You can connect Local Dominator to the OpenAI Codex desktop app by adding our connector to its MCP configuration file. This gives Codex direct, read-only access to your SERP Tracker, Site Audit, Geogrid, AI Tracker, and Review Velocity data, so you can ask for reports and analysis in plain English without switching tools.
🎯 Who is this for?
This is for agencies and developers who already use the Codex app for coding or research workflows and want live Local Dominator data available inside it without switching tools.
- Agencies and technical staff using the Codex desktop app
- Teams already signed into Codex with a ChatGPT or API key account
📋 What you will need
You need the Codex app installed and signed in, along with your Local Dominator API key. There’s no separate connector file to download yourself. Codex fetches and runs it directly from our server the first time it connects. You don’t need the separate Codex CLI for any of this.
- The Codex app installed (developers.openai.com/codex/app) and signed in with your ChatGPT account or an OpenAI API key.
-
Network access enabled for MCP servers.
Codex’s default sandbox blocks outbound network calls. Add the following
setting under
[sandbox_workspace_write]in your configuration file:Without this setting, both the first-time connector fetch and the connector’s calls to Local Dominator’s API will fail. See the troubleshooting section if the setting doesn’t take effect.network_access = true - Your Local Dominator API key, from your account’s API settings page.
⏳ Time to complete
- ~ 10 minutes
How to Connect the Codex App
Log into Local Dominator
Go to Account → API Settings, and copy your API key.
Your key starts with ld_.
Never share it in chat, email, or a screenshot.
Codex stores its MCP configuration in a
config.toml file, whether or not you
have the CLI installed. Open the file in any text editor.
%USERPROFILE%\.codex\config.toml
~/.codex/config.toml
File not found?
If config.toml does not exist yet,
create a new file with that exact name inside the corresponding
.codex folder.
Add the following block to your Codex configuration file.
[mcp_servers.local-dominator]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "https://localdominator.co/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/LOCAL-1.tgz"]
env_vars = ["LOCAL_DOMINATOR_API_KEY"]
This tells Codex to forward the
LOCAL_DOMINATOR_API_KEY
environment variable to the connector at runtime instead of storing the
key in the configuration file.
Complete this step before restarting Codex.
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("LOCAL_DOMINATOR_API_KEY", "ld_your_actual_key_here", "User")
export LOCAL_DOMINATOR_API_KEY=ld_your_actual_key_here
Replace
ld_your_actual_key_here
with your real Local Dominator API key.
This skips the environment-variable step, but your API key will be stored as plain text on your computer.
[mcp_servers.local-dominator]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "https://localdominator.co/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/LOCAL-1.tgz"]
[mcp_servers.local-dominator.env]
LOCAL_DOMINATOR_API_KEY = "ld_your_actual_key_here"
Fully quit the Codex app, then reopen it.
Restarting allows Codex to load the new
config.toml settings and detect the
LOCAL_DOMINATOR_API_KEY
environment variable.
Open Codex and follow this navigation path:
Check that the Local Dominator connector is listed and enabled:
local-dominator
MCP server
If local-dominator appears as
enabled, Codex has successfully loaded the saved MCP configuration.
Start a new Codex thread and request live account data.
Start a new thread in Codex and send the following prompt:
Check my Local Dominator account status.
You should receive real credit balances across all your Local Dominator modules.
On the first run,
npx
fetches the connector from the server. After it has been cached,
future requests start instantly.
What You Can Ask For
Once connected, Codex can pull and summarize live data on request. You don’t need to know tool names or campaign IDs in advance—just describe what you want.
All available tools are read-only. Actions that spend credits—such as triggering a new scan or audit—cannot run through this connector.
Troubleshooting and FAQ
First connection hangs, or asking for account status returns a network/timeout error
This is almost always Codex’s sandbox blocking outbound network access, not a problem with the connector itself.
Confirm the following setting is present in
config.toml:
[sandbox_workspace_write]
network_access = trueSave the file and try again. There are known issues where this setting is silently ignored on some Codex builds, particularly on macOS.
“LOCAL_DOMINATOR_API_KEY is not set” or authentication errors
Confirm that the environment variable is actually set by running the appropriate command for your system.
echo $env:LOCAL_DOMINATOR_API_KEYecho $LOCAL_DOMINATOR_API_KEYFully restart Codex after setting the environment variable.
config.toml.
Tool calls ask for approval every time
Add the following setting under
[mcp_servers.local-dominator]
in config.toml:
[mcp_servers.local-dominator]
default_tools_approval_mode = "auto"This stops approval prompts for this connector’s tools specifically, without changing your global approval settings.
Testing the connector manually in PowerShell gives “running scripts is disabled on this system”
This means Windows is blocking the
npx.ps1 wrapper script. It is
not an issue with the connector.
Run the following command in PowerShell and then retry:
Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUserFirst run times out before Codex finishes fetching the connector
On a slow connection, the default 10-second startup window may not be
enough for npx to download the
package from our server.
Add the following setting under
[mcp_servers.local-dominator]
in config.toml:
[mcp_servers.local-dominator]
startup_timeout_sec = 20