UluP Nexus is a public index of indie projects, built for two kinds of readers: people, who explore it on a node map, and AI assistants, who query it through an MCP server.
Why I'm building it
If you build a small piece of software or a game on your own, being found is the hard part. Classic directories are full of noise, and search engines reward whoever already has a name. Nexus tries another route: a smaller list, with data written in a uniform way (what it does, what it costs, which languages it supports), that you can explore at a glance and that an AI can use to answer questions like "is there an indie alternative to this tool?".
What's already there
- The submission form. You paste your site's address and Nexus reads the title, description and languages by itself. You check it, pick a price and up to 3 categories, and the project is saved as pending.
- Verification. To prove the site is yours, you add one line (a meta tag) to your homepage. Only verified projects appear on the map.
- The list of verified projects.
- The MCP server, with two tools: `search_projects` (text, category, language, pricing) and `list_categories`. I've tested it with the MCP Inspector and it returns the right results.
- The node map, in the style of Spaces: Nexus in the middle, categories around it, then the projects. Click a node and only the connected ones light up.
- Spam protection: limits on submissions per address, a trap field for bots, and a daily cap on pending submissions.
For now it only holds my own products, because I'm testing everything before opening it to others.
What is still to come
These things are planned, but not there yet:
- The live site. Today Nexus runs on my computer. The next step is putting it online at a public address.
- A test with a real AI. Connecting Nexus as a connector to an assistant and seeing whether it actually calls it and whether the answers are useful. That test decides whether this idea is needed at all.
- More projects, not only mine. At first I'll approve projects by hand, one by one. If it works, I'll think about an automatic check that prepares the queue for me.
- A page for every project with structured data, so Nexus can be found even without a connector.
- Automatic "build in public". The idea is to turn development logs into small, indexable updates. It's the furthest-off part and the most uncertain.
How you can be part of it
When Nexus is online you'll be able to add your project in a minute: one address, two checks, one line on your homepage. Meanwhile, if you have an indie project you'd like to see on the map, write to me.
*Status: UluP Nexus is in development and is not online yet. The form, verification, list and MCP server work locally; the map is being built.*