Building a better developer community experience using Git. Nostr and Flotilla-Budabit

By Biz April 14, 2025
Flotilla-Budabit is fork of Flotilla which aims to provide a first class, git-centric community experience for developers. Based on the popular [Coracle](https://coracle.social/) client, Flotilla is a drop in replacement for Matrix/Discord/Slack, using a variation of NIP-29. This post is a result of a brainstorming session for features that would deliver the best possible user experience.

Flotilla-Budabit is fork of Flotilla which aims to provide a first class, git-centric community experience for developers. Based on the popular Coracle client, Flotilla is a drop in replacement for Matrix/Discord/Slack, using a variation of NIP-29. This post is a result of a brainstorming session for features that would deliver the best possible user experience.

1. Repositories Overview

Goal: Browse and discover Git repositories.

  • Project cards showing name, description, tags, clone URL.
  • Buttons: Star, Watch, Fork.
  • Links to discussion channels and activity.

Powered by:
kind:30617

2. Branch and Tag View

Goal: Show active branches and tags with latest commits.

  • Branch/tag selector
  • HEAD pointer visualization
  • Timeline of commits

Powered by:
kind:30618

3. Issues Board

Goal: Track bugs, discussions, and feature requests.

  • Markdown issue rendering
  • Labels and status indicators
  • Threaded comments

Powered by:
kind:1621, kind:1630–1632

4. Patch Threads

Goal: View and discuss patches as threaded conversations.

  • Rich patch preview
  • Reply threads for review
  • Revision tracking

Powered by:
kind:1617, kind:1630–1633, NIP-10

5. Pull Request UX

Goal: Display patch series as PR-style units.

  • Patch stack visualization
  • Merge/apply status indicators
  • Final result commit link

Powered by:
kind:1617, kind:1631, merge-commit, applied-as-commits

6. Diff and Merge Preview

Goal: Side-by-side comparison with inline comments.

  • Expandable diff viewer
  • Merge conflict resolution UI
  • Apply/Close buttons

Powered by:
kind:1622, parent-commit, commit

7. Real-time Git Chat

Goal: Communicate in real-time around a repo.

  • Dedicated chat channels for each repo
  • Markdown, code snippets, and tagging support
  • Pinned patches, issues, and sessions

Powered by:
NIP-29, a:30617, kind:1337

8. Notifications and Mentions

Goal: Alert users to relevant events.

  • Mentions, assignments, and status changes
  • Personal notification pane

Powered by:
p tags, mention e-tags

9. Repository-Wide Search

Goal: Search patches, issues, snippets.

  • Full-text search with filters
  • Search by kind, label, commit ID

Powered by:
kind:1617, 1621, 1337, t, x, l, subject

10. Repository Wikis

Goal: Collaboratively edit and view project documentation.

  • Wiki sidebar tab
  • Markdown articles with versioning
  • Linked inline in chat

Powered by (proposed):
kind:1341 (Wiki article)
kind:30617 with wiki-home tag

11. Live Coding Sessions

Goal: Host real-time collaborative coding events.

  • /livecode starts a session thread
  • Snippets auto-tagged to session
  • Export as patch or wiki

Powered by (proposed):
kind:1347 (Live coding session)
kind:1337, kind:1622, kind:1341

Supporting Tools

1. GitHub Browser Extension

Goal: Publish GitHub content to Nostr directly.

  • “Share on Nostr” buttons on PRs, issues, commits

Backed by:
kind:1623, 1622, 1617, 1621

2. VS Code Extension

Goal: Enable developers to interact with Flotilla from their IDE.

  • Repo feed, patch submission, issue tracking
  • Inline threads and comment rendering

Backed by:
kind:1617, 1621, 1337, 163x

3. GitHub Actions Integration

Goal: Automate Nostr publishing of repo activity.

  • Push = repo state
  • PR = patch
  • Issue/Comment = issue
  • Merge = status update

Backed by:
kind:30618, 1617, 1621, 1631
Configured via .nostr.yml

#git #flotilla
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