I have been building LocalAnt, a local-first MCP gateway for ChatGPT.
GitHub: https://github.com/yuga-hashimoto/localant
The goal is to make ChatGPT useful as a real local coding and automation agent without handing it an unsafe raw shell.
ChatGPT is good at reasoning, planning, and explaining tradeoffs. But most real work still happens on your own machine: codebases, git state, local dev servers, browsers, Android devices, command-line tools, and existing coding agents.
A direct shell is powerful, but it is also a bad default. I wanted a middle layer that lets ChatGPT act locally while keeping dangerous operations explicit, reviewable, and auditable.
LocalAnt exposes a permissioned local MCP surface to ChatGPT:
The mental model is:
ChatGPT is the brain. Your local computer is the hands.
MCP gives the assistant a structured tool surface instead of a vague remote-control channel. That makes it possible to expose only the things the local machine uniquely provides: files, shell, git, local toolchains, devices, browsers, and custom skills.
LocalAnt intentionally avoids duplicating things ChatGPT already does well, such as web search, planning, or asking follow-up questions.
The project is designed around local control:
I am still tuning the defaults, especially how strict the first-run experience should be.
The shortest path is:
npx -y localant setup
That starts the local gateway and dashboard, creates an MCP endpoint, and prints the ChatGPT connector steps.
I would especially like feedback from people experimenting with ChatGPT connectors, MCP servers, and local coding agents:
Repository: https://github.com/yuga-hashimoto/localant