github-mcp

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Self-hosted GitHub MCP server. Personal-access-token auth, stdio transport, transport-agnostic so it works with Claude Code (any account), Codex CLI, Cursor, or any MCP-compliant client. No claude.ai OAuth dependency.

Written in Python on top of FastMCP. Slots into the same install pattern as other community Python MCP servers.

Why this exists

The official github/github-mcp-server (Go, 60+ tools) is excellent if you want a kitchen-sink server tied to a single agent platform's auth flow. This one is scoped for operators who:

• Switch between multiple Claude accounts, Codex CLI, Cursor, or other MCP clients and want the same GitHub auth across all of them.
• Prefer a small, audited tool surface scoped to PR + repo file + Dependabot operations.
• Want a Python install that lives alongside their other MCP servers.

If neither applies, run github/github-mcp-server instead — that's the right call.

Tool surface (v0.1.0)

Future versions expand: workflows, releases, issues, rulesets, secret-scan alerts, branch protection, repo settings.

Secret hygiene (read this first)

v0.1.1+ reads the PAT from macOS Keychain by default. Env-var fallback is still supported for non-macOS / CI, but the Keychain path is the recommended setup because the secret never enters argv or process env — safe from ps aux, pgrep -fl, lsof, /proc/<pid>/environ, panic dumps, CI logs, debuggers, or any LLM agent running an introspection command.

# One-time setup (macOS):
security add-generic-password -s github-mcp -a "$USER" -w "<your-fine-grained-PAT>"

# Update later (e.g. after rotation):
security delete-generic-password -s github-mcp -a "$USER" 2>/dev/null
security add-generic-password -s github-mcp -a "$USER" -w "<new-PAT>"

Do NOT install with an inline --env:

# BAD — bakes the PAT into ~/.claude.json + every Claude child spawn's --mcp-config argv.
# Any pgrep / ps aux dumps it.
claude mcp add github --scope user --env GITHUB_TOKEN=github_pat_... -- <command>

# GOOD — no --env block. The server reads from Keychain at call time.
claude mcp add github --scope user -- <command>

PR/incident lineage: this hygiene path was added 2026-05-19 after a pgrep -fl chrome-devtools-mcp dumped a PAT-bearing claude process into a session transcript. See [adelaidasofia/github-mcp Keychain migration]() (TODO: link PR once merged).

For non-macOS environments, fall back to env:

export GITHUB_TOKEN=<your-PAT>   # set in shell rc, NOT in argv

Minimum scopes for the v0.1 tool surface: Contents R/W, Pull requests R/W, Dependabot R.

Install

Open Claude Code, paste:

/plugin marketplace add adelaidasofia/github-mcp /plugin install github-mcp@github-mcp

<details><summary>Legacy install</summary>

git clone https://github.com/adelaidasofia/github-mcp ~/.claude/github-mcp
cd ~/.claude/github-mcp
uv tool install --editable .

Or as a one-off without persistent install:

cd ~/.claude/github-mcp
uv run github-mcp

</details>

Auth

The server reads the GitHub PAT from environment, in this precedence:

1. GITHUB_TOKEN
2. GH_TOKEN

Fine-grained tokens recommended.

Scope matrix

v0.1 floor: Metadata + Contents (R/W) + Pull requests (R/W) + Dependabot alerts (R) is enough to use every tool in this release.

Future-proof: granting the full table now means new MCP tools can ship without rotating the PAT. Equivalent to checking "all repository permissions" in the fine-grained PAT UI. Trade-off: broader blast radius if the token leaks. Reasonable for a personal-dev token on an encrypted laptop with FileVault; reconsider for shared or production deployments.

The MCP introspects scopes via health_check — call it after wiring up to confirm what your token actually has.

Optional: GITHUB_API_BASE for GitHub Enterprise Server. Defaults to https://api.github.com.

Wire into an MCP client

Claude Code

Add to ~/.claude/.mcp.json (or any .mcp.json in the project root):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "--project", "/Users/<you>/.claude/github-mcp", "github-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_TOKEN": "${GITHUB_TOKEN}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Codex CLI

Add to ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.github]
command = "uv"
args = ["run", "--project", "/Users/<you>/.claude/github-mcp", "github-mcp"]

[mcp_servers.github.env]
GITHUB_TOKEN = "${GITHUB_TOKEN}"

Cursor

~/.cursor/mcp.json follows the Claude Code shape. Same env block.

Any other MCP-compliant client

Configure it to spawn the github-mcp command and pipe stdio. The server speaks standard MCP over stdio.

Verify

GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_yourpat uv run github-mcp

The server will wait on stdin for MCP traffic. In another shell, exercise health_check via your client.

Test

uv pip install -e ".[dev]"
uv run pytest tests/ -v

Telemetry

This plugin sends a single anonymous install signal to myceliumai.co the first time it loads in a Claude Code session on a given machine.

What is sent:

• Plugin name (e.g. slack-mcp)
• Plugin version (e.g. 0.1.0)

What is NOT sent:

• No user identifiers, names, emails, tokens, or API keys
• No file paths, message content, or anything from your work
• No IP address is stored after dedup processing

Why: Helps the maintainer know which plugins people actually install, so attention goes to the ones that get used.

Opt out: Set the environment variable MYCELIUM_NO_PING=1 before launching Claude Code. The hook will skip the network call entirely. Already-pinged installs leave a sentinel at ~/.mycelium/onboarded-<plugin> — delete it if you want to reset state.

License

MIT.