NIP-10 - Text Notes and Threads

Table of Contents

• Text Notes and Threads
• Abstract
• Marked "e" tags (PREFERRED)
• The "p" tag
• Deprecated Positional "e" tags

Text Notes and Threads

draft optional

This NIP defines kind:1 as a simple plaintext note.

Abstract

The .content property contains some human-readable text.

e tags can be used to define note thread roots and replies. They SHOULD be sorted by the reply stack from root to the direct parent.

q tags MAY be used when citing events in the .content with NIP-21.

["q", "<event-id> or <event-address>", "<relay-url>", "<pubkey-if-a-regular-event>"]

Authors of the e and q tags SHOULD be added as p tags to notify of a new reply or quote.

Markup languages such as markdown and HTML SHOULD NOT be used.

Marked "e" tags (PREFERRED)

Kind 1 events with e tags are replies to other kind 1 events. Kind 1 replies MUST NOT be used to reply to other kinds, use NIP-22 instead.

["e", <event-id>, <relay-url>, <marker>, <pubkey>]

Where:

• <event-id> is the id of the event being referenced.
• <relay-url> is the URL of a recommended relay associated with the reference. Clients SHOULD add a valid <relay-url> field, but may instead leave it as "".
• <marker> is optional and if present is one of "reply", "root".
• <pubkey> is optional, SHOULD be the pubkey of the author of the referenced event

Those marked with "reply" denote the id of the reply event being responded to. Those marked with "root" denote the root id of the reply thread being responded to. For top level replies (those replying directly to the root event), only the "root" marker should be used.

A direct reply to the root of a thread should have a single marked "e" tag of type "root".

This scheme is preferred because it allows events to mention others without confusing them with <reply-id> or <root-id>.

<pubkey> SHOULD be the pubkey of the author of the e tagged event, this is used in the outbox model to search for that event from the authors write relays where relay hints did not resolve the event.

The "p" tag

Used in a text event contains a list of pubkeys used to record who is involved in a reply thread.

When replying to a text event E the reply event's "p" tags should contain all of E's "p" tags as well as the "pubkey" of the event being replied to.

Example: Given a text event authored by a1 with "p" tags [p1, p2, p3] then the "p" tags of the reply should be [a1, p1, p2, p3] in no particular order.

Deprecated Positional "e" tags

This scheme is not in common use anymore and is here just to keep backward compatibility with older events on the network.

Positional e tags are deprecated because they create ambiguities that are difficult, or impossible to resolve when an event references another but is not a reply.

They use simple e tags without any marker.

["e", <event-id>, <relay-url>] as per NIP-01.

Where:

• <event-id> is the id of the event being referenced.
• <relay-url> is the URL of a recommended relay associated with the reference. Many clients treat this field as optional.

The positions of the "e" tags within the event denote specific meanings as follows:

• No "e" tag: This event is not a reply to, nor does it refer to, any other event.

• One "e" tag: ["e", <id>]: The id of the event to which this event is a reply.

• Two "e" tags: ["e", <root-id>], ["e", <reply-id>] <root-id> is the id of the event at the root of the reply chain. <reply-id> is the id of the article to which this event is a reply.

• Many "e" tags: ["e", <root-id>] ["e", <mention-id>], ..., ["e", <reply-id>] There may be any number of <mention-ids>. These are the ids of events which may, or may not be in the reply chain. They are citing from this event. root-id and reply-id are as above.