Writes create their target branch automatically, so a file push can bring a branch into existence as a side effect.
create_or_update_file and push_files both take a branch argument and create it when it does not exist, while updating an existing file takes the sha of the file being replaced, which is the guard against blind overwrites. The pull request surface runs past create and merge to changed-file patches, combined status checks, review comments, reviews and update_pull_request_branch, the equivalent of GitHub's Update branch button.
What it is
A server over the GitHub API for working with repositories from a client: files, branches, issues, pull requests and search. Writes go through the same API a contributor would use, so they land as ordinary commits and comments.
What you get
- Create or update a single file, or push several files in one commit
- Repository creation and forking, plus branch creation from a chosen source branch
- Issue create, update, list, read and comment
- Pull request create, list, read, review, merge and branch update
- Pull request inspection: changed files with patches, combined status checks, review comments and reviews
- Search across repositories, code, issues and pull requests, and users, using GitHub search syntax
- Commit listing for a branch
- Operations that preserve Git history without force pushing
Requirements
A GitHub Personal Access Token, created in GitHub Settings under Developer settings, with the repositories it may reach selected (Public, All, or Select). The repo scope gives full control of private repositories; public_repo alone covers public repositories. The token is passed as the GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN environment variable.
Setup effort
One command plus a key — npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-github, then supply credentials