Morphic — Open-Source AI Answer Engine

Morphic Architecture & Features

How It Works

User Query: "What are the latest advances in protein folding?"
    │
    ├─ 1. Search Phase
    │     SearXNG/Tavily searches the web
    │     Returns 10-20 relevant sources
    │
    ├─ 2. AI Synthesis
    │     LLM reads all sources
    │     Generates comprehensive answer
    │     Adds inline citations [1][2][3]
    │
    ├─ 3. Generative UI
    │     Renders answer with rich formatting
    │     Shows source cards with thumbnails
    │     Suggests follow-up questions
    │
    └─ 4. Persistence
          Saves to PostgreSQL
          Shareable via unique URL

Multiple Search Providers

SearXNG is recommended for self-hosting — free, no rate limits, 70+ search engines.

Multiple LLM Providers

Switch models on the fly with the built-in model selector:

Generative UI

Morphic renders rich, interactive answer pages:

• Cited text — Inline numbered citations linking to sources
• Source cards — Thumbnails and metadata for each referenced page
• Follow-up suggestions — AI-generated related questions
• Image results — Relevant images from search
• Code blocks — Syntax-highlighted code in answers
• Math rendering — LaTeX formulas displayed correctly

Chat History & Sharing

PostgreSQL stores:
├─ User sessions
├─ Search queries
├─ Generated answers
├─ Source citations
└─ Shareable URLs (e.g., /search/abc123)

Self-Hosting with SearXNG

The most cost-effective setup — completely free:

# docker-compose.yaml (included in repo)
services:
  morphic:
    build: .
    ports: ["3000:3000"]
    environment:
      - SEARXNG_API_URL=http://searxng:8080
      - OPENAI_API_KEY=${OPENAI_API_KEY}
      - DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres:password@db:5432/morphic

  searxng:
    image: searxng/searxng
    ports: ["8080:8080"]

  db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_DB=morphic
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=password

  redis:
    image: redis:alpine

FAQ

Q: What is Morphic? A: Morphic is an open-source AI answer engine with 8,700+ GitHub stars — a self-hostable Perplexity alternative built with Next.js, supporting multiple LLM providers and search backends with a generative UI.

Q: How much does it cost to run Morphic? A: Infrastructure is free (Docker + SearXNG). You only pay for LLM API calls (~$0.01-0.05 per query with GPT-4o-mini). Use Ollama for completely free local inference.

Q: Is Morphic free? A: Yes, open-source under Apache-2.0. Self-host for free. Only LLM API costs apply (or use Ollama for free local models).