GitHub CLI MCP Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that exposes GitHub operations through the GitHub CLI (gh). It runs as an STDIO-based server, allowing AI assistants to manage repositories, pull requests, issues, releases, workflows, and more via your existing gh authentication.

Requirements

• Node.js 18 or later
• GitHub CLI (gh) installed and authenticated

Install GitHub CLI

• macOS: brew install gh
• Windows: winget install GitHub.cli or download
• Linux: See gh installation docs

Then authenticate:

gh auth login

Installation

From source

Clone this repository and install dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/github-stdio-mcp.git
cd github-stdio-mcp
npm install
npm run build

Global install (optional)

npm install -g .

Configuration

Cursor / Claude Desktop

Add to your MCP configuration (e.g. Cursor's ~/.cursor/mcp.json or Claude's claude_desktop_config.json):

Using local path:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/github-stdio-mcp/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

VS Code

Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P) and run MCP: Open User Configuration, then add:

{
  "servers": {
    "github": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/github-stdio-mcp/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Replace /path/to/github-stdio-mcp with the actual path to this project.

Note: This package is not yet published to npm. Use the local path configuration above.

Available Tools

| Category | Tools | |-----------|-------| | Auth | gh_auth_status | | Repo | gh_repo_list, gh_repo_view, gh_repo_create, gh_repo_clone, gh_repo_fork | | PRs | gh_pr_list, gh_pr_view, gh_pr_diff, gh_pr_create, gh_pr_merge, gh_pr_comment, gh_pr_review, gh_pr_checks, gh_pr_close | | Issues | gh_issue_list, gh_issue_view, gh_issue_create, gh_issue_comment, gh_issue_close, gh_issue_reopen, gh_issue_edit | | Releases | gh_release_list, gh_release_view, gh_release_create | | Workflows | gh_workflow_list, gh_workflow_run, gh_run_list, gh_run_view, gh_run_cancel, gh_run_rerun | | Search | gh_search_repos, gh_search_issues, gh_search_prs | | Gists | gh_gist_list, gh_gist_view, gh_gist_create | | Labels | gh_label_list | | API | gh_api (REST + GraphQL passthrough) |

Each tool maps directly to gh subcommands. For repo-specific tools, omit repo when run from inside a Git repository to use the current repo. Many tools support json: true to return raw JSON.

Development

npm install
npm run dev     # Run with tsx (no build)
npm run build   # Compile TypeScript to dist/
npm run start   # Run compiled output

Debugging

Use the MCP Inspector to inspect the server:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node dist/index.js

Or with the dev script:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector npm run dev

License

MIT