github

GitHub Plugin

GitHub MCP server with a curated tool allowlist for pull requests, issues, notifications, read-only repository access, and code security.

Components

MCP Server

HTTP-based MCP server connected to api.githubcopilot.com. Tools are deferred and loaded on demand via tool search, keeping them out of the context window until needed.

The server is configured with two headers in .mcp.json:

• X-MCP-Toolsets enables these toolsets in full, including tools added to them upstream:
  • gists — gist reading, creation, and updates
  • code_security — code scanning alerts
  • security_advisories — global and repository security advisories
  • dependabot — Dependabot alerts
  • github_support_docs_search — GitHub product documentation search (remote-only)
• X-MCP-Tools adds individual tools on top. Because the default toolset is not named, nothing else is enabled — new upstream tools in these areas require an explicit opt-in:
  • Pull requests — pull_request_read, search_pull_requests, list_pull_requests, create_pull_request, update_pull_request, pull_request_review_write, add_comment_to_pending_review, add_reply_to_pull_request_comment
  • Issues — issue_read, search_issues, list_issues, issue_write, add_issue_comment, update_issue_comment, sub_issue_write, list_issue_types, list_issue_fields
  • Repositories (read-only) — get_file_contents, search_code, search_repositories, list_branches, list_commits, get_commit, search_commits, list_tags, get_tag, list_releases, get_latest_release, get_release_by_tag
  • Actions (read-only) — actions_list, actions_get, get_job_logs
  • Notifications — list_notifications, get_notification_details, dismiss_notification, manage_notification_subscription
  • Users and teams — get_me, get_teams, get_team_members, search_users
  • Other — check_dependency_vulnerabilities (remote-only)

To enable another tool, add its exact name to X-MCP-Tools; an unknown name causes the server to reject the connection.

Hooks

• SessionStart — instructs Claude to prefer GitHub MCP tools over the gh CLI and WebFetch for all GitHub operations

Skills

• triage-prs (/github:triage-prs [owner/repo]) — triages open PRs where you are assigned or a requested reviewer. Sweeps stale notification threads left by PRs that have since closed or merged, then auto-classifies open PRs from search data — skipping ones you've already engaged with and, on Prow-managed repos, dismissing notifications for needs-rebase PRs and unsubscribing entirely from lgtm+approved PRs — then investigates only the remainder with parallel subagents and presents batched options to unassign, remove review requests, or unsubscribe. Explicit invocation only — Claude never triggers it automatically. The target repo is taken from the optional owner/repo argument, or detected from the upstream (preferred) or origin git remote. Prow-managed repos are auto-detected and acted on via bot commands (/unassign, /uncc); on other repos, removing a review request requires an authenticated gh CLI (the one operation the GitHub MCP server does not cover) — without it, that single action is reported for manual follow-up instead.

Configuration

This plugin requires the GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN environment variable to be set with a valid GitHub Personal Access Token.

Documentation

For more information about the GitHub MCP server, visit: https://github.com/github/github-mcp-server