mailship/README.md

# Mailship

A Nostr email notification server. Receives events pushed from relays via [NIP-9a](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/pull/2194), stores them, and sends daily or weekly digest emails.

This repo is a fork of [anchor](https://github.com/coracle-social/anchor). It has been built primarily to support email notifications in [Flotilla](https://flotilla.social), but supports alternate branding and could be set up to work with any Nostr relay supporting NIP-9a.

## Architecture

```
Flotilla ──HTTP──▶ Mailship (PUT /subscription/email)
  │                   NIP-98 auth
  │                   returns {key, callback}
  │
  └──kind 30390──▶ relay or NPB
                         │
                    event matches filter
                         │
                         ▼
                    POST /notify/:subId ──▶ Mailship
                         {id, relay}         │
                           UUID in path      ├── fetch event from relay
                           is the auth       ├── store in SQLite (dedup)
                                             │
                                        cron fires ──▶ render digest ──▶ SMTP ──▶ email
```

## Configuration

| Variable | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `MAILSHIP_SECRET` | ✓ | A nostr private key hex string for the server's identity |
| `MAILSHIP_NAME` | ✓ | Name of this Mailship instance |
| `MAILSHIP_URL` | ✓ | Public URL of this instance |
| `BASE_URL` | ✓ | Base URL for callback URLs (same as MAILSHIP_URL typically) |
| `SMTP_HOST` | ✓ | SMTP server hostname |
| `SMTP_PORT` | ✓ | SMTP server port |
| `SMTP_USER` | ✓ | SMTP username |
| `SMTP_PASSWORD` | ✓ | SMTP password |
| `SMTP_FROM` | ✓ | From email address for outgoing mail |
| `EVENT_VIEWER_URL` | | Base URL of the app event links open in (defaults to Flotilla at `https://app.flotilla.social`, or anything handling the same `/spaces/<relay>/<hash>` and `/<nevent>` URL shapes) |
| `BRAND_NAME` | | Name used in email branding (default: `Flotilla`) |
| `BRAND_ACCENT` | | Accent color string used in email branding (default: `#7161FF`) |
| `BRAND_LOGO` | | URL of the logo image shown in the email header. Defaults to `<EVENT_VIEWER_URL>/logo.png`; if empty/unset, a colored brand name is shown instead |
| `DEFAULT_RELAYS` | ✓ | Comma-separated list of default relays |
| `INDEXER_RELAYS` | ✓ | Comma-separated list of indexer relays |
| `SEARCH_RELAYS` | ✓ | Comma-separated list of search relays |
| `PORT` | | Port to run on (default: 4738) |

## API

### PUT /subscription/email
Idempotently register or update an email subscription. Re-sends the confirmation
email only when the subscription is new or the email address changed; a frequency
change keeps the existing confirmation. The pubkey is extracted from the NIP-98
Authorization header — the body does not include a `pubkey` field.

```
Body: { email, frequency }
Auth: NIP-98 (Nostr <base64> Authorization header)
Response: { key, callback }
```

### GET /subscription/email
Look up an existing subscription for the authenticated pubkey, so clients can
avoid re-registering (and re-confirming) when settings haven't changed.
Returns 404 if none exists.

```
Auth: NIP-98 (Nostr <base64> Authorization header)
Response: { key, callback, email, frequency, confirmed }
```

### DELETE /subscription/:key
Unsubscribe. Verifies the NIP-98 auth pubkey matches the subscription owner.

```
Auth: NIP-98 (Nostr <base64> Authorization header)
Response: { ok: true }
```

### POST /notify/:id
[NIP-9a](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/pull/2194) relay push callback. Called by relays or NPB when matching events are found.

```
Body: { id, relay, event? }
Response: { ok: true, stored: boolean }
Returns 404 if subscription not found or inactive.
```

The optional `event` field supports NIP-98 `include_event` — relays can embed
the full event inline to bypass fetching. When `event` is provided:

- `event.id` must match the `id` string, **and** the event signature must be
  cryptographically valid (`verifyEvent` from nostr-tools).
- If either check fails, the endpoint returns **400** `{ error: 'Invalid event' }`.

When `event` is omitted, the server fetches the event from the relay using
`id` and `relay`. If the relay has no matching event (deleted, expired, or
never published), the endpoint returns `{ ok: true, stored: false }` — the
event is silently skipped rather than erroring.

After obtaining the event (from body or relay), it is stored in the local
database. If the event is already known (deduplication), `stored` is `false`;
otherwise `stored` is `true`. The `stored` field is always present in a 200
response.

### GET /confirm?token=...
Confirm email address via link from confirmation email.

### GET /unsubscribe?token=...
Unsubscribe via link from digest email.

## Development

**Requirements:** Node >= 22

> **Single instance:** Mailship uses in-process cron jobs for digest scheduling.
> Running more than one instance concurrently may cause duplicate or missed emails.

```sh
pnpm install
pnpm run build
pnpm run start
```

### Previewing the digest email

To iterate on the email template, render it with sample data and open the
result in your browser:

```sh
pnpm run preview:digest
open digest-preview.html
```

## Docker

### Quick start

```sh
cp .env.template .env
# Fill in your secrets in .env
docker compose up -d
```

### Build and run manually

```sh
docker build -t mailship .
docker run -d \
  -p 4738:4738 \
  -v mailship-data:/data \
  --env-file .env \
  mailship
```

## Tests

```sh
pnpm test:unit       # Run unit tests (vitest)
pnpm test            # Run integration tests (bash E2E)
pnpm test:server     # Start server for manual testing
```