NPM Publisher MCP Server

🚀 Automate NPM package publishing with GitHub Copilot CLI

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that streamlines NPM package publishing workflows by integrating version management, Git operations, and NPM publishing into GitHub Copilot CLI.

Features

• 🔍 Package Validation - Comprehensive checks for package.json and prerequisites
• 📦 Version Management - Automated version bumping (semantic versioning)
• 🏷️ Git Integration - Automatic tagging, committing, and pushing
• 🚀 NPM Publishing - One-command publishing with safety checks
• 🔄 Complete Workflow - End-to-end automation from version bump to publish
• 🤖 Copilot Integration - Natural language commands via GitHub Copilot CLI
• 💻 Standalone CLI - Use without Copilot for manual operations

Quick Start

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/GiDanis/copilot-npm-publisher.git
cd copilot-npm-publisher

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run setup wizard
npm run setup

Usage with GitHub Copilot CLI

Once configured, use natural language commands:

gh copilot chat

# Then ask:
"Check if my package is ready to publish"
"Bump the version to a minor release"
"Publish my package to NPM"
"Run the complete publish workflow with a patch version"

Standalone CLI Usage

# Validate package
npm-publisher validate

# Bump version
npm-publisher bump patch

# Publish to NPM
npm-publisher publish --access public

# Complete workflow
npm-publisher workflow minor

# Check status
npm-publisher status

MCP Tools

The server provides these tools to GitHub Copilot:

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | npm_validate | Validate package.json and check prerequisites | | npm_login_status | Check NPM authentication status | | npm_version_bump | Bump package version (patch/minor/major) | | npm_check_published | Check if version exists on NPM | | npm_publish | Publish package to NPM registry | | git_status | Check Git repository status | | git_create_tag | Create Git tags for releases | | git_commit_and_push | Commit and push changes | | publish_workflow | Complete automated workflow |

Documentation

• 📖 Installation Guide
• 🎯 Usage Guide
• 🔧 API Reference
• 🔒 Security
• 🤝 Contributing

Requirements

• Node.js: >= 16.0.0
• NPM Account: With publishing permissions
• Git: Installed and configured
• GitHub Copilot CLI: (Optional) For natural language interface

Configuration

NPM Authentication

# Login to NPM
npm login

# Or set NPM_TOKEN environment variable
export NPM_TOKEN="your_npm_token_here"

GitHub Copilot Integration

The setup wizard automatically configures Copilot CLI, or manually add to ~/.config/github-copilot/apps.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "npm-publisher": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/copilot-npm-publisher/src/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "NPM_TOKEN": "optional_token_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Examples

Complete Publishing Workflow

# Using CLI
npm-publisher workflow patch

# Using Copilot
gh copilot chat
> "Run a complete publish workflow with a patch version bump"

This will:

1. ✅ Check for uncommitted changes
2. 📦 Bump version (1.0.0 → 1.0.1)
3. 💾 Commit changes to Git
4. 🏷️ Create version tag (v1.0.1)
5. ⬆️ Push to remote repository
6. 🚀 Publish to NPM

Publish Beta Version

# Bump to prerelease
npm-publisher bump prepatch --preid beta

# Publish with beta tag
npm-publisher publish --tag beta --access public

Dry Run

Test without making changes:

npm-publisher publish --dry-run

Workflow Examples

Standard Release

# 1. Validate
npm-publisher validate

# 2. Run workflow
npm-publisher workflow patch

# Package is now published! 🎉

Prerelease

npm version prepatch --preid alpha --no-git-tag-version
git add package.json
git commit -m "chore: bump to alpha"
git push
npm publish --tag alpha

Project Structure

copilot-npm-publisher/
├── src/
│   ├── index.js          # MCP server implementation
│   └── cli.js            # Standalone CLI
├── setup/
│   └── config-wizard.js  # Interactive setup
├── docs/
│   ├── installation.md   # Installation guide
│   ├── usage.md          # Usage guide
│   └── api.md            # API reference
├── .github/
│   └── workflows/
│       ├── ci.yml        # CI pipeline
│       └── publish.yml   # Auto-publish on tags
├── package.json
├── README.md
├── LICENSE
├── SECURITY.md
└── CONTRIBUTING.md

Troubleshooting

Not logged in to NPM

npm login
# Or set NPM_TOKEN environment variable

Working directory has uncommitted changes

git status
git add .
git commit -m "Your changes"
# Or use git stash

Version already published

Bump the version first:

npm-publisher bump patch

Git remote not configured

git remote add origin https://github.com/username/repo.git

Security

• Never commit .npmrc files containing authentication tokens
• Use environment variables for sensitive data
• Review changes before publishing
• Use --dry-run to test without publishing

See SECURITY.md for more details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

MIT © Giuseppe Danise

See LICENSE for details.

Links

• GitHub: https://github.com/GiDanis/copilot-npm-publisher
• NPM: (Coming soon)
• Issues: https://github.com/GiDanis/copilot-npm-publisher/issues
• MCP Specification: https://modelcontextprotocol.io/

Support

• 📧 Report issues: GitHub Issues
• 💬 Discussions: GitHub Discussions
• 📖 Documentation: docs/

Made with ❤️ by Giuseppe Danise