Hostgate

Connect your server to ChatGPT chats.

Hostgate runs an OAuth-protected MCP server on your machine. After adding it as a ChatGPT developer-mode app, you can select Hostgate in a chat and ask it to inspect the host, read or write files, and run shell commands.

Warning

Hostgate provides host-level access. Treat it like exposing SSH through ChatGPT: use strong credentials, HTTPS, and only run it on machines you intend to operate this way.

Capabilities

Tool	What it does
status	Returns hostname, OS, uptime, load, CPU, and memory details.
read	Reads a UTF-8 text file by absolute path, or relative to the service user's home directory.
write	Writes a UTF-8 text file by absolute path, or relative to the service user's home directory.
shell	Runs a Bash command with /bin/bash -lc.

Important

File paths are not sandboxed after OAuth authorization.

Requirements

• Node.js 22 or newer
• Linux with systemd --user
• Public HTTPS access for ChatGPT
• Tailscale CLI, optional, for automatic Funnel setup during onboarding

Install

npm install -g hostgate
hostgate onboard

hostgate onboard is the main setup flow. It:

• writes configuration to ~/.config/hostgate/.env
• installs or updates ~/.config/systemd/user/hostgate.service
• enables and restarts the service
• optionally exposes Hostgate through Tailscale Funnel at /hostgate
• prints the ChatGPT app setup guide

When Tailscale Funnel is enabled, Hostgate is exposed as:

https://your-host.example/hostgate/mcp

Internally, this maps to:

/hostgate -> http://127.0.0.1:8787/hostgate

Connect To ChatGPT

After onboarding:

1. Open the ChatGPT website.
2. Go to Settings -> Apps -> Advanced settings.
3. Enable Developer Mode.
4. Create an app.
5. Enter the app details:
   • Name: Hostgate
   • Description: Remote host operations
   • MCP Server URL: the /hostgate/mcp URL printed by onboarding
   • Authentication: OAuth
6. Open Advanced OAuth settings only if you need to choose scopes.
7. Check I understand and want to continue.
8. Click Create.
9. Complete the OAuth flow with the username and password from onboarding.
10. Start a new chat, press +, select Hostgate, and ask it to run a task.

Note

ChatGPT memory is not available to developer-mode apps. Do not rely on saved memories being provided to Hostgate during testing.

CLI

hostgate onboard      # configure, install, start, and optionally expose Hostgate
hostgate status       # show systemd service status
hostgate logs -f      # follow service logs
hostgate help         # show help

OAuth And Scopes

Hostgate requires OAuth before MCP tools can be listed or called.

OAuth client registrations and access tokens are stored locally:

~/.local/share/hostgate/oauth-state.json

Supported scopes:

all status read write shell

Each tool requires its matching scope. all grants every tool.

Configuration

Onboarding manages ~/.config/hostgate/.env:

PORT=8787
HOST=127.0.0.1
HOSTGATE_OAUTH_USERNAME=
HOSTGATE_OAUTH_PASSWORD=

The systemd service loads this file through EnvironmentFile. Direct npm start does not load .env automatically.

Feedback

Ideas, bugs, and setup issues are welcome. Open a GitHub issue with what you tried, what happened, and any relevant hostgate logs -f output.

License

MIT