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github-mcp-lite

A minimal MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for creating GitHub repositories, committing files, and publishing releases using a plain Personal Access Token (PAT).

No Docker, no local Git installation, and no GitHub Copilot subscription required — unlike the hosted api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/ server, which gates access behind a Copilot entitlement. This server talks directly to the regular GitHub REST API (api.github.com) over plain fetch, so it's a single dependency-light file you can read top to bottom in a few minutes.

Table of Contents

• Why this exists
• Tools
  • get_authenticated_user
  • create_repository
  • commit_files
  • create_release
  • delete_repository
• Installation
  • Prerequisites
  • Clone and install dependencies
  • Configure your token
• Usage
  • Run directly
  • Register with Claude Code
  • Register with Claude Desktop
  • Example workflow
• Security notes
• Contributing
• License

Why this exists

Most MCP GitHub integrations either require a full local git toolchain, a Docker container, or a Copilot-gated hosted endpoint. github-mcp-lite is for cases where you just want an AI assistant to be able to:

• spin up a new repo,
• push a batch of files to it in one commit, and
• tag a release,

using nothing but a token you already have.

Tools

Tool	Description	Destructive?
get_authenticated_user	Return the login/profile for the account owning the configured token.	No
create_repository	Create a repo owned by the authenticated user. Auto-initialized with a README so a default branch exists immediately.	No
commit_files	Create or update one or more text files in a single commit.	Yes (overwrites file contents)
create_release	Publish a tagged GitHub release.	No
delete_repository	Permanently delete a repository. Requires the delete_repo token scope.	Yes, irreversible

Each tool is annotated with readOnlyHint / destructiveHint / openWorldHint metadata so MCP clients can surface appropriate confirmation prompts.

get_authenticated_user

No input. Returns { login, html_url, name } for the token's owner.

create_repository

Param	Type	Required	Notes
name	string	yes	Repository name
description	string	no	Repository description
private	boolean	no	Defaults to false (public)

Returns { full_name, html_url, clone_url, default_branch }.

commit_files

Param	Type	Required	Notes
owner	string	yes	Repository owner
repo	string	yes	Repository name
branch	string	no	Defaults to the repo's default branch
message	string	yes	Commit message
files	array of { path, content }	yes	UTF-8 text content only; at least one file

Internally this creates blobs, a tree, and a commit via the Git Data API, then fast-forwards the branch ref — so it's a real single commit, not one commit per file. Returns { commit_sha, html_url, files_changed }.

create_release

Param	Type	Required	Notes
owner	string	yes	Repository owner
repo	string	yes	Repository name
tag_name	string	yes	e.g. v1.0.0
name	string	no	Release title
body	string	no	Release notes (Markdown)
target_commitish	string	no	Branch or commit SHA to tag; defaults to the default branch
draft	boolean	no	Defaults to false
prerelease	boolean	no	Defaults to false

Returns { html_url, id, tag_name }.

delete_repository

Param	Type	Required	Notes
owner	string	yes	Repository owner
repo	string	yes	Repository name

Permanently deletes the repository. Returns { deleted: true, full_name }. Requires a classic PAT with the delete_repo scope — fine-grained tokens generally cannot delete repositories.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ (for native fetch support)
• A GitHub Personal Access Token with the repo scope (add delete_repo too if you want to use delete_repository)

Note: Repository creation isn't reliably supported by fine-grained PATs, so a classic token is recommended.

Clone and install dependencies

git clone https://github.com/MatinMHF/github-mcp-lite.git
cd github-mcp-lite
npm install

Configure your token

The server reads the token from either GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN or GITHUB_TOKEN in its environment. Set one of these before it starts — the process exits immediately with an error if neither is present.

Usage

Run directly

GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN=ghp_xxx node index.js

The server communicates over stdio, so it's meant to be launched by an MCP client (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, etc.), not run interactively on its own.

Register with Claude Code

claude mcp add github-lite -s user -e GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN=<your_token> -- node /path/to/index.js

On Windows PowerShell, quote the separator as "--" — PowerShell silently strips a bare -- before it reaches the script's arguments, which breaks argument parsing:

claude mcp add github-lite -s user -e GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN=<your_token> "--" node "C:/path/to/index.js"

Register with Claude Desktop (or any MCP-compatible client)

Add an entry to your client's MCP server config (e.g. claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github-lite": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["C:/path/to/github-mcp-lite/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "ghp_xxx"
      }
    }
  }
}

Example workflow

A typical session once the server is registered with your MCP client:

1. "Who am I authenticated as?" → calls get_authenticated_user
2. "Create a public repo called my-project" → calls create_repository (auto-initializes with a README so a default branch exists)
3. "Commit these files to it" → calls commit_files with an array of { path, content } entries, written in a single commit
4. "Publish a v1.0.0 release" → calls create_release

Security notes

• The token is read once from the environment at startup and never logged.
• commit_files and delete_repository are marked destructiveHint: true in their tool annotations — well-behaved MCP clients should prompt for confirmation before invoking them.
• Because this server has openWorldHint: true on every tool (it makes real network calls to api.github.com), only run it with a token scoped to what you actually need.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines. This project follows a Code of Conduct. To report a security issue, see SECURITY.md.

License

MIT