git-mcp

A Git MCP server that doesn't suck

Exposes the full Git workflow to any MCP-compatible AI agent — inspect, write, branch, remote, stash, rebase, LFS, git-flow, documentation lookup, and more. Designed to be safe by default, composable, and fast. Powered by simple-git.

Built for coding agents in tools like GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Cursor, and OpenAI Codex, while remaining compatible with any MCP client that can call tools and resources.

Features

• 18 tools with 80+ actions covering everyday Git workflows, advanced recovery, history rewriting, repository analytics, forge pull requests, and external VCS awareness
• Safety-first — destructive operations require explicit confirmation; force push and hook bypass are opt-in via server config
• GPG/SSH signing for commits and tags, with server-level auto-sign support
• Git LFS — track patterns, manage objects, install hooks, migrate history
• Git Flow — git-flow-next-style workflow support with preset init, overview, config CRUD, generalized topic actions, finish recovery, optional hook/filter parity, and classic feature/release/hotfix/support aliases, without requiring the external CLI
• Documentation lookup — search git-scm.com and fetch man pages directly from the LLM
• MCP Resources — URI-addressable read-only views of status, log, branches, and diff
• Bundled agent skill — skills/git-mcp-workflow/ documents MCP-first Git workflows, recovery, worktrees, releases, and advanced operations for AI agents and coding agents; installable via skills-npm and skill.sh
• External VCS awareness — git_but_check / git_jj_check detect GitButler and Jujutsu and guide agents to prefer their native CLIs/MCP (with but teardown guidance) over git-mcp tools when appropriate
• History rewrite — git_rewrite: reword, squash, rewrite-messages, and backup/restore for safe commit-history rewriting
• Repository analytics — git_analytics: contributors, churn, activity, summary, and file-stats computed from local git history
• Pull requests — git_pr: create/list/merge PRs/MRs on GitHub, GitLab, Forgejo, Gitea, and Bitbucket via provider CLI or REST API
• Tangled & Entire awareness — git_tangled_check / git_entire_check detect Tangled hosting and Entire session/context management
• Multi-repo — pass repo_path per-call or configure a server-level default
• Cross-platform — macOS, Linux, Windows (Git for Windows)

Quick Start

npx (no install)

npx @selfagency/git-mcp --repo-path /path/to/your/repo

Install globally

npm install -g @selfagency/git-mcp
git-mcp --repo-path /path/to/your/repo

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "git": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@selfagency/git-mcp", "--repo-path", "/path/to/your/repo"]
    }
  }
}

VS Code (Copilot)

Add to .vscode/mcp.json in your project:

{
  "servers": {
    "git": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@selfagency/git-mcp", "--repo-path", "${workspaceFolder}"]
    }
  }
}

Configuration

All configuration is via environment variables. Pass them in your MCP client config:

| Variable | Default | Description | | ----------------------- | -------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | | GIT_REPO_PATH | — | Default repository path (also: --repo-path CLI arg) | | GIT_ALLOW_NO_VERIFY | false | Allow --no-verify on commit/push (bypasses hooks) | | GIT_ALLOW_FORCE_PUSH | false | Allow --force on push | | GIT_ALLOW_FLOW_HOOKS | false | Allow git_flow hooks and filters to execute | | GIT_AUTO_SIGN_COMMITS | false | Automatically sign every commit | | GIT_AUTO_SIGN_TAGS | false | Automatically sign every tag | | GIT_SIGNING_KEY | — | Default GPG key ID or SSH key path | | GIT_SIGNING_FORMAT | — | Signing format: openpgp, ssh, or x509 | | GIT_ALLOW_BUT | false | Enable GitButler awareness (git_but_check) | | GIT_ALLOW_JJ | false | Enable Jujutsu awareness (git_jj_check) | | GIT_ALLOW_TANGLED | false | Enable Tangled awareness (git_tangled_check) | | GIT_ALLOW_ENTIRE | false | Enable Entire awareness (git_entire_check) | | BUT_BINARY | but | Override the but executable path | | JJ_BINARY | jj | Override the jj executable path | | ENTIRE_BINARY | entire | Override the entire executable path | | GITHUB_TOKEN | — | GitHub token for git_pr REST fallback | | GITLAB_TOKEN | — | GitLab token for git_pr REST fallback | | FORGEJO_TOKEN | — | Forgejo/Gitea token for git_pr REST fallback | | BITBUCKET_TOKEN | — | Bitbucket token for git_pr REST fallback | | GIT_FORGE_PROVIDER | — | Explicit forge provider for self-hosted instances |

Tool Reference

Tools are grouped by domain. Each root tool takes an action parameter that selects the operation. Where an action is marked as default, omitting action will use it.

Context (git_context)

| Action | Description | | ------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | summary | (default) Full repo snapshot: branch, upstream, pending changes, in-progress operations | | search | Search commit history and working tree content | | get_config | Read a Git config value | | set_config | Write a Git config value | | aliases | List all configured git aliases |

Status (git_status)

| Action | Description | | ----------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | status | (default) Working tree and branch status | | diff | Unstaged, staged, or ref-to-ref diff | | diff_main | Changes from branch divergence point vs main (or configurable base branch) |

History (git_history)

| Action | Description | | -------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | log | (default) Commit log with filtering, pagination, revision ranges, and pathspecs | | show | Inspect a single commit | | blame | Line-by-line attribution for a file | | reflog | Full reflog — the recovery ledger | | lg | Compact graph log (--oneline --graph --decorate --all) | | who | Contributor shortlog (supports optional file_path) |

Commits (git_commits)

| Action | Description | | --------- | ------------------------------------------------------- | | add | Stage files or hunks | | restore | Discard working tree changes | | unstage | Remove files from the staging area | | commit | Create a commit with message, signing, and author flags | | amend | Amend the last commit without editing the message | | wip | Stage all changes and commit with message WIP | | revert | Create a revert commit for a given ref | | undo | Soft-reset the last commit (reset --soft HEAD~1) | | reset | Reset HEAD with configurable mode (soft/mixed/hard) | | nuke | Hard-reset the last commit — requires confirm=true |

Branches (git_branches)

| Action | Description | | -------------- | ------------------------------------------- | | list | (default) Local and remote branch listing | | create | Create a branch | | delete | Delete a branch | | rename | Rename a branch | | checkout | Switch to a branch or ref | | set_upstream | Set or update tracking upstream | | recent | Recent branches sorted by committer date |

Remotes (git_remotes)

| Action | Description | | -------- | ---------------------------------------------- | | list | (default) List configured remotes | | manage | Add, remove, or rename a remote | | fetch | Fetch from a remote | | pull | Pull (fetch + merge/rebase) | | push | Push to a remote; force_with_lease supported |

Workspace (git_workspace)

| Action | Description | | ------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- | | stash | Stash and pop/apply/drop/list/show stash entries | | stash_all | Stash tracked and untracked changes in one operation | | rebase | Start, continue, abort, or skip a rebase | | cherry_pick | Apply one or more commits; supports continue/abort/skip | | merge | Merge branches with full flag control | | bisect | Binary search for a regression (start, good, bad, reset, log) | | tag | Create, list, delete, or push tags; supports GPG/SSH signing | | worktree | Add, list, remove, or prune linked worktrees | | submodule | Add, update, sync, init, deinit, and list submodules |

Git Flow (git_flow)

Preset git-flow-next workflow without requiring the external CLI.

| Operation | Description | | ---------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- | | init | Initialize a repository with git-flow branch conventions | | overview | Show the current flow state and active branches | | config | Read or write git-flow configuration values | | topic | Generalized topic branch action (start, finish, publish, track) | | control | Flow control: resume interrupted finish, abort, or recover |

LFS (git_lfs)

| Action | Description | | ---------------- | ------------------------------------------ | | track | Add a tracking pattern to .gitattributes | | untrack | Remove a tracking pattern | | ls-files | List tracked LFS files | | status | Show LFS status | | pull | Pull LFS objects | | push | Push LFS objects | | install | Install LFS hooks in the repository | | migrate-import | Migrate existing history to LFS | | migrate-export | Migrate LFS history back to plain objects |

Documentation (git_docs)

| Action | Description | | -------- | ------------------------------------ | | search | Search git-scm.com for documentation | | man | Fetch and return a Git man page |

History Rewrite (git_rewrite)

| Action | Description | | ------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | reword | Change one commit's message (HEAD amends in place; arbitrary via filter-branch) | | squash | Combine the last N commits into one (requires confirm=true) | | rewrite-messages | Rewrite messages across a range via a SHA→message map (requires confirm=true) | | backup | Create a rewrite-backup/<name> branch before rewriting | | restore | Hard-reset to a backup branch (requires confirm=true) |

Analytics (git_analytics)

| Action | Description | | -------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | contributors | Per-author commits, +/- lines, first/last activity | | churn | File hotspots (most commits / most lines changed) | | activity | Commit frequency per day | | summary | Branch/tag counts, total commits, top contributors, oldest/newest commit | | file-stats | File-type breakdown, largest files, recently modified |

Pull Requests (git_pr)

| Action | Description | | -------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | create | Create a PR/MR on the detected forge (GitHub, GitLab, Forgejo, Gitea, Bitbucket) | | list | List PRs/MRs (state filter) | | merge | Merge a PR/MR (method: merge/squash/rebase) |

Uses the provider CLI (gh/glab/tea) when installed locally, otherwise the REST API with a *_TOKEN env var. Provider auto-detected from the origin remote; self-hosted instances use GIT_FORGE_PROVIDER.

External VCS Awareness

| Tool | Description | | ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | git_but_check | Detect GitButler but CLI; prefer but mcp/but, run but teardown before git-mcp tools | | git_jj_check | Detect Jujutsu jj CLI and .jj/ management; prefer jj CLI for jj-managed repos | | git_tangled_check | Detect Tangled hosting; git transport works, PRs via web UI | | git_entire_check | Detect Entire CLI and .entire/ management; use entire for session/context queries |

Health Check (git_ping)

Returns server status. Useful for confirming the server is reachable.

MCP Resources

URI-addressable read-only snapshots (subscribe-capable):

| Resource URI | Content | | --------------------------------- | ----------------------------- | | git+repo://status/{repo_path} | Working tree status (JSON) | | git+repo://log/{repo_path} | Recent commit log (JSON) | | git+repo://branches/{repo_path} | Branch list (JSON) | | git+repo://diff/{repo_path} | Unstaged + staged diff (JSON) |

Bundled Agent Skill

git-mcp ships a bundled agent skill at skills/git-mcp-workflow/ that teaches any skills-npm-compatible agent to use the MCP tool surface instead of running raw git CLI commands. The skill covers:

• Why LLMs must not use the Git CLI (quoting hazards, silent failures)
• Inspect-before-mutate workflow rules
• Safety order for undo and recovery operations
• Full registered tool surface with action reference
• Workflow playbooks: feature branch, rebase, recovery, worktree, backport, release tagging, Git Flow, merge
• Git concept explanations anchored to MCP tools

Installing the skill

If your agent supports skills-npm:

npm install @selfagency/git-mcp   # or pnpm/yarn
npx skills-npm

Or add to your project's package.json so it runs automatically:

{
  "scripts": {
    "prepare": "skills-npm"
  }
}

Then add to .gitignore:

skills/npm-*

Safety

• All mutating tools have destructiveHint: true in their MCP annotations
• git_commits action=reset mode=hard requires confirm=true
• git_commits action=nuke requires confirm=true
• Force push (--force) is disabled unless GIT_ALLOW_FORCE_PUSH=true; force_with_lease is always available
• Hook bypass (--no-verify) is disabled unless GIT_ALLOW_NO_VERIFY=true
• git_flow hook and filter execution is disabled unless GIT_ALLOW_FLOW_HOOKS=true
• Paths are validated against the repository root — traversal attempts are rejected
• Credentials and tokens are never included in responses

Development

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/selfagency/git-mcp.git
cd git-mcp
pnpm install

# Run in development mode (hot reload)
pnpm dev

# Build
pnpm build

# Run tests
pnpm test

# Type check
pnpm typecheck

# Lint
pnpm lint

# Docs (dev server)
pnpm docs:dev

# Docs (build)
pnpm docs:build

License

MIT © Daniel Sieradski