GitHub Notifications MCP Server

Connect GitHub Notifications to Claude, Cursor or any other MCP client and it stops being a tab you switch to. An MCP server for the github notifications API for the OSS maintainer. The github notifications mcp server is what makes that connection.

What the server does

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that provides tools for managing GitHub notifications. This server allows AI assistants like Claude to help you manage your GitHub notifications through natural language commands.

• List and filter your GitHub notifications
• Mark notifications as read
• View notification thread details
• Subscribe or unsubscribe from notification threads
• Mark threads as done
• Manage repository-specific notifications

Available tools

The toolset is worth reading before you wire it up, because it tells you what the integration is really for:

• list-notifications — List all GitHub notifications for the authenticated user
• mark-notifications-read — Mark all notifications as read
• get-thread — Get information about a notification thread
• mark-thread-read — Mark a specific thread as read
• mark-thread-done — Mark a thread as done
• get-thread-subscription — Get subscription status for a thread
• set-thread-subscription — Subscribe to a thread
• delete-thread-subscription — Unsubscribe from a thread
• list-repo-notifications — List notifications for a specific repository
• mark-repo-notifications-read — Mark notifications for a repository as read
• manage-repo-subscription — Manage repository subscriptions: all_activity, default (participating and @mentions), or ignore (mute)
• Building — The Building tool exposed by this server

Credentials and setup notes

Configuration is passed through the environment: GITHUB_TOKEN. Treat anything key-shaped as a real credential — scope it to the minimum the server needs, and rotate it if it ever lands in a shared config.

• Node.js 18 or higher - GitHub Personal Access Token (classic) with notifications or repo scope

Installation

Setup follows the usual MCP pattern — install or clone the server, register it in your client's configuration file, restart the client.

Where it fits

This sits in the developer tooling group, where several servers overlap in what they claim to do but differ sharply once you actually set them up. GitHub Notifications's toolset — list-notifications, mark-notifications-read, get-thread and 10 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by mcollina; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.

This entry was verified against GitHub Notifications's own documentation before publication; SyncDev keeps the directory reviewed rather than auto-generated.

Worth knowing first

• It runs with your machine's permissions. That is convenient and also the reason to think about what you point it at before you approve a tool call.
• With 13 tools registered it takes up a noticeable share of the context window; turn it off in projects that never touch GitHub Notifications.
• Missing credentials fail quietly in some clients — if no tools show up, check the environment block first.
• Keep per-call confirmation enabled while you learn its behaviour; it is the cheapest safeguard you have.