MCP Local Editor

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Use ChatGPT Web like a local coding agent. ChatGPT does the reasoning; MCP Local Editor gives it guarded access to search, read, edit, test, and review files on your computer.

No OpenAI API key. No second model. No model calls from this package. You keep using your existing ChatGPT account in an ordinary web conversation while the local bridge performs only the operations you expose.

MCP Local Editor does not bypass ChatGPT limits. Your ChatGPT plan, model availability, usage limits, and workspace policies still apply. This is an independent open-source project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by OpenAI.

One-command ChatGPT setup

Requirements: Node.js 20+, cloudflared, Git, and ripgrep. On macOS with Homebrew:

brew install node cloudflared ripgrep

Then point MCP Local Editor at a folder:

npx mcp-local-editor@latest setup-chatgpt /absolute/path/to/your/project

The command registers the folder, creates a private owner token, starts an OAuth MCP server, opens a temporary HTTPS tunnel, and prints one MCP URL.

In ChatGPT Web:

1. Open Settings → Security and login and enable Developer mode.
2. Open ChatGPT Plugins, select +, and create a developer-mode app.
3. Paste the printed MCP URL and select OAuth.
4. When the local approval page opens, paste the token stored at the printed owner-token path.
5. In a chat, choose Developer mode from the plus menu and enable the app.

Keep the terminal command running while you use the app. The quick-tunnel hostname is temporary; after a restart, reconnect the app with the newly printed URL. See the complete ChatGPT setup guide for stable-hostname and manual options.

OpenAI currently documents ChatGPT developer mode as supporting remote streaming HTTP MCP servers, OAuth, and read/write tools for eligible web accounts. Write actions normally require confirmation. Review the current official developer-mode guide before enabling write access.

What makes it different

ordinary ChatGPT Web conversation
              │ reasoning + tool calls
              ▼
     OAuth MCP over HTTPS
              │
              ▼
 MCP Local Editor on your machine
              │ registered workspace only
              ▼
 search · read · edit · test · git diff

• ChatGPT stays the agent. The package is a local tool bridge, not another LLM wrapper.
• No API billing layer. The bridge never calls an AI API; it uses the ChatGPT conversation you already opened.
• Local files really change. Edits use exact text plus a current file hash, and tests run as argv arrays rather than shell strings.
• The whole disk is not exposed. ChatGPT sees registered workspace ids, not arbitrary absolute paths.
• Read-only is a real server profile. Write tools disappear from tool discovery and cannot be enabled by changing a tool argument.
• Useful outside ChatGPT too. The same core works over stdio MCP and an authenticated Actions adapter.

Example workflow

Ask ChatGPT:

Use MCP Local Editor only. Open the my-project workspace with write access.
Find where the homepage button label is defined, change it from “Start” to
“Ship it”, run the available test command, and review the Git diff.

The intended tool sequence is:

workspace_list
→ workspace_open({ workspace_id: "my-project", access: "write" })
→ repo_search / file_read
→ file_edit with expected_sha256
→ command_run
→ git_diff

A tiny recording fixture and a copy-ready walkthrough live in examples/demo-project.

Tools and profiles

Tool	read	full	Purpose
workspace_list	yes	yes	List registered workspace ids and availability
workspace_open	read only	read or write	Create a short-lived workspace-bound session
repo_search	yes	yes	Search with ripgrep inside the workspace
file_read	yes	yes	Read bounded UTF-8 text and return SHA-256
git_diff	yes	yes	Inspect status and diffs without Git writes
file_edit	—	write session	Apply exact-text replacements with hash checking
command_run	—	write session	Run configured argv, or opt-in unlisted argv

setup-chatgpt defaults to full so the first experience can edit and verify code. Start with read-only access instead when you are evaluating the project:

npx mcp-local-editor@latest setup-chatgpt /absolute/path/to/project --profile read

Workspace and command policy

Registrations are stored in the user config directory on new installs:

~/.config/mcp-local-editor/workspaces.json

Override it with --registry, MCP_LOCAL_EDITOR_REGISTRY, MCP_LOCAL_EDITOR_HOME, or XDG_CONFIG_HOME. Existing source checkouts that already contain workspaces.local.json continue using that file for backward compatibility.

Register and inspect folders manually:

mcp-local-editor workspace add \
  my-project \
  /absolute/path/to/my-project \
  --display-name "My Project" \
  --commands commands.local.json

mcp-local-editor workspace list
mcp-local-editor workspace remove my-project

Commands are configured per workspace. The process starts inside the workspace root and uses shell: false.

{
  "allowUnlistedArgv": false,
  "commands": {
    "test": {
      "description": "Run the project test suite",
      "argv": ["npm", "test"],
      "timeoutSec": 300,
      "maxOutputBytes": 262144
    }
  }
}

See commands.example.json. Setting allowUnlistedArgv to true lets the client provide an argv array, but a shell command string is always rejected.

Other connection modes

Transport	Command	Typical client
ChatGPT quick setup	mcp-local-editor setup-chatgpt <root>	Ordinary ChatGPT Web conversations
stdio MCP	mcp-local-editor serve	Local MCP hosts
Streamable HTTP MCP	mcp-local-editor-mcp	Stable remote ChatGPT app deployment
Authenticated Actions	mcp-local-editor-actions	Existing Custom GPT Actions

Local stdio MCP

mcp-local-editor serve --profile full

Example client configuration after installing the package globally:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "local-editor": {
      "command": "mcp-local-editor",
      "args": ["serve", "--profile", "full"]
    }
  }
}

Stable HTTPS MCP

For a named tunnel or your own HTTPS reverse proxy, use mcp-local-editor-mcp directly. It implements OAuth authorization code with PKCE S256, dynamic client registration, rotating refresh tokens, hashed persisted tokens, owner-token approval, and Host/Origin checks. Follow docs/chatgpt-mcp.md.

Custom GPT Actions fallback

The Actions adapter exposes the same service through a generated OpenAPI document and bearer authentication. Follow docs/chatgpt-actions.md.

macOS menu bar

The repository also includes a Korean menu-bar helper for the OpenAI Secure MCP Tunnel and the local dashboard. This path is intended for source-checkout users:

git clone https://github.com/junjunjunbong/mcp-local-editor.git
cd mcp-local-editor
chmod +x macos/keep-tunnel.sh macos/install-gui.sh
./macos/install-gui.sh

Safety boundaries

MCP Local Editor is a workspace guard, not an operating-system sandbox.

It enforces:

• registered workspace ids only
• rejection of absolute, lexical escape, and symlink escape paths
• short-lived, workspace-bound read or write sessions
• current SHA-256 plus unambiguous exact-text matching for edits
• temporary-file writes followed by atomic rename
• read-only Git inspection; no commit or push tool
• command argv policies, timeouts, output limits, and process termination
• OAuth by default for remote MCP
• hashed persisted OAuth tokens and private local state files

It does not provide Docker/VM isolation, network isolation, an arbitrary shell string, file create/delete/move tools, Git commit/push, or a fully autonomous background loop. Register only folders and commands you trust. Review ChatGPT's write confirmations and the resulting Git diff.

Development

git clone https://github.com/junjunjunbong/mcp-local-editor.git
cd mcp-local-editor
npm install
npm run check
npm link

The package has no runtime dependencies. CI tests Node.js 20 and 22. The suite covers path confinement, registry locking, session isolation, read/write enforcement, stale edits, command execution, stdio MCP, Streamable HTTP MCP, OAuth PKCE, token rotation and revocation, Actions, the dashboard, tunnel recovery, and the one-command ChatGPT setup.

License

MIT © 2026 junjunjunbong