github-readonly-mcp

A small, self-hosted MCP connector that gives Claude read-only access to your GitHub repos — including private ones. Which repos are reachable is determined entirely by the scope of the GitHub token you give it (see below), not by a list in the code. It exists because:

• Cowork's cloud sandbox blocks direct calls to api.github.com (you'll get 403 GitHub access to this repository is not enabled for this session).

• GitHub's own official remote MCP server (api.githubcopilot.com/mcp) needs a GitHub App OAuth flow that Claude's custom-connector UI doesn't support (it only takes an OAuth Client ID/Secret, not GitHub's flow).

• Broader third-party connectors grant read and write access, which is more than this needs.

This connector is deliberately narrow: it runs on Cloudflare Workers (free tier is plenty), gates access behind a single shared password + OAuth 2.1, and exposes exactly 7 read-only tools. The reachable repos are whatever the GitHub token can read — scope the token, not the code. There is no write path in the code at all — no create/update/delete/merge function exists anywhere, so it can't modify GitHub no matter what a model asks it to do.

Tools it exposes: list_repos, list_commits, list_branches, list_pull_requests, list_issues, get_file_contents, search_code.

Everything below has already been tested locally end-to-end (dynamic client registration → password-gated authorize → token exchange → authenticated MCP session → tools/list → tools/call, including a real 401 from GitHub with a placeholder token and a correctly-rejected malformed repo name). What's left is deploying it for real and connecting it to Claude.

1. Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ and npm (already used to build this).

• A free Cloudflare account: https://dash.cloudflare.com/sign-up

• A GitHub fine-grained personal access token, read-only. This token is the connector's only access boundary — it can read exactly the repos the token can, so scope it deliberately: https://github.com/settings/personal-access-tokens/new

  • Repository access: "Only select repositories" → pick exactly the repos you want reachable (or "All repositories" if you truly want full read access).

  • Permissions: Contents (Read-only), Metadata (Read-only), Pull requests (Read-only), Issues (Read-only). Don't grant anything else.

Related MCP server: Vindata MCP Server

2. Install dependencies

cd github-readonly-mcp
npm install

3. Log in to Cloudflare

npx wrangler login

This opens a browser to authorize the Wrangler CLI against your Cloudflare account.

4. Create the KV namespace

@cloudflare/workers-oauth-provider needs a KV namespace to store OAuth grants and token hashes (no secrets are stored in plaintext — just hashes).

npx wrangler kv namespace create OAUTH_KV

This prints something like:

[[kv_namespaces]]
binding = "OAUTH_KV"
id = "abcd1234...."

Copy that id value into wrangler.jsonc, replacing the placeholder:

"kv_namespaces": [
  { "binding": "OAUTH_KV", "id": "abcd1234...." }  // <- your real id here
],

5. Set the two secrets

These are never written to wrangler.jsonc or committed anywhere — they live only in Cloudflare's encrypted secret store.

npx wrangler secret put GITHUB_PAT
# paste your fine-grained GitHub PAT when prompted

npx wrangler secret put CONNECTOR_PASSWORD
# choose a real password — this is the one gate between the internet and
# your GitHub read tools, so make it a proper passphrase, not "test123"

6. (No allow-list to configure)

There is no repo allow-list in this connector: it can read any repo the GITHUB_PAT grants. The token you scoped in step 1 is the boundary — if you want to narrow what's reachable, narrow the token's repository access, then rotate it (step 5 / "Updating later"). The connector still validates that each repo argument is a well-formed "owner/name" before calling GitHub, so malformed values can't be used to reach unintended API paths.

7. Deploy

npm run deploy

Wrangler will print a URL like https://github-readonly-mcp.<your-subdomain>.workers.dev. That's your connector's base URL — save it, you'll need it in the next step.

Sanity-check it:

curl https://github-readonly-mcp.<your-subdomain>.workers.dev/health
# -> "github-readonly-mcp is running. Connect it to Claude as a custom connector."

8. Add it to Claude as a custom connector

1. In Claude, go to Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector.

2. Name it something like "GitHub (read-only)".

3. Remote MCP server URL: https://github-readonly-mcp.<your-subdomain>.workers.dev/mcp

4. Save. Claude will kick off the OAuth flow: it hits /register automatically, then opens the /authorize page in step 9.

9. Authorize it

You'll land on a small dark-themed page titled "Authorize Claude." Enter the CONNECTOR_PASSWORD you set in step 5 and submit. That's the only manual gate — after this, Claude holds a scoped OAuth token and can call the 7 tools directly.

10. Verify it works

Ask Claude something like "using the GitHub read-only connector, list recent commits on jpalvarezb/bonafe" and confirm it returns real commit data (not a 401). You can also ask it to list_repos to see everything the token can reach.

11. Tell me once it's connected

Once steps 1–10 are done, let me know — I'll delete and recreate the "Daily Schedule Review (cloud)" scheduled task so its connector list picks up this new one, then we'll run one more supervised test exercising list_commits / list_pull_requests / list_issues against your real repos with real credentials, to confirm the whole chain works end-to-end.

Updating later

Changed a tool, re-scoped the repos, or rotated the PAT? (Re-scoping the reachable repos now means issuing a new fine-grained token and rotating it — there's no list in the code to edit.)

npm run deploy          # code/config changes
npx wrangler secret put GITHUB_PAT   # to rotate the token

No need to touch the OAuth setup again — Claude's existing connection keeps working across redeploys as long as the KV namespace and secrets stay in place.

Security notes

• Read-only by construction, not by policy. There is no function in src/github.ts (or anywhere else) that issues a POST/PATCH/PUT/DELETE to GitHub. A prompt injection or a misbehaving model can't make this connector write to GitHub — the code to do so doesn't exist.

• The GitHub token is the access boundary. There is no repo allow-list; the connector can read exactly what the GITHUB_PAT can. Use a fine-grained, read-only token scoped to just the repos you want reachable. The connector does validate that each repo argument is a well-formed "owner/name" before calling GitHub, which prevents malformed values from being smuggled into unintended API paths — but that is an injection guard, not access control. Anyone who has the connector password can read every repo the token can, so keep both the token narrow and the password strong.

• Secrets never touch source control. GITHUB_PAT and CONNECTOR_PASSWORD are Cloudflare secrets (wrangler secret put), not vars in wrangler.jsonc, and .dev.vars is gitignored.

• One shared password, by design. The /authorize gate uses a single password rather than a full user-account system because this connector has exactly one legitimate caller — you, connecting your own Claude to your own GitHub data. If you ever want to share it with others, that authorize.ts gate is the one place to revisit.

Project layout

src/
  index.ts       OAuthProvider wiring: routes /authorize, /token, /register, /mcp
  authorize.ts   Password-gated consent page (the only manual step)
  mcp-agent.ts   MCP server: registers the 7 read-only tools
  github.ts      GitHub REST wrapper — GET-only, "owner/name" format-validated
  env.d.ts       Adds GITHUB_PAT/CONNECTOR_PASSWORD to wrangler's generated Env type
wrangler.jsonc   Worker config: DO binding, KV binding