Raspberry Pi Setup

Running Mycelos on a Raspberry Pi

Mycelos runs beautifully on a Raspberry Pi — your own private AI assistant on a $50 device. Access it from any device on your home network: phone, tablet, laptop.

Requirements

• Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 (4GB+ RAM recommended)
• Python 3.12+
• Node.js 18+ (for MCP connectors)
• Ollama (optional, for local LLM — see Ollama Guide)

Installation

# Install Python 3.12+ (if not already available)
sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3.12 python3.12-pip nodejs npm

# Install Mycelos
pip install mycelos

# Initialize
export MYCELOS_MASTER_KEY=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
mycelos init

Network Access

By default, Mycelos only listens on localhost. To access it from other devices:

# Listen on all interfaces (accessible from your home network)
mycelos serve --host 0.0.0.0 --port 9100 --password your-secret-password

Then open from any device on your network:

http://raspberrypi.local:9100

Or use the IP address directly:

http://192.168.1.42:9100

Security Notes

• --password enables Basic Auth — recommended for network access
• Your home router blocks external access (no internet exposure)
• The password protects against other devices on your network (e.g., guests)
• For extra security, bind to a specific IP: --host 192.168.1.42

Autostart on Boot

Create a systemd service so Mycelos starts automatically:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/mycelos.service

[Unit]
Description=Mycelos AI Assistant
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=pi
Environment=MYCELOS_MASTER_KEY=your-master-key-here
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/mycelos serve --host 0.0.0.0 --port 9100 --password your-password
Restart=always
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl enable mycelos
sudo systemctl start mycelos

Using with Ollama (Local LLM)

Note: Running LLMs directly on a Raspberry Pi is possible but very slow. For a better local LLM experience, run Ollama on a Mac Mini (Apple Silicon) or another machine on your network, and point Mycelos to it: mycelos model add ollama --api-base http://mac-mini.local:11434

For a basic offline setup on the Pi:

1. Install Ollama: curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | sh
2. Pull a small model: ollama pull gemma2:2b
3. Configure Mycelos to use Ollama (see Ollama Guide)

Recommended Models

Recommended setup: Run Mycelos on the Raspberry Pi (low power, always on) and Ollama on a Mac Mini on the same network. Best of both worlds.

Troubleshooting

If something isn’t working, use the built-in diagnostic tool:

mycelos doctor              # Quick health check
mycelos doctor --why        # LLM-powered diagnosis (interactive)

The doctor analyzes your system state, audit logs, and configuration to find root causes.

Tips

• Use Telegram to chat with Mycelos from your phone (no browser needed)
• Set up Mycelos as a .local mDNS service for easy discovery
• Use a USB SSD instead of the SD card for better database performance
• The Web UI works great on mobile browsers