Our grade: 4 checks
Based on public data, not a full audit. See how we grade. Something changed? Request a re-grade.
Community rating
- 5 6
- 4 9
- 3 1
- 2 0
- 1 0
Trust in production
- Trust it - 75%
- With caveats - 19%
- Wouldn't - 6%
94% would recommend this server
How reviewers scored it
- Setup & docs 4.4
- Auth experience 3.9
- Reliability 4.3
- Maintainer responsiveness 4.3
Why it got an A
GitHub's own server, open source, hosted or run locally, very active, and both past CVEs were fixed before they were disclosed. It can push files, merge pull requests and trigger workflows, and it reads issue and PR text that anyone can write, so use the read-only endpoint, limit toolsets, and turn on lockdown mode for public repos. Biggest deduction: hosted use in Claude Code and Cursor means pasting a personal access token into config, and OAuth asks for every scope by default unless you narrow it.
How to connect
// ~/.cursor/mcp.json (hosted, personal access token)
{ "mcpServers": { "github": { "url": "https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/",
"headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_GITHUB_PAT" } } } }// .vscode/mcp.json (hosted, OAuth sign-in)
{ "servers": { "github": { "type": "http", "url": "https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/" } } }# Claude Code 2.1.1+ (per GitHub's install guide)
claude mcp add-json github '{"type":"http","url":"https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp","headers":{"Authorization":"Bearer YOUR_GITHUB_PAT"}}'// claude_desktop_config.json (local Docker, OAuth login on first use)
{ "mcpServers": { "github": { "command": "docker",
"args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "-p", "127.0.0.1:8085:8085", "-e", "GITHUB_OAUTH_CALLBACK_PORT", "ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server"],
"env": { "GITHUB_OAUTH_CALLBACK_PORT": "8085" } } } }Is GitHub MCP Server safe?
Is GitHub MCP Server safe to use?
GitHub MCP Server grades A (strong public trust signals). Login is required, but access is coarse: one sign-in or key covers more than your agent needs, so grant the narrowest account you can.
Does GitHub MCP Server have known vulnerabilities?
Not in our current data: it has no open CVEs or advisories. We re-check as new ones are published.
Does GitHub MCP Server support authentication?
Yes. It requires a login, so access can be tied to a person or a scoped key.
Alternatives in Developer Tools
- A Atlassian Rovo MCP ServerOfficial hosted Atlassian server for Jira, Confluence, Jira Service Management, Compass, Bitbucket, Loom, Goals, Projects, and Teams, with OAuth 2.1 sign-in.
- A Buildkite MCP ServerOfficial Buildkite server for pipelines, builds, jobs, logs, annotations, and Test Engine data, hosted or local.
- A Dynatrace Remote MCP ServerDynatrace's hosted MCP server, running inside your Dynatrace SaaS environment, to run and explain DQL, look into problems, vulnerabilities and Kubernetes events, and forecast time series.
- A GitLab MCP ServerGitLab's built-in MCP server for projects, merge requests, work items, code, and CI pipelines, on GitLab.com or your own instance.
- A Honeycomb MCPHoneycomb's hosted MCP server to query datasets, read traces, run BubbleUp, and read or change boards, triggers and SLOs, with per-resource OAuth scopes.
Embed this badge
[](https://trustedmcp.io/servers/github-mcp-server)<a href="https://trustedmcp.io/servers/github-mcp-server"><img src="https://trustedmcp.io/badge/github-mcp-server.svg" alt="TrustedMCP grade A" height="80"></a>Community reviews
Surprisingly polished
Hooked GitHub MCP Server into Claude Code and it worked on the first try. Updates land regularly, and nothing broke when I upgraded. I like that access goes through a proper sign-in instead of a long-lived secret on disk.
Used for Scripting routine maintenance tasks
- Setup & docs 4/5
- Auth experience 4/5
- Reliability 5/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 4/5
Clean integration, sensible permissions
Our agents call this dozens of times a day. Filed an issue and got a reply within two days. The scope options are worth reading carefully, the defaults are broader than I wanted. I would use it in prod, but only with a human approving writes.
Used for Code review summaries for pull requests
- Setup & docs 4/5
- Auth experience 4/5
- Reliability 3/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 4/5
Promising, a bit raw
Mostly reliable, with the odd timeout. Auth is handled properly, and revoking access later was one click. The OAuth flow worked first time in Claude Code. Nice that it supports both stdio and HTTP, I use stdio locally and HTTP for the shared agent. I will check back in a few releases.
Used for Letting a coding agent open and triage issues
- Setup & docs 4/5
- Auth experience 3/5
- Reliability 4/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 4/5
Easy win for our agent setup
Started with it as an experiment, now it is a fixture. Filed an issue and got a reply within two days. Sign-in flow was painless and I never had to paste a key into a config file. Happy to run it in production.
Used for Onboarding new devs with an agent that answers repo questions
- Setup & docs 4/5
- Auth experience 3/5
- Reliability 4/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 5/5
No complaints after a month
I use this almost daily. Token setup is the fiddliest part, after that it is smooth. Good choice if you need GitHub in your agent.
Used for Generating boilerplate from existing patterns
- Setup & docs 4/5
- Auth experience 4/5
- Reliability 4/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 4/5
Recommended it to two teams already
Of the GitHub integrations I tried, this one is the most predictable. I like that access goes through a proper sign-in instead of a long-lived secret on disk. Releases come often and the changelog is clear. Being official from GitHub counts for a lot when I pitch it to security. Fine in production if you sandbox it.
Used for Automating release notes
- Setup & docs 4/5
- Auth experience 4/5
- Reliability 4/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 4/5
Trustworthy enough for real work
I use this almost daily. Narrowing the scopes took ten minutes and made me much happier running it. Scoped the token to just what the agent needs and it respected that. Easy recommendation.
Used for Internal developer assistant
- Setup & docs 4/5
- Auth experience 5/5
- Reliability 4/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 4/5
Worth the five minutes to set up
Tried it on a side project first, then rolled it out at work. Auth is handled properly, and revoking access later was one click. Would recommend without hesitation.
Used for CI failure investigation
- Setup & docs 4/5
- Auth experience 5/5
- Reliability 4/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 5/5
Quietly reliable
Clear tool names, sensible outputs, very few surprises. Used a fine-grained token with short expiry and it works fine with that. Worth it, just do not skip the hardening steps.
Used for Looking up GitHub data without leaving the editor
- Setup & docs 4/5
- Auth experience 4/5
- Reliability 5/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 4/5
Solid and well behaved
Our agents call this dozens of times a day. You can tell it is actively maintained, the rough edges keep getting fixed. Read-only mode is the first thing I enable, and it covers most of what I need. Nice that it supports both stdio and HTTP, I use stdio locally and HTTP for the shared agent. Good choice if you need GitHub in your agent.
Used for Scripting routine maintenance tasks
- Setup & docs 5/5
- Auth experience 5/5
- Reliability 5/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 5/5
Good defaults, good docs
Been running this for about a month now. Sign-in flow was painless and I never had to paste a key into a config file. Turned on read-only mode on day one, highly recommend doing the same. Updates land regularly, and nothing broke when I upgraded. It is in our production agent and I sleep fine.
Used for Internal developer assistant
- Setup & docs 5/5
- Auth experience 5/5
- Reliability 5/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 4/5
Better than the DIY script it replaced
Set this up for our team after comparing a few options. Scoped the token to just what the agent needs and it respected that. Releases come often and the changelog is clear. Would recommend without hesitation.
Used for Debugging sessions in Cursor
- Setup & docs 4/5
- Auth experience 3/5
- Reliability 5/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 5/5
Earned a permanent spot in my config
Of the GitHub integrations I tried, this one is the most predictable. Releases come often and the changelog is clear. I like that access goes through a proper sign-in instead of a long-lived secret on disk. It is in our production agent and I sleep fine.
Used for Pairing with Claude Code on a monorepo
- Setup & docs 5/5
- Auth experience 3/5
- Reliability 4/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 5/5
Saves me a context switch every hour
Replaced a homegrown script with GitHub MCP Server and have not looked back. The OAuth flow worked first time in Claude Code. Sign-in flow was painless and I never had to paste a key into a config file. Happy to run it in production.
Used for Letting a coding agent open and triage issues
- Setup & docs 5/5
- Auth experience 3/5
- Reliability 5/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 5/5
The GitHub integration I wanted
Installed it on a Friday, it was part of my workflow by Monday. Nice to use something maintained by GitHub rather than a random fork. Filed an issue and got a reply within two days. I like that access goes through a proper sign-in instead of a long-lived secret on disk. Easy recommendation.
Used for Automating release notes
- Setup & docs 5/5
- Auth experience 4/5
- Reliability 3/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 4/5
Exactly what I needed from GitHub
Simple to set up in Cursor, simple to reason about. You can tell it is actively maintained, the rough edges keep getting fixed. Sign-in flow was painless and I never had to paste a key into a config file. Nice that it supports both stdio and HTTP, I use stdio locally and HTTP for the shared agent.
Used for Keeping project tickets in sync with code changes
- Setup & docs 5/5
- Auth experience 4/5
- Reliability 5/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 3/5
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