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Building · For anyone building their own product with an AI. · a tool

Your AI works on your real code, not a copy

The open-source project github-mcp-server, by github

“GitHub's official MCP Server” — the project's own words, on GitHub

What it does
This connects your AI to your actual GitHub account, so it can work from your real repositories instead of a file you copied in. It reads your code, checks open issues and pull requests, and reads what a failed build actually said, so it can answer a plain question like why the last build failed or what changed since last week from the real history, not a guess. It can also open an issue or put together a pull request for a fix — you read the change yourself and decide whether it goes in, the same as any other contributor's work.
Replaces
manually copying files or error logs out of your repo to hand to your AI
For
Someone building their own product with an AI who wants that AI to see and act on the real repository, not a pasted-in copy of it.
Not for
Not for someone without a GitHub account and a token to give it — it needs real GitHub credentials, and it should only ever get the repo access the job actually needs.
Setup
15 min · Claude Code, Kimi, Gemini CLI or Codex · docker, a GitHub personal access token
You ask It works the list Green before it ships > add the sign-up > and the tests BEFORE IT SHIPS it never pushes on its own

Get it running

Paste this into the AI that runs on your computer. It does the install, checks it works, and tells you what to type first. If anything fails, paste the error back to it.

Haven't got one of these running yet? The Kit sets one up on your computer — a guided install your assistant does for you, and five workflows to start with. 12 min to read, 15 min to set up

Paste into Claude Code
Install github-mcp-server (https://github.com/github/github-mcp-server) on this computer and get it working for me. I am not a developer; explain each step in one line as you go and never skip one. You are Claude Code, running on my machine.

1. Check what this machine already has (git, Python or Node as the project needs, Docker if the README says so). Tell me anything missing and install it, asking me before anything that needs my password.
2. Run it from its published image with `docker run -i --rm -e GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN=<token> ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server` — pull the image rather than cloning the repo.
3. Configure it. If it needs an API key or a login, stop and ask me for it; never guess one and never store it anywhere except where the README says.
   Tool-specific notes: Run it as `docker run -i --rm -e GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN=<token> ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server` — that token is the only thing it needs to authenticate.
Generate a personal access token scoped to at least `repo`, `read:packages` and `read:org`, and start it with `--read-only` set until the reader has watched it work safely for a while.
Use `GITHUB_TOOLSETS` to turn on only the toolsets the job needs (e.g. `repos,issues,pull_requests`) — fewer toolsets means it picks the right tool more reliably.
Smoke-test it by asking "show me the repositories I have access to" and checking the list is real.
4. Run the smallest test the README gives, and show me the output.
5. When it works, tell me what to type first, in one line, for this job: Ask what changed.
If anything fails, show me the exact error and fix it before going on.

What to point it at first

1

Ask what changed

Point it at a repo and ask what changed since last week or why the last build failed — it reads the real commit history and check runs instead of guessing.

2

Triage open issues

Ask it to summarise the open issues on a repo and group the duplicates — a fast first read before you decide what to work on next.

3

Draft a pull request for review

Have it put together a small fix as a draft pull request, then read the diff yourself before you approve anything — it proposes, you decide.

What it must never do unattended

  • Never let it push to production or change a public interface on its own.
  • It drafts. It never posts.

Who made it

github/github-mcp-server on GitHub, under the MIT licence. 32,814 stars, checked 9 September 2026. Last change 8 September 2026. We did not write it; we checked it, and wrote this page so you can use it.

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