get_file_contents

Retrieve file or directory contents from a GitHub repository by specifying owner, repo, and path parameters.

Instructions

Get the contents of a file or directory from a GitHub repository

Input Schema

TableJSON Schema

Name	Required	Description
`owner`	Yes	Repository owner (username or organization)
`repo`	Yes	Repository name
`path`	Yes	Path to the file or directory
`encoded`	No	Whether to return the content encoded in base64 (default = true)
`branch`	No	Branch to get contents from

Implementation Reference

src/operations/files.ts:85-105 (handler)

Core handler function that fetches file or directory contents from GitHub repository using the Contents API, optionally decoding base64 content to UTF-8.

export async function getFileContents(
  { github_pat, owner, repo, path, encoded = false, branch }: z.infer<
    typeof _GetFileContentsSchema
  >,
) {
  let url = `https://api.github.com/repos/${owner}/${repo}/contents/${path}`;
  if (branch) {
    url += `?ref=${branch}`;
  }

  const response = await githubRequest(github_pat, url);
  const data = GitHubContentSchema.parse(response);

  // If it's a file, decode the content?
  if (!Array.isArray(data) && data.content && !encoded) {
    data.content = Buffer.from(data.content, "base64").toString("utf8");
    data.encoding = "utf8";
  }

  return data;
}

src/index.ts:375-403 (handler)

MCP server dispatch handler for 'get_file_contents' tool: validates input, invokes the core getFileContents function, and formats a user-friendly text response.

      case "get_file_contents": {
        const args = files._GetFileContentsSchema.parse(params.arguments);
        const contents = await files.getFileContents(args);
        let text = '';
        if (Array.isArray(contents)) {
          // this means it's a directory
          text = `Directory Contents:\n${contents.map(c => `- ${c.path} (${c.type}, ${c.type === 'file' ? c.size.toString() + ' bytes' : ''})`).join('\n')}`
        } else {
          // this means it's a singular file
          text = 
`File Name: ${contents.name}
File Path: ${contents.path}
File SHA: ${contents.sha}
File Size: ${contents.size}
File URL: ${contents.url}
File HTML URL: ${contents.html_url}
File Download URL: ${contents.download_url}
File Type: ${contents.type}
File Encoding: ${contents.encoding}
File Content:
\`\`\`
${contents.content}
\`\`\`
`
        }
        return {
          content: [{ type: "text", text }],
        };
      }

src/operations/files.ts:32-42 (schema)

Zod input schemas for the get_file_contents tool: public schema (GetFileContentsSchema) used in registration and internal schema (_GetFileContentsSchema) with GitHub PAT used in handler.

export const GetFileContentsSchema = z.object({
  owner: z.string().describe("Repository owner (username or organization)"),
  repo: z.string().describe("Repository name"),
  path: z.string().describe("Path to the file or directory"),
  encoded: z.boolean().optional().describe("Whether to return the content encoded in base64 (default = true)"),
  branch: z.string().optional().describe("Branch to get contents from"),
});

export const _GetFileContentsSchema = GetFileContentsSchema.extend({
  github_pat: z.string().describe("GitHub Personal Access Token"),
});

src/index.ts:94-97 (registration)

Registration of the 'get_file_contents' tool in the MCP server's listTools response, specifying name, description, and input schema.

  name: "get_file_contents",
  description: "Get the contents of a file or directory from a GitHub repository",
  inputSchema: zodToJsonSchema(files.GetFileContentsSchema),
},

mcp-github