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Self-host nexus

0.6.0

AI router aggregating MCP servers and LLM providers

BetaOpen SourceMPL-2.0
Updated7 months ago
LanguageRust
Setup difficultyModerate
Stars
436
Port
8000 (HTTP server (MCP, LLM, health endpoints))
Docker
ghcr.io/grafbase/nexus
Install with Docker

What is nexus?

Nexus is a self-hosted AI router that serves as a single gateway for Model Context Protocol servers and large language model providers. It combines tools from local STDIO processes, SSE endpoints, and HTTP-based MCP servers into one endpoint so AI assistants can discover and run tools across all connected servers. For language models, it exposes an OpenAI-compatible API that forwards requests to OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, and AWS Bedrock with full function-calling support. The software includes OAuth2/JWT authentication, multi-level request and token-based rate limiting with optional Redis storage, fine-grained access control for MCP servers and tools, header rewriting for upstream requests, and OpenTelemetry metrics, traces, and logs. It runs as a single binary or Docker container and is configured through a TOML file with environment-variable substitution.

Should you self-host nexus?

nexus scores 51/100 on selfhost.directory (how scoring works) and ranks #44 of 125 in AI. It has 436 GitHub stars.

There was no stable release in the past 12 months, so check the repository's recent activity before you rely on it.

Setup is moderate: expect some configuration beyond a single command. An official Docker image is available. It is MPL-2.0-licensed and written mostly in Rust.

Its closest alternative on selfhost.directory is ComfyUI (93/100, 143 741 stars). It scores higher overall, so compare the two before you pick. See nexus vs ComfyUI side by side.

Features

  • Context-Aware Tool Search
  • Docker Ready
  • Flexible Configuration
  • Header Transformation
  • LLM Provider Routing
  • LLM Token Rate Limiting
  • MCP Access Control
  • MCP Server Aggregation
  • Model Discovery
  • OAuth2 Authentication
  • OpenAI Compatible API
  • OpenTelemetry observability
  • Protocol Support
  • Rate Limiting
  • Token Forwarding

nexus README

How to install nexus

Install nexus with Docker

Environment variables
GITHUB_TOKEN, OPENAI_API_KEY, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, etc. via -e or env file

docker pull ghcr.io/grafbase/nexus:latest docker run -p 8000:8000 -v /path/to/config:/etc/nexus.toml ghcr.io/grafbase/nexus:latest

Latest, stable, and versioned tags available

nexus releases & version history

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