Custom GHES host names are not supported

[jtquip88]

Describe the bug

Currently, any hostname ending with "github.com" (such as "slack-github.com") is incorrectly identified as the public GitHub host github.com. This is because in parsAPiHost(), host's suffix is matched with github.com . As a result, all hosts that end with github.com are characterized as public github.com hosts instead of GHES.

Steps to reproduce the behavior

1. In the mcp tool's config, set GITHUB_HOST to custom GHES host. Eg abcd-github.com
   2.Run any tool. Eg. list_pull_requests

Expected vs actual behavior

Expected: MCP tool should use abcd-github.com/api/v3 rest api url.
Actual: MCP tool uses github.com/api/v3 rest api url.

[HK78-HAHA]

I had experienced the same issue.

[aozgaa]

I ran into this with connecting to another github enterprise instance with the name https://github.aq.tc. I tried configuring the hosted instance by setting the GITHUB_HOST environment variable when configuring the docker instance for use with claude code.

[jtquip88]

@aozgaa and @HK78-HAHA Sees like it's pretty easy to run into this issue if you're using enterprise github. Did the referenced PR/fix work for your use case?

[aozgaa]

I totally jumped the gun -- the problem was that I wasn't including the env var GITHUB_HOST in the docker run command. After including it with a config like the following, everything works as expected:

{
  "command": "docker",
  "args": [
    "run",
    "-i",
    "--rm",
    "-e",
    "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN",
    "-e",
    "GITHUB_HOST",
    "ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server"
  ],
  "env": {
    "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "ghp_<redacted>",
    "GITHUB_HOST": "https://un5q021ctkzx6m20je8dmn0.julianrbryant.com"
  }
}

This shouldn't bear on the originally reported issue, which seems to trigger a specific codepath that my case shouldn't. Apologies for the confusion.

[marcellodesales]

Still have the same issue... The dangerous with the docker images without tagging is that any new version may remove a previous supported feature without a proper tagging/versioning... Everyone claims it's working, when it's really apparent it's not... Where's the current problem?

🔧 Settings with GITHUB_HOST != github.com

{
  "github-viasat": {
    "command": "docker",
    "args": [
      "run",
      "-i",
      "--rm",
      "-e",
      "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN",
      "-e",
      "GITHUB_HOST",
      "ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server"
    ],
    "env": {
      "GITHUB_HOST": "https://github.company.com",
      "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "gh****PV"
    },
    "working_directory": null
  }
}

🔴 Incorrect MCP API call going to github.com

2025-09-02 15:57:36.905 | [info] MCP CLI: Sending request: {"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":174,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"get_pull_request_status","arguments":{"owner":"secrm","pullNumber":262.0,"repo":"vicli/"}}}
2025-09-02 15:57:37.052 | [info] MCP CLI: Received response: {"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":174,"error":{"code":-32603,"message":"failed to get pull request: GET https://un5my6tpgjf94hmrq01g.julianrbryant.com/repos/secrm/vicli/pulls/262: 401 Bad credentials []"}}

[marcellodesales]

Solution

• The current version is working, but users who had pulled the docker image before will fall into the problem
  • If you MCP client doesn't pull images before running, then this will result in the problem described above

$ docker pull ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server
Using default tag: latest
latest: Pulling from github/github-mcp-server
da88a3b79f2c: Pull complete
bfb59b82a9b6: Pull complete
4eff9a62d888: Pull complete
62de241dac5f: Pull complete
a62778643d56: Pull complete
7c12895b777b: Pull complete
3214acf345c0: Pull complete
5664b15f108b: Pull complete
0bab15eea81d: Pull complete
4aa0ea1413d3: Pull complete
da7816fa955e: Pull complete
ddf74a63f7d8: Pull complete
7faf6706c0c2: Pull complete
6ee9adc7733a: Pull complete
76a77595d36b: Pull complete
67f791c3ab27: Pull complete
Digest: sha256:ecc5810a7d76404c03c504d5ff6868cb9aa5b8e31f3e6aaf9ddf453d5a239d34
Status: Downloaded newer image for ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server:latest
ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server:latest

⌨️ MCP Client Terminal

• Verify if the listed tools from the MCP client is aligned to the current version
  • Using a docker tag to the mcp client declaration will help determining the current docker image used
• In my case above, the docker image is using the "latest", but in Docker image terms, the docker engine will NOT pull the latest version

tail -f "/Users/mdesales/Library/Application Support/dev.warp.Warp-Stable/mcp/bg6UHOV5u9mIyVB4yztzq0.log"
            name: "github-mcp-server",
            version: "v0.1.1",
        },
        instructions: None,
    },
)

• I could see now that the connection was using the proper server config

2025-09-11 10:28:22.891 | [info] MCP [pid: 32258] stderr: time=2025-09-11T17:28:22.886Z level=INFO msg="starting server" version=v0.14.0 host=https://un5q022ggypt6wu3.julianrbryant.com dynamicToolsets=false readOnly=false
GitHub MCP Server running on stdio

🔧 Suggested Config

• Grab the tag for a version that aligns with the released versions at the github docker registry for this image

https://github.com/github/github-mcp-server/pkgs/container/github-mcp-server/versions?filters%5Bversion_type%5D=tagged

• Then, configure the docker image setting in the MCP Client config

Tip

• I'm setting the version to sha-0c5cfc3 to lock in the version I want to use
• With the latest tag, make sure to constantly perform docker pull

{
  "github-company": {
    "command": "docker",
    "args": [
      "run",
      "-i",
      "--rm",
      "-e",
      "GITHUB_HOST",
      "-e",
      "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN",
      "ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server:sha-0c5cfc3"
    ],
    "env": {
      "GITHUB_HOST": "https://github.company.com",
      "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "ghp_E****47"
    },
    "working_directory": null
  }
}

✅ Testing

• Issue questions to the LLM to use the MCP tool

[tonytrg]

Closing this one since it seems resolved.

[SamMorrowDrums]

👋 We're actively looking at improving GHES support for the MCP server! If you have thoughts on GHES-specific needs, please share your feedback in this discussion. 🙏

[jtquip88]

Unfortunately, this is till not closed. My organization has a github url like https://{org_name}-github.com. I can see the docker container is intialized with the right env variables for github_host, token etc. But, the api rest url is being resolved as https://api.github.com instead of https://api.{org_name}-github.com. Upon checking the code, it's pretty obvious why that is happening. It's this line, where we check if host suffix is github.com and then use the default api url instead of using the one that is passed as env variable. I request this issue be re-opened. I am happy to raise a PR for it.