HiveTalk Q1 2026 Recap: Building Foundations for the Future

This post originally written in April 2026

As we wrap up the first quarter of 2026, we wanted to share what the HiveTalk team has been working on. While we've continued our regular maintenance and updates on HiveTalk Honey and Vanilla, we've also been busy building behind the scenes—investing in infrastructure and tools that will help us serve you better.

Infrastructure Upgrades

We've made significant changes to our relay infrastructure. We sunsetted hivetalk.nostr1.com and launched our new relay at wss://beeswax.hivetalk.org. This new relay runs a version of the Swarm relay and supports Kind 30311, 30312, and 30313 events, giving us more flexibility and better performance. If you're interested in running your own relay, check out our quick relay install guide.

Introducing nostr-cms

One of our biggest projects this quarter was building nostr-cms—our own version of a content management system inspired by Primal Studio. This tool helps us manage our social media presence and keep track of all the incredible images generated by buttercupRoberts. You can see it in action at news.hivetalk.org.

What Makes nostr-cms Special?

nostr-cms transforms the typical Nostr client into a full-featured admin control panel for team organizations. Here's what it can do:

Scheduled Publishing: Plan and schedule blog posts and Kind 1 notes in advance
Event Management: Create timed or calendar events for the community
Static Pages: Publish and manage static content pages
Content Sync: Pull content from other relays seamlessly
Customizable Navigation: Design your menu structure through the admin UI
Two-Tier Permissions: Separate access levels for administrators and members
Instant Styling: Drop in customized stylesheets from tweakcn.com to change your site's look instantly

The technical foundation is equally impressive. We've integrated:

MKstack for the core framework
Nostrbook MCP server for enhanced functionality
Formstr SDK for form handling
Bouquet for Blossom server media management
Zaplytics by Derek Ross for analytics

We also use a custom Swarm relay as the backend, which doubles as a Nostr meetup site for anyone who wants to use it that way. You can check out the slides from bitkarrot's talk about the project at slides.hivetalk.org/purple.

Supporting Tools

Alongside nostr-cms, we've also been developing complementary tools:

Curator: A tool for curating and managing Nostr content
NIP-05 Service: Making Nostr identity verification simple and accessible

Why We Built This

You might wonder why we invested time building our own CMS instead of using existing solutions. Here are our reasons:

1. Centralized Media Management

We needed to organize our content and media in one place that we control.

2. Self-Sovereignty on a Budget

We're committed to being self-sovereign with our infrastructure. While we can't afford $70/month for commercial social media management tools, we do have the technical skills to build our own—and make it better with AI-driven tools that increase our productivity 3-10x.

3. AI-First Development

We're experimenting with the latest AI-first development techniques (not just "vibe coding"). This helps us understand what's possible and how to work more effectively as a team.

The Philosophy: Slow Down to Go Faster

This quarter reinforced an important lesson: good projects aren't about endlessly adding features—they're about building solid foundations that support future growth and innovation.

It might sound counterintuitive, but slowing down helps us go faster. By pausing to:

Study industry-wide developments
Investigate tools that improve our productivity
Experiment with new techniques
Refine our internal processes

...we achieve higher quality results than if we stuck our heads in the sand and kept doing things the same old way.

Looking Ahead

We're not just investing in making HiveTalk better—we're continuously doing R&D to improve how we work as a team. The tools and infrastructure we've built this quarter will enable us to move faster and serve you better in the months ahead.

Thank you for your continued support. We're excited about what's coming next.

Stay connected with HiveTalk on Nostr and join our community at hivetalk.org