The latest articles on DEV Community by ellugia (@ellugia). https://dev.to/ellugia https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4127999%2F9c40bd5d-e673-43da-8f7e-e997ad200916.png https://dev.to/ellugia en ellugia Wed, 16 Sep 2026 12:07:41 +0000 https://dev.to/ellugia/codescope-use-your-chatgpt-quota-to-understand-local-repositories-8c1 https://dev.to/ellugia/codescope-use-your-chatgpt-quota-to-understand-local-repositories-8c1 <p>I wanted to use the ChatGPT quota I already have for repository questions, without turning every exploratory step into a coding-agent task.</p> <p>That is the reason I built CodeScope.</p> <p>CodeScope is a local, read-only MCP bridge that lets an MCP-compatible chat inspect the repositories you explicitly choose on your computer.</p> <p>The idea is simple: use the quota from ordinary ChatGPT conversations for code exploration, while keeping Codex or other coding-agent capacity available for implementation work.</p> <h2> What CodeScope does </h2> <p>CodeScope gives an MCP-compatible chat a controlled way to understand selected repositories:</p> <ul> <li>read files from configured repositories</li> <li>inspect Git history and repository status</li> <li>keep the accessible repositories in an explicit local allowlist</li> <li>work locally through the standard MCP connection</li> <li>keep repository access read-only by design</li> </ul> <p>The bridge does not expose commits, checkout, reset, arbitrary filesystem paths, or a general-purpose command shell. It only works with repositories that the user explicitly configures.</p> <h2> Install </h2> <p>The recommended installation is global:<br> </p> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight shell"><code>npm <span class="nb">install</span> <span class="nt">--global</span> @ellugia/codescope codescope setup </code></pre> </div> <p>The setup wizard creates the local configuration, lets you choose the repositories that CodeScope can access, and guides you through connecting it to your MCP client.</p> <p>A project-local installation is also available:<br> </p> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight shell"><code>npm <span class="nb">install</span> @ellugia/codescope npx codescope setup </code></pre> </div> <p>Once it is configured, you can ask questions such as:</p> <ul> <li>Where is authentication connected?</li> <li>Which modules call this function?</li> <li>What changed in the last five commits?</li> <li>How is this repository organized?</li> <li>Which files are involved in this feature?</li> </ul> <p>The goal is to make repository exploration feel like a normal conversation, while keeping the actual files on the user’s own computer and the accessible scope explicit.</p> <p>CodeScope is open source and released under the MIT license.</p> <p>It was built primarily with ChatGPT 5.6 Luna Max, followed by manual review, integration testing, and security checks.</p> <p>GitHub: <a href="https://github.com/ellugia/codescope" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://github.com/ellugia/codescope</a></p> <p>npm: <a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/@ellugia/codescope" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.npmjs.com/package/@ellugia/codescope</a></p> <p>If you use ChatGPT, Codex, or another MCP-compatible client to understand codebases, I would love to hear how you use this workflow and what would make it more useful.</p> mcp opensource node ai