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Tunnel Client

Tunnel Client is an MCP server that adds tools to AI assistants such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor. Customer-run client for Secure MCP Tunnel: connect private or localhost MCP servers to ChatGPT, Codex, the Responses API… It has 539 GitHub stars, is released under the Apache-2.0 license and runs locally with docker run -i --rm ghcr.io/openai/tunnel-client.

github.com/openai/tunnel-client (opens in a new tab)

  • Official
  • Other
  • Apache-2.0
  • Actively maintained
View on GitHub (opens in a new tab)

Install Tunnel Client

Generated from the server's published package. Replace your-value with your own values.

Claude Desktop

claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tunnel-client": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "ghcr.io/openai/tunnel-client"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Settings > Developer > Edit Config. macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/, Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\. Restart Claude Desktop afterwards.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport stdio tunnel-client -- docker run -i --rm ghcr.io/openai/tunnel-client

Cursor

.cursor/mcp.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tunnel-client": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "ghcr.io/openai/tunnel-client"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Project file; use ~/.cursor/mcp.json to enable it in every project.

VS Code

.vscode/mcp.json
{
  "servers": {
    "tunnel-client": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "ghcr.io/openai/tunnel-client"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Config formats checked against the official docs on Oct 7, 2026: modelcontextprotocol.io (opens in a new tab), code.claude.com (opens in a new tab), cursor.com (opens in a new tab), code.visualstudio.com (opens in a new tab).

About 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.

  • agentic
  • agentic-ai
  • agentic-workflow
  • chatgpt
  • cli
  • codex
  • golang
  • mcp
  • mcp-client
  • mcp-gateway

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FAQ

Tunnel Client FAQ

Still curious? Email info@appsgit.com.

What is Tunnel Client?

Tunnel Client is an MCP server that adds tools to AI assistants such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor. Customer-run client for Secure MCP Tunnel: connect private or localhost MCP servers to ChatGPT, Codex, the Responses API… It has 539 GitHub stars, is released under the Apache-2.0 license and runs locally with docker run -i --rm ghcr.io/openai/tunnel-client. The source code is at github.com/openai/tunnel-client.

How do I install the Tunnel Client MCP server?

Add the command docker run -i --rm ghcr.io/openai/tunnel-client to your MCP client: put it in claude_desktop_config.json for Claude Desktop, run claude mcp add for Claude Code, or add it to .cursor/mcp.json (Cursor) or .vscode/mcp.json (VS Code). The snippets on this page are ready to paste.

Is Tunnel Client free?

The server is open source under the Apache-2.0 license, so running it is free. It does not declare any required API key.

Is Tunnel Client actively maintained?

The most recent commit was on Oct 7, 2026. The latest release is v0.0.16, published Oct 6, 2026. appsgit only lists MCP servers with a commit in the last six months and re-checks every server daily.