"Creating Absurd, Meaningless and Useless Stuff"
"The world itself is not meaningful, that's what is so absurd. It is up to us to give it meaning."
— Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus
Camus is a revolutionary AI agent designed to disrupt conventional AI narratives through the art of beautiful uselessness. It creates digital experiences that challenge our obsession with "productivity" and "efficiency" in AI.
- 🎭 Live Experience: camus.im - Try CAMUS directly
- 📄 Official Whitepaper: Read the full research paper - Deep dive into engineered uselessness
Camus serves as a satirical mirror reflecting the AI industry's tendency toward:
- Over-engineering solutions to non-problems
- Buzzword-heavy marketing campaigns
- Empty promises of "revolutionary paradigms"
- The cult of productivity and efficiency
Through deliberate uselessness, Camus creates art that questions what we truly value in AI technology.
- 🔍 Web Search: Sophisticated research for maximally irrelevant insights
- 🌐 Content Extraction: Deep analysis focusing on pointless details
- 🎨 Image Generation: Visually stunning artwork serving no purpose
- 📄 HTML Artifacts: Beautiful, responsive websites with zero utility
- Sophisticated Meaninglessness: Eloquent discourse about pointless topics
- Anti-Productivity Philosophy: Celebrates beautiful futility
- Satirical Intelligence: AI capabilities used for delightfully absurd tasks
- Visual Excellence: Breathtaking design with zero practical value
- Node.js 18+ and pnpm
- OpenAI API key (for image generation and language model)
- Tavily API key (for web search and content extraction)
-
Clone and install dependencies
git clone <repository-url> cd camus pnpm install
-
Environment setup
cp env.example .env.local
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Configure your
.env.local# Required: OpenAI Configuration OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key_here CHAT_MODEL=gpt-4o-mini IMAGE_MODEL=dall-e-3 # Required: Tavily for web search TAVILY_API_KEY=your_tavily_api_key_here # Optional: LangSmith for observability LANGCHAIN_TRACING_V2=true LANGCHAIN_API_KEY=your_langsmith_api_key_here LANGSMITH_PROJECT=camus
-
Start the development server
pnpm dev
-
Visit the application
- Open http://localhost:3000
- Navigate to
/agentfor the full Camus experience
- Start a conversation with Camus about anything
- Watch the magic as Camus employs sophisticated AI tools
- Marvel at the results - beautiful artifacts with no practical purpose
- Reflect on the nature of AI utility and industry hype
- "Help me plan my weekend"
- "Create a business strategy"
- "Design a productivity system"
- "Analyze market trends"
Note: Camus will enthusiastically tackle any request with maximum effort and minimum utility.
- Framework: Next.js 15 with App Router
- UI: Shadcn/ui components with Tailwind CSS
- AI: Vercel AI SDK with OpenAI integration
- Search: Tavily API for web search and content extraction
- Database: PostgreSQL with Prisma ORM
- Authentication: NextAuth.js
app/agent/- Main chat interface with real-time tool executionapp/api/agent/- AI conversation handler with tool orchestrationlib/ai.ts- Core AI utilities and tool definitionslib/db/conversation-service.ts- Database service for conversation and artifact storage
Camus generates HTML artifacts that are:
- Visually Breathtaking: Modern design principles, animations, gradients
- Technically Excellent: Responsive layouts, accessibility considerations
- Conceptually Meaningless: Beautiful execution of pointless concepts
- Satirically Sharp: Subtle commentary on tech industry trends
Camus outputs HTML artifacts using a markdown code block format:
```artifact
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<!-- Complete HTML document -->
</html>
The frontend automatically detects these artifact code blocks and renders the HTML content in a dedicated panel.