This MCP server enables seamless communication between MCP-compatible LLMs (like Claude) and the GitHub API, allowing AI assistants to help you manage GitHub repositories, issues, and perform searches without leaving your chat interface.
Clone the repository to your local machine
Install dependencies:
npm install
Create a .env
file in the root directory based on the example provided:
# Copy from .env.example and add your GitHub token
GITHUB_TOKEN=your-github-personal-access-token
Build the TypeScript files:
npx tsc
Run the server:
node build/index.js
Start the inspector with:
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node build/index.js
Open your browser and navigate to:
http://localhost:5173
The MCP inspector interface will load, allowing you to test your server.
Download and install Claude Desktop from claude.ai/download
Configure Claude to use your MCP server:
claude_desktop_config.json
file{
"mcpServers": {
"gh": {
"command": "node",
"args": ["absolute\\path\\to\\your\\index.js\\file"],
"env": {
"GITHUB_TOKEN": "your-github-personal-access-token"
}
}
}
}
Save the file and restart Claude Desktop
The server provides four GitHub-related tools:
Five specialized prompts are available:
Tip: In Claude Desktop, you can select a suitable prompt from the dropdown in the "Choose an integration" option or write your own custom prompts.
To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:
claude mcp add-json "gh" '{"command":"node","args":["build/index.js"],"env":{"GITHUB_TOKEN":"your-github-personal-access-token"}}'
See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.
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.
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": {
"gh": {
"command": "node",
"args": [
"build/index.js"
],
"env": {
"GITHUB_TOKEN": "your-github-personal-access-token"
}
}
}
}
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.
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.
To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:
1. Find your configuration file:
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
2. Add this to your configuration file:
{
"mcpServers": {
"gh": {
"command": "node",
"args": [
"build/index.js"
],
"env": {
"GITHUB_TOKEN": "your-github-personal-access-token"
}
}
}
}
3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect