Quickstart

Get 4got running in 5 minutes.

Build

git clone <repo-url> 4got && cd 4got
cd go-server && CGO_ENABLED=1 go build -o 4got . && cd ..

Configure

cp data/config.default.kdl data/config.kdl

Edit data/config.kdl — at minimum change owner-secret to something unique. The default is intentionally invalid.

For AI research, also copy and configure data/ai-research.default.kdl to data/ai-research.kdl with your OpenRouter/Groq/Ollama API key.

Run

go-server/4got

Starts on port 8888. Visit http://localhost:8888.

First use

Your first search triggers the IQ test (image captcha). Solve it once and you get a 24-hour session cookie. Returning users get a quicker PoW challenge instead.

Key pages

• Settings — /settings (engine toggles, privacy, theme, banners)
• Admin login — /admin/login (enter your owner-secret)
• Trending — /trending (popular searches + live feed)
• History — /history (enable in settings first)
• AI Research — search the same query twice (double-Enter) or include “deep research” / “deep dive” in your query (requires deluxe group + AI config)
• SSH — ssh localhost -p 2222 "your query" (if ssh-port configured)

Federation

To connect with a friend’s instance, add their URL to data/peers.kdl:

peer "https://friend.example.com" {
    secret "shared_peer_secret"
}

Both instances must use the same peer-secret in their config.