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jamie edited this page May 2, 2025 · 1 revision

Configuration

GitHub CLI MCP can be configured through a JSON configuration file or command-line arguments.

Configuration File

Create a JSON configuration file (e.g., gh-cli-mcp.config.json) with the following structure:

{
  "sessionTimeout": 1800000,
  "permissions": {
    "allow": [
      "mcp__github__gh_pr_list",
      "mcp__github__gh_pr_view",
      "mcp__github__gh_pr_create",
      "mcp__github__gh_pr_close",
      "mcp__github__gh_issue_list",
      "mcp__github__gh_issue_view",
      "mcp__github__gh_issue_create",
      "mcp__github__gh_issue_close",
      "mcp__github__gh_repo_view",
      "mcp__github__gh_repo_list",
      "mcp__github__gh_project_create",
      "mcp__github__gh_project_list",
      "mcp__github__gh_project_view"
    ],
    "deny": []
  }
}

Configuration Options

Option Description Default
sessionTimeout Timeout for inactive sessions (milliseconds) 1800000 (30 minutes)
permissions.allow List of allowed tool names (empty array means all tools are allowed) []
permissions.deny List of denied tool names []

Example Configuration Files

Default Configuration

To use default settings, create a minimal configuration file:

{
  "sessionTimeout": 1800000
}

Restricted Access

To restrict access to only specific tools:

{
  "sessionTimeout": 1800000,
  "permissions": {
    "allow": [
      "mcp__github__gh_pr_list",
      "mcp__github__gh_issue_list",
      "mcp__github__gh_repo_view"
    ],
    "deny": []
  }
}

Specific Denials

To deny access to specific tools:

{
  "sessionTimeout": 1800000,
  "permissions": {
    "allow": [],
    "deny": [
      "mcp__github__gh_pr_create",
      "mcp__github__gh_issue_create"
    ]
  }
}

Specifying the Configuration File

You can specify the configuration file path using the --config command-line option:

gh-cli-mcp --config ./my-config.json

If no configuration file is specified, GitHub CLI MCP will look for a file named gh-cli-mcp.config.json in the current working directory.

Command-Line Overrides

Command-line arguments take precedence over configuration file settings. For example:

gh-cli-mcp --session-timeout 3600000

This would set the session timeout to 3600000 milliseconds (1 hour), regardless of what is specified in the configuration file.

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