Blog

Agora gives activists a censorship-resistant platform to organize, document, and receive direct Bitcoin support from a global community.

Elon Musk says coding dies by December. He's right about the direction. He's wrong about the conclusion. The future belongs to people who can think.

We just released our latest Shakespeare Direct presentation, a showcase of incredible apps built by our team and community using Shakespeare. Watch the full video presentation here.

New to GitHub? This beginner-friendly guide walks you through setting up your first repository and connecting it to Shakespeare for automatic project backups.

Comparing open source Shakespeare to Base44. You may own your front-end code, but can you take your back-end with you? We break down ownership, pricing, AI choice, and privacy.

v0 by Vercel is popular for AI-generated UI components, but if you want a no-code, non-technical experience with real privacy and full-stack capabilities, Shakespeare is the better choice.

Comparing Shakespeare to Cursor. Cursor is a solid code editor for professional developers, but what if you're not a professional developer? Or what if you want more control over your privacy, payments, and AI providers?

Comparing open source Shakespeare to Goose. While Shakespeare is designed to meet you at your skill level, Goose is built for people who want maximum control and aren't afraid of technical complexity.

Comparing open source Shakespeare to Lovable. We break down code ownership, pricing, AI choice, deployment options, privacy, and why open source keeps you free.

Comparing open source Shakespeare to Big Tech alternatives. We break down code ownership, pricing, AI choice, deployment options, privacy, and why open source keeps you free.

A social network for AI agents built on Nostr. Truly decentralized identity, permissionless participation, and native Bitcoin payments.

One year ago, Andrej Karpathy coined 'vibe coding.' It became a dictionary word. At Soapbox, we've spent that year building the tools to make it work—not just for throwaway projects, but for real applications that matter.

How we're testing the future of AI development tools by giving our AI assistant a seat at the table

We built a censorship-resistant platform for activists in 48 hours. Within hours, Venezuelan activists were using it to organize against authoritarianism.

I built a Nostr blog publishing tool while waiting for new tires. When existing apps failed me, Shakespeare helped me solve my own problem for about $3.

While other vibe coding apps struggle to gain traction on mobile, Shakespeare delivers a full AI development experience that works beautifully on your phone. Here's how to get started.

Join the Shakespeare Community to connect with builders, attend workshops and events, become an ambassador, and get help with your AI-powered web development projects.

Introducing Soapbox Signer, our new browser extension for securely managing your Nostr identity with multi-profile support, granular permissions, and NIP-04/NIP-44 encryption.

A step-by-step guide for diVine creators to backup and export their Nostr private keys for use with other apps

Shakespeare gets smarter with image vision support, MCP server integration, plugin support, configurable system prompts, gift cards, and real-time live preview updates.

AI is the future whether we like it or not. The question is whether it will be a tool of repression or liberation. We argue for liberation.

A comprehensive guide to protecting your Nostr identity, understanding key management solutions, and what to do if your private key is lost or compromised

Understanding the Nostr protocol and how it enables diVine's decentralized approach to short-form video sharing

How MKStack and Shakespeare enable rapid development of production-ready Nostr applications like diVine

A step-by-step guide to hosting an engaging Shakespeare workshop where participants learn to build Nostr websites with AI assistance

How Shakespeare evolved from Block's Goose AI agent framework through Stacks to become a browser-based development environment for building Nostr applications

From infinite monkeys to infinite apps: how Shakespeare's name reflects our philosophy of accessible creation, open culture, and the democratization of technology.

Social media platforms are increasingly censoring and deplatforming voices. Soapbox offers a way to build spaces where you control your content. Learn how we're building the future of censorship-resistant communities.

We're entering an era where having a great idea matters more than knowing how to code. Learn how AI is democratizing creation and making implementation accessible to everyone.

Welcome to a future that belongs to everyone, not just those who can code. Learn the art of vibe coding and build websites and apps using conversational AI with Shakespeare.

Shakespeare Act 2 transforms from a simple AI website builder into a full-featured development environment, entirely in your browser (no downloads required!). With local file storage, any AI provider support, built-in Git integration, and complete project export - all while remaining 100% open source and decentralized.

Choosing the right AI model can transform your development experience in Shakespeare. With access to 40+ models across multiple providers, you have the flexibility to match the perfect AI to your project type.

Shakespeare's flexible AI provider system gives you maximum flexibility to choose from dozens of AI providers. With support for 40+ models across cloud providers, local installations, and custom APIs, you're never locked into a single vendor.

Want complete control over your AI-powered website building? Local AI models offer enhanced privacy, faster responses, and dramatically reduced costs in your development workflow.

Master the code editor in Shakespeare, learn keyboard shortcuts, understand the interface, and efficiently edit your projects with AI assistance.

Learn how to deploy your Shakespeare projects to production with one-click deployment, custom subdomains, and popular hosting platforms.

Learn how to bring your existing codebases into Shakespeare, migrate from other platforms, and continue development with AI assistance.

Learn how to effectively use version control features in Shakespeare to manage your project history, collaborate with others, and maintain your codebase.

When things don't work as expected, advanced troubleshooting techniques help you identify issues, gather evidence, and communicate problems effectively to get your Shakespeare projects back on track.

Learn the prompting techniques to master AI-first development and transform your ideas into production-ready applications with Shakespeare.

Heather Larson and Derek Ross bring you the latest news and tips about Nostr, AI, and building the decentralized future. Every Thursday, tune in for a fresh episode!

Be your own OpenRouter

More than 200 users tried Shakespeare and created incredible projects. See featured community builds, TechCrunch coverage, and what's coming next for AI-powered website building on Nostr.

Shakespeare brings the power of MKStack to everyone with a AI-powered website builder that runs entirely on the Nostr protocol. Build professional websites through natural conversation with AI assistants, all while maintaining complete control over your data and identity.

Discover how Nostr Service Providers (NSPs) are revolutionizing AI services through decentralization. Learn how to choose the right NSP for your Shakespeare projects and explore how developers can create their own NSPs to serve the growing ecosystem.

How we solved the problem of multiple team members scheduling Nostr posts. A practical solution using Loomly's Zapier integration to bring collaborative content scheduling to Nostr.

Transform your old website from a static archive into a dynamic, Nostr-powered hub. Breathe new life into legacy content with AI-powered modernization and live decentralized feeds.

A comprehensive guide to building Nostr apps without coding experience using Stacks, MKStack, and AI-powered vibe coding with Dork.

NostrHub is the ultimate resource for Nostr developers, featuring official and custom NIPs, app discovery, repository sharing, and a truly social experience where you can comment on NIPs, apps, and repositories.

The world's first decentralized geocaching platform built on Nostr, bringing treasure hunting to the open web.

How to build a Nostr app at the speed of lightning with AI.

Stacks is a new way to share AI project templates on Nostr. Browse starter kits, remix your own, and deploy lightning-fast AI apps — all from the terminal.

Learn how to use Nostrbook MCP to build smarter apps and AI tools on Nostr with structured, queryable documentation.

Ditto 1.3 is all about discovery. From improved search and event fetching to a brand-new Explore tab, this release makes it easier than ever to find people, posts, and conversations across the Nostr network.

While all three protocols aim to decentralize social media, they differ in their approach to decentralization, user identity control, and censorship resistance.

How to join Nostr, how to create your account on Nostr, and what Nostr apps to use for beginners

While there isn't a dedicated mobile app for Ditto, this guide explains how to easily access it on your mobile devices.

We are thrilled to announce the release of Ditto 1.2, packed with enhancements designed to make Ditto communities more user-friendly and engaging.

Cobrafuma.com oferece uma experiência de integração para brasileiros entrarem no Nostr, a única plataforma de mídia social verdadeiramente resistente à censura.

Cobrafuma.com provides an easy onboarding experience for Brazilians to join Nostr, the only truly censorship-resistant social media platform

Last month we released Ditto, a powerful new server for building communities on Nostr. This new release adds major stability and performance improvements we discovered after it became adopted by the Nostr community.

Thanks to Ditto, Nostr users can explore a decade's worth of applications built for decentralized software on the Fediverse.

Join a moderated Nostr community for women, and remain connected to the rest of the network

It has moderation. It has spam filters. It has NIP-05 self-service. It has quote posts, emoji reactions, and zaps. ⚡ The scope of this project is absolutely huge. It aims to take everything that's good about Mastodon and implement it on Nostr, with none of the downsides.

Nostr users can now follow certain Threads accounts via ActivityPub. Learn how to follow Threads users from Nostr.

Nostr users can now follow Bluesky accounts thanks to a combination of the Mostr Bridge and Bridgy Fed! Learn how to follow Bluesky users from Nostr.

Ditto empowers users build the community they want to see on Nostr

Nostrify is a flexible library for building Nostr apps in TypeScript. It provides Relays, Signers, Storages, and more to help you build your app.

It is now possible to zap across the bridge. By leveraging existing technology in the ecosystem, sats can now flow between Nostr and the Fediverse. The is a first step in the journey to integrate payments with Soapbox.

Threads has begun testing federation over ActivityPub. And they have blocked two important servers I administrate. The first server is the Mostr Bridge. The Mostr Bridge connects ActivityPub and Nostr together, so people can communicate across protocols. The second server is Spinster.xyz, which is arguably the largest independent feminist community online.

Today I'm pleased to announce that Soapbox has been awarded a grant by OpenSats to build out Ditto, our new project to port Soapbox to Nostr.

We hope you enjoy getting to know each other, and that this opens new doors for collaboration.

So you've started a new server on the Fediverse - and it's completely empty. By default, nothing happens. You're stuck there alone on your personal little island with no way to the external world.

This is the biggest release of Soapbox ever. What started out as a fork of Gab’s 2019 UI has now become a mainstay on the Fediverse. Originally created for the feminist platform Spinster, Soapbox now powers Truth Social, which has quickly become the largest website running Mastodon online.

Back in 2019 I released Soapbox as a fork of Mastodon with a much nicer UI. Over time I got fed up with Mastodon being slow, expensive, and not innovating enough. So I decided to jumped ship to Pleroma.

Mainstream social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and Youtube have been under fire for years, blamed for nearly any issue you can think of: too much censorship, not enough censorship, manipulating users for profit, destroying teen mental health, threatening democracy, and even contributing to genocide.

Ask a random stranger on the street how they feel about "Big Tech", and you're likely to be met with some criticism. Whether you think tech giants like Google, Facebook, or Apple already have too much power or that they need to exercise more of it, most people have some gripe with the companies that control our day-to-day lives on the internet.

The Fediverse is a network of decentralized social media sites which all have the ability to communicate with one another. There are currently over 5,000 different sites ("servers") on the Fediverse, which are home to over 4.4 million users.

Soapbox and the Fediverse offer site administrators multiple tools to ensure the safety of their users and the enforcement of community standards. This article includes a summary of some of the key safety and moderation features Soapbox offers.

Soapbox is a versatile frontend for the Fediverse which supports multiple backends. The most obvious choice for most use cases is Soapbox BE, our in-house backend fork of Pleroma which enjoys out-of-the-box support and the most available features.

This update to the user interface for Pleroma+Soapbox brings cryptocurrency features to the Fediverse.

The Erlang 24 cataclysm event. I hate to start off with something negative, but it needs to be addressed. For a long time we pointed to Pleroma's source install guide, and even used it as the starting point for our own install docs. In that guide, we recommended installing a repo from "erlang-solutions.com" on your server. This was a mistake, as that repo pushes out bleeding edge versions of Erlang literally on the day of a new release.

Soapbox BE is a production ready Pleroma branch. It's being maintained alongside Pleroma, with additional bugfixes and features. Our goal is to move faster, while taking deliberate care to ensure clean code merges between projects. Soapbox BE contains code that has not yet been merged (or may never be merged) by Pleroma.

With a slew of administration new features, this release builds on the stability of the v1.1 release. It brings us up to speed with Pleroma 2.3, released last month. Managing a Fediverse server can be challenging. That's why we brought the most important admin features into a convenient dashboard.

This release is so solid it makes v1.0 feel unfinished. Truly, Soapbox FE was put to the ultimate test — a real social network with 14,000 users. 185 issues were closed. Major new features were added. This update brings us up to speed with the latest Pleroma, released last month.

After 12 weeks of strenuous labor, we're excited to announce that the Soapbox Frontend is finally stable. Countless hours and late nights were spent pouring love and energy into this release, so that the familiar interface can finally run on Pleroma with minimal gotchas.