GitHub MCP Server: Connect Claude to GitHub

The GitHub MCP Server is GitHub’s official MCP server. It gives Claude structured access to the GitHub API: repositories, files, issues, pull requests, reviews and more. It replaces the archived GitHub server from the MCP reference servers repo.

Install in Claude Code (remote server)

The simplest route is GitHub’s hosted endpoint. Create a fine-grained personal access token limited to the repositories Claude should touch, then:

claude mcp add --transport http github https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/ \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_GITHUB_PAT"

claude mcp add does not validate the token, so run /mcp inside Claude Code and confirm the github row shows a checkmark. Keep the token out of committed files; see MCP scopes.

Install locally with Docker

GitHub publishes the image ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server:

claude mcp add github -e GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN=$GITHUB_PAT \
  -- docker run -i --rm -e GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server

It is also listed as the github plugin in Anthropic’s official plugin marketplace; see the plugins guide.

Use cases

Ask Claude in plain language once connected:

Review PR #456 and suggest improvements
Create a new issue for the bug we just found
Show me all open PRs assigned to me

• PR review and triage across repositories.
• Turning a debugging session into a well-written issue.
• Cross-repo code search during refactors.

Pros

• Official and maintained by GitHub.
• Remote option means zero local setup.
• Fine-grained tokens let you scope access per repository.

Cons

• Adds many tools to context; disable it in sessions that do not need GitHub.
• Write-capable tokens let Claude comment, open issues or push changes, so scope carefully.
• Overlaps with the gh CLI that Claude Code can already run.

Pair it with Claude Code Action if you want Claude to respond to @claude mentions directly on GitHub.