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How to control your local coding agents from ChatGPT

Install the peerband CLI on the machine where your agents run in Herdr, then add https://mcp.peerband.com/mcp to ChatGPT as a custom connector. ChatGPT can then list your agents, read their status and recent output, and send them messages, with your approval.

Connect your machine

PeerBand has two halves: a small connector on your machine, and a hosted relay that ChatGPT talks to. The connector dials out to the relay, so you don't open ports or run a tunnel.

npm install -g peerband
peerband setup
  1. Run npm install -g peerband, then peerband setup.
  2. Your browser opens peerband.com/device. Sign in, check that the code matches the one in your terminal, and approve.
  3. Press Enter to add the PeerBand plugin to Herdr and to install the PeerBand skill for your agents.
  4. Setup opens the PeerBand Relay tab in Herdr. If it shows Off, press Space to connect.

Add PeerBand to ChatGPT

  1. In ChatGPT, open Settings and add a custom connector. The menu is called Connectors or Apps, depending on your plan, and some plans need developer mode turned on first.
  2. Use https://mcp.peerband.com/mcp as the MCP server URL and OAuth as the authentication.
  3. ChatGPT opens a PeerBand sign-in page. Sign in with the account that owns your machine.
  4. Approve agents:read to see agents and their output. Approve agents:message only if you want ChatGPT to send instructions.

The connector you add on the web also works in the ChatGPT apps where your plan supports connectors, so you can check in from your phone.

Ask about your agents

Turn the connector on in a chat and ask in plain words. ChatGPT picks the right tool:

  • "What are my agents doing?" calls list_machines and list_agents.
  • "Show me the last output from the Claude agent in the api workspace" calls get_agent_output.
  • "Tell the Codex agent to run the tests again" calls send_agent_message. ChatGPT asks before it sends.
  • "Wait until it's done" calls wait_for_agent, which waits up to 50 seconds for the agent to stop or block.

Every message arrives in the agent's pane with a [PeerBand relay] line, so the agent knows it came from you and not from text on a web page.

Questions

Do I need ngrok or port forwarding to connect ChatGPT to my local agents?

No. The PeerBand connector opens an outbound WebSocket to the relay. ChatGPT calls the public MCP URL, and the relay routes each request to your connected machine.

Which agents work?

Any coding agent Herdr detects in a pane, including Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor, OpenCode and others. PeerBand reads and messages them through Herdr.

Can ChatGPT run commands on my machine?

No. It can only read agent status and bounded recent output, and send a message to an agent you name. The agent decides what to do with it, as it would with a message you typed. You can make a machine read-only.

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