}

The GitHub MCP Server supports enabling or disabling specific groups of functionalities via the`--toolsets` flag. This allows you to control which GitHub API capabilities are available to your AI tools.

The following sets of tools are available (all are on by default):

| Toolset| Description|

| -----------------------| -------------------------------------------------------------|

|`repos`| Repository-related tools (file operations, branches, commits)|

|`issues`| Issue-related tools (create, read, update, comment)|

|`users`| Anything relating to GitHub Users|

|`pull_requests`| Pull request operations (create, merge, review)|

|`code_security`| Code scanning alerts and security features|

|`experiments`| Experimental features (not considered stable)|

To reduce the available tools, you can pass an allow-list in two ways:

1.**Using Command Line Argument**:

github-mcp-server --toolsets repos,issues,pull_requests,code_security

2.**Using Environment Variable**:

GITHUB_TOOLSETS="repos,issues,pull_requests,code_security" ./github-mcp-server

The environment variable`GITHUB_TOOLSETS` takes precedence over the command line argument if both are provided.

Any toolsets you specify will be enabled from the start, including when`--dynamic-toolsets` is on.

You might want to do this if the model is confused about which tools to call and you only require a subset.

When using Docker, you can pass the toolsets as environment variables:

docker run -i --rm \

-e GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN=<your-token> \

-e GITHUB_TOOLSETS="repos,issues,pull_requests,code_security,experiments" \

ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server

The special toolset`all` can be provided to enable all available toolsets regardless of any other configuration:

./github-mcp-server --toolsets all

Or using the environment variable:

GITHUB_TOOLSETS="all" ./github-mcp-server

Instead of starting with all tools enabled, you can turn on Dynamic Toolset Discovery.

This feature provides tools that help the MCP Host application to discover and enable sets of GitHub tools only when needed.

This helps to avoid situations where models get confused by the shear number of tools available to them, which varies by model.

When using the binary, you can pass the`--dynamic-toolsets` flag.

./github-mcp-server --dynamic-toolsets

When using Docker, you can pass the toolsets as environment variables:

docker run -i --rm \

-e GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN=<your-token> \

-e GITHUB_DYNAMIC_TOOLSETS=1 \

ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server

The flag`--gh-host` and the environment variable`GH_HOST` can be used to set

-**create_or_update_file** - Create or update a single file in a repository

-`owner`: Repository owner (string, required)

-`repo`: Repository name (string, required)

-`path`: File path (string, required)

-`sha`: File SHA if updating (string, optional)

-**list_branches** - List branches in a GitHub repository

-`owner`: Repository owner (string, required)

-`repo`: Repository name (string, required)

-`page`: Page number (number, optional)

-`perPage`: Results per page (number, optional)

-**push_files** - Push multiple files in a single commit

-`owner`: Repository owner (string, required)

-`repo`: Repository name (string, required)

-`branch`: Branch to push to (string, required)

-`files`: Files to push, each with path and content (array, required)

-`message`: Commit message (string, required)

-**search_repositories** - Search for GitHub repositories

-`query`: Search query (string, required)

-`sort`: Sort field (string, optional)

-`order`: Sort order (string, optional)

-`page`: Page number (number, optional)

-`perPage`: Results per page (number, optional)

-**create_repository** - Create a new GitHub repository

-`name`: Repository name (string, required)

-`description`: Repository description (string, optional)

-`private`: Whether the repository is private (boolean, optional)

-`autoInit`: Auto-initialize with README (boolean, optional)

-**get_file_contents** - Get contents of a file or directory

-`owner`: Repository owner (string, required)

-`repo`: Repository name (string, required)

-`path`: File path (string, required)

-`ref`: Git reference (string, optional)

-**fork_repository** - Fork a repository

-`owner`: Repository owner (string, required)

-`repo`: Repository name (string, required)

-`organization`: Target organization name (string, optional)

-**create_branch** - Create a new branch

-`owner`: Repository owner (string, required)

-`repo`: Repository name (string, required)

-`branch`: New branch name (string, required)

-`page`: Page number, for files in the commit (number, optional)

-`perPage`: Results per page, for files in the commit (number, optional)

-**search_code** - Search for code across GitHub repositories

-**search_code** - Search for code across GitHub repositories

-`query`: Search query (string, required)

-`sort`: Sort field (string, optional)

-`order`: Sort order (string, optional)

-`page`: Page number (number, optional)

-`perPage`: Results per page (number, optional)

-**search_users** - Search for GitHub users

-`query`: Search query (string, required)

-`sort`: Sort field (string, optional)