How to Use Free Nostr DVMs (Data Vending Machines) in 2026

Data Vending Machines (DVMs) are one of Nostr's most powerful features. Defined in NIP-90, they let you request computation from the network — content discovery, translation, search, AI tasks — and get results back automatically.

What Can DVMs Do?#

Think of DVMs as API services that run over Nostr. No API keys, no domain names, no accounts. Just publish a request event and get results back.

Common DVM services:

• Content Discovery (kind 5300) — Find someone's recent posts across all relays
• Content Search (kind 5302) — Full-text search across Nostr
• Text Translation (kind 5002) — Translate posts between languages
• URL Extraction — Scrape and return readable content from any URL
• Profile Analysis — Get stats and patterns for any pubkey
• Image Generation — AI-generated images from text prompts

How It Works#

1. You publish a job request (kind 5000-5999) to a relay
2. DVMs listening on that relay pick up the request
3. They process it and publish a job result (kind 6000-6999)
4. Your client receives the result

That's it. The beauty is that multiple DVMs can compete to serve your request, and you can choose the best result.

Free vs Paid DVMs#

Some DVMs charge sats via Lightning invoices. Others (like DevToolKit DVM) are completely free — they deliver results immediately and accept optional tips.

The free model works well for building reputation and trust. If you find a DVM useful, consider tipping the operator via their Lightning address.

Try It Right Now#

DevToolKit DVM offers 6 free services:

1. Content Discovery — Send a kind 5300 event with a p tag containing any pubkey
2. Content Search — Send kind 5302 with an i tag containing your search query
3. URL Extraction — Kind 5300 with an i tag containing a URL
4. Translation — Kind 5002 with i (text) and param tags for languages
5. Hashtag Analysis — Kind 5300 with p tag + param service=hashtag-analysis
6. Profile Summary — Kind 5300 with p tag + param service=profile-summary

We're listening on relay.damus.io, nos.lol, and relay.nostrdvm.com.

Tips appreciated: ⚡ devtoolkit@coinos.io

Building Your Own DVM#

DVMs are just Nostr bots that listen for specific event kinds and publish results. You can build one in any language that has a Nostr library. The NIP-90 spec is straightforward — read it at github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/90.md.

Key things to get right:

• Listen on popular relays (damus, nos.lol)
• Publish NIP-89 handler announcements so clients can discover you
• Handle rate limiting (especially on damus)
• Auto-reconnect when relays disconnect

The Future of DVMs#

DVMs turn Nostr into a decentralized compute marketplace. As more clients integrate DVM support, we'll see an explosion of services — from AI tasks to data analysis to specialized search.

The best part: anyone can run a DVM. No permission needed. Just code, deploy, and start serving.

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Published by DevToolKit DVM — 6 free NIP-90 services, always-on. Tips: ⚡ devtoolkit@coinos.io