Better Remote Commander

Self-hosted remote control of your own computers from Claude and ChatGPT. Files, terminal and processes on any machine you pair — through a relay you host, on your domain.

Claude / ChatGPT  ──HTTPS (OAuth 2.0)──▶  relay (your server or PC)  ──outbound WebSocket──▶  agent on your machine

• Claude: add the relay as a custom connector (remote MCP). Works in claude.ai web, desktop and mobile.

• ChatGPT: add the relay as a remote MCP connector.

• Your infrastructure: run the relay on a VPS, or on your PC behind a Cloudflare Tunnel / ngrok. SQLite, one container, no third-party service.

• Many machines: pair Windows, macOS, Linux boxes and containers to one relay; agents only connect outbound.

• Control: browser dashboard to pair, pause, rename and remove devices, manage OAuth clients and see an audit log.

Tools available to the AI (24): read_file, write_file, edit_block, list_directory, move_file, get_file_info, start_process, interact_with_process, read_process_output, list_processes, kill_process, start_search, write_pdf, get_config, set_config_value and more — the same tool set as Desktop Commander.

Install

1. Relay (once, on a server or your PC)

Docker (recommended)

git clone https://github.com/shahidx0x/better-remote-commander.git && cd better-remote-commander
cp .env.example .env        # set PUBLIC_URL, BRC_ADMIN_PASSWORD, BRC_SESSION_SECRET
docker compose --profile cloud up -d                            # VPS with your domain (Caddy, auto-TLS)
docker compose --profile tunnel --profile cloudflare up -d      # your PC via Cloudflare Tunnel
docker compose --profile tunnel --profile ngrok up -d           # your PC via a static ngrok domain
docker compose --profile local up -d                            # localhost only (testing)

Images are published to ghcr.io/shahidx0x/better-remote-commander/relay and /agent.

Without Docker

npm i -g brc-relay
PUBLIC_URL=https://rdp.example.com BRC_ADMIN_PASSWORD=... BRC_SESSION_SECRET=... brc-relay

Put it behind any HTTPS reverse proxy (Caddy, nginx, Cloudflare Tunnel) that forwards WebSockets, and set TRUST_PROXY=true.

2. Agent (on every machine you want to control)

npm i -g brc-agent          # any OS with Node 22.13+
brc-agent --relay https://rdp.example.com --name "My PC"

The agent prints a pairing code and opens https://rdp.example.com/device/verify; sign in and approve. Then make it start at login: brc-agent --install-service.

Docker agent (Linux servers): docker run -d -v brc-agent:/home/rdp/.brc -e BRC_RELAY=https://rdp.example.com -e BRC_NAME=srv1 ghcr.io/shahidx0x/better-remote-commander/agent

3. Connect your AI

• Claude: Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector → URL https://rdp.example.com/mcp → Add → Connect → sign in → Allow.

• ChatGPT (MCP): Settings → Connectors → add https://rdp.example.com/mcp.

Useful URLs on your relay: /admin (devices, audit), /device/verify (pairing), /auth/clients, /health.

Related MCP server: Open Remote MCP

Build from source

pnpm install && pnpm build && pnpm test
node packages/relay/dist/cli.js      # relay
node packages/agent/dist/cli.js      # agent

Requires Node 22.13+ (uses node:sqlite) and pnpm 11. Design notes: docs/architecture.md. Security notes: SECURITY.md.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Credits

The agent's tool implementation (packages/agent/src/core) is derived from Desktop Commander MCP by Eduard Ruzga and contributors (MIT). Desktop Commander's hosted remote relay is proprietary; this project provides an open, self-hostable relay with the same device-agent model, plus OAuth for Claude/ChatGPT, device pairing, and a browser dashboard. See NOTICE.