The easiest way to browse the AI tool ecosystem — a community-curated directory with a bias toward open-source, local-first, privacy-respecting software.
Built by the Nano Collective, a community collective building AI tooling not for profit, but for the community. Every listing is a single JSON file in this repository, reviewed by humans before it goes live, and rendered as a fast, static, searchable site. Visitors make zero third-party requests — search runs in the browser, icons are self-hosted, and there is no analytics.
Browse the directory at list.nanocollective.org — no install, no account.
To submit a tool, use the website form: it validates your listing and opens a prefilled GitHub issue for you. No fork or PR required.
To run the site locally (Node 22 and pnpm):
git clone https://github.com/Nano-Collective/nanolist.git
cd nanolist
pnpm install
pnpm dev # http://localhost:3000
pnpm build # static export into dist/Markdown awesome lists are great for curation but poor for browsing: no search, no filtering, no structure. Nanolist keeps the community-curation model and adds the browsing layer:
- Search, filter, sort — a full index of listings with client-side search (Fuse.js), filterable by category, attributes (open source, local-first, privacy-first, self-hostable), and pricing.
- Detail pages — every tool gets a page at
/listing/<slug>with its description, links, license, and attributes. - Category pages — 18 categories in 9 groups, each browsable at
/category/<key>. - Recommended badge — curators mark tools that align with the collective's values.
Behind the site, the submission flow works like this:
- Anyone submits a tool through the website form or a GitHub issue form.
- Automation validates the submission read-only: URL checks, length limits, duplicate detection, and basic anti-spam rules. It comments the results on the issue and labels it.
- A maintainer reviews the issue and comments
/approve. The bot verifies the commenter's repository permissions via the GitHub API before acting. - The bot re-validates the submission and opens a pull request adding one file:
data/listings/<slug>.json. - A CODEOWNERS review approves and merges the PR. The merge triggers a Cloudflare Pages build, and the listing is live.
Two humans (the approver and the reviewer) sit between any submission and the published site.
Nanolist accepts any real AI tool — product, framework, library, or model. Listings must be live, publicly accessible, and honestly described. We especially welcome tools that align with the Nano Collective's values: open source, local-first, and privacy-respecting — those are eligible for a Recommended badge from our curators. Not accepted: affiliate or tracking links, self-promotional spam, duplicates, vaporware, or listings that misrepresent what a tool does.
The recommended way to submit is the website form; the GitHub issue form remains available if you prefer it. The submission guide walks through the form fields, what the validation bot checks, and how the review lifecycle works.
Documentation lives in the docs/ folder and on the Nano Collective docs site:
- Getting Started — browsing, submitting, and local development
- Submitting a Listing — form fields, validation, and the review lifecycle
- Architecture — how an issue becomes a published listing, and the security model
- Community — Discord, contributing, and how to help
- Maintaining — repository setup and operational notes for maintainers
For contribution details — commands, coding standards, how listing data changes work — see CONTRIBUTING.md.
MIT License. See LICENSE.md for details.
The Nano Collective is a community collective building AI tooling for the community, not for profit. We'd love your help.
- Contribute: See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup and guidelines.
- The collective: nanocollective.org · docs · GitHub · Discord
- Support the work: The Support page covers donations and sponsorship.
- Paid contribution: The Economics Charter sets out how scoped paid bounties work.