GitHub Issues MCP Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that lets AI assistants like Claude list, search, and inspect issues on any public GitHub repository — in natural language.

Built with Python and the official mcp SDK, using GitHub's public REST API (no auth required for public repos).

Why this exists

MCP is the emerging standard for connecting AI assistants to real data and tools. This server is a small, focused example of that pattern applied to GitHub issue tracking — useful on its own, and a clean reference if you're learning to build MCP servers.

Tools exposed

Tool	Description
list_open_issues(owner, repo, limit)	Lists the most recently updated open issues in a repo
search_issues(owner, repo, query, limit)	Searches issues (open or closed) by keyword
get_issue_details(owner, repo, issue_number)	Gets full details for a single issue

Setup

git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/github-issues-mcp.git
cd github-issues-mcp
pip install -r requirements.txt

Optional — to raise GitHub's rate limit from 60 to 5,000 requests/hour, set a personal access token:

export GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_yourtokenhere

Running standalone (manual test)

python test_server.py

This calls the tool functions directly against the live GitHub API so you can see them work without wiring up a full MCP client.

Using it with Claude Desktop

Add this to your Claude Desktop MCP config (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github-issues": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/github-issues-mcp/server.py"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop, and you'll be able to ask things like:

"List the open issues in facebook/react" "Search torvalds/linux issues for 'memory leak'" "Show me details on issue #500 in python/cpython"

Project structure

github-issues-mcp/
├── server.py          # MCP server + tool definitions
├── test_server.py      # Manual test script (no MCP client needed)
├── requirements.txt
└── README.md

License

MIT