What is github-mcp-server?

A connector that lets a coding agent use GitHub's API through the Model Context Protocol, a standard way for software tools to communicate. It can run locally in Docker or connect to GitHub's hosted service.

Use it to access GitHub repositories, issues, pull requests, and other configured GitHub tools from an agent.

It removes the need to manually look up and pass GitHub data to the agent. Read-only settings can limit access when changes are not wanted.

github-mcp-server — Skill for Claude Code and Codex by github/gh-aw

About the project

GitHub Agentic Workflows is a GitHub CLI extension that lets developers define AI-assisted repository automation in Markdown and run it through GitHub Actions. It is intended for tasks requiring interpretation or reasoning, such as issue triage, pull-request review, CI investigation, documentation maintenance, and dependency analysis. The catalogue entries provide skills and agents for working with these workflows.

github/gh-aw · 5,579 stars · on GitHub · gh.io

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent

npx skills add github/gh-aw --skill github-mcp-server

Clone the repo

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/github/gh-aw

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote 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.

README.md

[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/github/gh-aw/github-mcp-server/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/github/gh-aw/github-mcp-server)

Your own site

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/github/gh-aw/github-mcp-server"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/github/gh-aw/github-mcp-server/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.

Your own site · 80×15

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/github/gh-aw/github-mcp-server"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/github/gh-aw/github-mcp-server.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>

Per session 19 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.

When invoked 4,467 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.

Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe. Third-party audits

NVIDIA SkillSpector warn 7 Sept 2026

SkillSpector: 3 findings, up to high

These are SkillSpector’s own severities. On a checked sample its high-severity flags on skills were ~96% false positives — a documented command, a public API, a “never do X” rule — so we show them as a caution to read, not a verdict. Why →

high Privilege Escalation · line 354
Code accesses credential files (SSH keys, AWS credentials, etc.). This could indicate credential theft attempts.

Fix: Remove references to credential paths. Use environment variables or secrets managers. For docs, use placeholder paths (e.g., /path/to/config). Never load .env or token files in production code paths.
medium Data Exfiltration · line 26
Data is being sent to an external URL. This could be legitimate telemetry or data exfiltration. Manual review is recommended.

Fix: Verify the destination URL is trusted and necessary. Remove or replace with documented APIs. Ensure no secrets, tokens, or PII are transmitted.
low Privilege Escalation · line 347
Skill requests more permissions than appear necessary for its stated functionality. Review if elevated access is justified.

Fix: Request only the minimum permissions required. Document why each permission is needed. Remove broad permissions like '*' or 'all'.

How audits are shown

Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.

Token cost

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	$0.00019	$0.04467
Opus 5.5	$0.00008	$0.01787
Sonnet 5.5	$0.00004	$0.00893
Haiku 4.5	$0.00002	$0.00447

Measured 2mo ago against content hash 2ea8eb46d210, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

github-mcp-server 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 2mo ago.

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.

.github/skills/github-mcp-server/SKILL.md · 414 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 414 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

GitHub MCP Server Documentation

This file documents the GitHub MCP (Model Context Protocol) server, including tools and configuration options.

Note: This file is automatically generated and updated by the github-mcp-tools-report.md workflow. Manual edits may be overwritten.

Last Updated: [To be filled by workflow]

Overview

The GitHub MCP server provides AI agents with programmatic access to GitHub's API through the Model Context Protocol. It supports two modes of operation:

Local Mode (Docker-based)

Runs as a Docker container on the GitHub Actions runner
Uses GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN environment variable for authentication
Configurable toolsets via GITHUB_TOOLSETS environment variable
Supports read-only mode via GITHUB_READ_ONLY environment variable

Remote Mode (Hosted)

Connects to hosted GitHub MCP server at https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/
Uses Bearer token authentication in HTTP headers
Supports read-only mode via X-MCP-Readonly header
No Docker container required

Configuration

Basic Configuration

Local Mode (Docker):

tools:
  github:
    mode: "local"
    toolsets: [default]  # or [repos, issues, pull_requests]

Remote Mode (Hosted):

tools:
  github:
    mode: "remote"
    toolsets: [default]  # or [repos, issues, pull_requests]

Read-Only Mode

To restrict the GitHub MCP server to read-only operations:

tools:
  github:
    mode: "remote"
    read-only: true
    toolsets: [repos, issues]

Custom Authentication

Use a custom GitHub token instead of the default:

tools:
  github:
    mode: "remote"
    github-token: "${{ secrets.CUSTOM_GITHUB_PAT }}"
    toolsets: [repos, issues]

Available Toolsets

The GitHub MCP server organizes tools into logical toolsets. You can enable specific toolsets, use [default] for the recommended defaults, or use [all] to enable everything.

:::note[Why Use Toolsets?] The allowed: pattern for listing individual GitHub tools is not recommended for new workflows. Individual tool names may change between GitHub MCP server versions, but toolsets provide a stable API. Always use toolsets: instead. See Migration from Allowed to Toolsets for guidance on updating existing workflows. :::

Read the full file on GitHub · 414 lines

Changes

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.

2mo ago First seen · 414 lines · 19 tokens per session scan A 2ea8eb46d210

Subscribe to this mod's changes

github-mcp-server is a skill published in the GitHub repository github/gh-aw (5,579 stars, last pushed yesterday), licensed MIT. It adds 19 tokens to every session and 4,467 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5.5. 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 2026-08-30.

Claude Code Git and workflow actions cai ci codex gh-extension

github-mcp-server next to 6 skills from other repositories
Mod	Type	Stars	Last push	Licence	Scan	Tokens	Works with
github-mcp-servergithub/gh-aw	Skill	5.6k	yesterday	MIT	A	19	Claude Code, Codex
watch-prjustincampbell/gh-watch	Skill	4	7d ago	MIT	A	48	Claude Code
watch-tagjustincampbell/gh-watch	Skill	4	7d ago	MIT	A	62	Claude Code
watch-branchjustincampbell/gh-watch	Skill	4	7d ago	MIT	A	45	Claude Code
c-githubdaxaur/openpaw	Skill	177	5mo ago	MIT	A	48	Claude Code, Codex
ci-cdLuuOW/meridian-mcp	Skill	0	24d ago	MIT	C	48	Claude Code, Codex
githubAIOSAI/AIPass	Skill	312	4d ago	MIT	A	23	Claude Code