---
name: hands
description: >-
  Gives an AI assistant its own private Linux machine over MCP — root bash,
  node, python and rclone in an isolated sandbox, reached with a connector URL
  and an access key, with the user's own OAuth grants handed to their own Hand.
homepage: https://gethands.nl
---

# Hands — capability description

Hands gives an AI assistant a private Linux machine it can actually work on.
You already have the assistant. Hands is the pair of hands.

- [Product site](https://gethands.nl)
- [Connecting a Hand, step by step](https://gethands.nl/connect)
- [Every page on this site, indexed](https://gethands.nl/llms.txt)
- [MCP server source](https://github.com/david-kijko/hands-mcp)

## What a Hand is

A **Hand** is a dedicated sandbox — one isolated Linux machine per Hand, not a
shared worker — running an MCP server. The machine has root `bash`, `node`,
`python` and `rclone`. It is reached over a **connector URL** and an **access
key**, both shown in the Hands dashboard under *Connection details*.

Because the machine is general-purpose, capability is not a fixed tool list.
Anything you can do on a Linux box, a Hand can do: read and write files, run a
script, transform a document, call an API, move data between two services.

## What it can do, concretely

| Job | How it happens |
| --- | --- |
| Work with files | Files live on the Hand's own disk and persist between sessions |
| Reach your accounts | Connectors hand your own OAuth tokens to your own Hand |
| Move data between services | `rclone` plus the granted credentials, on one machine |
| Run real code | `bash`, `node` and `python`, as root, in an isolated sandbox |
| Keep the result | Output is saved back where it belongs, not pasted into a chat |

## Inputs

| Input | Required | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Connector URL | yes | Per Hand. Goes into the AI client's custom-connector form |
| Access key | yes | Per Hand. Pasted once on the Hand's own authorisation page |
| Connector grants | optional | OAuth, granted on gethands.nl, per service, per Hand |

The access key is a credential. It belongs in the authorisation page and
nowhere else — never in a chat message, an email or a screenshot.

## Connecting from an MCP client

Clients with a custom-connector form (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity) need only
the connector URL; the access key is entered on the authorisation page that
opens afterwards. Clients configured from a file take the usual remote-MCP
shape:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hands": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://<your-connector-url>"
    }
  }
}
```

```bash
# Adding the same Hand to a CLI client that speaks remote MCP
claude mcp add --transport http hands https://<your-connector-url>
```

Both then send you through the Hand's own OAuth page, which is where the
access key goes.

## Which assistants can connect

| Assistant | Requirement |
| --- | --- |
| ChatGPT | Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise or Edu, on the web. The free plan cannot add a custom connector at all |
| Claude | Any plan including Free. A free account can add one custom connector, so one Hand. On Team and Enterprise only an Owner can add it |
| Perplexity | An account where custom connectors are available; an organisation admin may control this |
| Anything else | Any client that speaks MCP over HTTP |

Every one of them will warn you that they have not reviewed this server. That
warning is correct and expected: Hands is not in their directories. Adding a
connector is deliberately a human action, because a model that could add its
own tools could be talked into adding someone else's.

## Connectors

Fourteen services, grouped. A connector is an OAuth grant you make on the
website, handed to your Hand as keys in its own secret store.

- **Google** — Google Drive, Google Drive (read everything), Gmail, Google
  Calendar, YouTube, Google Cloud
- **Work** — GitHub, Slack, Notion, Dropbox
- **Social** — LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, X

Pausing a connector deletes those keys from the sandbox, so access stops
immediately rather than waiting on the provider to agree.

## Constraints

- **Three Hands per account.** Each has its own machine, connector URL, access
  key and stored credentials. Nothing is shared between Hands or tenants.
- **Write actions ask first.** Anything that changes something waits for your
  confirmation before it runs.
- **The client secret never leaves the website.** Only your own token travels
  to your own sandbox.
- **One connector, one Hand.** A connector URL addresses a single Hand.

## Price

The first Hand is free for 30 days. After that €5/month for one Hand, €8 for
two, €10 for three. Cancel anytime.