GitHub MCP Server Setup

How Claude Code connects to GitHub via the Model Context Protocol — auth flow, what gets unlocked, and how it fits into your daily workflow.

💻 Claude Code CLI

Your terminal AI agent — reads files, runs commands, calls tools
Version: 2.1.72 · User scope (all projects)

MCP protocol (HTTP transport)

🌎 GitHub MCP Server

api.githubcopilot.com/mcp · GitHub's official remote server
Registered as: github · Status: ✓ Connected

✓ Connected

Bearer token (gh auth token)

🔒 GitHub API

Authenticated as: gilesparnell · Protocol: HTTPS
Token scopes: gist · read:org · repo

repo scope

📦 gilesparnell/Claude

Your AI workspace repo
Skills, CLAUDE.md, docs

📦 Other Repos

allconvos-main + any
repo you have access to

What You Can Do Once Connected

Category	Example prompt in Claude Code
Issues	List open issues in gilesparnell/Claude
PRs	Create a PR for this branch targeting main
Files	Show me the contents of global/CLAUDE.md in my Claude repo
Search	Search for any file referencing Twilio across my repos
Actions	What was the result of the last workflow run?
Commits	What changed in the last 5 commits on main?

How It Was Set Up

# 1. Get your token from gh CLI gh auth token # 2. Register the GitHub MCP server (user scope = all projects) claude mcp add-json github '{"type":"http","url":"https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp","headers":{"Authorization":"Bearer <token>"}}' --scope user # 3. Verify claude mcp list claude mcp get github # 4. Inside a Claude Code session /mcp

MCP Server Scopes

Scope	Where config lives	Visible to
local (default)	.mcp.json in project	You only, current project
project	.mcp.json (committed)	Everyone on the project
user ✓	~/.claude/ user config	You, across all projects

✓ This is the scope used for the GitHub server — register once, available everywhere.