GitHub MCP Remote Server Tools Report - 2025-10-17

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GitHub MCP Remote Server Tools Report

Generated: 2025-10-17
MCP Mode: Remote
Toolsets: All
Previous Report: 2025-10-17

Executive Summary

• Total Tools Discovered: 49
• Toolset Categories: 5 active (out of 18 available)
• Report Date: 2025-10-17
• Changes Since Last Report: No changes detected

Inconsistency Detection

Toolset Integrity Checks

✅ All tools are properly categorized with no detected inconsistencies.

Validation Summary:

• Duplicate Tools: None detected - all tool names are unique across toolsets
• Miscategorized Tools: None detected - all tools are appropriately assigned to their functional toolsets
• Naming Inconsistencies: None detected - all tools follow consistent snake_case naming convention
• Orphaned Tools: None detected - all 49 tools belong to clearly defined toolsets
• Missing Expected Tools: Not applicable - current tool set is complete for the 5 active toolsets

Notable Observations:

• Only 5 out of 18 possible toolsets have active tools in the current configuration
• 13 toolsets (context, actions, code_security, dependabot, discussions, experiments, gists, notifications, orgs, projects, secret_protection, security_advisories, stargazers) appear to have no tools or are not enabled
• The context toolset is mentioned in documentation but may provide environment variables/metadata rather than callable tools

Changes Since Last Report

No tools were added, removed, or moved since the last report.

All 49 tools across 5 toolsets remain unchanged:

• pull_requests: 13 tools (unchanged)
• issues: 13 tools (unchanged)
• repos: 17 tools (unchanged)
• labels: 2 tools (unchanged)
• users: 4 tools (unchanged)

Tools by Toolset

Pull Requests Toolset (13 tools)

Tools for managing pull requests, reviews, and PR workflows.

Tool Name	Purpose	Key Parameters
add_comment_to_pending_review	Add review comment to pending PR review	owner, repo, pullNumber, path, body, subjectType
create_and_submit_pull_request_review	Create and submit a PR review without review comments	owner, repo, pullNumber, body, event, commitID
create_pending_pull_request_review	Create a pending review before adding comments	owner, repo, pullNumber, commitID
create_pull_request	Create a new pull request	owner, repo, title, head, base, body, draft
delete_pending_pull_request_review	Delete the latest pending PR review	owner, repo, pullNumber
list_pull_requests	List pull requests with filtering	owner, repo, state, base, head, sort, direction
merge_pull_request	Merge a pull request	owner, repo, pullNumber, merge_method, commit_title
pull_request_read	Get PR information (details, diff, status, files, reviews)	owner, repo, pullNumber, method
request_copilot_review	Request GitHub Copilot code review for a PR	owner, repo, pullNumber
search_pull_requests	Search for PRs using issues search syntax	query, owner, repo, sort, order
submit_pending_pull_request_review	Submit the latest pending PR review	owner, repo, pullNumber, event, body
update_pull_request	Update an existing pull request	owner, repo, pullNumber, title, body, state, base
update_pull_request_branch	Update PR branch with latest changes from base	owner, repo, pullNumber, expectedHeadSha

Use Cases:

• Creating and managing pull requests
• Conducting code reviews with line-specific comments
• Requesting automated Copilot reviews
• Searching across repositories for PRs matching criteria
• Managing PR lifecycle from creation to merge

Issues Toolset (13 tools)

Tools for creating, managing, and searching issues.

Tool Name	Purpose	Key Parameters
add_issue_comment	Add a comment to a specific issue	owner, repo, issue_number, body
add_sub_issue	Add a sub-issue to a parent issue	owner, repo, issue_number, sub_issue_id
assign_copilot_to_issue	Assign Copilot to create a PR for an issue	owner, repo, issueNumber
create_issue	Create a new issue	owner, repo, title, body, assignees, labels, type
get_issue	Get details of a specific issue	owner, repo, issue_number
get_issue_comments	Get comments for a specific issue	owner, repo, issue_number, page, perPage
list_issue_types	List supported issue types for organization	owner
list_issues	List issues with filtering and pagination	owner, repo, state, labels, since, orderBy, direction
list_sub_issues	List sub-issues for a parent issue	owner, repo, issue_number, page, per_page
remove_sub_issue	Remove a sub-issue from a parent issue	owner, repo, issue_number, sub_issue_id
reprioritize_sub_issue	Reprioritize a sub-issue position	owner, repo, issue_number, sub_issue_id, after_id/before_id
search_issues	Search for issues using search syntax	query, owner, repo, sort, order
update_issue	Update an existing issue	owner, repo, issue_number, title, body, state, assignees

Use Cases:

• Project management and task tracking
• Bug reporting and tracking
• Issue triage and organization
• Sub-issue management for complex tasks
• Automated Copilot-assisted issue resolution

Repos Toolset (17 tools)

Tools for repository operations, file management, and code search.

Tool Name	Purpose	Key Parameters
create_branch	Create a new branch	owner, repo, branch, from_branch
create_or_update_file	Create or update a single file remotely	owner, repo, path, content, message, branch, sha
create_repository	Create a new GitHub repository	name, description, private, organization, autoInit
delete_file	Delete a file from repository	owner, repo, path, message, branch
fork_repository	Fork a repository to your account/org	owner, repo, organization
get_commit	Get details for a specific commit	owner, repo, sha, include_diff
get_file_contents	Get contents of a file or directory	owner, repo, path, ref, sha
get_latest_release	Get the latest release	owner, repo
get_release_by_tag	Get a specific release by tag name	owner, repo, tag
get_tag	Get details about a specific git tag	owner, repo, tag
list_branches	List branches in repository	owner, repo, page, perPage
list_commits	Get list of commits for a branch	owner, repo, sha, author, page, perPage
list_releases	List releases in repository	owner, repo, page, perPage
list_tags	List git tags in repository	owner, repo, page, perPage
push_files	Push multiple files in a single commit	owner, repo, branch, files[], message
search_code	Search code across ALL GitHub repositories	query, sort, order
search_repositories	Find repositories by metadata	query, sort, order, minimal_output

Use Cases:

• Repository creation and management
• File operations (create, update, delete)
• Branch and tag management
• Code search across GitHub
• Release management
• Commit history analysis

Users Toolset (4 tools)

Tools for user and team information.

Tool Name	Purpose	Key Parameters
get_me	Get details of authenticated GitHub user	(none)
get_team_members	Get member usernames of a specific team	org, team_slug
get_teams	Get teams the user is a member of	user
search_users	Find GitHub users by profile information	query, sort, order

Use Cases:

• User authentication and identity verification
• Team membership management
• User discovery and search
• Permission context understanding

Labels Toolset (2 tools)

Tools for managing labels.

Tool Name	Purpose	Key Parameters
get_label	Get a specific label from repository	owner, repo, name
list_label	List labels from repository or issue	owner, repo, issue_number

Use Cases:

• Label discovery and listing
• Label metadata retrieval
• Issue and PR categorization support

Usage Examples

Example 1: Comprehensive PR Workflow

# Create a feature branch, make changes, and open a PR with Copilot review
tools:
  github:
    mode: "remote"
    toolset: [repos, pull_requests]

# Workflow:
# 1. create_branch(owner="myorg", repo="myrepo", branch="feature-xyz", from_branch="main")
# 2. create_or_update_file(owner="myorg", repo="myrepo", path="src/feature.js",
#                          content="...", message="Add feature", branch="feature-xyz")
# 3. create_pull_request(owner="myorg", repo="myrepo", title="Add feature XYZ",
#                        head="feature-xyz", base="main", body="Description...")
# 4. request_copilot_review(owner="myorg", repo="myrepo", pullNumber=123)

Example 2: Issue Management with Sub-Issues

# Create a parent issue and organize work with sub-issues
tools:
  github:
    mode: "remote"
    toolset: [issues]

# Workflow:
# 1. create_issue(owner="myorg", repo="myrepo", title="Implement Feature X",
#                 body="Description...", labels=["enhancement"])
# 2. create_issue(owner="myorg", repo="myrepo", title="Task 1: Design",
#                 body="Design phase", labels=["task"])
# 3. add_sub_issue(owner="myorg", repo="myrepo", issue_number=100, sub_issue_id=101)
# 4. list_sub_issues(owner="myorg", repo="myrepo", issue_number=100)

Example 3: Code Search and Analysis

# Search for code patterns across repositories
tools:
  github:
    mode: "remote"
    toolset: [repos]
    read-only: true

# Workflow:
# 1. search_code(query="function handleError language:javascript org:myorg")
# 2. get_file_contents(owner="myorg", repo="myrepo", path="src/utils/error.js")
# 3. list_commits(owner="myorg", repo="myrepo", path="src/utils/error.js")

Recommended Default Toolsets

Based on the analysis of available tools and their usage patterns, the following toolsets are recommended as defaults when no toolset is specified:

Recommended Defaults: repos, issues, pull_requests, users

Rationale:

• repos (17 tools): Essential for all repository interactions including file management, branches, commits, releases, tags, and code search. This is the foundation for most GitHub operations.
• issues (13 tools): Core issue management functionality including creating, updating, searching issues, managing sub-issues, and comments. Critical for task tracking and project management workflows.
• pull_requests (13 tools): Essential for PR workflows including creating, reviewing, merging PRs, and managing review comments. Fundamental for code collaboration.
• users (4 tools): User authentication information, team membership, and user search. Required for understanding context and permissions.

Note on context toolset: The context toolset is mentioned in documentation but provides environment variables/metadata rather than callable tools. It may be enabled by default for GitHub Actions context access.

Excluded from Defaults:

• labels (2 tools): While useful, this is a more specialized toolset with only 2 tools. Can be enabled explicitly when label management is needed.

Specialized Toolsets (enable explicitly when needed):

• actions: GitHub Actions workflows - Enable for workflow management tasks
• code_security: Code scanning alerts - Enable for security scanning workflows
• dependabot: Dependabot alerts - Enable for dependency management workflows
• discussions: GitHub Discussions - Enable for community engagement workflows
• notifications: User notifications - Enable for notification management
• orgs: Organization management - Enable for org-level administration
• projects: GitHub Projects - Enable for project board management
• secret_protection: Secret scanning - Enable for secret detection workflows
• security_advisories: Security advisories - Enable for vulnerability management
• stargazers: Repository stars - Enable for star tracking
• gists: Gist operations - Enable for gist management
• experiments: Experimental features - Enable cautiously, may be unstable

Toolset Configuration Reference

When configuring the GitHub MCP server in agentic workflows, you can enable specific toolsets:

tools:
  github:
    mode: "remote"  # or "local"
    toolset: [repos, issues, pull_requests, users]  # or [all]

Available toolset options:

• context - GitHub Actions context and environment (provides metadata)
• repos - Repository operations (17 tools)
• issues - Issue management (13 tools)
• pull_requests - Pull request operations (13 tools)
• users - User information (4 tools)
• labels - Label management (2 tools)
• actions - GitHub Actions workflows
• code_security - Code scanning alerts
• dependabot - Dependabot alerts
• discussions - GitHub Discussions
• experiments - Experimental features
• gists - Gist operations
• notifications - Notification management
• orgs - Organization operations
• projects - GitHub Projects
• secret_protection - Secret scanning
• security_advisories - Security advisories
• stargazers - Repository stars
• all - Enable all toolsets

Default Configuration (when no toolset is specified):

tools:
  github:
    mode: "remote"
    # Defaults to: toolset: [repos, issues, pull_requests, users]

Notes and Observations

Key Findings

1. Toolset Coverage: Only 5 out of 18 possible toolsets have active tools in the current configuration. This suggests either:

   • Other toolsets require specific configuration to activate
   • Other toolsets provide resources/context rather than tools
   • Other toolsets are in development or not yet available

2. Tool Distribution: The 49 tools are distributed across toolsets with reasonable balance:

   • Repos toolset (35% - 17 tools): Most comprehensive, covers core repository operations
   • Pull Requests toolset (27% - 13 tools): Complete PR lifecycle management
   • Issues toolset (27% - 13 tools): Comprehensive issue management with sub-issue support
   • Users toolset (8% - 4 tools): Essential authentication and team functionality
   • Labels toolset (4% - 2 tools): Minimal but sufficient for label operations

3. Naming Consistency: All tools follow consistent snake_case naming with clear verb-noun patterns:

   • Action verbs: create_, get_, list_, update_, delete_, add_, remove_, search_
   • Resource nouns: issue, pull_request, branch, file, commit, release, etc.

4. No Duplicates: Each tool has a unique name and clear ownership within its toolset. No functionality overlap detected.

5. Pagination Support: Many list and search tools support pagination with page and perPage parameters, enabling efficient handling of large datasets.

6. Copilot Integration: Notable integration with GitHub Copilot through:

   • assign_copilot_to_issue: Automated issue resolution
   • request_copilot_review: Automated code review

Recommendations

1. Use Recommended Defaults: For most workflows, the recommended defaults (repos, issues, pull_requests, users) provide comprehensive coverage of common GitHub operations.

2. Enable Specialized Toolsets On-Demand: Only enable additional toolsets when your workflow specifically requires them to minimize tool surface area.

3. Consider Read-Only Mode: For analysis and reporting workflows, use read-only: true to prevent accidental modifications.

4. Leverage Search Tools: The search_code, search_repositories, search_issues, and search_pull_requests tools are powerful for cross-repository operations.

5. Documentation Reference: Refer to .github/instructions/github-mcp-server.instructions.md for detailed tool documentation, parameters, and usage examples.

Methodology

• Discovery Method: Self-inspection of available tools in the GitHub MCP remote server
• MCP Configuration: Remote mode with all toolsets enabled
• Categorization: Based on GitHub API domains and functionality as provided by MCP server metadata
• Documentation: Derived
  [Content truncated due to length]

AI generated by GitHub MCP Remote Server Tools Report Generator

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This discussion was automatically closed because it was created by an agentic workflow more than 1 month ago.