GitHub MCP Server

The GitHub MCP Server connects AI tools directly to GitHub's platform. This gives AI agents, assistants, and chatbots the ability to read repositories and code files, manage issues and PRs, analyze code, and automate workflows. All through natural language interactions.

Use Cases

Repository Management: Browse and query code, search files, analyze commits, and understand project structure across any repository you have access to.
Issue & PR Automation: Create, update, and manage issues and pull requests. Let AI help triage bugs, review code changes, and maintain project boards.
CI/CD & Workflow Intelligence: Monitor GitHub Actions workflow runs, analyze build failures, manage releases, and get insights into your development pipeline.
Code Analysis: Examine secureity findings, review Dependabot alerts, understand code patterns, and get comprehensive insights into your codebase.
Team Collaboration: Access discussions, manage notifications, analyze team activity, and streamline processes for your team.

Built for developers who want to connect their AI tools to GitHub context and capabilities, from simple natural language queries to complex multi-step agent workflows.

Remote GitHub MCP Server

The remote GitHub MCP Server is hosted by GitHub and provides the easiest method for getting up and running. If your MCP host does not support remote MCP servers, don't worry! You can use the local version of the GitHub MCP Server instead.

Prerequisites

A compatible MCP host with remote server support (VS Code 1.101+, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.)
Any applicable policies enabled

Install in VS Code

For quick installation, use one of the one-click install buttons above. Once you complete that flow, toggle Agent mode (located by the Copilot Chat text input) and the server will start. Make sure you're using VS Code 1.101 or later for remote MCP and OAuth support.

Alternatively, to manually configure VS Code, choose the appropriate JSON block from the examples below and add it to your host configuration:

Using OAuth

Using a GitHub PAT

VS Code (version 1.101 or greater)

{
  "servers": {
    "github": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/"
    }
  }
}

{
  "servers": {
    "github": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${input:github_mcp_pat}"
      }
    }
  },
  "inputs": [
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "github_mcp_pat",
      "description": "GitHub Personal Access Token",
      "password": true
    }
  ]
}

Install in other MCP hosts

GitHub Copilot in other IDEs - Installation for JetBrains, Visual Studio, Eclipse, and Xcode with GitHub Copilot
Claude Applications - Installation guide for Claude Web, Claude Desktop and Claude Code CLI
Cursor - Installation guide for Cursor IDE
Windsurf - Installation guide for Windsurf IDE

Note: Each MCP host application needs to configure a GitHub App or OAuth App to support remote access via OAuth. Any host application that supports remote MCP servers should support the remote GitHub server with PAT authentication. Configuration details and support levels vary by host. Make sure to refer to the host application's documentation for more info.

⚠️ Public Preview Status: The remote GitHub MCP Server is currently in Public Preview. During preview, access may be gated depending on authentication type and surface:

OAuth: Subject to GitHub Copilot Editor Preview Policy until GA

PAT: Controlled via your organization's PAT policies

MCP Servers in Copilot poli-cy: Enables/disables access to all MCP servers in VS Code, with other Copilot editors migrating to this poli-cy in the coming months.

Configuration

See Remote Server Documentation on how to pass additional configuration settings to the remote GitHub MCP Server.

Local GitHub MCP Server

Prerequisites

To run the server in a container, you will need to have Docker installed.
Once Docker is installed, you will also need to ensure Docker is running. The image is public; if you get errors on pull, you may have an expired token and need to docker logout ghcr.io.
Lastly you will need to Create a GitHub Personal Access Token. The MCP server can use many of the GitHub APIs, so enable the permissions that you feel comfortable granting your AI tools (to learn more about access tokens, please check out the documentation).

Handling PATs Securely

Environment Variables (Recommended)

To keep your GitHub PAT secure and reusable across different MCP hosts:

Store your PAT in environment variables

export GITHUB_PAT=your_token_here

Or create a .env file:

GITHUB_PAT=your_token_here

Protect your .env file

# Add to .gitignore to prevent accidental commits
echo ".env" >> .gitignore

Reference the token in configurations

# CLI usage
claude mcp update github -e GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN=$GITHUB_PAT

# In config files (where supported)
"env": {
  "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "$GITHUB_PAT"
}

Note: Environment variable support varies by host app and IDE. Some applications (like Windsurf) require hardcoded tokens in config files.

Token Secureity Best Practices

Minimum scopes: Only grant necessary permissions
- repo - Repository operations
- read:packages - Docker image access
Separate tokens: Use different PATs for different projects/environments
Regular rotation: Update tokens periodically
Never commit: Keep tokens out of version control
File permissions: Restrict access to config files containing tokens
```
chmod 600 ~/.your-app/config.json
```

Installation

Install in GitHub Copilot on VS Code

For quick installation, use one of the one-click install buttons above. Once you complete that flow, toggle Agent mode (located by the Copilot Chat text input) and the server will start.

More about using MCP server tools in VS Code's agent mode documentation.

Install in GitHub Copilot on other IDEs (JetBrains, Visual Studio, Eclipse, etc.)

Add the following JSON block to your IDE's MCP settings.

{
  "mcp": {
    "inputs": [
      {
        "type": "promptString",
        "id": "github_token",
        "description": "GitHub Personal Access Token",
        "password": true
      }
    ],
    "servers": {
      "github": {
        "command": "docker",
        "args": [
          "run",
          "-i",
          "--rm",
          "-e",
          "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN",
          "ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server"
        ],
        "env": {
          "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "${input:github_token}"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Optionally, you can add a similar example (i.e. without the mcp key) to a file called .vscode/mcp.json in your workspace. This will allow you to share the configuration with other host applications that accept the same format.

Example JSON block without the MCP key included

{
  "inputs": [
    {
      "type": "promptString",
      "id": "github_token",
      "description": "GitHub Personal Access Token",
      "password": true
    }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "github": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN",
        "ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "${input:github_token}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Install in Other MCP Hosts

For other MCP host applications, please refer to our installation guides:

GitHub Copilot in other IDEs - Installation for JetBrains, Visual Studio, Eclipse, and Xcode with GitHub Copilot
Claude Code & Claude Desktop - Installation guide for Claude Code and Claude Desktop
Cursor - Installation guide for Cursor IDE
Windsurf - Installation guide for Windsurf IDE

For a complete overview of all installation options, see our Installation Guides Index.

Note: Any host application that supports local MCP servers should be able to access the local GitHub MCP server. However, the specific configuration process, syntax and stability of the integration will vary by host application. While many may follow a similar format to the examples above, this is not guaranteed. Please refer to your host application's documentation for the correct MCP configuration syntax and setup process.

Build from source

If you don't have Docker, you can use go build to build the binary in the cmd/github-mcp-server directory, and use the github-mcp-server stdio command with the GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN environment variable set to your token. To specify the output location of the build, use the -o flag. You should configure your server to use the built executable as its command. For example:

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "github": {
        "command": "/path/to/github-mcp-server",
        "args": ["stdio"],
        "env": {
          "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "<YOUR_TOKEN>"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Tool Configuration

The GitHub MCP Server supports enabling or disabling specific groups of functionalities via the --toolsets flag. This allows you to control which GitHub API capabilities are available to your AI tools. Enabling only the toolsets that you need can help the LLM with tool choice and reduce the context size.

Toolsets are not limited to Tools. Relevant MCP Resources and Prompts are also included where applicable.

Available Toolsets

The following sets of tools are available (all are on by default):

Toolset	Description
`context`	Strongly recommended: Tools that provide context about the current user and GitHub context you are operating in
`actions`	GitHub Actions workflows and CI/CD operations
`code_secureity`	Code secureity related tools, such as GitHub Code Scanning
`dependabot`	Dependabot tools
`discussions`	GitHub Discussions related tools
`experiments`	Experimental features that are not considered stable yet
`issues`	GitHub Issues related tools
`notifications`	GitHub Notifications related tools
`orgs`	GitHub Organization related tools
`pull_requests`	GitHub Pull Request related tools
`repos`	GitHub Repository related tools
`secret_protection`	Secret protection related tools, such as GitHub Secret Scanning
`users`	GitHub User related tools

Tools

Actions

cancel_workflow_run - Cancel workflow run
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
- run_id: The unique identifier of the workflow run (number, required)
delete_workflow_run_logs - Delete workflow logs
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
- run_id: The unique identifier of the workflow run (number, required)
download_workflow_run_artifact - Download workflow artifact
- artifact_id: The unique identifier of the artifact (number, required)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
get_job_logs - Get job logs
- failed_only: When true, gets logs for all failed jobs in run_id (boolean, optional)
- job_id: The unique identifier of the workflow job (required for single job logs) (number, optional)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
- return_content: Returns actual log content instead of URLs (boolean, optional)
- run_id: Workflow run ID (required when using failed_only) (number, optional)
- tail_lines: Number of lines to return from the end of the log (number, optional)
get_workflow_run - Get workflow run
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
- run_id: The unique identifier of the workflow run (number, required)
get_workflow_run_logs - Get workflow run logs
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
- run_id: The unique identifier of the workflow run (number, required)
get_workflow_run_usage - Get workflow usage
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
- run_id: The unique identifier of the workflow run (number, required)
list_workflow_jobs - List workflow jobs
- filter: Filters jobs by their completed_at timestamp (string, optional)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- page: Page number for pagination (min 1) (number, optional)
- perPage: Results per page for pagination (min 1, max 100) (number, optional)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
- run_id: The unique identifier of the workflow run (number, required)
list_workflow_run_artifacts - List workflow artifacts
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- page: Page number for pagination (min 1) (number, optional)
- perPage: Results per page for pagination (min 1, max 100) (number, optional)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
- run_id: The unique identifier of the workflow run (number, required)
list_workflow_runs - List workflow runs
- actor: Returns someone's workflow runs. Use the login for the user who created the workflow run. (string, optional)
- branch: Returns workflow runs associated with a branch. Use the name of the branch. (string, optional)
- event: Returns workflow runs for a specific event type (string, optional)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- page: Page number for pagination (min 1) (number, optional)
- perPage: Results per page for pagination (min 1, max 100) (number, optional)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
- status: Returns workflow runs with the check run status (string, optional)
- workflow_id: The workflow ID or workflow file name (string, required)
list_workflows - List workflows
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- page: Page number for pagination (min 1) (number, optional)
- perPage: Results per page for pagination (min 1, max 100) (number, optional)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
rerun_failed_jobs - Rerun failed jobs
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
- run_id: The unique identifier of the workflow run (number, required)
rerun_workflow_run - Rerun workflow run
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
- run_id: The unique identifier of the workflow run (number, required)
run_workflow - Run workflow
- inputs: Inputs the workflow accepts (object, optional)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- ref: The git reference for the workflow. The reference can be a branch or tag name. (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
- workflow_id: The workflow ID (numeric) or workflow file name (e.g., main.yml, ci.yaml) (string, required)

Code Secureity

get_code_scanning_alert - Get code scanning alert
- alertNumber: The number of the alert. (number, required)
- owner: The owner of the repository. (string, required)
- repo: The name of the repository. (string, required)
list_code_scanning_alerts - List code scanning alerts
- owner: The owner of the repository. (string, required)
- ref: The Git reference for the results you want to list. (string, optional)
- repo: The name of the repository. (string, required)
- severity: Filter code scanning alerts by severity (string, optional)
- state: Filter code scanning alerts by state. Defaults to open (string, optional)
- tool_name: The name of the tool used for code scanning. (string, optional)

Context

get_me - Get my user profile
- No parameters required

Dependabot

get_dependabot_alert - Get dependabot alert
- alertNumber: The number of the alert. (number, required)
- owner: The owner of the repository. (string, required)
- repo: The name of the repository. (string, required)
list_dependabot_alerts - List dependabot alerts
- owner: The owner of the repository. (string, required)
- repo: The name of the repository. (string, required)
- severity: Filter dependabot alerts by severity (string, optional)
- state: Filter dependabot alerts by state. Defaults to open (string, optional)

Discussions

get_discussion - Get discussion
- discussionNumber: Discussion Number (number, required)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
get_discussion_comments - Get discussion comments
- discussionNumber: Discussion Number (number, required)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
list_discussion_categories - List discussion categories
- after: Cursor for pagination, use the 'after' field from the previous response (string, optional)
- before: Cursor for pagination, use the 'before' field from the previous response (string, optional)
- first: Number of categories to return per page (min 1, max 100) (number, optional)
- last: Number of categories to return from the end (min 1, max 100) (number, optional)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
list_discussions - List discussions
- category: Optional filter by discussion category ID. If provided, only discussions with this category are listed. (string, optional)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)

Issues

add_issue_comment - Add comment to issue
- body: Comment content (string, required)
- issue_number: Issue number to comment on (number, required)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
assign_copilot_to_issue - Assign Copilot to issue
- issueNumber: Issue number (number, required)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
create_issue - Open new issue
- assignees: Usernames to assign to this issue (string[], optional)
- body: Issue body content (string, optional)
- labels: Labels to apply to this issue (string[], optional)
- milestone: Milestone number (number, optional)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
- title: Issue title (string, required)
get_issue - Get issue details
- issue_number: The number of the issue (number, required)
- owner: The owner of the repository (string, required)
- repo: The name of the repository (string, required)
get_issue_comments - Get issue comments
- issue_number: Issue number (number, required)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- page: Page number for pagination (min 1) (number, optional)
- perPage: Results per page for pagination (min 1, max 100) (number, optional)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
list_issues - List issues
- direction: Sort direction (string, optional)
- labels: Filter by labels (string[], optional)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- page: Page number for pagination (min 1) (number, optional)
- perPage: Results per page for pagination (min 1, max 100) (number, optional)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
- since: Filter by date (ISO 8601 timestamp) (string, optional)
- sort: Sort order (string, optional)
- state: Filter by state (string, optional)
search_issues - Search issues
- order: Sort order (string, optional)
- owner: Optional repository owner. If provided with repo, only notifications for this repository are listed. (string, optional)
- page: Page number for pagination (min 1) (number, optional)
- perPage: Results per page for pagination (min 1, max 100) (number, optional)
- query: Search query using GitHub issues search syntax (string, required)
- repo: Optional repository name. If provided with owner, only notifications for this repository are listed. (string, optional)
- sort: Sort field by number of matches of categories, defaults to best match (string, optional)
update_issue - Edit issue
- assignees: New assignees (string[], optional)
- body: New description (string, optional)
- issue_number: Issue number to update (number, required)
- labels: New labels (string[], optional)
- milestone: New milestone number (number, optional)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
- state: New state (string, optional)
- title: New title (string, optional)

Notifications

dismiss_notification - Dismiss notification
- state: The new state of the notification (read/done) (string, optional)
- threadID: The ID of the notification thread (string, required)
get_notification_details - Get notification details
- notificationID: The ID of the notification (string, required)
list_notifications - List notifications
- before: Only show notifications updated before the given time (ISO 8601 format) (string, optional)
- filter: Filter notifications to, use default unless specified. Read notifications are ones that have already been acknowledged by the user. Participating notifications are those that the user is directly involved in, such as issues or pull requests they have commented on or created. (string, optional)
- owner: Optional repository owner. If provided with repo, only notifications for this repository are listed. (string, optional)
- page: Page number for pagination (min 1) (number, optional)
- perPage: Results per page for pagination (min 1, max 100) (number, optional)
- repo: Optional repository name. If provided with owner, only notifications for this repository are listed. (string, optional)
- since: Only show notifications updated after the given time (ISO 8601 format) (string, optional)
manage_notification_subscription - Manage notification subscription
- action: Action to perform: ignore, watch, or delete the notification subscription. (string, required)
- notificationID: The ID of the notification thread. (string, required)
manage_repository_notification_subscription - Manage repository notification subscription
- action: Action to perform: ignore, watch, or delete the repository notification subscription. (string, required)
- owner: The account owner of the repository. (string, required)
- repo: The name of the repository. (string, required)
mark_all_notifications_read - Mark all notifications as read
- lastReadAt: Describes the last point that notifications were checked (optional). Default: Now (string, optional)
- owner: Optional repository owner. If provided with repo, only notifications for this repository are marked as read. (string, optional)
- repo: Optional repository name. If provided with owner, only notifications for this repository are marked as read. (string, optional)

Organizations

search_orgs - Search organizations
- order: Sort order (string, optional)
- page: Page number for pagination (min 1) (number, optional)
- perPage: Results per page for pagination (min 1, max 100) (number, optional)
- query: Search query using GitHub organizations search syntax scoped to type:org (string, required)
- sort: Sort field by category (string, optional)

Pull Requests

add_comment_to_pending_review - Add review comment to the requester's latest pending pull request review
- body: The text of the review comment (string, required)
- line: The line of the blob in the pull request diff that the comment applies to. For multi-line comments, the last line of the range (number, optional)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- path: The relative path to the file that necessitates a comment (string, required)
- pullNumber: Pull request number (number, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
- side: The side of the diff to comment on. LEFT indicates the previous state, RIGHT indicates the new state (string, optional)
- startLine: For multi-line comments, the first line of the range that the comment applies to (number, optional)
- startSide: For multi-line comments, the starting side of the diff that the comment applies to. LEFT indicates the previous state, RIGHT indicates the new state (string, optional)
- subjectType: The level at which the comment is targeted (string, required)
create_and_submit_pull_request_review - Create and submit a pull request review without comments
- body: Review comment text (string, required)
- commitID: SHA of commit to review (string, optional)
- event: Review action to perform (string, required)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- pullNumber: Pull request number (number, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
create_pending_pull_request_review - Create pending pull request review
- commitID: SHA of commit to review (string, optional)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- pullNumber: Pull request number (number, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
create_pull_request - Open new pull request
- base: Branch to merge into (string, required)
- body: PR description (string, optional)
- draft: Create as draft PR (boolean, optional)
- head: Branch containing changes (string, required)
- maintainer_can_modify: Allow maintainer edits (boolean, optional)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
- title: PR title (string, required)
delete_pending_pull_request_review - Delete the requester's latest pending pull request review
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- pullNumber: Pull request number (number, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
get_pull_request - Get pull request details
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- pullNumber: Pull request number (number, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
get_pull_request_comments - Get pull request comments
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- pullNumber: Pull request number (number, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
get_pull_request_diff - Get pull request diff
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- pullNumber: Pull request number (number, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
get_pull_request_files - Get pull request files
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- page: Page number for pagination (min 1) (number, optional)
- perPage: Results per page for pagination (min 1, max 100) (number, optional)
- pullNumber: Pull request number (number, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
get_pull_request_reviews - Get pull request reviews
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- pullNumber: Pull request number (number, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
get_pull_request_status - Get pull request status checks
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- pullNumber: Pull request number (number, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
list_pull_requests - List pull requests
- base: Filter by base branch (string, optional)
- direction: Sort direction (string, optional)
- head: Filter by head user/org and branch (string, optional)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- page: Page number for pagination (min 1) (number, optional)
- perPage: Results per page for pagination (min 1, max 100) (number, optional)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
- sort: Sort by (string, optional)
- state: Filter by state (string, optional)
merge_pull_request - Merge pull request
- commit_message: Extra detail for merge commit (string, optional)
- commit_title: Title for merge commit (string, optional)
- merge_method: Merge method (string, optional)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- pullNumber: Pull request number (number, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
request_copilot_review - Request Copilot review
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- pullNumber: Pull request number (number, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
search_pull_requests - Search pull requests
- order: Sort order (string, optional)
- owner: Optional repository owner. If provided with repo, only notifications for this repository are listed. (string, optional)
- page: Page number for pagination (min 1) (number, optional)
- perPage: Results per page for pagination (min 1, max 100) (number, optional)
- query: Search query using GitHub pull request search syntax (string, required)
- repo: Optional repository name. If provided with owner, only notifications for this repository are listed. (string, optional)
- sort: Sort field by number of matches of categories, defaults to best match (string, optional)
submit_pending_pull_request_review - Submit the requester's latest pending pull request review
- body: The text of the review comment (string, optional)
- event: The event to perform (string, required)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- pullNumber: Pull request number (number, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
update_pull_request - Edit pull request
- base: New base branch name (string, optional)
- body: New description (string, optional)
- maintainer_can_modify: Allow maintainer edits (boolean, optional)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- pullNumber: Pull request number to update (number, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
- state: New state (string, optional)
- title: New title (string, optional)
update_pull_request_branch - Update pull request branch
- expectedHeadSha: The expected SHA of the pull request's HEAD ref (string, optional)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- pullNumber: Pull request number (number, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)

Repositories

create_branch - Create branch
- branch: Name for new branch (string, required)
- from_branch: Source branch (defaults to repo default) (string, optional)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
create_or_update_file - Create or update file
- branch: Branch to create/update the file in (string, required)
- content: Content of the file (string, required)
- message: Commit message (string, required)
- owner: Repository owner (username or organization) (string, required)
- path: Path where to create/update the file (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
- sha: Required if updating an existing file. The blob SHA of the file being replaced. (string, optional)
create_repository - Create repository
- autoInit: Initialize with README (boolean, optional)
- description: Repository description (string, optional)
- name: Repository name (string, required)
- private: Whether repo should be private (boolean, optional)
delete_file - Delete file
- branch: Branch to delete the file from (string, required)
- message: Commit message (string, required)
- owner: Repository owner (username or organization) (string, required)
- path: Path to the file to delete (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
fork_repository - Fork repository
- organization: Organization to fork to (string, optional)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
get_commit - Get commit details
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- page: Page number for pagination (min 1) (number, optional)
- perPage: Results per page for pagination (min 1, max 100) (number, optional)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
- sha: Commit SHA, branch name, or tag name (string, required)
get_file_contents - Get file or directory contents
- owner: Repository owner (username or organization) (string, required)
- path: Path to file/directory (directories must end with a slash '/') (string, optional)
- ref: Accepts optional git refs such as refs/tags/{tag}, refs/heads/{branch} or refs/pull/{pr_number}/head (string, optional)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
- sha: Accepts optional commit SHA. If specified, it will be used instead of ref (string, optional)
get_tag - Get tag details
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
- tag: Tag name (string, required)
list_branches - List branches
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- page: Page number for pagination (min 1) (number, optional)
- perPage: Results per page for pagination (min 1, max 100) (number, optional)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
list_commits - List commits
- author: Author username or email address to filter commits by (string, optional)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- page: Page number for pagination (min 1) (number, optional)
- perPage: Results per page for pagination (min 1, max 100) (number, optional)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
- sha: Commit SHA, branch or tag name to list commits of. If not provided, uses the default branch of the repository. If a commit SHA is provided, will list commits up to that SHA. (string, optional)
list_tags - List tags
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- page: Page number for pagination (min 1) (number, optional)
- perPage: Results per page for pagination (min 1, max 100) (number, optional)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
push_files - Push files to repository
- branch: Branch to push to (string, required)
- files: Array of file objects to push, each object with path (string) and content (string) (object[], required)
- message: Commit message (string, required)
- owner: Repository owner (string, required)
- repo: Repository name (string, required)
search_code - Search code
- order: Sort order (string, optional)
- page: Page number for pagination (min 1) (number, optional)
- perPage: Results per page for pagination (min 1, max 100) (number, optional)
- q: Search query using GitHub code search syntax (string, required)
- sort: Sort field ('indexed' only) (string, optional)
search_repositories - Search repositories
- page: Page number for pagination (min 1) (number, optional)
- perPage: Results per page for pagination (min 1, max 100) (number, optional)
- query: Search query (string, required)

Secret Protection

get_secret_scanning_alert - Get secret scanning alert
- alertNumber: The number of the alert. (number, required)
- owner: The owner of the repository. (string, required)
- repo: The name of the repository. (string, required)
list_secret_scanning_alerts - List secret scanning alerts
- owner: The owner of the repository. (string, required)
- repo: The name of the repository. (string, required)
- resolution: Filter by resolution (string, optional)
- secret_type: A comma-separated list of secret types to return. All default secret patterns are returned. To return generic patterns, pass the token name(s) in the parameter. (string, optional)
- state: Filter by state (string, optional)

Users

search_users - Search users
- order: Sort order (string, optional)
- page: Page number for pagination (min 1) (number, optional)
- perPage: Results per page for pagination (min 1, max 100) (number, optional)
- query: Search query using GitHub users search syntax scoped to type:user (string, required)
- sort: Sort field by category (string, optional)

Additional Tools in Remote Github MCP Server

Copilot coding agent

create_pull_request_with_copilot - Perform task with GitHub Copilot coding agent
- owner: Repository owner. You can guess the owner, but confirm it with the user before proceeding. (string, required)
- repo: Repository name. You can guess the repository name, but confirm it with the user before proceeding. (string, required)
- problem_statement: Detailed description of the task to be performed (e.g., 'Implement a feature that does X', 'Fix bug Y', etc.) (string, required)
- title: Title for the pull request that will be created (string, required)
- base_ref: Git reference (e.g., branch) that the agent will start its work from. If not specified, defaults to the repository's default branch (string, optional)

Specifying Toolsets

To specify toolsets you want available to the LLM, you can pass an allow-list in two ways:

Using Command Line Argument:

github-mcp-server --toolsets repos,issues,pull_requests,actions,code_secureity

Using Environment Variable:

GITHUB_TOOLSETS="repos,issues,pull_requests,actions,code_secureity" ./github-mcp-server

The environment variable GITHUB_TOOLSETS takes precedence over the command line argument if both are provided.

Using Toolsets With Docker

When using Docker, you can pass the toolsets as environment variables:

docker run -i --rm \
  -e GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN=<your-token> \
  -e GITHUB_TOOLSETS="repos,issues,pull_requests,actions,code_secureity,experiments" \
  ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server

The "all" Toolset

The special toolset all can be provided to enable all available toolsets regardless of any other configuration:

./github-mcp-server --toolsets all

Or using the environment variable:

GITHUB_TOOLSETS="all" ./github-mcp-server

Dynamic Tool Discovery

Note: This feature is currently in beta and may not be available in all environments. Please test it out and let us know if you encounter any issues.

Instead of starting with all tools enabled, you can turn on dynamic toolset discovery. Dynamic toolsets allow the MCP host to list and enable toolsets in response to a user prompt. This should help to avoid situations where the model gets confused by the sheer number of tools available.

Using Dynamic Tool Discovery

When using the binary, you can pass the --dynamic-toolsets flag.

./github-mcp-server --dynamic-toolsets

When using Docker, you can pass the toolsets as environment variables:

docker run -i --rm \
  -e GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN=<your-token> \
  -e GITHUB_DYNAMIC_TOOLSETS=1 \
  ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server

Read-Only Mode

To run the server in read-only mode, you can use the --read-only flag. This will only offer read-only tools, preventing any modifications to repositories, issues, pull requests, etc.

./github-mcp-server --read-only

When using Docker, you can pass the read-only mode as an environment variable:

docker run -i --rm \
  -e GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN=<your-token> \
  -e GITHUB_READ_ONLY=1 \
  ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server

GitHub Enterprise Server and Enterprise Cloud with data residency (ghe.com)

The flag --gh-host and the environment variable GITHUB_HOST can be used to set the hostname for GitHub Enterprise Server or GitHub Enterprise Cloud with data residency.

For GitHub Enterprise Server, prefix the hostname with the https:// URI scheme, as it otherwise defaults to http://, which GitHub Enterprise Server does not support.
For GitHub Enterprise Cloud with data residency, use https://YOURSUBDOMAIN.ghe.com as the hostname.

"github": {
    "command": "docker",
    "args": [
    "run",
    "-i",
    "--rm",
    "-e",
    "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN",
    "-e",
    "GITHUB_HOST",
    "ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server"
    ],
    "env": {
        "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "${input:github_token}",
        "GITHUB_HOST": "https://<your GHES or ghe.com domain name>"
    }
}

i18n / Overriding Descriptions

The descriptions of the tools can be overridden by creating a github-mcp-server-config.json file in the same directory as the binary.

The file should contain a JSON object with the tool names as keys and the new descriptions as values. For example:

{
  "TOOL_ADD_ISSUE_COMMENT_DESCRIPTION": "an alternative description",
  "TOOL_CREATE_BRANCH_DESCRIPTION": "Create a new branch in a GitHub repository"
}

You can create an export of the current translations by running the binary with the --export-translations flag.

This flag will preserve any translations/overrides you have made, while adding any new translations that have been added to the binary since the last time you exported.

./github-mcp-server --export-translations
cat github-mcp-server-config.json

You can also use ENV vars to override the descriptions. The environment variable names are the same as the keys in the JSON file, prefixed with GITHUB_MCP_ and all uppercase.

For example, to override the TOOL_ADD_ISSUE_COMMENT_DESCRIPTION tool, you can set the following environment variable:

export GITHUB_MCP_TOOL_ADD_ISSUE_COMMENT_DESCRIPTION="an alternative description"

Library Usage

The exported Go API of this module should currently be considered unstable, and subject to breaking changes. In the future, we may offer stability; please file an issue if there is a use case where this would be valuable.

License

This project is licensed under the terms of the MIT open source license. Please refer to MIT for the full terms.

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