🔑 Podkey

Browser extension for did:nostr and Solid authentication

Podkey is a beautiful, secure browser extension for did:nostr and Solid authentication. It provides a NIP-07-compatible Nostr wallet that enables seamless authentication to Solid pods using did:nostr identities, while remaining fully compatible with the broader Nostr ecosystem.

✨ What Makes Podkey Different

Better than nos2x

🎨 Beautiful, modern UI with soft gradients and smooth animations
🔐 Enhanced security with proper key validation and storage
⚡ Built-in Solid authentication (NIP-98) for seamless pod access
📊 Trust management with per-origin permissions
🌈 Delightful user experience with intuitive design

did:nostr & Solid Superpowers

did:nostr identity - Full support for did:nostr decentralized identifiers
Solid authentication - Zero-redirect authentication to Solid servers using did:nostr
Automatic signing - Automatic signing for trusted Solid pods
WebID linking - Link did:nostr identities to Solid WebIDs (coming soon)

🚀 Quick Start

Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/JavaScriptSolidServer/podkey.git
cd podkey

Install dependencies:
```
npm install
```
Build the extension:
```
npm run build
```
Load in Chrome:
- Open chrome://extensions/
- Enable "Developer mode" (top-right toggle)
- Click "Load unpacked"
- Select the podkey directory
Test it:
- Visit the test page to verify everything works
- Click the Podkey icon to generate or import a key

🎯 Features

Core Functionality

✅ NIP-07 Provider - Full window.nostr API implementation
✅ Key Generation - Secure cryptographic key generation using @noble/secp256k1
✅ Key Import - Import existing 64-char hex private keys
✅ Event Signing - Sign Nostr events with Schnorr signatures
✅ Trust Management - Per-origin permissions with auto-approval
✅ Beautiful UI - Soft gradients, smooth animations
✅ 64-char Hex Keys - Proper did:nostr format compatibility

Roadmap

🔜 NIP-04 encryption/decryption
🔜 Multiple identity support
🔜 Relay management
🔜 Activity history
🔜 nsec/npub Bech32 encoding
🔜 WebID linking
🔜 Backup & recovery
🔜 Automatic NIP-98 authentication for Solid servers

📚 Usage

Basic API

// Check if Podkey is available
if (window.nostr) {
  // Get your public key
  const pubkey = await window.nostr.getPublicKey()
  console.log('Your public key:', pubkey)

  // Sign an event
  const event = {
    kind: 1,
    created_at: Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000),
    tags: [],
    content: 'Hello from Podkey! 🔑'
  }

  const signed = await window.nostr.signEvent(event)
  console.log('Signed event:', signed)
}

Testing

Visit the interactive test page to:

Verify extension installation
Test key generation and import
Test event signing with various event types
View real-time diagnostics and logs

🏗️ Architecture

Components

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Browser Extension (Podkey)             │
│                                         │
│  ┌───────────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │  Popup UI (popup/)                │  │
│  │  - Key generation/import          │  │
│  │  - Trust management               │  │
│  │  - Settings & identity display    │  │
│  └───────────────────────────────────┘  │
│                                         │
│  ┌───────────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │  Background Worker (src/)         │  │
│  │  - Key storage (storage.js)       │  │
│  │  - Event signing (crypto.js)      │  │
│  │  - Permission management          │  │
│  └───────────────────────────────────┘  │
│                                         │
│  ┌───────────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │  Content Script (src/injected.js)│  │
│  │  - Injects window.nostr           │  │
│  │  - Bridges page ↔ extension       │  │
│  └───────────────────────────────────┘  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘

Security Model

🔒 Private keys never leave the extension - Stored in Chrome's secure local storage
🔒 User permission required - Every signing operation requires approval (auto-approved for now)
🔒 Per-origin trust - Granular permissions for each website
🔒 64-char hex validation - All keys validated for proper did:nostr format
🔒 Secure event signing - Uses @noble/secp256k1 v3.0.0 with Schnorr signatures

🛠️ Development

Project Structure

podkey/
├── manifest.json          # Extension manifest (MV3)
├── package.json           # npm package configuration
├── src/
│   ├── background.js      # Service worker (message handling)
│   ├── crypto.js          # Key generation & signing
│   ├── storage.js         # Secure key storage
│   ├── injected.js        # Content script (page bridge)
│   └── nostr-provider.js  # window.nostr implementation
├── popup/
│   ├── popup.html         # Popup UI structure
│   ├── popup.css          # Beautiful styling
│   └── popup.js           # Popup logic
├── test-page/
│   └── index.html         # Interactive test page
├── scripts/
│   └── bundle.js          # Build script for dependencies
└── icons/                 # Extension icons

Tech Stack

Cryptography: @noble/secp256k1 v3.0.0
Hashing: @noble/hashes v1.8.0
Bundling: esbuild
Storage: Chrome Storage API
UI: Vanilla JavaScript + CSS Gradients
Manifest: V3 (latest)

Building

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the extension (bundles dependencies)
npm run build

# Lint code
npm run lint

# Run tests
npm test

Testing

Build the extension:
```
npm run build
```
Load in Chrome (see Installation above)
Visit the test page:
- Local: Open test-page/index.html in your browser
- Online: https://javascriptsolidserver.github.io/podkey/test-page/
Check the console for any errors

🔐 did:nostr Identity

Podkey is built for did:nostr and Solid authentication. All public keys are proper 64-character hexadecimal strings, making them fully compatible with the did:nostr specification:

const pubkey = await window.nostr.getPublicKey()
const did = `did:nostr:${pubkey}`
// did:nostr:3bf0c63fcb93463407af97a5e5ee64fa883d107ef9e558472c4eb9aaaefa459d

This enables:

✅ did:nostr decentralized identifiers per W3C specification
✅ Solid pod authentication using did:nostr identities
✅ Cross-platform identity portability
✅ Verifiable credentials and authentication

📖 API Reference

`window.nostr.getPublicKey()`

Returns the user's public key (64-char hex).

const pubkey = await window.nostr.getPublicKey()

`window.nostr.signEvent(event)`

Signs a Nostr event. Shows permission prompt if origin is not trusted.

const signed = await window.nostr.signEvent({
  kind: 1,
  created_at: Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000),
  tags: [],
  content: 'Hello!'
})

`window.nostr.getRelays()`

Returns relay configuration (coming soon).

const relays = await window.nostr.getRelays()

🤝 Contributing

We love contributions! Here's how to get started:

Fork the repository
Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
Make your changes
Add tests if applicable
Ensure tests pass (npm test)
Commit (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
Push (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
Open a Pull Request

Contribution Ideas

🎨 Icon design (16px, 48px, 128px)
📝 Documentation improvements
🧪 Additional test coverage
🌐 i18n/localization
✨ NIP-04 encryption
🔧 Bug fixes
🚀 Performance improvements

🐛 Troubleshooting

Extension doesn't show up

Make sure Developer Mode is enabled in chrome://extensions/
Check that you selected the correct directory
Look for errors in the Chrome console

window.nostr is undefined

Reload the page after installing Podkey
Check that the extension is enabled
Look for conflicts with other Nostr extensions
Check the browser console for errors

Events not signing

Make sure you've generated or imported a key
Check the extension console (click "service worker" in chrome://extensions)
Look for permission prompts that may be blocked

Build errors

Make sure all dependencies are installed: npm install
Check Node.js version (needs >= 18.0.0)
Try deleting node_modules and package-lock.json, then npm install again

📄 License

AGPL-3.0 License - see LICENSE for details

🙏 Acknowledgments

Built with 💜 for the Nostr and Solid communities
Inspired by nos2x and the NIP-07 specification
Part of the JavaScriptSolidServer ecosystem
Cryptography powered by @noble

🔗 Links

GitHub: https://github.com/JavaScriptSolidServer/podkey
Issues: https://github.com/JavaScriptSolidServer/podkey/issues
Test Page: https://javascriptsolidserver.github.io/podkey/test-page/
did:nostr Specification: https://nostrcg.github.io/did-nostr/
NIP-07 Spec: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/07.md
NIP-98 Spec: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/98.md
Solid Project: https://solidproject.org/

Made with 🔑 by the JavaScriptSolidServer team

Podkey v0.0.7 - Your keys, your identity, your data

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 21 Commits
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
icons		icons
popup		popup
scripts		scripts
src		src
test-page		test-page
test		test
.gitignore		.gitignore
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
USAGE.md		USAGE.md
manifest.json		manifest.json
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json

License

JavaScriptSolidServer/podkey

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🔑 Podkey

✨ What Makes Podkey Different

Better than nos2x

did:nostr & Solid Superpowers

🚀 Quick Start

Installation

🎯 Features

Core Functionality

Roadmap

📚 Usage

Basic API

Testing

🏗️ Architecture

Components

Security Model

🛠️ Development

Project Structure

Tech Stack

Building

Testing

🔐 did:nostr Identity

📖 API Reference

window.nostr.getPublicKey()

window.nostr.signEvent(event)

window.nostr.getRelays()

🤝 Contributing

Contribution Ideas

🐛 Troubleshooting

Extension doesn't show up

window.nostr is undefined

Events not signing

Build errors

📄 License

🙏 Acknowledgments

🔗 Links

About

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