Synology NAS Connector for ChatGPT

Independent, MIT-licensed v0.1 developer preview. A read-only MCP server for selected NAS folders, a portable Node.js core, a DSM dashboard, and a reproducible DSM .spk builder. No OpenAI API key, DSM password, file upload, outbound relay, telemetry or inference calls are required.

Implemented: folder listing, filename search, metadata, bounded UTF-8 document reads; MCP stdio and stateless Streamable HTTP; bearer-token development authentication; DSM package lifecycle. Build 0002 adds an authenticated management bridge, graphical share selection and live policy revocation, pending real DSM CGI validation.

Planned: production MCP OAuth, account pairing, Sign in with ChatGPT, public plugin distribution and an optional outbound relay. These features are visibly disabled. A .spk build is not proof of installation compatibility; real DSM testing remains a release gate.

Quick start

Use Node.js 22 (Node.js 24 is also covered by CI) and Python 3 for packaging.

npm ci
npm run init

Edit .local/config.json; new configurations have no roots. Add only specific folders:

"roots": [{"id": "documents", "label": "Documents", "path": "/absolute/path/to/selected/folder"}]

Keep the token file private, owned by the service user, with mode 0600. The generated configuration binds to 127.0.0.1 and permits only the two local dashboard origins.

npm run check
npm run build
node dist/server.cjs --config .local/config.json

Open http://127.0.0.1:8787. Enter the locally generated token from .local/token to see service status and allowed folder aliases. Copy it locally; never commit it. The dashboard stores no credentials. Root access is configured by editing the private config and restarting, rather than granting file permissions from a browser.

Related MCP server: File Server MCP

Local MCP clients

Use an absolute server and config path in a client that supports stdio:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "synology-nas": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/dist/server.cjs", "--stdio", "--config", "/absolute/path/to/.local/config.json"]
    }
  }
}

Stdio trusts the local spawning process and OS identity; it does not require a bearer token. It uses the same root policy and core as HTTP and DSM. This configuration example is for clients that accept this format; it is not a claimed ChatGPT desktop configuration.

HTTP clients use POST /mcp with Authorization: Bearer <local-token> and MCP transport headers. There is no legacy SSE transport. Static tokens are for local/self-hosted development, not a completed public ChatGPT authentication flow.

Text support: .txt, .md, .csv, .tsv, .json, .xml, .yaml, .yml, .log, .rst, strictly UTF-8. PDF, DOCX, spreadsheets, OCR and archives are outside v0.1. Search matches filenames only and does not index file contents. Default directory scans stop at 5,000 examined entries; tool output is capped at 200 entries. Use nextOffset for another directory page. scanTruncated means the scan budget stopped discovery; further pages cannot recover unscanned entries. Pagination is not a snapshot if the directory changes. There is no persistent search index.

Docker

After generating .local, set http.host to 0.0.0.0 inside the container config, and use /data/documents as the root path. Keep tokenFile as token, allowed hosts as 127.0.0.1/localhost, and the local dashboard origins. Compose publishes only on the host loopback interface and mounts both config and documents read-only.

NAS_UID=$(id -u) NAS_GID=$(id -g) docker compose up --build

The selected UID/GID must own .local/token and be able to traverse the mounted directories. Linux Docker uses descriptor-relative file access. The image runs without root, capabilities or a writable root filesystem. No Docker daemon is required for native local development.

DSM package

npm run build
npm run spk
npm run test:spk

Output: artifacts/SynologyNASConnector-0.1.0-0002-noarch.spk and its SHA-256 checksum. See DSM management preview for the new setup flow and device-validation limits. The original installation guide also documents manual/local diagnostics.

Project layout

packages/core/      filesystem policy, limits, config; no DSM or MCP dependency
packages/auth/      local-token authentication and future OAuth adapter contract
packages/management/ signed bridge, share catalog and private configuration service
apps/server/        MCP tool definitions, HTTP transport, stdio CLI
apps/dsm-ui/        static dashboard served locally and packaged for DSM
apps/dsm-bridge/    authenticated DSM CGI bridge; no DSM credentials forwarded
packaging/synology/ INFO, privilege policy, lifecycle scripts and DSM launcher
scripts/           portable bundle, SPK builder, package and Docker verification
tests/             policy, authentication and real MCP SDK client tests
docs/              architecture, installation, integration evidence, threat model

GitHub Actions tests on Linux with Node.js 22/24, builds and verifies .spk, uploads package artifacts, audits production dependencies, and builds/smoke-tests Docker. Source is published at sammkoo/synology-nas-connector. No release is published automatically; production promotion requires the product acceptance evidence.

See architecture, verified OpenAI integration points, security, verification record, and contributing.