Connect GitHub

This guide will help you connect your agent to GitHub. Once it is done, you can ask your agent what changed in a project this week, look up an issue or open a new one, from anywhere you talk to your agent.

Unlike Notion, GitHub does not let you sign in with a button. Instead, you create a personal access token on GitHub, which works like a password that only your agent uses, and paste it into your agent's settings.

1Create a personal access token

1. Open github.com/settings/personal-access-tokens/new. You can also get there from Settings → Developer settings → Personal access tokens → Fine-grained tokens → Generate new token.
2. Give the token a name you will recognise, such as the name of your agent.
3. Choose an Expiration. When the token expires, your agent loses access to GitHub until you create a new one.
4. Under Repository access, choose which repositories your agent can see. We recommend Only select repositories and picking just the ones you want to ask about.
5. Under Permissions, add the permissions your agent needs. For most people, these are enough:
   • Contents: Read-only, so your agent can read files and commits.
   • Issues: Read and write, so your agent can read and open issues.
   • Pull requests: Read and write, so your agent can read and comment on pull requests.

   If you only want to ask questions and never want your agent to change anything, choose Read-only for all of them.

6. Click Generate token.
7. Copy the token. It starts with github_pat_, and GitHub will only show it to you once.

2Add GitHub to your agent

Open your agent, go to Capabilities and scroll down to MCP servers.

1. Click the GitHub icon. A form opens with the name and URL already filled in, and API key selected.
2. In the first box, enter Authorization.
3. In the second box, enter Bearer followed by a space and your token, for example Bearer github_pat_11AB….
4. Click Add.

Your agent connects to GitHub straight away, and the GitHub card shows how many tools it has.

3Choose which tools to keep

GitHub offers your agent a lot of tools. Click Select recommended on the GitHub card to keep only the ones your agent is likely to need. Read Must read: Managing costs and MCP tools to understand why this matters.

You are done

Ask your agent something about one of your repositories, for example "What issues were opened on my project this week?".

Footnotes

1. If the GitHub card shows an error, check that the second box starts with Bearer followed by the whole token, and that the token has not expired.
2. When your token expires, create a new one, open the GitHub card, paste the new token into the second box and click Save headers.
3. Repositories that belong to an organisation may need the organisation's approval before a fine-grained token can access them.