grimoire/PLAN-blocked-search-relays.md

Plan: Honor Kind 10006 Blocked Relay Lists

Context

Grimoire fetches kind 10006 (blocked relay list) for the logged-in user and displays it in Settings, but it has no runtime effect. Blocked relays are never filtered from queries, publishing, or event loading. This plan implements full enforcement: blocked relays are excluded everywhere, logged in the event log, and shown in the ReqViewer relay dropdown.

Kind 10007 (search relays) is out of scope for this plan — can be a follow-up.

Design Decisions

1. filter() returns { allowed, blocked } — every caller needs both (for logging and UI display)
2. Blocked relays flow through RelaySelectionResult.blockedRelays — existing data path from selectRelaysForFilter → useOutboxRelays → ReqViewer, zero new plumbing
3. BLOCK log deduplication: per-relay+context, 60-second cooldown to prevent spam during rapid selection cycles
4. Filter at selection time, NOT at pool level — pool-level blocking would break NIP-29 groups (group IS the relay) and create confusing behavior
5. Fail open — if kind 10006 hasn't loaded yet when first queries fire, nothing gets blocked until the event arrives

Implementation

1. Add BLOCK type to Event Log

File: src/services/event-log.ts

• Add "BLOCK" to EventLogType union
• Add BlockLogEntry interface: { type: "BLOCK", relay: string, context: "relay-selection" | "event-loader" | "publish" | "interaction" }
• Add to LogEntry union and AddEntryInput
• Add public logBlock(relay, context) method on EventLogService (since addEntry is private)

2. Add blockedRelays to RelaySelectionResult

File: src/types/relay-selection.ts

• Add blockedRelays?: string[] field to RelaySelectionResult

3. Create BlockedRelayService

New file: src/services/blocked-relays.ts

Singleton following RelayListCache pattern:

class BlockedRelayService {
  blockedUrls$: BehaviorSubject<Set<string>>;

  isBlocked(url: string): boolean;        // Sync check, normalizes URL
  filter(relays: string[]): { allowed: string[]; blocked: string[] };  // Pure filter
  filterAndLog(relays: string[], context: string): { allowed: string[]; blocked: string[] };  // Filter + emit BLOCK log entries
  setAccount(pubkey: string | undefined): void;  // Account lifecycle
  destroy(): void;
}

Implementation:

• setAccount() subscribes to eventStore.replaceable(10006, pubkey, "") via RxJS
• Parses ["relay", url] tags, normalizes via normalizeRelayURL(), stores in Set<string>
• filterAndLog() calls filter() then eventLog.logBlock() for each blocked relay (with 60s cooldown per relay+context)
• Fail open: if kind 10006 hasn't loaded yet, nothing is blocked

4. Wire into account lifecycle

File: src/hooks/useAccountSync.ts

• Import blockedRelays singleton
• Add useEffect calling blockedRelays.setAccount(activeAccount?.pubkey) on account change

5. Wire into relay selection

File: src/services/relay-selection.ts

• In getOutboxRelaysForPubkey() and getInboxRelaysForPubkey(): after liveness.filter(), apply blockedRelays.filter() (no logging — outer function logs)
• In selectRelaysForFilter(): after mergeRelaySets(), apply blockedRelays.filterAndLog(relays, "relay-selection"), return blockedRelays in result
• In selectRelaysForPublish(): apply blockedRelays.filterAndLog(merged, "publish")
• In selectRelaysForInteraction(): apply blockedRelays.filterAndLog(relays, "interaction")
• In createFallbackResult(): apply blockedRelays.filter() to fallback relays too

6. Wire into event loader

File: src/services/loaders.ts

• In eventLoader(): after mergeRelaySets() (line ~163), apply blockedRelays.filterAndLog(allRelays, "event-loader")

7. Wire into publishing

File: src/services/hub.ts

• publishEvent() already calls selectRelaysForPublish() which will filter internally — no change needed
• In publishEventToRelays() (explicit relays): apply blockedRelays.filterAndLog(relays, "publish"), throw if all blocked

8. EventLogViewer BLOCK rendering

File: src/components/EventLogViewer.tsx

• Import BlockLogEntry type
• Add "BLOCK" to the connect tab filter: connect: ["CONNECT", "DISCONNECT", "ERROR", "BLOCK"]
• Add BlockEntry component: shield/ban icon + RelayLink + context label
• Add case to log entry renderer switch

9. ReqViewer blocked relay section

File: src/components/ReqViewer.tsx

The blockedRelays field flows automatically: selectRelaysForFilter → useOutboxRelays (via RelaySelectionResult spread) → ReqViewer destructure.

• Destructure blockedRelays from useOutboxRelays result
• Add "Blocked" section after "Disconnected" in relay dropdown (lines ~1430-1438):
  • Strikethrough text, reduced opacity, shield/ban icon
  • Not interactive (no tooltip — we never connected)

10. Tests

New file: src/services/blocked-relays.test.ts

• isBlocked() returns false when no account set (fail open)
• isBlocked() returns true for blocked URLs after kind 10006 loaded
• URL normalization works (relay.example.com → wss://relay.example.com/)
• filter() correctly splits allowed/blocked
• setAccount(undefined) clears blocked set
• Deduplication cooldown works for filterAndLog()

Edge Cases

• NIP-29 chat groups: NOT filtered — the group IS the relay
• Explicit -r relay args in REQ: Still filtered. User can unblock in Settings.
• Race on login: Fail open until kind 10006 loads
• Publishing kind 10006 itself: No special handling — outbox relays won't include blocked ones

File Change Summary

File	Change
src/services/blocked-relays.ts	NEW — Singleton service
src/services/blocked-relays.test.ts	NEW — Tests
src/services/event-log.ts	Add BLOCK type + logBlock() method
src/types/relay-selection.ts	Add blockedRelays? field
src/hooks/useAccountSync.ts	Wire service to account lifecycle
src/services/relay-selection.ts	Apply filtering in all exported functions
src/services/loaders.ts	Filter in eventLoader()
src/services/hub.ts	Filter in publishEventToRelays()
src/components/EventLogViewer.tsx	Add BlockEntry renderer + tab filter
src/components/ReqViewer.tsx	Add blocked relay section to dropdown

Implementation Order

1. event-log.ts — BLOCK type (foundation for logging)
2. relay-selection.ts types — blockedRelays? field
3. blocked-relays.ts + tests — core service
4. useAccountSync.ts — lifecycle wiring
5. relay-selection.ts — filtering integration
6. loaders.ts — event loader filtering
7. hub.ts — publish filtering
8. EventLogViewer.tsx — BLOCK entry rendering
9. ReqViewer.tsx — blocked relay UI section

Verification

1. npm run test:run — all tests pass (including new blocked-relays tests)
2. npm run lint — no new lint errors
3. npm run build — build succeeds
4. Manual: Add a relay to kind 10006 blocked list in Settings → verify it no longer appears in REQ subscription relays → verify BLOCK entry in event log → verify it shows in ReqViewer relay dropdown as "Blocked"