What It Is
The GitHub MCP server is GitHub's official Model Context Protocol server, launched in April 2025. It gives any MCP compatible AI tool (Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, JetBrains, Xcode, custom agents) direct access to the GitHub platform through natural language. Instead of manually navigating the web UI or writing API calls, you tell your AI agent what you need and it handles the GitHub operations.
How to Connect
The recommended approach is the remote HTTP server, which requires no local installation:
{
"servers": {
"github": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/"
}
}
}Authentication is handled via OAuth (browser popup) or a Personal Access Token. A local Go binary is also available for air gapped environments.
Available Toolsets (20 categories, 90+ tools)
The MCP server organizes its tools into toolsets that can be enabled individually:
- repos (default): Browse files, commits, trees, create/fork repos, manage branches, tags, releases, search code
- issues (default): Create, update, search, comment on issues, manage sub issues and labels
- pull_requests (default): Create, review, merge PRs, view diffs, add review comments, update branches
- actions: Manage workflows, trigger runs, view job logs, download artifacts
- code_security: List and manage CodeQL scanning alerts
- dependabot: View and manage dependency vulnerability alerts
- secret_protection: Detect and manage leaked credentials
- discussions: Read and interact with GitHub Discussions
- projects: Manage GitHub Projects boards, items, fields, and status updates
- notifications: View and dismiss notification inbox
- copilot: Trigger the Copilot Coding Agent for autonomous development (remote only)
Use 'all' to enable every toolset, or selectively add toolsets like 'default,actions,code_security' for specific needs.
Example Workflows
With the MCP server connected, you can tell your AI agent things like:
- "Create a new issue for the login bug we discussed, assign it to me, and add the 'high priority' label"
- "Review the open PRs in our repo, summarize the changes, and approve the ones that look good"
- "Check the latest Actions run for the main branch and tell me why it failed"
- "Find all Dependabot alerts in our org's repos and create a summary"
- "Create a new branch, push a fix, and open a PR with a description"