in the extreme case, a proper hypermedia server/client should let the ui and even functional aspects be entirely driven by notes' content.
imagine what vibecoding would be like if it didn't even need to be in source code files or hosted anywhere.. entire uis and ux interactions composed soley of notes' content.
here's what the demon says about this:
This makes a lot of sense and is a compelling vision. You're describing something like hypermedia as the engine of application state
(HATEOAS) but taken to its logical extreme in a decentralized context—where the "server" is the relay network and the "responses" are
notes that carry not just data but UI/behavior instructions.
Proposal for demonstrating malleable UI/UX
1. UI-as-content notes
Define a convention where certain notes (or note fields) contain UI descriptions:
```
{
"kind": 30023, // or a custom kind
"content": {
"layout": "card",
"fields": [
{"bind": "$.author", "display": "avatar"},
{"bind": "$.content", "display": "markdown"},
{"bind": "$.tags[?(@[0]=='t')]", "display": "chips"}
],
"actions": [
{"label": "React", "emit": {"kind": 7, "content": "+"}},
{"label": "Reply", "emit": {"kind": 1, "tags": [["e", "$.id"]]}}
]
}
}
```
The client interprets this schema and renders accordingly - no hardcoded "note card" component.
2. Progressive demonstration
```
| Phase | What it shows |
|-----------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Static | A note whose content is a JSON UI spec; client renders it literally |
| Dynamic binding | UI spec references other notes via nevent/naddr; client fetches and binds data |
| Actions | Buttons in the UI spec that, when clicked, publish new notes (reactions, replies) |
| Self-modifying | A note that describes how to render itself (recursive/meta) |
```
3. Minimal proof-of-concept
A single HTML file that:
1. Subscribes to a specific note (or set of notes tagged #ui-spec)
2. Parses content as a UI DSL
3. Renders components dynamically (e.g., using a small interpreter or even eval for demo purposes)
4. Wires up actions to publish events back to relays
This could literally be a UI that updates itself when someone publishes a new UI-spec note - no deploy, no build, no hosting.
4. Why this is powerful
- Vibecoding without files: Describe your app in notes, iterate by publishing new versions
- Forkable UIs: Anyone can publish an alternative UI-spec note for the same data
- No servers: The "app" is just a dumb interpreter + the note content
- Composability: UI specs can reference other UI specs (components as notes)
nostr:npub1m2jphmdkskgnvwl5gplksl9e0zwv2sldqf9mwlpz6tyymz84g9fsqr3wgu check out this branch sometime: https://github.com/vcavallo/nostr-hypermedia/blob/hateoas-js/hateoas-js-readme.md
UIs and actions as specs published in a note, the "client" is a single html file...
This is a bit of a tangent from the master branch, but it's a pretty fun direction
imagine my surprise seeing alpine.js in the doc as i'm watching a video on htmx that mentions alpine.js lol. you have taken me down a rabbit hole, friend.
Additional reading on HATEOAS: https://htmx.org/essays/hateoas/
