Secure MCP Tunnel client

tunnel-client is the customer-run agent behind Secure MCP Tunnel. It connects a private or localhost MCP (Model Context Protocol) server to ChatGPT, Codex, the Responses API, and AgentKit through an OpenAI-hosted MCP tunnel endpoint, while keeping the MCP server off the public internet.

Use it when:

• You have an MCP server on a laptop, VM, Kubernetes cluster, or private network and need an OpenAI-hosted product to reach it.
• Security will not approve a new inbound firewall rule or public endpoint for the MCP server.
• You want an operator-visible daemon with /healthz, /readyz, /metrics, and /ui before a connector or API call depends on it.

If you searched for "secure MCP tunnel", "MCP tunnel ChatGPT", "connect local MCP server to ChatGPT", "connect local MCP server to Codex", "localhost to ChatGPT", or "Codex local MCP", start with tunnel-client help quickstart, then read the onboarding guide below.

Start Here

• Need the shortest working path from localhost or a private MCP server to ChatGPT or Codex? Start with docs/onboarding.md.
• Need the customer-shareable network and trust-boundary story? Read docs/architecture.md.
• Need roles, groups, tunnel IDs, or API keys? Read docs/permissions.md.
• Need Docker, Kubernetes, or VM deployment guidance? Read docs/deployment/overview.md.
• Need to debug readiness, connector discovery, or OAuth? Read docs/troubleshooting.md.
• Building a compatible client in another language? Read docs/protocol.md and use docs/openapi.json. Optional client features use the common X-Tunnel-Client-Capabilities header.
• Upgrading for server-directed polling placement? Read the routing correction and activation notes. Supporting clients work with existing services immediately; corrections are enabled separately after client release. No configuration change is needed.
• Using MCP timing or distributed tracing? Read the timing release and rollback guidance. Trace forwarding is disabled by default; opt in with --mcp.forward-trace-context to carry W3C trace context in MCP params._meta over stdio and Streamable HTTP.
• Using a namespaced tunnel ID? Preserve the full ID returned by the service. The client accepts legacy IDs and aliases with a four-character namespace; see tunnel identifiers.
• Embedding an MCP server directly in a Go process? Use the Go SDK with the MCP SDK's in-memory transport; see examples/go-sdk-inmemory.

Try the embedded demo

With a runtime API key and tunnel ID, run the built-in server_info, echo, and uppercase tools without a separate MCP server:

export CONTROL_PLANE_API_KEY="sk-..."
export CONTROL_PLANE_TUNNEL_ID="tunnel_0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef"
tunnel-client run --embedded-stateless-mcp-stub --health.listen-addr 127.0.0.1:0