Microsoft GitHub Advisory MCP Server is an MCP server that queries GitHub Security Advisories from a locally cloned advisory database. It helps coding agents find advisories, list them, and retrieve specific records. The catalogue entries operate this server through its MCP tools.
Borrowing it
Nothing to install: this file belongs to microsoft/github-advisory-mcp. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/github-advisory-mcp/main/AGENTS.mdgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/github-advisory-mcpWrote this? Show the measurements
A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.
[](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/microsoft/github-advisory-mcp/agents-md)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/microsoft/github-advisory-mcp/agents-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/microsoft/github-advisory-mcp/agents-md/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/microsoft/github-advisory-mcp/agents-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/microsoft/github-advisory-mcp/agents-md.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>What it costs to keep this loaded
Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.01159 | $0.01159 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00580 | $0.00580 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00232 | $0.00232 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00116 | $0.00116 |
Grade A, and why
github-advisory-mcp AGENTS.md scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured yesterday.
A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.
Nothing flagged
None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 118 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
AGENTS.md
Guidance for AI coding agents (and humans) working in this repository. Keep changes minimal, typed, and covered by tests. For contribution policy see CONTRIBUTING.md; for user-facing docs see README.md.
What this is
An MCP server that serves GitHub Security Advisories from a local clone of
github/advisory-database. Two-tier design: MCP server (stdio or HTTP) → local
Express REST API → LocalRepositoryDataSource (reads advisory JSON from disk).
Core MCP tools: list_advisories, get_advisory (full parameters in the README).
Prerequisites
- Node.js 20+ (CI runs 20.x and 22.x)
- Git
- The server runs from
dist/— rebuild after every source change.
Build
npm install # or: npm ci (installs from package-lock.json)
npm run build # tsc -> dist/
Bootstrap the advisory database (needed to run/serve)
The server reads advisory JSON from ADVISORY_REPO_PATH (default
./external/advisory-database). Clone it once:
./scripts/setup-advisory-database.sh
# or manually:
git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/github/advisory-database.git external/advisory-database
external/ is git-ignored. If absent, the server also auto-clones on first tool call.
Run
stdio (what .vscode/mcp.json launches — for VS Code / agent use):
ADVISORY_REPO_PATH=./external/advisory-database node dist/index.js
HTTP streaming:
MCP_PORT=18006 ADVISORY_API_PORT=18005 \
ADVISORY_REPO_PATH=./external/advisory-database node dist/http-server.js
# health: http://localhost:18006/health
Test
- Unit (fast, hermetic — start here):
npx vitest run test/unit - E2E (spawns the server; needs the advisory DB):
npm run test:e2e- The first
list_advisoriescold-builds an in-memory index over the whole DB; if it flakes on the default 30s timeout, raise it:npx vitest run test/e2e --testTimeout=120000.
- The first
- Integration (Azure OpenAI):
npm run test:integration— requires Azure credentials; skip unless you're specifically exercising the AI SDK path. npm testruns all suites (including integration). Prefertest/unitfor routine work.
What this file has done since we first saw it
Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.
- yesterday First seen · 118 lines · 1,159 tokens per session scan A fb2e1d6d2466
github-advisory-mcp AGENTS.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository microsoft/github-advisory-mcp (7 stars, last pushed yesterday), licensed MIT. It adds 1,159 tokens to every session, about $0.0058 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-09-15.
Other instructions, from other repositories
vscode buildNext.instructions.md
Working notes and architecture documentation for the new esbuild-based build system in build/next. Use when making changes to the new build pipeline (transpile/bundle commands, NLS plugin, source-map handling, resource copying, or self-hosting watch tasks).
spec-kit AGENTS.md
AGENTS.md instructions for github/spec-kit, covering agents.md, about spec kit and specify, quickstart — add a new integration in 5 steps, integration architecture and integrationmanifest — file tracking.
next.js AGENTS.md
AGENTS.md instructions for vercel/next.js, covering next.js development guide, codebase structure, monorepo overview, core package: packages/next and other important packages.
codex AGENTS.md
AGENTS.md instructions for openai/codex, covering rust/codex-rs, the codex-core crate, code review rules, crate api surface and model visible context.
langchain AGENTS.md
AGENTS.md instructions for langchain-ai/langchain, covering global development guidelines for the langchain monorepo, corridor security analysis, project architecture and context, monorepo structure and development tools & commands.
vscode oss-third-party-notices.instructions.md
Instructions for microsoft/vscode, covering vs code oss third-party-notices pipeline, architecture, pipeline flow in ci, applying the notice (cutover) and fallback chain (never fail the build).