Stack Score

Editorial pickMCP server

GitHub MCP

GitHub repos, issues, PRs through Claude.

Try GitHub MCP

Best for

Engineers who want to drive PRs, issues, and code search through Claude instead of switching to the GitHub UI.

At a glance

Pricing: free
Setup time: 15 minutes
Learning curve: medium
Last verified: 5/26/2026

What we love

✓Official GitHub-maintained server — kept current with API
✓Lets Claude do PR review without leaving the chat
✓Permissions inherit from your token — easy to scope down

Where it falls short

−Rate limits apply to your token, not the MCP
−Some advanced GitHub APIs not yet exposed
−Authentication setup confuses first-time MCP users

Install & connect

Copy-paste ready

Install

shell

docker run -i --rm -e GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server

Config — Claude Desktop

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "-e", "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN", "ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "ghp_your_token_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Config — Cursor

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "-e", "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN", "ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "ghp_your_token_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Config — Claude Code

shell

claude mcp add-json github '{"type":"http","url":"https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp","headers":{"Authorization":"Bearer ghp_your_token_here"}}'

Pricing

✓ Pricing verified Jun 21, 2026

1 tier

Open source

MIT license

✓Self-hosted via Docker or remote
✓Free forever
✓GitHub-maintained

Why we picked it

Used heavily on day-to-day development work. Beats the GitHub web UI for anything multi-file.
— MoreAI.tools editor

Overview

Official GitHub MCP — read repos, search code, manage issues + PRs, run actions. Lets Claude operate inside your GitHub workflow.

Key features

●List repos, branches, commits, and pull requests
●Read and write issues with comments and labels
●Search code across repos with GitHub's code search
●Create, review, and merge pull requests from chat
●Manage GitHub Actions runs and inspect logs
●Scoped to your GitHub App or personal access token permissions

Exposed tools

The MCP-tool names this server exposes. Your agent can invoke any of these when this server is connected.

list_repositories
List repos in an org or for a user, with pagination.
get_file_contents
Read a file at a path/ref from any repo you have access to.
search_code
Search code across repos using GitHub's code-search syntax.
create_or_update_file
Commit a file change to a branch (single-file write).
list_issues
List issues for a repo with state, labels, assignee filters.
get_issue
Fetch a single issue with comments.
create_issue
Open a new issue with title, body, labels, assignees.
list_pull_requests
List PRs for a repo, filter by state/head/base.
create_pull_request
Open a PR from a head branch into base, with title and body.
get_pull_request
Fetch PR metadata, diffs, and review state.
merge_pull_request
Merge a PR using merge/squash/rebase strategy.
list_branches
List branches in a repo.
list_workflow_runs
List GitHub Actions workflow runs for a repo.
get_workflow_run_logs
Fetch logs from a workflow run for debugging.

Best use cases

PR triage from chat

Ask Claude to list open PRs, summarize diffs, and post review comments without opening GitHub.

Cross-repo issue search

Hunt down related issues, dupes, or feature requests across an entire org.

Release prep

Generate changelogs and release notes from merged PRs since the last tag.

Integrations

Claude Desktop

Claude Code

Cursor

VS Code

GitHub Enterprise

GitHub.com

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