github-mcp

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that gives Claude direct access to GitHub: repos, files, branches, issues, pull requests, GitHub Actions, and code search, authenticated with a personal access token.

Why this exists

Claude Code has its own GitHub integration built in. Claude chat (the desktop app, claude.ai) doesn't ship with a first party GitHub connector. This server fills that gap for anyone who wants Claude to read and write to their repos outside of Claude Code.

What it can do

• List, search, and get details on repos
• Read and write files, list directories
• Branches: list, create, delete
• Issues: list, get, create, update, comment
• Pull requests: list, get, create, merge
• GitHub Actions: list workflows, list runs, trigger a run
• Search code and issues/PRs across your repositories
• List commits
• Create new repos
• Get info on the authenticated user

Setup

1. Clone this repo and install dependencies:

   git clone https://github.com/JessicaTemplet/github-mcp.git
   cd github-mcp
   npm install
   npm run build
   

2. Create a GitHub personal access token at Settings -> Developer settings -> Personal access tokens. Give it the scopes you actually need (repo for private repo access, workflow if you want it triggering Actions).

3. Add it to your Claude Desktop config. Don't create a claude_desktop_config.json yourself somewhere and expect Claude Desktop to find it, that file has to be the one the app actually reads, and creating a separate one won't work. Instead, open Claude Desktop, go to Settings -> Developer -> Edit Config, and that opens the real config file for you to edit:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "github": {
         "command": "node",
         "args": ["/absolute/path/to/github-mcp/dist/index.js"],
         "env": {
           "GITHUB_TOKEN": "your-token-here"
         }
       }
     }
   }
   

4. Restart Claude Desktop.

Notes

• The token is read from an environment variable at runtime and is never written to disk by this server. Don't commit a token or a .env file to this repo.
• Built against the official @modelcontextprotocol/sdk and @octokit/rest.

License

MIT, see LICENSE.