Install GitHub MCP Server in Cline

Cline is an AI coding assistant that runs in VS Code-compatible editors (VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.). For general setup information (prerequisites, Docker installation, security best practices), see the Installation Guides README.

Remote Server

Cline stores MCP settings in cline_mcp_settings.json. To edit it, click the Cline icon in your editor's sidebar, open the menu in the top right corner of the Cline panel, and select "MCP Servers". You can add a remote server through the "Remote Servers" tab, or click "Configure MCP Servers" to edit the JSON directly.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github": {
      "url": "https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/",
      "type": "streamableHttp",
      "disabled": false,
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <YOUR_GITHUB_PAT>"
      },
      "autoApprove": []
    }
  }
}

Replace YOUR_GITHUB_PAT with your GitHub Personal Access Token. To customize toolsets, add server-side headers like X-MCP-Toolsets or X-MCP-Readonly to the headers object — see Server Configuration Guide.

Important: The transport type must be "streamableHttp" (camelCase, no hyphen). Using "streamable-http" or omitting the type will cause Cline to fall back to SSE, resulting in a 405 error.

Local Server (Docker)

1. Click the Cline icon in your editor's sidebar (or open the command palette and search for "Cline"), then click the MCP Servers icon (server stack icon at the top of the Cline panel), and click "Configure MCP Servers" to open cline_mcp_settings.json.
2. Add one of the configurations below. The OAuth option needs no token; for the PAT option, replace YOUR_GITHUB_PAT with your GitHub Personal Access Token.

Log in with OAuth instead of a token. On github.com the official image already includes the app credentials, so you provide none yourself — the server opens a browser login on first use and keeps the token in memory only. In Docker, publish a fixed callback port to loopback:

{
  "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"
      }
    }
  }
}

See Local Server OAuth Login for the native-binary flow (no fixed port), headless/device-code fallback, GitHub Enterprise, and bringing your own OAuth or GitHub App.

To authenticate with a Personal Access Token instead (it takes precedence over OAuth):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "-i", "--rm",
        "-e", "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN",
        "ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "YOUR_GITHUB_PAT"
      }
    }
  }
}

Troubleshooting

• SSE error 405 with remote server: Ensure "type" is set to "streamableHttp" (camelCase, no hyphen) in cline_mcp_settings.json. Using "streamable-http" or omitting "type" causes Cline to fall back to SSE, which this server does not support.
• Authentication failures: Verify your PAT has the required scopes
• Docker issues: Ensure Docker Desktop is installed and running