How to use the GitHub MCP server

Go to github.com > Settings > Developer Settings > Personal Access Tokens. You can create either a classic token or a fine-grained token. For the MCP server, a classic token with repo, read:org, and read:user scopes covers most use cases. For fine-grained tokens, select the specific repositories and permissions you want the AI to access. Copy the token immediately — GitHub will not show it again.

1Required scopes for classic token:
2- repo (full repository access)
3- read:org (read organization data)
4- read:user (read user profile)
5
6Optional scopes:
7- delete_repo (if you want AI to delete repos)
8- admin:org (for organization management)

Open your MCP host's configuration file. For Claude Desktop on macOS, that is ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json. Add a github entry in the mcpServers object that runs the Docker container with your token passed as an environment variable. The -i flag enables interactive mode for stdio transport, and --rm removes the container after it exits.

1{
2  "mcpServers": {
3    "github": {
4      "command": "docker",
5      "args": [
6        "run", "-i", "--rm",
7        "-e", "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN",
8        "ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server"
9      ],
10      "env": {
11        "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "ghp_your_token_here"
12      }
13    }
14  }
15}

Fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop, Cursor, or VS Code. The host will pull the Docker image on first run (this may take a minute). Once connected, you should see the GitHub server listed as active. In Claude Desktop, the hammer icon in the chat input indicates tools are available. Click it to see the full list of GitHub tools.

Send a prompt asking the AI to interact with one of your GitHub repositories. Start with a read-only operation like listing issues or searching code to confirm everything works before trying write operations like creating issues or opening PRs.

1Example prompts:
2
3"List the open issues in my-username/my-repo repository"
4
5"Search for files containing 'TODO' in my-username/my-repo"
6
7"Show me the latest 5 pull requests in my-username/my-repo"

Once read operations work, try write operations. The AI can create issues with labels and assignees, create branches, push file changes, and open pull requests with descriptions. Each operation goes through the GitHub API using your token's permissions. Claude Desktop will show an approval dialog before executing each action.

1Example prompts:
2
3"Create an issue in my-username/my-repo titled 'Add dark mode support' with labels 'enhancement' and 'ui'"
4
5"Create a new branch called 'feature/dark-mode' from main in my-username/my-repo"
6
7"Open a pull request from feature/dark-mode to main with a description of the dark mode changes"

If you use VS Code with GitHub Copilot, the configuration uses the servers key instead of mcpServers. Create a .vscode/mcp.json file in your workspace root. The Docker command and arguments remain the same — only the top-level key changes.

1{
2  "servers": {
3    "github": {
4      "command": "docker",
5      "args": [
6        "run", "-i", "--rm",
7        "-e", "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN",
8        "ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server"
9      ],
10      "env": {
11        "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "ghp_your_token_here"
12      }
13    }
14  }
15}