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Tag: alt
Overview
The alt
tag provides a short human-readable plaintext summary for custom event kinds that aren't meant to be read as text. This allows social clients that primarily display kind:1
notes to show meaningful context when encountering unknown event kinds.
Specification
Property | Value |
---|---|
Tag Name | alt |
Defined in | NIP-31 |
Required for | Custom event kinds that are part of custom protocols |
Format
["alt", "<human-readable summary>"]
Usage Description
When creating a new custom event kind that is part of a custom protocol and isn't meant to be read as text (like kind:1
), clients should use an alt
tag to write a short human-readable plaintext summary of what that event is about.
The content of the alt
tag should provide enough context for a user that doesn't know anything about this event kind to understand what it is.
Examples
Basic Example
json
["alt", "User updated their profile picture"]
Custom Protocol Example
json
["alt", "Chess game move: Knight to E4"]
Marketplace Event Example
json
["alt", "Listed item for sale: Vintage guitar"]
Client Behavior
Social clients that are used to displaying only kind:1
notes should:
- Display the content of the
alt
tag when encountering unknown event kinds. - Use this fallback text to provide context to users who reference these events in their notes.
- Consider supporting NIP-89 to make interacting with custom event kinds more functional.
Clients that only know kind:1
are not expected to ask relays for events of different kinds, but when these events are referenced, the alt
tag ensures the reference makes sense.
Relay Behavior
Relays should treat the alt
tag like any other tag and include it when serving events that contain it. No special handling is required from the relay perspective.
References
Related Tags
- No directly related tags, but the
alt
tag complements any custom event kind implementation.
Notes
- The
alt
tag is particularly important for maintaining user experience when custom protocols introduce new event kinds. - Without proper context from the
alt
tag, references to custom events inkind:1
notes could appear nonsensical to users. - This tag serves as a bridge between custom protocols and general-purpose social clients.