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Install GitHub MCP Server in Copilot IDEs

Quick setup guide for the GitHub MCP server in GitHub Copilot across different IDEs. For VS Code instructions, refer to the VS Code install guide in the README

Requirements:

  • GitHub Copilot License: Any Copilot plan (Free, Pro, Pro+, Business, Enterprise) for Copilot access
  • GitHub Account: Individual GitHub account (organization/enterprise membership optional) for GitHub MCP server access
  • MCP Servers in Copilot Policy: Organizations assigning Copilot seats must enable this policy for all MCP access in Copilot for VS Code and Copilot Coding Agent – all other Copilot IDEs will migrate to this policy in the coming months
  • Editor Preview Policy: Organizations assigning Copilot seats must enable this policy for OAuth access while the Remote GitHub MCP Server is in public preview

Note: All Copilot IDEs now support the remote GitHub MCP server. VS Code offers OAuth authentication, while Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, Xcode, and Eclipse currently use PAT authentication with OAuth support coming soon.

Visual Studio

Requires Visual Studio 2022 version 17.14.9 or later.

Remote Server (Recommended)

The remote GitHub MCP server is hosted by GitHub and provides automatic updates with no local setup required.

Configuration

  1. Create an .mcp.json file in your solution or %USERPROFILE% directory.
  2. Add this configuration:
json
{
  "servers": {
    "github": {
      "url": "https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/"
    }
  }
}
  1. Save the file. Wait for CodeLens to update to offer a way to authenticate to the new server, activate that and pick the GitHub account to authenticate with.
  2. In the GitHub Copilot Chat window, switch to Agent mode.
  3. Activate the tool picker in the Chat window and enable one or more tools from the "github" MCP server.

Local Server

For users who prefer to run the GitHub MCP server locally. Requires Docker installed and running.

Configuration

  1. Create an .mcp.json file in your solution or %USERPROFILE% directory.
  2. Add this configuration. 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:
json
{
  "servers": {
    "github": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "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):

json
{
  "inputs": [
    {
      "id": "github_pat",
      "description": "GitHub personal access token",
      "type": "promptString",
      "password": true
    }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "github": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "-i", "--rm", "-e", "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN",
        "ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "${input:github_pat}"
      }
    }
  }
}
  1. Save the file. Wait for CodeLens to update to offer a way to provide user inputs, activate that and paste in a PAT you generate from https://github.com/settings/tokens.
  2. In the GitHub Copilot Chat window, switch to Agent mode.
  3. Activate the tool picker in the Chat window and enable one or more tools from the "github" MCP server.

Documentation: Visual Studio MCP Guide

JetBrains IDEs

Agent mode and MCP support available in public preview across IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm, and other JetBrains IDEs.

Remote Server (Recommended)

The remote GitHub MCP server is hosted by GitHub and provides automatic updates with no local setup required.

Note: OAuth authentication for the remote GitHub server is not yet supported in JetBrains IDEs. You must use a Personal Access Token (PAT).

Configuration Steps

  1. Install/update the GitHub Copilot plugin
  2. Click GitHub Copilot icon in the status bar → Edit Settings → Model Context Protocol → Configure
  3. Add configuration:
json
{
  "servers": {
    "github": {
      "url": "https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/",
      "requestInit": {
        "headers": {
          "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_GITHUB_PAT"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}
  1. Press Ctrl + S or Command + S to save, or close the mcp.json file. The configuration should take effect immediately and restart all the MCP servers defined. You can restart the IDE if needed.

Local Server

For users who prefer to run the GitHub MCP server locally. Requires Docker installed and running.

Configuration

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:

json
{
  "servers": {
    "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):

json
{
  "servers": {
    "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"
      }
    }
  }
}

Documentation: JetBrains Copilot Guide

Xcode

Agent mode and MCP support now available in public preview for Xcode.

Remote Server (Recommended)

The remote GitHub MCP server is hosted by GitHub and provides automatic updates with no local setup required.

Note: OAuth authentication for the remote GitHub server is not yet supported in Xcode. You must use a Personal Access Token (PAT).

Configuration Steps

  1. Install/update GitHub Copilot for Xcode
  2. Open GitHub Copilot for Xcode app → Agent Mode → 🛠️ Tool Picker → Edit Config
  3. Configure your MCP servers:
json
{
  "servers": {
    "github": {
      "url": "https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/",
      "requestInit": {
        "headers": {
          "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_GITHUB_PAT"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Local Server

For users who prefer to run the GitHub MCP server locally. Requires Docker installed and running.

Configuration

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:

json
{
  "servers": {
    "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):

json
{
  "servers": {
    "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"
      }
    }
  }
}

Documentation: Xcode Copilot Guide

Eclipse

MCP support available with Eclipse 2024-03+ and latest version of the GitHub Copilot plugin.

Remote Server (Recommended)

The remote GitHub MCP server is hosted by GitHub and provides automatic updates with no local setup required.

Note: OAuth authentication for the remote GitHub server is not yet supported in Eclipse. You must use a Personal Access Token (PAT).

Configuration Steps

  1. Install GitHub Copilot extension from Eclipse Marketplace
  2. Click the GitHub Copilot icon → Edit Preferences → MCP (under GitHub Copilot)
  3. Add GitHub MCP server configuration:
json
{
  "servers": {
    "github": {
      "url": "https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/",
      "requestInit": {
        "headers": {
          "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_GITHUB_PAT"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}
  1. Click the "Apply and Close" button in the preference dialog and the configuration will take effect automatically.

Local Server

For users who prefer to run the GitHub MCP server locally. Requires Docker installed and running.

Configuration

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:

json
{
  "servers": {
    "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):

json
{
  "servers": {
    "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"
      }
    }
  }
}

Documentation: Eclipse Copilot plugin

GitHub Personal Access Token

For PAT authentication, see our Personal Access Token documentation for setup instructions.

Usage

After setup:

  1. Restart your IDE completely
  2. Open Agent mode in Copilot Chat
  3. Try: "List recent issues in this repository"
  4. Copilot can now access GitHub data and perform repository operations

Troubleshooting

  • Connection issues: Verify GitHub PAT permissions and IDE version compatibility
  • Authentication errors: Check if your organization has enabled the MCP policy for Copilot
  • Tools not appearing: Restart IDE after configuration changes and check error logs
  • Local server issues: Ensure Docker is running for Docker-based setups