anus

A newsreader, unfussy & simple.

anus is a Miniflux reader available as both a native Linux desktop app and a self-hosted web service. It was built with Go, Svelte, and Wails v2. As I would never have the time to spend making something so niche on my own in my free time, this is a vibe-coding project and could possibly result in the end of human civilisation.

anus can be used two ways: as a local client or as a web service running in a docker container.

	anus-ui	anus-web
What	Native desktop app (WebKit2GTK)	Containerised web service
Install	AUR (anus) or build from source	Docker / docker compose
Config	~/.config/anus/config.toml	Settings UI or environment variables, persisted to /data/config.toml

---

anus-web (Docker)

Quick start

docker run -d \
  -e MINIFLUX_URL=https://your-miniflux-instance \
  -e MINIFLUX_API_KEY=your-api-key \
  -v anus-data:/data \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  ghcr.io/slatkin/anus-web:latest

Or with docker compose (copy docker-compose.yml.sample to docker-compose.yml and fill in your credentials):

services:
  anus-web:
    image: ghcr.io/slatkin/anus-web:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    environment:
      MINIFLUX_URL: https://your-miniflux-instance
      MINIFLUX_API_KEY: your-api-key
      DATA_DIR: /data
      CACHE_DIR: /data
    volumes:
      - anus-data:/data

volumes:
  anus-data:

docker compose up -d

Getting your Miniflux API key

In your Miniflux instance: Settings → API Keys → Create a new API key. Copy the key and use it as MINIFLUX_API_KEY.

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Default	Description
MINIFLUX_URL	yes	—	Base URL of your Miniflux instance
MINIFLUX_API_KEY	yes	—	Miniflux API key (Settings → API Keys)
DATA_DIR	no	/data	Persistent data directory (config + cache); mount a volume here
CACHE_DIR	no	DATA_DIR	Override cache location (defaults to same as DATA_DIR)
ALLOW_INVALID_CERTS	no	false	Skip TLS verification
CACHE_EXPIRY_DAYS	no	30	Article cache retention in days
PORT	no	8080	HTTP listen port

---

anus-ui (Desktop)

Requirements

• Linux with WebKit2GTK 4.1 (webkit2gtk-4.1)
• Miniflux server with API access

Installation

AUR (Arch / CachyOS)

# Binary release
paru -S anus

# Build from source
paru -S anus-git

Build from source

# Dependencies
sudo pacman -S wails webkit2gtk-4.1 gtk3 nodejs npm imagemagick

git clone https://github.com/slatkin/anus ~/Dev/anus
cd ~/Dev/anus
make build-ui          # builds to build/bin/anus
make install           # installs binary, .desktop file, and icons to ~/.local

Configuration

Initialise a config file on first run:

anus --init
$EDITOR ~/.config/anus/config.toml

api_key            = "your-miniflux-api-key"
server_url         = "https://your-miniflux-instance.example.com"
allow_invalid_certs = false
cache_expiry_days  = 30
remember_read_position = true

---

Keyboard shortcuts

Navigation

Key	Action
↑ / ↓	Previous / next article
Home / End	Jump to first / last article
Enter	Open selected article
→	Next page in reader
←	Previous page in reader
b / Esc / Backspace	Back (reader → list → feeds)
f	Switch to feed list

Article actions

Key	Action
Space	Mark current article read and advance to next unread
u / m	Toggle read / unread
s	Toggle starred
A	Mark all articles read
e	Save article to Miniflux read-later
o	Open article URL in browser
r	Refresh articles from Miniflux
?	Show shortcut hint in status bar

Search

Key	Action
/	Open search
Enter	Run search
Esc	Close search and return to normal list

Click the search icon in the bottom toolbar to open search with the mouse.

In search mode the article list shows only results from Miniflux's full-text search. Matched terms are highlighted in the reader. The search input turns green on results, red on no results. Press Esc or b to exit; the list scrolls back to the previously selected article, expanding its group and enabling the "all" filter if needed.

Grouping

Use the Group button in the toolbar to switch between three list layouts:

Mode	Description
Ungrouped	Flat list of all articles sorted by date
By feed	Articles grouped under their feed name
By category	Articles grouped under their Miniflux category

In grouped modes, click a group header to collapse or expand it. The collapse-all / expand-all buttons above the list act on all groups at once. Groups are always expanded in search mode.

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Development

make dev-ui     # Wails hot-reload dev server (desktop)
make dev-web    # Go API on :8080 + Vite dev server on :5173 (web)
make test       # go test ./...
make fmt        # gofmt
make vet        # go vet
make tidy       # go mod tidy