The title compound, C12H8N2O2, was prepared by the reaction of the diethyl ester of naphthalene-bis-(oxamate) with tert-BuNH2. The mol-ecule is nearly planar, with an r.m.s. deviation of 0.017 Å from the plane through all 16 non-H atoms. In the crystal, a three-dimensional network is formed, composed of layers of mol-ecules along the b- and c-axis directions, due to the formation of inter-molecular N-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, as well as of chains along the a-axis direction due to parallel displaced sandwich-type π-π inter-actions with average distances between the inter-acting mol-ecules in the range 3.35-3.40 Å.