Github

What github MCP server does

The github MCP server gives an MCP-compatible client read access to public GitHub data. It covers repository discovery, repository metadata, issue lists, public user profiles, repository files, code search, releases, commit history, and live trending-repository queries. The tools are designed for questions that require data from GitHub rather than general web results, such as checking a project’s current release, finding a symbol in public code, or reading a package.json file.

Repository lookup returns details such as stars, forks, watchers, license, language, topics, default branch, open issue count, and last push time. File retrieval can return decoded file text or directory listings. Code search accepts GitHub qualifiers including repository, organization, user, language, filename, path, extension, and content location.

How it works

The hosted endpoint is exposed through the Pipeworx gateway at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/github/mcp. An MCP client initializes the connection, lists available tools, and sends tool calls with structured arguments. The gateway endpoint also exposes shared Pipeworx meta-tools in addition to the GitHub-specific tools; the local package exposes only the pack’s tools.

The github MCP server uses GitHub’s public REST and Search APIs. Trending results are computed from live GitHub Search API data. Its “new” mode ranks repositories created during a selected day, week, or month by star count, while “active” mode ranks repositories pushed during that period. Results include a caveat because GitHub’s own trending page uses a private ranking method.

Setup and configuration

For a hosted connection, add the endpoint to an MCP client configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/github/mcp"
    }
  }
}

The github MCP server can also run locally over stdio without a Pipeworx account:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@pipeworx/mcp-github"]
    }
  }
}

Run npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-github to start the local process directly.

Tools and capabilities

• Search repositories by keyword and return names, descriptions, stars, forks, languages, and URLs.
• Retrieve metadata for one repository identified by an owner/repo slug.
• List repository issues while excluding pull requests; results default to open issues.
• Read public files or list directories, with an optional branch, tag, or commit reference.
• Search public code using GitHub search qualifiers.
• Inspect recent releases, release notes, assets, and fallback tags.
• Review commits with optional branch, tag, commit, path, and time filters.
• Retrieve public user profiles and query trending repositories by time window, language, keywords, and minimum stars.

Limitations and notes

File responses are capped at approximately 60,000 characters. Code search indexes only default branches, ignores very common terms, and is limited to about ten searches per minute. Issue listing filters pull requests automatically and defaults to open issues.

Trending order may differ from github.com/trending because the public API does not expose GitHub’s ranking algorithm. The hosted endpoint lists shared gateway tools alongside the pack tools, while the stdio package lists only the GitHub pack tools.