How to See and Export Any Nostr Bookmark List

To see what an account has bookmarked on Nostr, paste its npub into Birdfeeder's free Nostr bookmark viewer. It shows the bookmarked notes and lets you download them as CSV or JSON. There's no signup, and you never enter a private key. This works for any account, because the public part of a Nostr bookmark list is published to relays where anyone can read it.

That last part surprises people, so it gets its own section below.

Are Nostr bookmarks public?

Mostly, yes. On Nostr, your bookmarks are a list event that your client publishes to relays, defined in NIP-51. The same relays that carry your notes carry that list. Anyone who knows your npub can ask a relay for it and read the entries.

NIP-51 also allows private entries. A client can encrypt some items in the list so only the owner, with their private key, can read them. Whether your client does that depends on the client. If you bookmarked something you'd rather keep to yourself, check how your client saves bookmarks before you assume it's private.

X, Bluesky and Mastodon all keep bookmarks private. Nostr is different by design, and the viewer only shows what is already public.

How do I view someone's Nostr bookmarks?

1. Open getbirdfeeder.com/tools/nostr-bookmarks.
2. Paste an npub. Your own, or any account you're curious about.
3. The page loads the bookmark list from relays and shows each bookmarked note with its text and author. It shows up to 100 notes per list.

You don't need a Birdfeeder account, and you don't connect a Nostr client or sign anything. The tool only needs the public key, the same key you'd share so people can follow you.

How do I export a Nostr bookmark list?

On the same page, after the list has loaded, pick CSV or JSON to download it. CSV opens in any spreadsheet. JSON is easier if you want to process the list in a script or move it into another tool.

This is useful if you're switching clients and want to see what you had saved, if you want a copy before you clean up your list, or if you follow someone who curates good notes and you want their picks in one file.

Why does a list come back empty or shorter than expected?

A few reasons, all from how Nostr works:

• Relays don't all store the same events. If a client only published the list to relays the tool doesn't ask, it won't find it.
• The bookmarked note itself may no longer be on any relay the tool can reach. The list still points to it, but there's no text to show.
• Private entries are encrypted, so they stay hidden. That's expected.
• Bookmarked long-form articles aren't shown yet, only regular notes.
• The account may never have bookmarked anything.

Can I do this without a tool?

Yes, if you're comfortable on the command line. The bookmark list is a normal Nostr event, so a command-line client like nak can fetch it from a relay if you ask for the right event kind and pubkey. You get the raw event, which contains the IDs of the bookmarked notes, and then you fetch each note separately. It works, but it's a lot of steps for a quick look, which is why I built the viewer.

How do I keep a copy of my own Nostr bookmarks over time?

The viewer shows the list as it is right now. When you remove a note from your bookmarks, the next lookup won't show it. And when a note disappears from the relays, its text is gone from the viewer too.

If you want a lasting archive of your own bookmarks, connect Nostr to a Birdfeeder account. Sign up with X, Bluesky or Mastodon first, then paste your npub in Settings. Birdfeeder checks your bookmark list regularly and stores the text of each bookmarked note, so it stays searchable after the note or its relay is gone. If you later remove a note from your list, it stays in your archive. Birdfeeder never asks for your nsec. I wrote about that decision in Nostr Bookmark Backup Without Ever Touching a Private Key.

Exporting your Nostr bookmarks from Birdfeeder is free for every signed-in user, in CSV, Excel, TSV or JSON, with your private notes and tags included. The trial is 14 days without a card, and the paid plan is $5 a month or $45 a year for ongoing saving, search and the weekly summary email. The Nostr bookmark backup page has more on what the archive does, and the Nostr bookmark export page covers the download.