GitHub (archived npm server)
The GitHub MCP server is the original TypeScript one Anthropic shipped on npm as @modelcontextprotocol/server-github. It gives an agent repository, issue, pull request and code-search tools against the GitHub REST API using a personal access token. It is archived and deprecated; GitHub's own Go server replaced it, and npm prints a support notice on every install.
How we started it
npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-githubIt still runs, which is the surprising part. We started it and it came up as github-mcp-server 0.6.2 speaking protocol 2024-11-05, with 26 tools in a tools/list payload of 15,854 bytes, roughly 3,964 tokens by the chars/4 estimate. Use it only if you are pinning an old lockfile and cannot move yet; the strongest argument against is that nobody is patching it, so the first GitHub API change or token-scope tightening that breaks it will stay broken. For anything new, take the maintained server instead.
Use it if
Skip it if
The bill for your context window
| Tool | Est. tokens | Described? | Required params |
|---|---|---|---|
| create_pull_request_review | ~409 | yes (33 chars) | 5 |
| list_pull_requests | ~254 | yes (40 chars) | 2 |
| create_pull_request | ~235 | yes (48 chars) | 5 |
| create_or_update_file | ~207 | yes (53 chars) | 6 |
| push_files | ~197 | yes (61 chars) | 5 |
| merge_pull_request | ~185 | yes (20 chars) | 3 |
| search_issues | ~153 | yes (62 chars) | 1 |
| update_pull_request_branch | ~153 | yes (73 chars) | 3 |
For 26 tools this is priced fairly. The whole tools/list came to about 3,964 tokens (chars/4 estimate, measured 2026-08-19), and the weight is concentrated where you would want it: create_pull_request_review alone is around 409 tokens because it carries a nested comments array with five required fields, and the pull-request family broadly accounts for most of the payload. The read tools are cheap; get_issue is about 87 tokens. Compared with the heaviest server in this batch, whose tool list is several times larger for fewer tools, this one is compact. That is small comfort if you never use the pull-request half, since there is no way to unload it.
Setup reality
One env var: GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN. The harness gave it nothing, and the server still booted and listed every tool, so it does no credential check at startup; you find out your token is wrong at the first call, not at launch. Transport is stdio via npx -y, no OAuth dance and no config file. Boot took 6,027 ms on a cold npx cache, and stderr hands you two deprecation warnings on the way past, including one for node-domexception@1.0.0. Token scopes are on you: repo for private repositories, and write access to issues and pull requests is implied by the tool set rather than gated by it.
Questions people ask
Is @modelcontextprotocol/server-github still maintained?
No. The npm registry marks it deprecated with a note that the package is no longer supported, and GitHub now ships its own server. It still starts and still answers tools/list, but treat it as frozen code you are borrowing, not software anyone is watching.
Does it need a GitHub token to start?
Not to start. We booted it with a clean environment and no credentials, and it initialized and listed all 26 tools anyway. The token matters only when a tool actually calls the API, so a missing or under-scoped token shows up as a failed call rather than a failed launch.
How does it compare to the official GitHub MCP server?
The official Go server is maintained, wider in coverage and offers toolset filtering; this one is a smaller stdio process with 26 fixed tools and no filtering. If you are choosing today, choose the maintained one. If you are already running this, it works until GitHub changes something.
What does it actually cost my context window?
Its tool definitions weigh 15,854 bytes, about 3,964 tokens using a 4-chars-per-token estimate. That is the price on every request, before your agent has done anything. The pull-request tools carry most of it.
Other dev tools servers we started
| Server | Vendor | Boots | Context tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| CircleCI | CircleCI | ✓ | ~12,932 tokens |
| Everything (test server) | Anthropic (reference) | ✓ | ~1,913 tokens |
| Git | Anthropic (reference) | ✓ | ~1,477 tokens |
| GitLab (archived) | Anthropic (archived) | ✗ | ~0 tokens |
How this page is made: the server is spawned as an unprivileged user with a clean environment and no credentials, then asked for its tools, resources and prompts over stdio. Token figures are estimates at four characters per token, not a tokenizer count. One run, one machine. Corrections: contact the desk.