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qiao

A single-user, self-hosted bridge that exposes a local stdio MCP server to ChatGPT and Claude (web + mobile) over HTTPS with OAuth.

MCP servers that speak stdio can only be used locally. To use one from ChatGPT's or Claude's web/mobile connectors, it must be a public HTTPS endpoint with the full OAuth dance those connectors expect. qiao is that layer — and nothing more: it is a 100% passthrough transport + auth front door.

• Single user, multiple clients. One owner; connect as many of your own devices/clients as you like. They share one backend process by default; per_client_process gives each its own.

• 100% passthrough. Whatever tools your backend exposes, qiao forwards verbatim. It does not parse, filter, or rewrite payloads.

• Built on FastMCP. It doesn't reinvent the OAuth or transport machinery.

• You own what you expose. qiao guarantees only you can reach your backend; it does not sandbox or vet the backend's tools. See SECURITY.md.

qiao runs its own OAuth authorization server rather than delegating to an upstream identity provider — see SECURITY.md for what that buys and what it costs.

Only ever using ChatGPT? OpenAI's own Secure MCP Tunnel reaches a local stdio server without any public endpoint of your own, and is simpler — follow their docs. qiao is for the case it cannot serve: one backend, every client.

Try it

qiao init                 # write qiao.toml
qiao hash-password        # paste the result into [auth].password_hash
qiao check                # validate before starting
qiao run                  # serve; put a TLS-terminating proxy in front
qiao backup out.db        # copy the OAuth database; safe while running

Use qiao backup rather than copying the database file — the copy comes back empty, without an error.

base_url in the config must be the public URL clients reach — it is what the OAuth discovery documents advertise.

The full recipe — reverse proxy, tunnel, systemd, and the one invariant that produces unexplainable 502s when you get it backwards — is in docs/deploying.md.

Related MCP server: ChatGPT Codex Bridge

Adding it to a connector

Both providers hide custom connectors behind something, and neither says so clearly. Verified 2026-08-10:

• ChatGPT — enable developer mode in settings first; there is no way to add a custom connector without it.

• Claude — add and remove connectors on the web. The mobile app can use a connector and complete a login, but offers no way to add or delete one.

• Either — a connector is account-level. Add it once on the web and it appears on your phone; you do not set it up twice.

• ChatGPT on mobile — after connecting you may have to attach the connector to the conversation by hand. Until you do, the model can list the tools and will not call them, which looks exactly like a broken server.

If these documents are hard going

That is not you. Deploying this touches DNS, certificates, systemd, a reverse proxy and a tunnel, and explaining all of that from the ground up would take a book — one the author is not able to write. What is here assumes background you may not have, and that is a limitation of the writing, not of the reader.

So bring an assistant. Paste a section of docs/deploying.md into Claude, GPT, GLM, Kimi — even Gemini — and ask what the step is doing, or have it adapt a command to your own machine. They are good at exactly this, and it will save you some of the copying and pasting besides.