This MCP server enables AI models to access GitHub repository contents as context by providing tools to fetch repository-wide contents, specific file contents, and repository structures. The available tools let you fetch an entire repository's files (with filtering by extensions, exclusions, and a cap on the number of files), retrieve the content of a single file, and obtain a navigable structure listing of a repository. To use it, run the server locally or in your environment, ensure any required authentication token is available via GITHUB_TOKEN to increase API rate limits, and then interact with the MCP protocol to invoke get-repo-context, get-file-content, or get-repo-structure as needed for your AI workflow.

Prerequisites:

• Git
• Node.js (and npm) installed on your system
• Access to the internet to fetch dependencies

Installation steps:

1. Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/shanksxz/github-mcp.git
2. Navigate into the project directory: cd github-mcp
3. Install dependencies: npm install
4. Build the project (produces the server artifact): npm run build
5. Run the MCP server (example):

   ensure you have a valid GitHub token if needed

   export GITHUB_TOKEN=your_github_token_if_available node dist/server.js

Notes:

• The server communicates via the MCP protocol over stdin/stdout.
• Public repositories work without authentication, but authenticated requests help with rate limits.

Environment variable tips:

• GITHUB_TOKEN: Set this to a GitHub Personal Access Token if you plan to access many private or rate-limited resources. Without a token, GitHub's unauthenticated rate limit applies.

Usage tips:

• Use get-repo-context to pull a curated set of files from a repository, applying maxFiles, fileExtensions, and excludePaths to tailor the content.
• Use get-file-content for precise file retrieval without pulling the entire repository.
• Use get-repo-structure to understand the repository layout before selecting files for context.

Common issues:

• If the MCP server fails to respond, ensure the built artifact exists at dist/server.js and that the server process has permissions to read environment variables.
• If rate limits are hit, confirm GITHUB_TOKEN is valid and has appropriate scopes.