Self-hosted GitHub MCP server

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//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>

Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.