mu

The Micro Network — simple tools without ads, algorithms, or tracking.

Overview

Mu is a collection of tools for everyday use. While other platforms monetize your attention with ads and infinite feeds, Mu gives you simple utilities that respect your time.

The problem: The internet is designed to waste your time. Feeds are infinite, videos autoplay, and everything tracks you.

The solution: Small, focused tools that do one thing well. No ads. No algorithms. No tracking.

Features

• Home - Your personalized dashboard
• Blog - Thoughtful microblogging
• Chat - Group discussions
• News - RSS feeds with AI summaries
• Video - Watch YouTube without ads
• Mail - Private messaging & email
• Audio - Podcasts and audio content
• Wallet - Credits and crypto payments

Mu runs as a single Go binary on your own server or use the hosted version at mu.xyz.

Roadmap

• API - Basic API
• App - Basic PWA
• Home - Overview
• Blog - Micro blogging
• Chat - Discussion rooms
• News - RSS news feed
• Video - YouTube search
• Mail - Private messaging
• Wallet - Crypto payments (ETH, USDC, ERC-20)
• Utilities - QR code scanner, etc

AI Features

Some features are enhanced with AI:

• News - Summarize articles
• Chat - Knowledge assistant for discussions

Screenshots

Home

View more

Concepts

The app contains cards displayed on the home screen. These are a summary or overview. Each card links to a feature page or external website. For example the Video card links to the /video page with videos by channel and search.

Hosting

Mu is free to start. See mu.xyz. Create an account and start using it immediately.

Self Hosting

Ensure you have Go installed

Set your Go bin

export PATH=$HOME/go/bin:$PATH

Download and install Mu

git clone https://github.com/micro/mu
cd mu && go install

Configuration

To reconfigure prompts, topics, cards, etc you can adjust the following json files.

Note: The binary will need to be recompiled as they are embedded at build time.

Chat Prompts

Set the chat prompts in chat/prompts.json

Home Cards

Set the home cards in home/cards.json

News Feed

Set the RSS news feeds in news/feeds.json

Video Channels

Set the YouTube video channels in video/channels.json

API Keys

We need API keys for the following

Video Search

• Youtube Data

export YOUTUBE_API_KEY=xxx

Chat Model

Ollama (Default)

By default, Mu uses Ollama for LLM queries. Install and run Ollama locally:

# Install Ollama from https://ollama.ai/
# Pull a model (e.g., llama3.2)
ollama pull llama3.2

# Ollama runs on http://localhost:11434 by default

Optional environment variables:

export MODEL_NAME=llama3.2              # Default model
export MODEL_API_URL=http://localhost:11434  # Ollama API URL

Fanar (Optional)

Alternatively, use Fanar by setting the API key:

export FANAR_API_KEY=xxx
export FANAR_API_URL=https://api.fanar.qa  # Optional, this is the default

When FANAR_API_KEY is set, Mu will use Fanar instead of Ollama.

Note: Fanar has a rate limit of 10 requests per minute. Mu enforces this limit automatically.

Anthropic Claude (Optional)

You can also use Anthropic's Claude API:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=xxx
export ANTHROPIC_MODEL=claude-haiku-4.5-20250311  # Optional, this is the default

Priority order: Anthropic > Fanar > Ollama

For vector search see this doc

Data Storage

By default, Mu stores search index and embeddings in JSON files loaded into memory. For production use with large datasets, enable SQLite storage to reduce memory usage:

export MU_USE_SQLITE=1

This stores the search index and embeddings in SQLite (~/.mu/data/index.db) instead of RAM. Migration from JSON happens automatically on first startup.

Run

Then run the app

mu --serve

Go to localhost:8081

Documentation

On the web: mu.xyz/docs | mu.xyz/about

Full documentation is available in the docs folder and at /docs on any Mu instance:

Getting Started

• About - What Mu is and why it exists
• Principles - Guiding principles for AI and technology
• Installation - Self-hosting and deployment guide

Features

• Messaging - Email and messaging setup
• Wallet & Credits - Credit system for metered usage

Reference

• Configuration - All environment variables
• Vector Search - Semantic search setup
• API Reference - REST API endpoints
• Screenshots - Application screenshots

Development

Git Hooks

Install git hooks to run tests before commits:

./scripts/install-hooks.sh

This will prevent commits if tests fail, helping catch regressions early. See scripts/README.md for more details.

Contributing

Join Discord if you'd like to work on this.

Payments

Mu uses crypto for payments. No credit cards, no payment processors, no KYC.

Supported chains:

• Ethereum
• Base
• Arbitrum
• Optimism

Supported tokens:

• ETH
• USDC
• Any ERC-20 token

Each user gets a unique deposit address. Send crypto, get credits. 1 credit = 1p.

See Wallet & Credits for details.

Sponsorship

You can sponsor the project using GitHub Sponsors or via Patreon to support ongoing development and hosting costs. Sponsors get early access to new features and can vote on the project roadmap. All features remain free (with daily limits) or pay-as-you-go.

License

Mu is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0).

This means you are free to use, modify, and distribute this software, but if you run a modified version on a server and let others interact with it, you must make your modified source code available under the same license.