GitHub MCP server

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.

Installation

Prerequisites

• TypeScript
• Octokit library
• Model Context Protocol SDK

Setup Instructions

1. Clone the repository to your local machine

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install
   

3. 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
   

4. Build the TypeScript files:

   npx tsc
   

5. Run the server:

   node build/index.js
   

Testing Options

Using MCP Inspector

1. Start the inspector with:

   npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node build/index.js
   

2. Open your browser and navigate to:

   http://localhost:5173
   

3. The MCP inspector interface will load, allowing you to test your server.

Using Claude Desktop

1. Download and install Claude Desktop from claude.ai/download

2. Configure Claude to use your MCP server:

   • Go to File > Settings... > Developer > Edit Config
   • This will open the location of the claude_desktop_config.json file
   • Edit the file to add your MCP server configuration:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "gh": {
         "command": "node",
         "args": ["absolute\\path\\to\\your\\index.js\\file"],
         "env": {
           "GITHUB_TOKEN": "your-github-personal-access-token"
         }
       }
     }
   }
   

3. Save the file and restart Claude Desktop

Available Functionalities

Tools

The server provides four GitHub-related tools:

• create-issue: Create a new issue in a GitHub repository
• get-repo-info: Retrieve information about a specific GitHub repository
• list-issues: List issues in a GitHub repository
• search-repos: Search for GitHub repositories

Prompts

Five specialized prompts are available:

• create-issue-description: Generate a description for a GitHub issue
• create-pull-request-description: Generate a description for a GitHub pull request
• search-repos-prompt: Generate a query for searching GitHub repositories
• create-issue-prompt: Generate parameters for creating a GitHub issue
• enhance-github-response: Format and enhance raw GitHub API response data

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.

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 "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.

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": {
        "gh": {
            "command": "node",
            "args": [
                "build/index.js"
            ],
            "env": {
                "GITHUB_TOKEN": "your-github-personal-access-token"
            }
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "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