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name: "github" version: "1.0.1" displayName: "🐙 GitHub" description: "Full GitHub platform operations via MCP. Manage repositories, issues, pull requests, branches, releases, labels, milestones, workflows, gists, collaborators, tags, projects, and lightweight issue summaries from your AI assistant." keywords: ["@github"] author: "Sean Sobey"

GitHub MCP

Overview

GitHub MCP provides comprehensive access to the GitHub platform through the Model Context Protocol. It covers the full GitHub workflow — repositories, issues, pull requests, branches, releases, labels, milestones, workflows, gists, collaborators, tags, and projects.

This power combines the @modelcontextprotocol/server-github package with a custom github-extras server that fills in the gaps — label CRUD, milestones, releases, GitHub Actions, gists, collaborators, tags, projects, and a lightweight issues summary tool.

Available Steering Files

• pull-requests — Creating, reviewing, merging PRs, and code review workflows
• issues-and-projects — Issue management, labels, milestones, projects, and search patterns
• advanced-operations — Releases, tags, workflows/actions, gists, collaborators, and repository management

Onboarding

Prerequisites

• A GitHub account
• A Personal Access Token (PAT) with appropriate scopes
• Docker (default) or Node.js 18+ (local fallback)

Getting Your GitHub Token

1. Go to https://github.com/settings/tokens
2. Click "Generate new token" → "Generate new token (classic)"
3. Select scopes based on what you need:
   • repo — Full repository access (issues, PRs, code, labels, milestones, collaborators)
   • read:org — Read org and team membership
   • read:user — Read user profile data
   • workflow — Trigger and manage GitHub Actions workflows
   • gist — Create and list gists
   • project — Manage projects
4. Copy the generated token

Configuration

After installing this power, replace the placeholder in mcp.json with your actual token.

The default config connects to Docker via Streamable HTTP. Run docker compose up -d from the repo root. Set your token in .env. Disabled -nodejs entries in mcp.json are available for local stdio fallback.

Common Workflows

Check Your Identity

get_me

Returns your authenticated GitHub username, name, and profile info. Useful to confirm the token is working.

Search Repositories

search_repositories with query="machine learning language:python stars:>1000"

Supports GitHub's full search syntax: language filters, star counts, topics, org filters, etc.

Search Code

search_code with query="content:useState language:TypeScript org:my-org"

Fast, precise code search across all GitHub repositories. Supports exact matching, language filters, path filters.

Get File Contents

get_file_contents with owner="user", repo="my-repo", path="src/index.ts"

From a specific branch or PR:

get_file_contents with owner="user", repo="my-repo", path="src/index.ts", ref="refs/heads/develop"

Create or Update a File

create_or_update_file with owner="user", repo="my-repo", path="docs/README.md", content="# Hello", message="docs: add readme", branch="main"

For updating existing files, you need the file's SHA. Get it with:

git rev-parse main:docs/README.md

Push Multiple Files

push_files with owner="user", repo="my-repo", branch="main", message="feat: add config files", files=[{"path": "config.json", "content": "..."}, {"path": ".env.example", "content": "..."}]

List and Create Branches

List:

list_branches with owner="user", repo="my-repo"

Create:

create_branch with owner="user", repo="my-repo", branch="feature/new-thing"

From a specific branch:

create_branch with owner="user", repo="my-repo", branch="hotfix/urgent", from_branch="release/1.0"

View Commits

List recent commits:

list_commits with owner="user", repo="my-repo"

Get commit details with diff:

get_commit with owner="user", repo="my-repo", sha="abc1234"

Search Users

search_users with query="location:seattle followers:>100"

Create a Label

create_label with owner="user", repo="my-repo", name="bug", color="d73a4a", description="Something isn't working"

The color parameter is a 6-character hex string without the # prefix.

List Labels

list_labels with owner="user", repo="my-repo"

Update a Label

update_label with owner="user", repo="my-repo", current_name="bug", new_name="bugfix", color="e4e669"

Delete a Label

delete_label with owner="user", repo="my-repo", name="obsolete-label"

Fork a Repository

fork_repository with owner="original-owner", repo="cool-project"

Milestones

Create:

create_milestone with owner="user", repo="my-repo", title="v1.0", due_on="2025-12-31T00:00:00Z"

List:

list_milestones with owner="user", repo="my-repo", state="open"

Update:

update_milestone with owner="user", repo="my-repo", milestone_number=1, state="closed"

Delete:

delete_milestone with owner="user", repo="my-repo", milestone_number=1

Releases

Create:

create_release with owner="user", repo="my-repo", tag_name="v1.0.0", name="Version 1.0", generate_release_notes=true

List:

list_releases with owner="user", repo="my-repo"

Get by tag:

get_release with owner="user", repo="my-repo", tag="v1.0.0"

Delete:

delete_release with owner="user", repo="my-repo", release_id=12345

Workflows / Actions

List workflows:

list_workflows with owner="user", repo="my-repo"

List runs (optionally filtered):

list_workflow_runs with owner="user", repo="my-repo", workflow_id="ci.yml", status="failure"

Get run details:

get_workflow_run with owner="user", repo="my-repo", run_id=123456

Trigger a workflow:

trigger_workflow with owner="user", repo="my-repo", workflow_id="deploy.yml", ref="main", inputs={"environment": "production"}

Gists

Create:

create_gist with description="My snippet", files={"example.js": {"content": "console.log('hi')"}}, public=true

List:

list_gists

Collaborators

List:

list_collaborators with owner="user", repo="my-repo"

Add:

add_collaborator with owner="user", repo="my-repo", username="contributor", permission="push"

Remove:

remove_collaborator with owner="user", repo="my-repo", username="contributor"

Tags

List:

list_tags with owner="user", repo="my-repo"

Create annotated tag:

create_tag with owner="user", repo="my-repo", tag="v1.0.0", message="Release 1.0", sha="abc1234"

Delete:

delete_tag with owner="user", repo="my-repo", tag="v1.0.0"

Issues Summary

List issues (lightweight):

list_issues_summary with owner="user", repo="my-repo"

Returns only number, title, and labels (name + color) for each issue. Pull requests are excluded.

Filter by state and labels:

list_issues_summary with owner="user", repo="my-repo", state="open", labels="bug,urgent"

Filter by assignee or milestone:

list_issues_summary with owner="user", repo="my-repo", assignee="octocat", milestone=3

Projects

List org projects:

list_org_projects with org="my-org"

List repo projects:

list_repo_projects with owner="user", repo="my-repo"

Create org project:

create_org_project with org="my-org", title="Q1 Roadmap", body="Planning for Q1"

Create repo project:

create_repo_project with owner="user", repo="my-repo", title="Sprint 1"

Get / Update / Delete by ID:

get_project with project_id=12345
update_project with project_id=12345, title="Updated Title", state="closed"
delete_project with project_id=12345

Troubleshooting

"Bad credentials" or 401 errors

Cause: Token is invalid, expired, or not set. Solution:

1. Verify your token at https://github.com/settings/tokens
2. Ensure GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN is set correctly in mcp.json
3. Check the token hasn't expired

"Not Found" on private repos

Cause: Token doesn't have repo scope. Solution: Regenerate your token with the repo scope enabled.

"Resource not accessible by integration"

Cause: Token lacks the required scope for the operation. Solution: Check which scopes your token has and add the missing ones.

Rate limiting (403)

Cause: GitHub API rate limit exceeded. Solution: Wait for the rate limit to reset (usually 1 hour), or use a token with higher limits.

Search returns no results

Cause: Search syntax may be incorrect or the index hasn't caught up. Solution: Simplify the query, check GitHub search syntax docs, or wait a few minutes for newly pushed code to be indexed.

Best Practices

• Use a fine-grained PAT with minimal scopes for security
• Always check get_me first to verify authentication
• Use search_code for finding symbols across repos — it's faster than cloning
• Prefer push_files over multiple create_or_update_file calls for batch changes
• Use descriptive branch names and commit messages
• Request Copilot review before human reviewers to catch obvious issues early

MCP Config Placeholders

YOUR_GITHUB_TOKEN_HERE: Your GitHub Personal Access Token.

• How to get it:
  1. Go to https://github.com/settings/tokens
  2. Click "Generate new token (classic)"
  3. Select required scopes (repo, read:org, read:user, workflow, gist, project)
  4. Copy the token and paste it as the value

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Packages: @modelcontextprotocol/server-github + custom github-extras MCP Servers: github, github-extras