GitHub Issue MCP Server

A small Model Context Protocol server for working with GitHub issues from MCP-compatible clients.

It exposes GitHub Issue operations as structured MCP tools over stdio. The server does not store data locally; every tool call goes through the GitHub REST API.

Features

List repository issues
Get one issue
Search issues with GitHub search syntax
Create issues
Comment on issues
Update title, body, labels, assignees, milestone, and state
Add labels without replacing existing labels
Remove a label

Requirements

Node.js 20+
A GitHub token in GITHUB_TOKEN

For private repositories or write operations, create a fine-grained personal access token with the minimum repository permissions you need:

Issues: read/write
Metadata: read

Install

npm install
npm run build

Run Locally

$env:GITHUB_TOKEN = "github_pat_..."
npm run dev

The server speaks MCP over stdio, so it is usually launched by an MCP client instead of run by hand.

MCP Client Config

Example config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github-issues": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["C:\\Users\\you\\github-issue-mcp-server\\dist\\index.js"],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_TOKEN": "github_pat_..."
      }
    }
  }
}

For GitHub Enterprise Server, set GITHUB_API_URL:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github-issues": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["C:\\Users\\you\\github-issue-mcp-server\\dist\\index.js"],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_TOKEN": "github_pat_...",
        "GITHUB_API_URL": "https://github.example.com/api/v3"
      }
    }
  }
}

Tools

`list_issues`

Lists issues for a repository. GitHub's issues API also returns pull requests, so this tool filters pull requests out by default.

{
  "owner": "modelcontextprotocol",
  "repo": "typescript-sdk",
  "state": "open",
  "labels": ["bug"],
  "per_page": 20
}

`get_issue`

Gets one issue by number.

{
  "owner": "owner",
  "repo": "repo",
  "issue_number": 123
}

`search_issues`

Searches issues using GitHub's search query syntax.

{
  "q": "repo:owner/repo is:issue is:open label:bug updated:>=2026-06-01",
  "per_page": 10
}

`create_issue`

Creates a new issue.

{
  "owner": "owner",
  "repo": "repo",
  "title": "Login fails on expired session",
  "body": "Steps to reproduce...",
  "labels": ["bug"]
}

`comment_issue`

Adds a comment.

{
  "owner": "owner",
  "repo": "repo",
  "issue_number": 123,
  "body": "Thanks for the report. I can reproduce this on main."
}

`update_issue`

Updates issue fields or state.

{
  "owner": "owner",
  "repo": "repo",
  "issue_number": 123,
  "state": "closed",
  "state_reason": "completed"
}

`add_labels`

Adds labels without replacing existing labels.

{
  "owner": "owner",
  "repo": "repo",
  "issue_number": 123,
  "labels": ["triaged", "help wanted"]
}

`remove_label`

Removes one label.

{
  "owner": "owner",
  "repo": "repo",
  "issue_number": 123,
  "label": "needs reproduction"
}

Development

npm run typecheck
npm run build

Avoid logging to stdout because MCP stdio transport uses stdout for protocol messages. Use stderr for diagnostics.

MCP Servers