Getting access to orgs using the Remote MCP

[vincentmvdm]

I'm currently connecting to the Remote MCP server using GitHub App OAuth, but the LLM seems to only know about my personal repositories. I want to give it access to my org's repositories too, but I'm not sure how. I imagine I could give it an installation token instead, but it feels like it'd then lose the user context.

I can't make out from the documentation how to approach this. OpenAI's Connector seems to use a hybrid flow — they request both an installation and a user token. It's not clear to me however how to then make sure the MCP can use both simultaneously.

Thanks!

[LuluBeatson]

Hi @vincentmvdm :)

An installation token (prefix ghs_) is generally not required for access to organisation resources. Installation tokens are also currently not supported by GitHub MCP Server.

It is possible to use OAuth or Personal Access Tokens (PAT) if allowed by the organisation's policies.

Additionally, if your organisation uses SSO, then the user will need to configure this during OAuth or when creating your PAT token:

OAuth

You will be prompted to authorize each org separately that you want the MCP server to access: If you already completed the OAuth flow but didn't configure SSO, you may need to uninstall then install the MCP server again to trigger the flow again.

PAT

After creating your token, click the "Configure SSO" dropdown:

Then, select the orgs to authorize:

I also want to call your attention to these caveats from the README:

⚠️ Public Preview Status: The remote GitHub MCP Server is currently in Public Preview. During preview, access may be gated depending on authentication type and surface:

• OAuth: Subject to GitHub Copilot Editor Preview Policy until GA
• PAT: Controlled via your organization's PAT policies
• MCP Servers in Copilot policy: Enables/disables access to all MCP servers in VS Code, with other Copilot editors migrating to this policy in the coming months.

Please let us know if this solves your issue :)

[vincentmvdm]

@LuluBeatson thanks so much, that's great to know! I'm still a bit confused as to how to let users grant access to their orgs. I'm using a GitHub App with OAuth. It triggers the single authorization screen below — at no point are users asked what org repos they want to share. Or asked to request that their org allows the app. As a result, the remote MCP server isn't able to see any org repos.

What do I need to do to trigger any org-related authorization steps? Is the key to also ask the user to install the app in their org after they OAuth? (which does seem to give the MCP the ability to view the org's repos.)

Screenshot from Claude but my authorization screen is identical:

[almaleksia]

Hey @vincentmvdm, you need to install the app on the org level and get a user access token for a GitHub App: https://docs.github.com/en/apps/creating-github-apps/authenticating-with-a-github-app/generating-a-user-access-token-for-a-github-app

If the app is installed on the org you will get access to the org repos using this token (if your user also has access to the org repos) so you don't need both user and installation token.