Nostr Data Vending Machines (NIP-90)

Overview

Build AI and compute services on Nostr using the Data Vending Machine protocol. DVMs follow a simple pattern: customers publish job requests (kind 5000-5999), service providers process them and return results (kind 6000-6999), with optional feedback events (kind 7000) for status updates and payment negotiation.

When to Use

Building a DVM service provider that processes job requests
Creating a client that publishes DVM job requests and handles results
Implementing payment flows for DVM services (bid, amount, bolt11)
Chaining multiple DVM jobs (output of one feeds into another)
Adding encrypted parameters to DVM requests for privacy
Publishing NIP-89 handler announcements for DVM discoverability
Handling DVM feedback states (processing, payment-required, error, partial)

Do NOT use when:

Building general Nostr events (use nostr-event-builder)
Implementing relay WebSocket logic
Working with Lightning payments outside the DVM context

Workflow

1. Determine Your Role

Ask: "Am I building a service provider, a client, or both?"

Role	Publishes	Subscribes To
Service Provider	kind:6xxx results	kind:5xxx requests
	kind:7000 feedback	kind:5 cancellations
	kind:31990 NIP-89 info
Customer/Client	kind:5xxx requests	kind:6xxx results
	kind:5 cancellations	kind:7000 feedback

2. Choose the Job Kind

Each DVM operation has a specific kind number. The result kind is always request kind + 1000.

Request Kind	Result Kind	Description
5000	6000	Text extraction
5001	6001	Summarization
5002	6002	Translation
5003	6003	Text generation
5005	6005	Content discovery/recommendation
5050	6050	Text-to-speech
5100	6100	Image generation
5250	6250	Event publishing

See references/dvm-kinds.md for the full registry.

3. Build the Job Request (Customer Side)

Construct a kind 5000-5999 event:

{
  "kind": 5001,
  "content": "",
  "tags": [
    ["i", "<data>", "<input-type>", "<relay>", "<marker>"],
    ["output", "<mime-type>"],
    ["relays", "wss://relay.example.com"],
    ["bid", "<msat-amount>"],
    ["t", "<topic-tag>"],
    ["p", "<preferred-service-provider-pubkey>"]
  ]
}

Input types — the second element of the i tag:

Type	Meaning	Example
`text`	Raw text data, no resolution needed	`["i", "Hello world", "text"]`
`url`	URL to fetch content from	`["i", "https://example.com/doc.pdf", "url"]`
`event`	Reference to a Nostr event by ID	`["i", "<event-id>", "event", "wss://relay"]`
`job`	Output of a previous DVM job (for chaining)	`["i", "<job-event-id>", "job"]`

Optional tags:

output — requested MIME type for the result (e.g., text/plain)
param — key/value parameters: ["param", "lang", "es"]
bid — max millisats the customer will pay
relays — where service providers should publish responses
p — preferred service provider pubkey (others MAY still respond)
t — topic tags for categorization

4. Handle Job Feedback (Kind 7000)

Service providers send feedback events to communicate status:

{
  "kind": 7000,
  "content": "",
  "tags": [
    ["status", "<status>", "<extra-info>"],
    ["amount", "<msat>", "<bolt11>"],
    ["e", "<job-request-id>", "<relay-hint>"],
    ["p", "<customer-pubkey>"]
  ]
}

Status values:

Status	Meaning	Action Required
`payment-required`	SP requires payment before continuing	Customer must pay
`processing`	SP is actively working on the job	Wait for result
`error`	SP could not process the job	Check extra-info for why
`success`	SP completed the job	Result incoming
`partial`	SP has partial results (content may have samples)	More results coming

Critical: payment-required is a hard gate — the SP will NOT proceed until paid. Other statuses are informational.

The content field MAY contain partial results (e.g., a sample of processed output) for any feedback status.

5. Publish Job Results (Service Provider Side)

Result kind = request kind + 1000 (e.g., 5001 → 6001):

{
  "kind": 6001,
  "content": "<result-payload>",
  "tags": [
    ["request", "<stringified-original-job-request-event>"],
    ["e", "<job-request-id>", "<relay-hint>"],
    ["i", "<original-input-data>"],
    ["p", "<customer-pubkey>"],
    ["amount", "<msat>", "<optional-bolt11>"]
  ]
}

Required tags:

request — the FULL original job request event as a stringified JSON string
e — references the job request event ID
p — the customer's pubkey (so they can find the result)

Important: The request tag value is the entire job request event serialized as a JSON string, not just the event ID.

6. Handle Payments

The payment model is flexible by design:

Customer bids: Include ["bid", "<msat>"] in the request
SP quotes: Include ["amount", "<msat>", "<bolt11>"] in feedback/result
Customer pays: Either pay the bolt11 invoice OR zap the result event

Customer                    Service Provider
   |                              |
   |-- kind:5001 (bid: 5000) ---->|
   |                              |
   |<-- kind:7000 ----------------|  status: payment-required
   |    amount: 3000, bolt11:...  |
   |                              |
   |-- pay bolt11 or zap -------->|
   |                              |
   |<-- kind:7000 ----------------|  status: processing
   |                              |
   |<-- kind:6001 ----------------|  result + amount tag

SPs MUST use payment-required feedback to block until paid. They SHOULD NOT silently wait for payment without signaling.

7. Implement Job Chaining

Chain jobs by using the job input type — the output of one job becomes the input of the next:

{
  "kind": 5001,
  "content": "",
  "tags": [
    ["i", "<translation-job-event-id>", "job"],
    ["param", "lang", "en"]
  ]
}

The service provider for job #2 watches for the result of job #1, then processes it. Payment timing is at the SP's discretion — they may wait for the customer to zap job #1's result before starting job #2.

Chaining example — translate then summarize:

Step 1: Publish kind:5002 (translation)
  ["i", "https://article.com/post", "url"]
  ["param", "lang", "en"]

Step 2: Publish kind:5001 (summarization)
  ["i", "<step-1-event-id>", "job"]

8. Add Encrypted Parameters (Optional)

For privacy, encrypt i and param tags using NIP-04 with the service provider's pubkey:

Collect all i and param tags into a JSON array
Encrypt with NIP-04 (customer's private key + SP's public key)
Put encrypted payload in content field
Add ["encrypted"] tag and ["p", "<sp-pubkey>"] tag
Remove plaintext i and param tags from the event

{
  "kind": 5001,
  "content": "<nip04-encrypted-payload>",
  "tags": [
    ["p", "<service-provider-pubkey>"],
    ["encrypted"],
    ["output", "text/plain"],
    ["relays", "wss://relay.example.com"]
  ]
}

The SP decrypts the content to recover the input parameters. If the request was encrypted, the result MUST also be encrypted and tagged ["encrypted"].

9. Publish Service Provider Discovery (NIP-89)

Advertise DVM capabilities with a kind:31990 handler announcement:

{
  "kind": 31990,
  "content": "{\"name\":\"My Summarizer DVM\",\"about\":\"AI-powered text summarization\"}",
  "tags": [
    ["d", "<unique-identifier>"],
    ["k", "5001"],
    ["t", "summarization"],
    ["t", "ai"]
  ]
}

k tag: the job request kind this DVM handles (e.g., 5001)
t tags: topic tags for discoverability
content: JSON with name and about fields (like kind:0 metadata)

10. Handle Cancellation

Customers cancel jobs by publishing a kind:5 deletion request:

{
  "kind": 5,
  "tags": [
    ["e", "<job-request-event-id>"],
    ["k", "5001"]
  ],
  "content": "No longer needed"
}

Service providers SHOULD monitor for kind:5 events tagging their active jobs and stop processing if a cancellation is received.

Checklist

Example: Complete Summarization DVM Service Provider

Scenario: Build a service provider that handles kind:5001 summarization requests.

Subscribe to job requests

const sub = relay.subscribe([{ kinds: [5001] }]);

Process a request

async function handleJobRequest(event: NostrEvent) {
  const customerPubkey = event.pubkey;
  const jobId = event.id;

  // 1. Send processing feedback
  await publishEvent({
    kind: 7000,
    content: "",
    tags: [
      ["status", "processing", "Starting summarization"],
      ["e", jobId, "wss://relay.example.com"],
      ["p", customerPubkey],
    ],
  });

  // 2. Extract input data
  const inputTag = event.tags.find((t) => t[0] === "i");
  const inputType = inputTag[2]; // "text", "url", "event", "job"
  let inputData: string;

  if (inputType === "text") {
    inputData = inputTag[1];
  } else if (inputType === "url") {
    inputData = await fetch(inputTag[1]).then((r) => r.text());
  } else if (inputType === "event") {
    inputData = await fetchNostrEvent(inputTag[1], inputTag[3]);
  }

  // 3. Process the job
  const summary = await summarize(inputData);

  // 4. Publish result (kind = 5001 + 1000 = 6001)
  await publishEvent({
    kind: 6001,
    content: summary,
    tags: [
      ["request", JSON.stringify(event)],
      ["e", jobId, "wss://relay.example.com"],
      ["i", inputTag[1], inputTag[2]],
      ["p", customerPubkey],
      ["amount", "1000", generateBolt11(1000)],
    ],
  });
}

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Why It Breaks	Fix
Result kind doesn't match request kind + 1000	Clients can't correlate results to requests	kind:5001 → kind:6001, always add 1000
Missing `request` tag in result	Clients can't verify the result matches their request	Include full stringified job request event
`request` tag contains event ID instead of full event	Spec requires the complete event JSON as a string	Use `JSON.stringify(originalEvent)`
Using `payment-required` without `amount` tag	Customer has no way to pay	Always include `["amount", "<msat>", "<bolt11>"]`
Forgetting `p` tag in result/feedback	Customer can't find the result via subscription	Always tag the customer's pubkey
Encrypting request but not result	Leaks the output even though input was private	If request has `["encrypted"]`, result must too
Using wrong input-type in `i` tag	SP can't resolve the input data	`text`=raw, `url`=fetch, `event`=nostr lookup, `job`=chain
Chaining with `event` type instead of `job`	SP treats it as a static event, not a job output	Use `["i", "<id>", "job"]` for chaining
Not monitoring for kind:5 cancellations	Wastes compute on cancelled jobs	Subscribe to kind:5 events tagging active jobs
NIP-89 announcement missing `k` tag	Clients can't discover which kinds the DVM supports	Include `["k", "5001"]` for each supported kind

Key Principles

Result kind = request kind + 1000 — This is the fundamental mapping. kind:5001 always produces kind:6001. No exceptions.
The request tag carries the full event — Not just the ID. The entire original job request event must be stringified and included so clients can verify the result matches their request without additional lookups.
Payment is flexible, signaling is not — SPs can choose when to require payment, but they MUST use payment-required feedback to signal it. Silent blocking creates a broken UX.
Encrypted in = encrypted out — If the job request uses encrypted params, the result MUST also be encrypted. Partial encryption leaks data.
Job chaining uses the job input type — Not event. The job type tells the SP to wait for and use the output of a previous DVM job, not just read a static event.

nostr-dvms