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EXTERNAL-SIGNING.md

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EXTERNAL-SIGNING.md

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External signing handoff

External mode supports publication without installing a signer extension in the Wildbloom browser. It is a manual custody boundary, not a remote-signer protocol and not an anonymity guarantee.

What the signer must do

The separate signer must accept a Nostr unsigned-event object containing only kind, created_at, tags and content, show those fields for review, and return the complete canonical signed event containing only id, pubkey, sig and those four unchanged fields. The public key entered in Wildbloom must match the returned event.

Never enter an nsec, hexadecimal private key or recovery key into Wildbloom. Do not use a signing tool that silently rewrites timestamps, tags, content or event kinds. Wildbloom rejects those changes even when their signature is cryptographically valid.

Ceremony

  1. Choose External signer handoff, enter only the signer's 64-character hexadecimal public key, and confirm it.
  2. Prepare the file and acknowledge its recovery key and upload disclosure.
  3. Choose Upload prepared payload. Wildbloom displays a kind 24242 unsigned upload authorisation. No upload has begun.
  4. Move that unsigned JSON to the signer using a transfer method appropriate to the threat model. Review the exact hash, onion or clearnet server and five-minute expiry on both sides.
  5. Return only the complete signed-event JSON. Accept signature and continue upload verifies the exact template, author and signature before the first upload request.
  6. After Blossom accepts the bytes, choose Review and sign events. Repeat the handoff for the kind 1063 event. Direct mode with configured trackers also requests a kind 2003 event; leaving trackers empty needs only 1063.
  7. Relay publication remains a separate consent and action after every exact signature has been accepted.

Changing the file, endpoint, network profile, public key or signing method cancels a pending handoff and clears downstream authority. An invalid response leaves the template available for a safe retry. Cancelling the handoff sends nothing.

Privacy boundary

The unsigned templates contain intended public metadata: blob hash, server, timestamps, event content and, when trackers are configured, torrent facts. The returned signed event also contains the public signing identity. The transfer medium and signer can observe or retain them. A networked signer can make its own requests, and a reused Nostr identity remains linkable regardless of Tor.

An operating-system clipboard may synchronise to other devices. A downloaded template remains on disk. Choose the handoff medium deliberately, delete local copies where that has useful meaning, and keep the recovery key on a separate channel from the event ID.

Wildbloom's automated Tor gate proves that signed Tor Project Firefox can publish through disposable v3 onions with this handoff and no signer add-on, then recover through a fresh profile after NEWNYM. It does not prove the human signer's UI, the transfer medium, anonymity or resistance to traffic analysis.