189 lines
7.2 KiB
Markdown
189 lines
7.2 KiB
Markdown
# Mailship
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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.
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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.
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## Architecture
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```
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Flotilla ──HTTP──▶ Mailship (PUT /subscription/email)
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│ NIP-98 auth
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│ returns {key, callback}
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│
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└──kind 30390──▶ relay or NPB
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│
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event matches filter
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│
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▼
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POST /notify/:subId ──▶ Mailship
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{id, relay} │
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UUID in path ├── fetch event from relay
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is the auth ├── store in SQLite (dedup)
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│
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cron fires ──▶ render digest ──▶ SMTP ──▶ email
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```
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## Configuration
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| Variable | Required | Description |
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|---|---|---|
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| `MAILSHIP_SECRET` | ✓ | A nostr private key hex string for the server's identity |
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| `MAILSHIP_NAME` | ✓ | Name of this Mailship instance |
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| `MAILSHIP_URL` | ✓ | Public URL of this instance |
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| `BASE_URL` | ✓ | Base URL for callback URLs (same as MAILSHIP_URL typically) |
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| `SMTP_HOST` | ✓ | SMTP server hostname |
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| `SMTP_PORT` | ✓ | SMTP server port |
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| `SMTP_USER` | ✓ | SMTP username |
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| `SMTP_PASSWORD` | ✓ | SMTP password |
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| `SMTP_FROM` | ✓ | From email address for outgoing mail |
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| `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) |
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| `BRAND_NAME` | | Name used in email branding (default: `Flotilla`) |
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| `BRAND_ACCENT` | | Accent color string used in email branding (default: `#7161FF`) |
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| `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 |
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| `DEFAULT_RELAYS` | ✓ | Comma-separated list of default relays |
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| `INDEXER_RELAYS` | ✓ | Comma-separated list of indexer relays |
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| `SEARCH_RELAYS` | ✓ | Comma-separated list of search relays |
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| `PORT` | | Port to run on (default: 4738) |
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## API
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### PUT /subscription/email
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Idempotently register or update an email subscription. Re-sends the confirmation
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email only when the subscription is new or the email address changed; a frequency
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or schedule change keeps the existing confirmation. The pubkey is extracted from
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the NIP-98 Authorization header — the body does not include a `pubkey` field.
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```
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Body: { email, frequency, hour?, minute?, dayOfWeek?, timezone? }
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Auth: NIP-98 (Nostr <base64> Authorization header)
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Response: { key, callback }
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```
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**Optional schedule fields (defaults: `hour=17`, `minute=0`, `timezone="UTC"`):**
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| Field | Type | Constraints | Default |
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|---|---|---|---|
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| `hour` | integer | 0–23 | `17` |
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| `minute` | integer | 0–59 | `0` |
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| `dayOfWeek` | integer | 1=Mon … 7=Sun (0 also accepted as Sun); only valid when `frequency="weekly"` | `1` (Monday) for weekly, omitted for daily |
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| `timezone` | string | IANA timezone name, e.g. `"America/New_York"` | `"UTC"` |
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When omitted, each field falls back to its default. `dayOfWeek` is silently
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ignored for daily frequency (the stored value is `NULL`).
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**DOW convention:** `dayOfWeek` follows cron: 1=Monday, 2=Tuesday, …, 7=Sunday.
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`0` is also accepted as Sunday (standard cron alias).
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### GET /subscription/email
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Look up an existing subscription for the authenticated pubkey, so clients can
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avoid re-registering (and re-confirming) when settings haven't changed.
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Returns 404 if none exists.
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```
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Auth: NIP-98 (Nostr <base64> Authorization header)
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Response: { key, callback, email, frequency, hour, minute, dayOfWeek, timezone, confirmed }
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```
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### DELETE /subscription/:key
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Unsubscribe. Verifies the NIP-98 auth pubkey matches the subscription owner.
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```
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Auth: NIP-98 (Nostr <base64> Authorization header)
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Response: { ok: true }
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```
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### POST /notify/:id
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[NIP-9a](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/pull/2194) relay push callback. Called by relays or NPB when matching events are found.
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```
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Body: { id, relay, event? }
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Response: { ok: true, stored: boolean }
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Returns 404 if subscription not found or inactive.
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```
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The optional `event` field supports NIP-98 `include_event` — relays can embed
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the full event inline to bypass fetching. When `event` is provided:
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- `event.id` must match the `id` string, **and** the event signature must be
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cryptographically valid (`verifyEvent` from nostr-tools).
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- If either check fails, the endpoint returns **400** `{ error: 'Invalid event' }`.
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When `event` is omitted, the server fetches the event from the relay using
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`id` and `relay`. If the relay has no matching event (deleted, expired, or
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never published), the endpoint returns `{ ok: true, stored: false }` — the
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event is silently skipped rather than erroring.
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After obtaining the event (from body or relay), it is stored in the local
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database. If the event is already known (deduplication), `stored` is `false`;
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otherwise `stored` is `true`. The `stored` field is always present in a 200
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response.
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### GET /confirm?token=...
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Confirm email address via link from confirmation email.
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### GET /unsubscribe?token=...
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Unsubscribe via link from digest email.
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## Development
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**Requirements:** Node >= 22
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> **Single instance:** Mailship uses in-process cron jobs for digest scheduling.
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> Running more than one instance concurrently may cause duplicate or missed emails.
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```sh
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pnpm install
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pnpm run build
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pnpm run start
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```
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### Previewing the digest email
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To iterate on the email template, render it with sample data and open the
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result in your browser:
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```sh
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pnpm run preview:digest
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open digest-preview.html
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```
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## Deployment
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The recommended deployment method for mailship is using Docker. You can build the docker image from the repo root with:
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```sh
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docker build -t mailship .
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```
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The image listens on **port 4738**, expects a writable **`/data`** volume for the SQLite
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database, and runs as a non-root user (`app`) for security hardening.
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### Docker Compose (Recommended)
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Copy the environment template, fill in your secrets, and start:
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```sh
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cp .env.template .env
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# Edit .env with your production values (see Configuration section in README)
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docker compose up -d
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```
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The compose file (`docker-compose.yml`) configures:
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- **Automatic restarts** via `restart: unless-stopped`
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- **Named volume** `mailship-data` mounted at `/data` for database persistence
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- **Port 4738** published to the host
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- **Environment variables** passed from your `.env` file with `.env` substitution
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- **Required vars** (`MAILSHIP_SECRET`, `MAILSHIP_URL`, `BASE_URL`, `SMTP_*`) — the
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compose file uses `${VAR:?required}` to fail early if any are missing
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To pull the latest image and recreate the container after a rebuild:
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```sh
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docker compose build --pull
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# or if using a pre-built image:
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docker compose pull
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docker compose up -d
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```
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