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zaidmukaddam

zaidmukaddam/scira

An open-source, agentic AI research search engine that plans sub-tasks, retrieves live sources, and returns answers with inline citations.

Open-source alternative to:Perplexity

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What is it?

Scira is an AI-powered search and research platform built with Next.js and the Vercel AI SDK. Given a question, it breaks the request into sub-tasks, searches live sources, cross-checks the evidence, and returns an answer with inline citations that link back to each source.

The app offers 17 search modes covering general web search, chat without search, X posts, stocks, academic papers, Reddit, GitHub, crypto, prediction markets, YouTube, and Spotify. It also includes around 28 tools for weather, maps, flights, movies, currency conversion, a sandboxed Python code interpreter, and semantic search over uploaded PDF, CSV, DOCX, and Excel files. Users can choose from a long list of LLMs across xAI, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Qwen, Mistral, DeepSeek, and others.

The project is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and can be self-hosted with Docker or run locally with Bun. Running it requires API keys for the model providers and search services it uses.

Key features

  • 01Plans multi-step research by breaking questions into sub-tasks and selecting tools.
  • 02Returns answers with inline citations that link to the original sources.
  • 03Offers 17 search modes, including web, academic, Reddit, GitHub, and YouTube.
  • 04Supports many LLM providers, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and DeepSeek.
  • 05Includes a sandboxed Python code interpreter and file search over uploaded documents.
  • 06Can be self-hosted with Docker or run locally.

Use cases

  • Researching a topic across the web, academic papers, and community discussions in one place.
  • Checking facts with clickable sources before relying on an AI-generated answer.
  • Asking questions about an uploaded PDF or spreadsheet.
  • Running a self-hosted AI search engine with your own model API keys.

Quick start

  1. 1

    Create a .env file from .env.example with your API keys

  2. 2

    Run the app with Docker Compose from the project root

    docker compose up
  3. 3

    Open the app at http://localhost:3000

Things to know

  • Requires paid API keys for AI providers such as OpenAI and Anthropic, plus Exa for web search.
  • Licensed under AGPL-3.0, which requires source disclosure for modified network-deployed versions.
  • Many features depend on numerous third-party API keys, so self-hosting takes setup effort.

In collections

Self-hosted apps

Topics

#ai-search#llm#rag#citations#nextjs#vercel-ai-sdk#self-hosted#research#ai-search-engine#minimalistic-ai-search-engine

FAQ

What is scira?
An open-source, agentic AI research search engine that plans sub-tasks, retrieves live sources, and returns answers with inline citations. Scira is an AI-powered search and research platform built with Next.js and the Vercel AI SDK. Given a question, it breaks the request into sub-tasks, searches live sources, cross-checks the evidence, and returns an answer with inline citations that link back to each source.
Is scira free to use? What license does it have?
scira is open source under the AGPL-3.0 license. Check the license terms before using it in commercial products.
Is scira still maintained?
Updated within 6 months. The last commit to scira was on Aug 12, 2026.
What can I use scira for?
Researching a topic across the web, academic papers, and community discussions in one place. Checking facts with clickable sources before relying on an AI-generated answer. Asking questions about an uploaded PDF or spreadsheet. Running a self-hosted AI search engine with your own model API keys.
How do I install scira?
Create a .env file from .env.example with your API keys Run the app with Docker Compose from the project root: docker compose up Open the app at http://localhost:3000
Where can I get scira?
The source code and installation instructions are on GitHub: https://github.com/zaidmukaddam/scira

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