Tiger GitHub MCP Server

A wrapper around the GitHub API to provide some focused tools to LLMs via the Model Context Protocol.

Development

Cloning and running the server locally.

git clone [email protected]:timescale/tiger-gh-mcp-server.git

Building

This project uses bun as its runtime and package manager. Awrapper script (./bun) is included that downloads a pinned version of bun onfirst use, so you don't need to install it globally.

Run ./bun install to install dependencies. Use ./bun run watch http to runthe server in HTTP mode and reload on changes.

You will need a GitHub token with the correct scopes. Here is a direct link to create such a new token.

Create a .env file based on the .env.sample file.

cp .env.sample .env

Then update the GITHUB_TOKEN value in .env.

VS Code Debugging

The project includes a VS Code debug profile called "Debug Github MCP" thatlaunches the server in HTTP mode with full debugging support, running theTypeScript source directly via bun.

To use it:

Open the project in VS Code
Go to the Debug panel (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + D)
Select "Debug Github MCP" from the dropdown
Press F5 or click the play button

Breakpoints will work properly in TypeScript source files thanks to source map support.

Testing

The MCP Inspector is a very handy to exercise the MCP server from a web-based UI.

./bun run inspector

Field	Value
Transport Type	`STDIO`
Command	`./bun`
Arguments	`src/index.ts`

Testing in Claude Desktop

Create/edit the file ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json to add an entry like the following, making sure to use the absolute path to your local tiger-gh-mcp-server project, and use a valid GitHub token.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tiger-gh": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/tiger-gh-mcp-server/bun",
      "args": [
        "/absolute/path/to/tiger-gh-mcp-server/src/index.ts",
        "stdio"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_TOKEN": "ghp_whatever",
        "GITHUB_ORG": "timescale"
      }
    }
  }
}

Tiger GitHub MCP Server