1---2title: Getting started3audience: user4---56# Getting started78bind.ws gives you a nostr relay at a name you choose. You claim it with your nostr key. There is no account, password or email.910You need a nostr key and something that signs with it: a browser extension such as Alby, nos2x or Nostash, or a signer app such as Amber or nsec.app on your phone. Any nostr client works with the relay once it exists.1112## Try one1314Not sure about a name yet? Click **Try one now** on the front page, or ask from a script:1516```17curl -X POST https://bind.ws/lease18```1920You get a relay at a memorable name, such as `wss://brave-otter.bind.ws`. Anyone can read and write to it for 14 days. Then everything on it is deleted and the name is freed. Its page says when.2122To keep it, open its page and click **Claim this relay** before then. The events and files stay, and you are the owner. The page then offers to switch to the default rules, since a temporary relay keeps events for 14 days only.2324If you sign the request with your key (NIP-98, a signed request), only that key can claim the relay.2526## Claim a name27281. Open `https://<name>.bind.ws/`. Names are three to 32 lowercase letters, digits or hyphens.292. If the page says nobody owns the relay, click **Claim this relay**. Your extension asks you to sign once.303. The page becomes your relay's console. You are the owner.3132If the page shows someone else's name, the relay is taken. Pick another.3334## From a phone3536No extension is needed. Open the relay's page, choose **Use a remote signer** and tap **Open in your signer app**. The app asks you to approve the connection, and the page continues where you left off. On a computer, paste the `bunker://` URL your signer app gives you and click **Connect**.3738The relay carries the signer traffic itself, so this works on a relay nobody has claimed yet. The page remembers the connection until you sign out.3940## Connect a client4142Add the relay URL to your client's relay list:4344```45wss://<name>.bind.ws46```4748That is all. The relay speaks the standard protocol, so Damus, Amethyst, noStrudel, Coracle and the rest need no special setup. Your notes, reactions and profile land on your relay the moment you publish.4950The relay's page has shortcuts too: open the **Connect** fold. The relay URL with its copy button comes first, then one tile per shortcut the owner chose: an app, what it does with this relay, an **Open** button, a copy button for a command or an address when the app takes one, a QR button that puts the handoff link on a phone, and **More** for the app's other links. Relay apps such as Jumble and Flotilla open the relay as a place. Feed apps such as Primal have no relay pages, so **Find me here** opens the owner's profile with this relay attached as the hint; add the relay in the app's settings from there. A visitor sees the public shortcuts; sign in to see the rest the owner shares with you, with the links that need your own key filled in. The Blossom, names and bridge addresses and the Git clone example wait under **Connection details** at the bottom of the fold. As the owner, you pick the shortcuts on the Connect tab ([Relay configuration](01-relay-configuration.md#connect)).5152## Your relay lists5354Clients learn where to find you from lists you sign and publish: your relay list, your DM inbox, your search relays and your file servers. A new relay is not on any of them yet. On the Identity tab, **Your relay lists** has one row per list. **Check** reads your newest copy from here and from a few indexers. **Add this relay** puts this relay at the front and, with one signature, publishes the list back to every relay it names. Everything already on the list stays.5556## Invite people5758A fresh relay lets anyone write. To keep it to your people, set **Rules > Writes** to *members*. Then, on the People tab:5960- **New invite link** mints a link. The person opens it, signs once and becomes a member.61- Paste a pubkey or npub in the top row to add someone directly.6263Members can have a name at your relay, such as `alice@<name>.bind.ws`. Set it in their row, or they set it in their profile.6465## From a file6667Everything the console sets can live in a file in your own repository: the rules, the features, the kinds and keep-for rules, the members, the bans. From a checkout of the [repository](https://github.com/FelineStateMachine/bindws), pull the relay as it is, edit the file, see what applying it would change, then apply:6869```70export RELAY_SK=<your key, hex or nsec>71npm run relay pull wss://<name>.bind.ws relay.json72npm run relay plan relay.json wss://<name>.bind.ws73npm run relay push relay.json wss://<name>.bind.ws74```7576The file has a schema, so an editor checks it as you type, and `plan` never touches the relay. A template from the repository's `relay-templates/` folder is a good start: `10-quiet.jsonc` is a small private relay with every costly feature off. See [Scripts and agents](13-scripts-and-agents.md#the-configuration-file).7778## What it costs7980Nothing until the relay passes its monthly free allowance. Past that, use is paid in sats, and anyone can zap the relay to top it up. See [Understanding fuel](02-understanding-fuel.md).8182## Where next8384- [Relay configuration](01-relay-configuration.md): the console, tab by tab.85- [People and groups](03-people-and-groups.md): invites, moderators, groups in clients, handing the relay over.86- [Data and names](04-data-and-names.md): pulls, mirrors, dumps, presets and forks.87- [Scripts and agents](13-scripts-and-agents.md): the relay from a key and curl, and as a file.88- [Your relay on the web](05-your-relay-on-the-web.md): pages, the feed, the card, your own domain and media.