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Connecting a client

Copy-ready setup for Claude, Codex, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and any other MCP client.

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The Connect a client card walks you through each supported client with copy-ready snippets that already carry your configured port (the examples below use the default, 18181). All of the local clients connect to the endpoint directly, tunnel-free.

Claude

Claude Chat (Desktop App) and Claude Code (CLI/Desktop App) have separate setups; connecting one does not connect the other.

  • Claude Chat (Desktop App) — the simplest path. The one-click MCP bundle (.mcpb) ships with the app: press Install in Claude Desktop (or Save as… to keep the file) and confirm the install dialog in Claude Desktop. The bundle carries a tiny local bridge from Claude's stdio transport to this station's HTTP endpoint; the Node runtime it needs comes with Claude Desktop. If you changed the port, set the endpoint in the install dialog to match.
  • Claude Code (CLI/Desktop App) — one terminal command:
claude mcp add --transport http ganterlab http://127.0.0.1:18181/mcp

Codex (CLI / IDE)

Codex connects to the loopback endpoint directly as a Streamable HTTP server. Its codex mcp add command only covers stdio servers, so the HTTP form goes in ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.ganterlab]
url = "http://127.0.0.1:18181/mcp"

Gemini CLI

The Gemini CLI connects over its httpUrl server type in ~/.gemini/settings.json. (The Gemini web chat has no tunnel-free local path, so only the CLI is offered.)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ganterlab": {
      "httpUrl": "http://127.0.0.1:18181/mcp"
    }
  }
}

GitHub Copilot

Two routes, with two different top-level keys:

  • VS Code — add the server to .vscode/mcp.json (or run "MCP: Open User Configuration" from the command palette), then enable it in the Copilot Chat tools picker:
{
  "servers": {
    "ganterlab": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://127.0.0.1:18181/mcp"
    }
  }
}
  • CLI — the same server shape under mcpServers in ~/.copilot/mcp-config.json (or run /mcp add inside the CLI and choose the HTTP server type).

Cloud-routed clients are not supported

ChatGPT's connectors, the Gemini web chat and anything else that reaches the station from the internet cannot use this endpoint, and the page offers no setup for them. The endpoint refuses any request whose Host header is not local, before the session handshake, so a tunnel does not help: a tunnel forwards its own public host, which is exactly what is refused. The station is not published to the network for agents, and there is no switch that makes it so.

Any other MCP client

Any client that runs on this computer and takes an HTTP MCP server URL can use the station: point it at the endpoint shown on the page.