MCP Server: GitHub Intelligence

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that gives Claude direct access to GitHub's REST API for repository analytics, issue tracking, pull-request status, contributor insights, and code search.

Built with the official Anthropic MCP Python SDK (FastMCP).

Features

| Tool | Description | |---|---| | get_repository_info | Comprehensive repo details — stars, forks, language, license, topics, and more | | list_issues | Browse and filter issues by state and labels | | list_pull_requests | List PRs with branch info, draft/merge status | | get_contributor_stats | Top contributors ranked by commit count | | search_repositories | Search all of GitHub with language and sort filters |

Quick Start

1. Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

2. (Optional) Configure a GitHub token

Copy the example env file and add your token for higher rate limits:

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env and paste your token

3. Run the server

python server.py

4. Connect to Claude Desktop

Add the following to your Claude Desktop configuration file:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github-intel": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/server.py"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. The five GitHub tools will appear automatically.

Authentication

The server works in two modes:

| Mode | Rate Limit | Setup | |---|---|---| | Unauthenticated | 60 requests / hour | Nothing required | | Authenticated | 5,000 requests / hour | Set GITHUB_TOKEN in .env |

To create a personal access token, visit github.com/settings/tokens. A classic token with no scopes is sufficient for public repository data.

Example Queries

Once the server is connected to Claude, try asking:

"Get me an overview of the facebook/react repository."
"Show me the open issues labeled 'bug' in vercel/next.js."
"List the most recent pull requests for rust-lang/rust."
"Who are the top contributors to torvalds/linux?"
"Search GitHub for the most-starred Python machine learning frameworks."

Rate Limits

GitHub enforces rate limits per IP (unauthenticated) or per token (authenticated).

Without token: 60 requests per hour.
With token: 5,000 requests per hour.

The server detects rate-limit errors (HTTP 403) and returns a clear message with the reset timestamp so you know when to retry.

Tech Stack

Python 3.10+
mcp — Official Anthropic MCP SDK (FastMCP)
httpx — Async HTTP client
pydantic — Data validation (used by MCP internally)
python-dotenv — .env file loading

License

MIT

MCP Servers