Scira is a minimalistic, open-source AI-powered search engine designed to provide users with accurate information and proper citations. Formerly known as MiniPerplx, Scira leverages the Vercel AI SDK and Exa AI to deliver a comprehensive search experience. It supports multiple AI models, including xAI's Grok, Anthropic's Claude, Google's Gemini, and OpenAI's GPT models, offering a versatile approach to information retrieval.
Key features of Scira include:
- AI-Powered Search: Utilizes various AI models to provide answers to user questions.
- Web Search: Employs Exa's API for comprehensive web searches with customizable depth and topic filtering.
- URL Content Retrieval: Extracts and analyzes content from URLs using Exa AI's live crawling capabilities.
- Academic Search: Searches for academic papers and research using Exa AI, providing abstracts and summaries.
- YouTube Search: Finds YouTube videos with detailed information, captions, and timestamps via Exa AI.
- Reddit and X (Twitter) Search: Searches Reddit and X content with time range and handle filtering using Tavily API and xAI Live Search.
- Financial and Data Analysis Tools: Offers stock charts, currency conversion, and a code interpreter for Python code execution.
- Location and Travel Information: Provides weather information, maps, geocoding, nearby places search, and flight tracking.
- Productivity and Utilities: Includes text translation, date and time retrieval, memory management, and MCP server search.
Scira is built using Next.js, Tailwind CSS, Shadcn/UI, and Drizzle ORM, ensuring a modern and responsive user interface. It supports multiple deployment options, including Vercel and Docker, making it easy to set up and run in various environments. The project is licensed under the AGPLv3 license, promoting open collaboration and innovation.
Scira's target users include researchers, students, developers, and anyone seeking a reliable and citation-backed search engine. Its unique selling points are its open-source nature, AI-powered search capabilities, and comprehensive feature set, making it a compelling alternative to proprietary search engines like Perplexity AI.
