Connect your AI Agents to GitHub in minutes

How can I use the GitHub MCP server?

Here are just a few use cases worth implementing:

• Monitor pull request activity across repositories. Your agent can track all open pull requests across multiple repositories and send daily summaries to your team's Slack channel, highlighting PRs that need review, are blocked, or have been open longer than your team's SLA
  

• Automate code review coordination. Your agent can analyze PR content, automatically request reviews from the appropriate team members based on file paths and code ownership, and send reminders to reviewers when PRs are waiting for feedback
  

• Link development work to business objectives. Your agent can combine GitHub commit and PR data with your project management tool to show leadership how engineering work maps to product roadmap items, helping them understand resource allocation and velocity toward strategic goals
  

• Streamline issue management from communication tools. Your agent can help users create, update, and track GitHub issues directly from Slack or Microsoft Teams, allowing developers to triage bugs, assign tasks, and update statuses without context-switching between tools
  

What are popular tools for GitHub’s MCP server?

Here are some popular tools across data types:

Issues

• <code class="blog_inline-code">get_issues</code>
• <code class="blog_inline-code">search_issues</code>
• <code class="blog_inline-code">close_issue</code>
• <code class="blog_inline-code">add_labels_to_issue</code>

Pull requests (PRs)

• <code class="blog_inline-code">get_pull_requests</code>
• <code class="blog_inline-code">create_pull_requests</code>
• <code class="blog_inline-code">update_pull_requests</code>
• <code class="blog_inline-code">reopen_pull_request</code>

Repositories

• <code class="blog_inline-code">get_repository</code>
• <code class="blog_inline-code">create_repository</code>
• <code class="blog_inline-code">update_repository</code>
• <code class="blog_inline-code">delete_repository</code>

What makes Merge Agent Handler’s GitHub MCP server better than alternative GitHub MCP servers?

Merge Agent Handler provides several platform-level advantages over standalone MCP servers:

• Enterprise-grade security and DLP: All GitHub tool inputs and outputs are scanned by Merge Agent Handler’s Security Gateway, which can block, redact, or mask sensitive data based on configurable rules. This allows you to enforce data governance policies consistently across all agent interactions
  

• Managed authentication and credential handling: Merge Agent Handler supports guided authentication flows, credential storage, and both individual and shared authentication models, removing the need to implement OAuth or token handling yourself
  

• Real-time observability and audit trails: Every GitHub tool call is logged with a complete, fully-searchable audit trail, enabling debugging, compliance reviews, and performance optimization from a single dashboard
  

• Tool Pack management and customization: GitHub tools can be bundled with other connectors into Tool Packs, allowing you to control exactly which tools an agent can access per use case, without changing agent logic
  

Can I set custom security rules for GitHub tool calls in Merge Agent Handler?

Yes, you can set custom security rules for any GitHub tool calls to block or redact sensitive data. You can also log tool calls, allowing the agent to make them while providing your team with real-time visibility whenever this happens.

Here are some specific examples:

• Block your agents from creating or updating pull requests, issues, or commits with API keys, access tokens, or credentials in titles, descriptions, comments, or code content
  

• Automatically redact sensitive data patterns like internal IP addresses, database connection strings, or proprietary algorithms when your agents retrieve or display code, PR descriptions, or issue details, so they only see masked versions
  

• Monitor and log whenever your agents attempt to push code or create PRs containing sensitive terms like "password", "secret", or "private key" in file names or content, giving your security team visibility without blocking the action
  

• Block your agents from creating GitHub issues or PR descriptions with confidential project codenames, customer names under NDA, or internal-only labels that shouldn't be visible in your repositories

How can I start using Merge Agent Handler’s GitHub MCP server?

Here are all the steps you’ll need to take to integrate your agent with the MCP server:

1. Create a free Agent Handler account. Sign up here to access the Agent Handler dashboard.

2. Create a Tool Pack. Tool Packs define which connectors and tools your agent can access. This involves navigating to Tool Packs in the dashboard, clicking Create Tool Pack, adding the GitHub connector, and choosing  your authentication mode (Individual or Shared).

3. Set up a Registered User. Go to Registered Users in the dashboard; each Registered User represents a person or system identity that your agent runs as. When a user needs to authenticate with GitHub, Merge Agent Handler will automatically display a guided authorization prompt—no custom OAuth code required.

4. Test in the Playground. Before integrating into your app, validate everything works. This means opening the Sandbox for your Tool Pack and testing GitHub tool calls.

5. Integrate with your application. Connect your agent to Agent Handler to access the tools. You can do this in two ways:

• Via MCP config: Copy the MCP server configuration from your Tool Pack page and add it to your agent's MCP client settings. This gives your agent access to all configured tools through the Model Context Protocol
• Via API: Use Agent Handler's REST API to list available tools and invoke them programmatically. You'll need your Agent Handler API key, Tool Pack ID, and Registered User ID to authenticate requests