Hey developers! Andrea Griffiths here, Senior Developer Advocate at GitHub.
If you've been following the rapid evolution of AI tools in our development workflows, you're about to witness another quantum leap forward. GitHub has now open-sourced the GitHub MCP Server, and the response has been incredible—already surpassing 10,000 stars! 🚀
What is MCP and why should you care?
MCP stands for Model Context Protocol. As Toby Padilla, Principal Product Manager at GitHub, explained during our recent GitHub Checkout episode, it's a standardized, community-driven way for LLMs and AI assistants to call tools.
"It's kind of a social innovation more than a technical one, where [Anthropic] got a lot of momentum behind building MCP servers, and now there's many of them you can plug into what you would call an MCP host."
Think of it as a universal language that lets AI assistants understand and interact directly with GitHub. Instead of just talking about your code, they can now take actions on your behalf.
What Can GitHub MCP Server Do?
The server currently offers 31 tools that enable AI assistants to:
- Create branches
- Add issues
- Edit files
- Rate open PRs (by "coolness" if you want - yes, really!)
- Generate summaries of changes since a release
- Prioritize issues based on impact
- And even create an editorialized summary of your entire developer journey!
That last one is particularly fascinating. During our demo, Toby asked the MCP Server to analyze his GitHub history and create a narrative of his journey as a developer. The AI looked at his 16+ years on GitHub and produced an impressively accurate summary of his evolution through different programming languages and interests.
Getting Started is Easy
Setting up GitHub MCP Server is straightforward:
- If you're using VS Code or VS Code Insiders, you can install it with a single click
- Generate a personal access token (PAT) to grant the necessary permissions
- The easiest setup uses Docker, but you can also run it directly as it's a Golang project that compiles nicely
Real-World Use Cases
During our conversation, Toby highlighted how the MCP Server is already helping teams scale their development processes:
- For Product Managers: Quickly ranking issues by impact and evaluating upcoming changes
- For Decision Makers: Understanding what's trending in repositories your team depends on
- For Developers: Automating repetitive tasks and getting assistance with issue fixes
- For Everyone: Breaking down complex code histories into understandable narratives
What's Coming Next?
The team is focusing on two key areas for improvement:
- Grouping tools more effectively to help the LLM select the right tool for each task
- Making this a remote server, which would significantly simplify installation and setup
Watch the Full Demo and Join the Community!
📺 I highly encourage you to watch our full GitHub Checkout episode where Toby and I walk through all these features in action! You'll see firsthand how the MCP Server analyzes repositories, rates PRs by "coolness," and even creates that amazing developer journey timeline.
👉 Watch the GitHub MCP Server Demo Here
The video shows everything from installation to practical examples that you can start using immediately. Trust me - seeing is believing with this technology!
As with any open source project, this is just the beginning. The team is actively looking for contributors, especially if you see gaps between what's currently available and what's possible with the GitHub API.
Want to try it yourself? Head over to gh.io/mcp where you'll find all the documentation to get started.
Have you installed it yet? After watching the video, I'd love to hear about your experience in the comments! What creative uses have you found for GitHub MCP Server? What tools would you like to see added next?
Don't forget to subscribe to the GitHub YouTube channel to catch future episodes of GitHub Checkout featuring more exciting tools and updates!
