Nostr, YunoHost and AI Agents
Nostr + YunoHost: From Login to AI Agents
Summary: Nostr identity on YunoHost started with login. It’s now growing into a way for people and AI agents to safely share a self-hosted server, with controlled permissions, owner approval and shared agent memory.
A lot has changed with the Nostr + YunoHost work over the last day.
The basic idea started fairly simply: let people use their Nostr identity to sign into a YunoHost server.
That now works. Existing YunoHost users can link a Nostr identity and sign in with it, while normal password login still works as before.
But the project is starting to become something bigger.
People and AI agents
YunoHost can now use Nostr identities for both people and AI agents, with the aim of giving each only the access they actually need.
For example, an AI agent doesn’t need unrestricted control of the server just because it needs to update an app or check why something isn’t working.
The YunoHost MCP now runs with limited privileges and sends the small number of operations that really need higher access through a separate, controlled service.
Sensitive actions can require approval from the server owner using Nostr before they happen.
So an agent might be allowed to check services, diagnose a problem or manage an app, but still need you to approve something more serious.
Your Nostr relays can follow you
There have also been some interesting additions around Nostr itself.
YunoHost can now look up the relay preferences published by a linked Nostr user. This means things such as the Nostr app catalogue can search the user’s own part of the relay network as well as the relays configured by the server.
There’s also now a shared default relay setting that other Nostr apps installed on the server can use.
Instead of entering the same relay list every time you install another Nostr app, the server can provide a sensible starting point.
Shared memory between AI agents
Another experiment has connected Polypack memory to the YunoHost MCP.
This allows different AI agents working with the same server to share useful information.
One agent could investigate a problem and store what it found. Another agent could later pick up that context and continue the work, even though the two agents aren’t directly connected to each other.
The goal isn’t to make AI agents admins
The important part is that none of this is intended to make AI agents “admins”.
It’s moving in the opposite direction.
The goal is to give people, apps and agents identities, then let the server enforce what each identity is allowed to do.
Nostr provides the identity and signing layer.
YunoHost provides the users, groups, apps and server management.
MCP gives AI agents a controlled way to interact with it.
Polypack is beginning to provide shared memory between those agents.
It’s still experimental, but quite a lot of this is now running on real YunoHost servers rather than existing only as an idea.
Projects
- https://github.com/imattau/yunohost-nostr-auth
- https://github.com/imattau/nostr_auth_ynh
- https://github.com/imattau/yunohost-mcp
- https://github.com/imattau/yunohost-mcp_ynh
Tags: nostr yunohost selfhosting mcp ai nostrdevs
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