If you’ve been following the Nostr ecosystem, you’ve likely heard of pyramid—the relay implementation by fiatjaf that promises to be a “wondrous furnace of communityzenship.” But what does it actually store? Is it just another event dump, or is there something more ancient and structured lurking beneath the surface?

Let’s grab our flambeaus and venture inside.

🏛️ One Monument, Many Chambers

Unlike a simple relay that just accepts and forwards events, pyramid is built like its namesake: a single structure with multiple specialized chambers. At its core, all events are stored in a single memory-mapped file—think of this as the solid stone core of the pyramid. It’s fast, it’s deduplicated, and it’s shared across all functions.

But here’s the clever part: while the stone core is shared, the indexes are independent. This means events don’t get mixed up between different contexts. What happens in the King’s Chamber stays in the King’s Chamber.

👑 The King’s Chamber (Main Relay)

This is the public face of your pyramid. Accessible at the top-level path (/), it stores:

· Events published by members only—the core community content · Zaps issued by relay members (even though these are signed by zapper services)

Think of this as the sarcophagus chamber: it holds the most important, permanent things the community wants to display to the world.

👸 The Queen’s Chamber (Internal Relay)

A private space only for members, both for reading and writing. This stores:

· Internal community discussions · Member-only announcements · Private coordination

It’s the spiritual heart of the community, visible only to those who have been initiated.

📦 The Treasures (Favorites Relay)

Members can manually curate notes from external users by republishing them here. This stores:

· A hand-picked collection of valuable external content · The community’s recommended reading list

It’s like the golden statues and precious oils placed in the pyramid—treasures collected from the outside world.

🛡️ The Hidden Passages (Inbox Relay)

A spam-protected inbox for members with serious defensive architecture:

· Filters out anyone outside the member’s extended (2-level) social graph · Stores custom bans for specific users and their networks · Can require proof-of-work for entry

This is where private messages and relevant replies go, safe from the chaos of the external world.

📈 The Astronomical Shafts (Popular & Uppermost Relays)

These relays point toward the stars, storing algorithmically curated content:

· Popular: Notes from external users automatically curated based on member reactions and interactions · Uppermost: Only the notes most loved by a high percentage of members—the “best of the best”

If the Popular relay points to Orion, the Uppermost relay points to the circumpolar stars—the ones that never set.

🗿 The Unfinished Chamber (Personal Relay)

Every pyramid has its mysteries. The Personal relay is a recent addition that stores:

· Notes that only the author can read · A private note-taking service built into the relay

It’s the subterranean chamber—unfinished, enigmatic, and entirely private.

👥 The Mortuary Temple (Groups Relay)

This is where the living interact with the dead—or in this case, where members interact with non-members:

· Members can create groups and become admins · Non-members can join if permitted · Supports public/private groups with invite codes · Private group messages are only shown to group members

The pyramid’s root admin can see all groups and moderate them, like a pharaoh overseeing the entire necropolis.

🎨 The Decoration (Blossom Media Server)

Integrated directly into pyramid is a full media server:

· Available only to members · Stores images, videos, and other blobs · Configurable upload limits per member · Members can view and delete their own media · Includes an FTP (SFTP) server for management

It’s the painted reliefs on the chamber walls—the illustrations that bring the text to life.

📜 The Pyramid Texts (Everything Else)

Beyond the chambers, the pyramid stores the equivalent of the Pyramid Texts—the spells and instructions for navigating the afterlife:

· The membership hierarchy itself: A complete log of invites and drops, tracking who invited whom and who is responsible for whom. Members can have multiple parents, safeguarding against despotic removal. · Event statistics: Each member can view their own event counts by kind, with usage charts. · NIP-05 addresses: Community-linked Nostr addresses for members. · Paywall state: Tracks zap amounts and periods for notes tagged with special hashtags. Notes can be hidden unless the viewer has zapped the author sufficiently. · OpenTimestamps: If enabled, stores and verifies cryptographic timestamps for events. · NIP-34 GRASP data: For collaborative curation and software management. · All settings: Everything configurable from the UI is stored in a JSON file, from relay metadata to which sub-relay listens on which path.

🗝️ What the Pyramid Does Not Store

Like a real pyramid, this one has defenses. It actively filters out:

· Spam and hellthreads (thanks to the Inbox relay) · Events from banned users or their social graphs · Content that doesn’t meet proof-of-work requirements · Unauthorized media uploads (members only)

🔮 Still Excavating At The Great Pyramid

With 424 commits and active development as of March 2026, new chambers are still being discovered. Recent additions include LiveKit integration for groups and an ever-expanding set of sub-relays.

The pyramid is very much alive—or perhaps “undead” is the better term for something this ancient and powerful.

Do you want to explore the pyramid yourself? Join the group of users at pyramid.fiatjaf.com’Tnq7x2ZTgrPZWFrC or check out the GitHub repository. Just remember: The Pyramid of Nostr is Your Seat In The Sky — your inheritance the stars.

— Your guide to the digital afterlife