Github MCP

What github-mcp MCP server does

The github-mcp MCP server exposes selected GitHub REST API operations through MCP. Its read surface includes repository metadata, issue and pull request retrieval, repository file contents, public repository search, public user or organization profiles, and commit listings for a branch or reference.

The write surface covers opening issues, commenting on issues or pull requests, changing an issue's open or closed state, adding labels, and placing a review comment on a specific pull request diff line. Pull requests are excluded from the issue-listing result, so agents can handle the two resource types separately.

How it works

Read tools are active by default and can use GitHub's unauthenticated access tier when no token is configured. GitHub limits that tier to 60 requests per hour, with search subject to a 10-requests-per-minute limit. Supplying a token can raise the applicable read limits.

Write tools are disabled unless GITHUB_MCP_ENABLE_WRITE=1 is present. They also require GITHUB_TOKEN; the server checks these conditions independently before making a network request. A disabled write operation returns a structured policy_refusal error, while an enabled operation without a token returns auth_required.

The client reports API, network, malformed-response, and rate-limit failures as typed errors rather than uncaught exceptions. Primary rate limits use GitHub reset information when available, and secondary limits expose retry timing when provided.

Setup and configuration

Install the package with:

pip install jaimenbell-github-mcp

Register the github-mcp executable with an MCP host. A minimal configuration uses the command directly:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github-mcp": {
      "command": "github-mcp"
    }
  }
}

For read-only use, no environment variable is required. To permit mutations, add GITHUB_MCP_ENABLE_WRITE=1 and provide a fine-grained personal access token through GITHUB_TOKEN. The write group remains off unless the environment explicitly enables it.

Tools and capabilities

The github-mcp MCP server provides these read tools:

• get_repo, search_repos, and get_user for repository discovery and public metadata.
• list_issues and get_issue for issue work.
• list_pull_requests and get_pull_request for pull request work.
• get_file_content for repository files; text is base64-decoded, while binary content is identified rather than decoded.
• list_commits for commits on a branch or reference.

Its write tools are create_issue, comment_on_issue, update_issue_state, add_labels, and create_pr_review_comment.

Limitations and notes

The implementation uses GitHub REST API v1 only. It does not provide GraphQL, webhooks, GitHub App authentication, Actions or workflow-dispatch tools. The supported authentication method is a fine-grained personal access token.

List endpoints return one page only. Each endpoint's limit controls page size but does not provide pagination. get_file_content truncates content beyond 100 KB and reports non-UTF-8 files instead of decoding them. Unauthenticated use is therefore subject to GitHub rate limits, especially during sustained or search-heavy workloads.