ChatGPT MCP for Self-Hosted GitLab Repositories

A small, read-only MCP server that lets ChatGPT inspect repositories on a self-managed GitLab instance, including instances that are only reachable from your laptop, VPN, or private network.

The key idea is:

ChatGPT
   │
   │ Secure MCP Tunnel (outbound HTTPS)
   ▼
OpenAI tunnel service
   ▲
   │
Your Mac / Linux host
   ├── tunnel-client
   └── this MCP server (stdio)
            │
            │ GitLab REST API (HTTP or HTTPS)
            ▼
      Self-hosted GitLab

The GitLab server does not need to be directly reachable from the public Internet. The machine running this project only needs to be able to reach both your GitLab instance and OpenAI over outbound HTTPS.

What it exposes

The current server intentionally has no write tools:

• gitlab_whoami

• list_projects

• get_repository_tree

• get_file

• search_code

• get_merge_request

• get_merge_request_diff

• get_pipelines

• get_pipeline_jobs

• get_job_log

Large files, MR diffs, and CI logs are capped to avoid flooding the model context.

Related MCP server: GitLab MCP Server

Quick start

git clone https://github.com/phoenixjyb/chatgptMCPforOwnGitlabRepos.git
cd chatgptMCPforOwnGitlabRepos

cp .env.example .env
chmod 600 .env
# edit .env with your GitLab URL and read-only token

uv sync
uv run python smoke_test.py
uv run mcp dev server.py

If the Inspector tests work, connect the same stdio server to ChatGPT using OpenAI Secure MCP Tunnel.

Documentation

• English setup guide: docs/SETUP_TUTORIAL.md

• 中文配置教程: docs/SETUP_TUTORIAL_CN.md

• Troubleshooting: docs/TROUBLESHOOTING.md

• v0.2 write-access design: docs/V0.2_WRITE_ACCESS_DESIGN.md

• Changelog: CHANGELOG.md

Security defaults

• .env is ignored by Git.

• Use a dedicated token with only read_api and read_repository.

• Prefer a project/group access token or a dedicated read-only account when practical.

• Set GITLAB_ALLOWED_PROJECTS to limit what ChatGPT can inspect.

• All MCP tools are declared read-only.

• Host proxy variables are ignored by default for GitLab traffic (GITLAB_TRUST_ENV=false).

• Never commit your GitLab token, OpenAI runtime API key, or tunnel ID unless you intentionally want the tunnel ID public.

HTTP GitLab instances

The MCP-to-GitLab hop can use HTTP if that is how your internal GitLab is currently deployed. This does not make HTTP safe: the GitLab token and response content are not TLS-protected on that network segment. Keep the MCP host and GitLab on a trusted network/VPN and migrate to HTTPS when practical.

The ChatGPT-to-MCP side still uses OpenAI Secure MCP Tunnel over outbound HTTPS.

Requirements

• Python 3.10+

• uv

• A self-managed GitLab token with read permissions

• ChatGPT Developer Mode with custom MCP access appropriate to your plan

• OpenAI tunnel-client for private/local MCP servers

Roadmap

• v0.1.x: read-only GitLab inspection through ChatGPT.

• v0.2.0: controlled local worktrees, code edits, build/test execution, commit, push, and Merge Request creation. See the v0.2 design proposal.

License

Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE.

Status

Initial public version: 0.1.0.

This project started as a working setup for an internal self-hosted GitLab and has been generalized so the repository does not contain deployment secrets or a hard-coded private hostname.