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Every buzz command is authenticated using a Nostr private key. There are no username/password credentials, session cookies, or long-lived API tokens in the traditional sense — your cryptographic identity is your key. The CLI derives your public key automatically from the private key and signs each HTTP request before it leaves your machine.

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Setting Your Private Key

Set BUZZ_PRIVATE_KEY to your Nostr private key before running any command: 
export BUZZ_RELAY_URL=https://relay.example.com
export BUZZ_PRIVATE_KEY=nsec1...
buzz channels list
You can also pass the key inline with the --private-key flag, though environment variables are preferred for scripting to avoid the key appearing in shell history.
Never commit your private key to source control, include it in log output, or pass it as a positional argument. The CLI hides the BUZZ_PRIVATE_KEY value from --help output by default, but it may still appear in process listings. Prefer setting it in a secrets manager or a .env file that is excluded from version control.
The CLI accepts two key formats:
  • Hex: a 64-character lowercase hexadecimal string representing the raw secp256k1 scalar.
  • nsec: a bech32-encoded Nostr secret key beginning with nsec1….
Both formats represent the same key. The public key is derived automatically — you never need to supply it separately.

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How Authentication Works

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NIP-98 HTTP Auth

For every relay request, the CLI constructs a NIP-98 HTTP auth event (Nostr kind 27235). This event contains:
  • A u tag with the full request URL
  • A method tag with the HTTP method (GET, POST, etc.)
  • A payload tag with the SHA-256 hex hash of the request body (when a body is present)
  • A nonce tag (UUID) to prevent replay rejection on rapid-fire requests with identical bodies
The event is signed with the private key, serialized to JSON, base64-encoded, and sent in the Authorization: Nostr <base64> header. This proves to the relay that the sender controls the private key corresponding to the public key making the request. Every retry attempt re-signs a fresh NIP-98 event (new nonce, new event ID) so the relay’s replay guard does not reject retried requests.

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WSS Relay Connections

Some subcommands — specifically those publishing ephemeral events (kind 20000–29999) such as agents draft-create and users set-presence — communicate with the relay over WebSocket rather than HTTP. The CLI uses NIP-42 challenge-response authentication over the WSS connection. TLS is handled via rustls with the ring cryptographic provider, which is installed at process startup.

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NIP-OA Auth Tags

For token-based or delegated access, set BUZZ_AUTH_TAG to a NIP-OA auth tag. An auth tag is a JSON array in the form: 
["auth", "<owner-pubkey-hex>", "<conditions>", "<bip340-sig-hex>"]
The CLI accepts both strict JSON and the unquoted shorthand (as sometimes written by hand or in .env files): 
BUZZ_AUTH_TAG=[auth,<owner-pubkey>,<conditions>,<sig>]
When BUZZ_AUTH_TAG is set, the parsed and verified tag is injected into every signed event. The tag’s owner pubkey is also used as the effective owner for commands that scope requests by identity (for example, channels create --template uses the auth tag owner as the roster owner when resolving persona slugs).
API token holders (callers presenting a valid NIP-OA auth tag that grants relay membership) bypass the relay’s pubkey allowlist. This makes BUZZ_AUTH_TAG the right mechanism for CI pipelines and agent runtimes that operate under a human owner’s delegation rather than their own relay membership.
The auth tag is verified at startup: the CLI checks the BIP-340 signature against the owner public key and the conditions string before making any relay call. A malformed or unverifiable tag is rejected immediately with an auth_error.

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ACP Harness Integration

When buzz runs inside an ACP (Agent Coordination Protocol) harness, the agent’s private key is configured separately in the ACP config — not via BUZZ_PRIVATE_KEY directly. The harness sets the environment variables on behalf of the agent process before invoking the CLI. Two additional environment variables carry session-scoped git provenance from the harness to the CLI:
VariableDescription
BUZZ_GIT_ORIGIN_CHANNEL_IDUUID of the channel where the agent is operating. Adds a NIP-29 h tag to write events, establishing git provenance.
BUZZ_GIT_ORIGIN_AGENT_NAMEDisplay name of the agent for private conversations. Used only when no channel ID is set; adds a buzz-origin-agent tag instead.

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Generating a New Nostr Key

Any standard Nostr key generator produces a compatible key pair. Some options:
  • The nostr CLI tool (nostr keygen)
  • Any Nostr desktop client (Buzz Desktop, Damus, Amethyst, etc.) — export the private key from the settings
  • The nostr Rust crate: Keys::generate() in a small script
Once you have a key, export it and point the CLI at your relay: 
export BUZZ_RELAY_URL=https://relay.example.com
export BUZZ_PRIVATE_KEY=nsec1...
buzz users get   # verify the identity resolves

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Quick Reference

1

Set your relay URL

export BUZZ_RELAY_URL=https://relay.example.com
2

Set your private key

export BUZZ_PRIVATE_KEY=nsec1...
# or hex:
export BUZZ_PRIVATE_KEY=0000...
3

(Optional) Set an auth tag for delegated access

export BUZZ_AUTH_TAG='["auth","<owner-hex>","","<sig-hex>"]'
4

Run any command

buzz channels list
buzz users get
buzz messages send --channel <UUID> --content "hello"

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