GitHub Repository MCP server

This MCP server allows AI models to access and use GitHub repository contents as context during interactions. It can fetch entire repositories, specific files, or repository structures, with options to filter by file extension and exclude specific paths.

Installation

To get started with the GitHub Repository MCP server:

# clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/shanksxz/github-mcp.git
cd github-mcp

# install dependencies
npm install

# build the project
npm run build

Configuration

Setting up GitHub Authentication

While the server works with public repositories without authentication, GitHub API has strict rate limits for unauthenticated requests (60 requests/hour). To increase this limit to 5000 requests/hour:

# create a file called gh.sh and add the following line:
export GITHUB_TOKEN=your_github_personal_access_token
# make the file executable
chmod +x gh.sh
# run the file
./gh.sh

You can create a personal access token in your GitHub Developer Settings.

Integration with Cursor

To use this server with Cursor:

1. Open Cursor Settings
2. Search for "MCP"
3. Click on "Add a new MCP Server"
4. Enter the following information:
   • Name: github-repo-context (or any name you prefer)
   • Type: Command
   • Command: /path/to/your-local-repo-setup/gh.sh
5. Click "Save"
6. Enable the server by clicking the toggle next to the server name

Available Tools

The server provides three main tools for accessing GitHub repository content:

get-repo-context

Gets all files from a GitHub repository to use as context.

Parameters:

• owner: GitHub repository owner/organization name
• repo: GitHub repository name
• maxFiles (optional): Maximum number of files to include (default: 50)
• fileExtensions (optional): File extensions to include (e.g., ['js', 'ts', 'md'])
• excludePaths (optional): Paths to exclude (default: ['node_modules', 'dist', 'build'])

get-file-content

Gets content of a specific file from a GitHub repository.

Parameters:

• owner: GitHub repository owner/organization name
• repo: GitHub repository name
• path: Path to the file in the repository

get-repo-structure

Gets the structure of a GitHub repository.

Parameters:

• owner: GitHub repository owner/organization name
• repo: GitHub repository name

Usage Example

When integrated with an AI model that supports MCP, you can use commands like:

"Get the structure of the repository tensorflow/tensorflow"

The AI will then use the get-repo-structure tool to fetch and display the repository structure.

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "github-repo-context" '{"command":"/path/to/your-local-repo-setup/gh.sh","args":[]}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "github-repo-context": {
            "command": "/path/to/your-local-repo-setup/gh.sh",
            "args": []
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "github-repo-context": {
            "command": "/path/to/your-local-repo-setup/gh.sh",
            "args": []
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect