // 444
  GROUP_EVENT_KIND, // 445
  NIP65_RELAY_LIST_KIND, // 10002
  INBOX_RELAY_LIST_KIND, // 10050
} from "@internet-privacy/marmot-ts";

30443 (ADDRESSABLE_KEY_PACKAGE_KIND): Addressable key package advertisement events
444 (WELCOME_EVENT_KIND): Welcome messages for new members (wrapped in NIP-59 gift wraps)
445 (GROUP_EVENT_KIND): Group messages (commits, proposals, application messages)
10002 (NIP65_RELAY_LIST_KIND): NIP-65 relay list; Marmot discovers an account's key-package relays here (there is no dedicated key-package relay list)
10050 (INBOX_RELAY_LIST_KIND): Inbox relay list; welcomes are gift-wrapped to a recipient's inbox relays

Extension Types

MLS extensions used by Marmot:

typescript

import { LAST_RESORT_EXTENSION_TYPE } from "@internet-privacy/marmot-ts"; // 0x000a

0x000a (LAST_RESORT_EXTENSION_TYPE): Marks key packages as reusable

In Marmot v2, group metadata is no longer carried in a single 0xf2ee extension — it lives in the app-component dictionary described below.

Protocol Versions

Key package events use MLS protocol version tag value "1.0". The exported MLS_VERSIONS name is a TypeScript type alias for supported values.

App Components (group state)

Marmot v2 stores group state as versioned app components inside the MLS app_data_dictionary GroupContext extension (0x0006, draft-ietf-mls-extensions-09), replacing the v1 MarmotGroupData monolith. Each component has a stable id and its own binary codec; the dictionary is cryptographically bound to the group state and mutated through app_data_update proposals (0x0008).

Group components

Id	Component	Holds
`0x8001`	`group.profile.v1`	name, description
`0x8003`	`admin-policy.v1`	admin Nostr pubkeys
`0x8004`	`transport.nostr.routing.v1`	nostr group id + relays
`0x8005`	`message-retention.v1`	retention window (seconds)
`0x8007`	`group.avatar-url.v1`	avatar URL
`0x8008`	`group.encrypted-media.v1`	blob-store policy for media

Reading group state

getMarmotGroupView projects the recognized components into one object:

typescript

import { getMarmotGroupView } from "@internet-privacy/marmot-ts";

const view = getMarmotGroupView(clientState);
view?.name; // "Developer Chat"
view?.adminPubkeys; // ["admin-pubkey-hex"]
view?.relays; // ["wss://relay.example.com"]
view?.nostrGroupId; // Uint8Array(32)
view?.avatarUrl; // "https://..." | undefined
view?.encryptedMedia; // EncryptedMediaPolicyV1 | undefined

Individual components can be read with the typed getters (getGroupProfile, getAdminPolicy, getNostrRouting, getGroupAvatarUrl, getEncryptedMediaPolicy, ...) and built with the matching entry builders (groupProfileEntry, adminPolicyEntry, nostrRoutingEntry, ...).

Required capabilities

New groups declare a required_capabilities (0x0003) extension covering the Marmot baseline — app_data_dictionary (0x0006) and the app_data_update (0x0008) / self_remove (0x000a) proposals — so MLS refuses to add a member whose KeyPackage does not advertise them. Every new group also requires the account identity proof app component (0x8009) in its app_components list.

Specification Reference

See the darkmatter (Marmot v2) spec for the complete app-component and capability-negotiation model.

Protocol Constants & Concepts ​