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GitHub MCP Server and Claude Desktop

Let’s see how to use GitHub MCP Server using Claude Desktop in the following steps:

Prerequisite

  • Docker Desktop
  • MCP Toolkit Enabled
  • GitHub Account
  • Claude Desktop installed on your system

Step 1: Create a GitHub Personal Access Token (PAT)

  • Go to GitHub.com and sign in to your account
  • Click your profile picture in the top-right corner
  • Select "Settings"
  • Scroll down to "Developer settings" in the left sidebar
  • Click on "Personal access tokens" → "Tokens (classic)"
  • Click "Generate new token" → "Generate new token (classic)"
  • Give your token a descriptive name like "Docker MCP GitHub Access"
  • Select the following scopes (permissions):
  • repo (Full control of private repositories)
  • workflow (if you need workflow actions)
  • read:org (if you need organization access)
  • Click "Generate token"

Step 2: Configure the GitHub MCP Server in Docker

  • Open Docker Desktop
  • Navigate to the MCP Server
  • Find the GitHub (official) card and click on it to expand details.

image

Alternatively, you can even set it up using docker mcp CLI as shown below:

In your terminal, set up the GitHub token as a secret:

docker mcp secret set GITHUB.PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN=github_pat_YOUR_TOKEN_HERE

For example:

docker mcp secret set GITHUB.PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN=github_pat_XXXXMRCAXXXXXXxEp_QRZW43Wo1k6KYWwDXXXXXXXXGPXLZ7EGEnse82YM
Info: No policy specified, using default policy

Step 3. Configure Claude Desktop

Open MCP Client > Click "Connect"

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Step 4. Restart the Claude Desktop

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{
  "mcpServers":{
       "MCP_DOCKER":
          {
            "command":
                "docker",
                     "args":["mcp","gateway","run"]
       }
   }
}

Step 5. Verify if MCP_DOCKER gets added to the Claude Desktop

image

Step 6. Start chatting with your GitHub repository

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