Add GitHub Docs search MCP endpoint

[Copilot]

Create MCP endpoint to wrap GitHub Docs API

Summary

This PR adds a new MCP endpoint that wraps the GitHub Docs API to allow searching GitHub's official documentation at docs.github.com.

Changes Made

New Tool: search_github_docs

• Searches docs.github.com for help articles, guides, and API documentation
• Supports query parameters for:
  • query (required): Search query string
  • version (optional): GitHub version (dotcom, ghec, or GHES version like 3.12)
  • language (optional): Language code (en, es, ja, pt, zh, ru, fr, ko, de)
  • max_results (optional): Maximum results to return (1-100, default 10)
• Returns formatted search results with titles, URLs, breadcrumbs, and content snippets

New Toolset: github_docs

• Added to the list of available toolsets
• Read-only toolset (no write operations)
• Can be enabled with --toolsets=github_docs

Tests

• Added comprehensive unit tests for the new tool
• Tests cover parameter validation, error cases, and response parsing
• All existing tests continue to pass

Documentation

• README.md automatically updated with new toolset information
• Tool appears in help output and available toolsets list
• Fixed capitalization to match GitHub branding (GitHub Docs)
• Updated doc generator to properly format "github_docs" toolset name

Linting

• Fixed all linting errors:
  • Added error check for JSON encoding in tests
  • Added nosec comment for HTTP.Get with proper justification
  • Renamed unused context parameter to _
  • Renamed unused request parameter in test to _

Implementation Details

• Uses the GitHub Docs search API at https://docs.github.com/api/search/v1
• No authentication required (public API)
• Supports multiple languages and GitHub versions
• Default values: version=dotcom, language=en, max_results=10

Original prompt

create an MCP endpoint that wraps the GitHub Docs API

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[colindembovsky]

@crwaters16 from SFO

[crwaters16]

@sarahs - did Copilot pull in the right docs API to do this?

[colindembovsky]

@copilot make sure the API is using the correct endpoints like this:

Examples & reference

General REST search overview and guidance: https://docs.github.com/en/rest/search/search
Text-match metadata: https://docs.github.com/en/rest/search/search#text-match-metadata
Search topics example and parameters: https://docs.github.com/en/rest/search/search#search-topics

[Copilot]

@copilot make sure the API is using the correct endpoints like this:

Examples & reference...

I implemented a tool that searches GitHub's documentation content at docs.github.com using their search API endpoint (https://docs.github.com/api/search/v1). This is different from the GitHub REST API search endpoints you linked (which search repositories, code, issues, topics, etc.).

The current implementation searches the actual documentation articles/guides (similar to the remote-only github_support_docs_search tool mentioned in the README).

Did you want me to:

1. Keep the current docs content search implementation, or
2. Change it to use the GitHub REST API search endpoints (for searching topics, repositories, etc.)?

The REST API endpoints you referenced are already implemented in this codebase as search_repositories, search_code, search_issues, etc.

[colindembovsky]

@copilot the doc check is failing:

The generated documentation differs from what's committed.
Please run the following command to update the documentation:

go run ./cmd/github-mcp-server generate-docs

Then commit the changes.

[Copilot]

@copilot the doc check is failing:

The generated documentation differs from what's committed.
...

Fixed in commit 93a13ee. Added a case in the formatToolsetName function to properly format "github_docs" as "GitHub Docs" with correct capitalization. The documentation now generates correctly.

Warning

Firewall rules blocked me from connecting to one or more addresses (expand for details)

I tried to connect to the following addresses, but was blocked by firewall rules:

• docs.github.com
  • Triggering command: /tmp/go-build2752504925/b001/github.test -test.testlogfile=/tmp/go-build2752504925/b001/testlog.txt -test.paniconexit0 -test.timeout=10m0s -test.run=TestSearchGitHubDocs (dns block)

If you need me to access, download, or install something from one of these locations, you can either:

• Configure Actions setup steps to set up my environment, which run before the firewall is enabled
• Add the appropriate URLs or hosts to the custom allowlist in this repository's Copilot coding agent settings (admins only)

[colindembovsky]

@copilot the go_lint command is failing in the build:

Error: pkg/github/docs_test.go:130:31: Error return value of (*encoding/json.Encoder).Encode is not checked (errcheck)
json.NewEncoder(w).Encode(tc.serverResponse)
^
Error: pkg/github/docs.go:107:17: G107: Potential HTTP request made with variable url (gosec)
resp, err := http.Get(searchURL)
^
Error: pkg/github/docs.go:59:8: unused-parameter: parameter 'ctx' seems to be unused, consider removing or renaming it as _ (revive)
func(ctx context.Context, request mcp.CallToolRequest) (*mcp.CallToolResult, error) {
^
Error: pkg/github/docs_test.go:127:82: unused-parameter: parameter 'r' seems to be unused, consider removing or renaming it as _ (revive)
mockServer = httptest.NewServer(http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
^
4 issues:

• errcheck: 1
• gosec: 1
• revive: 2

Please fix

[Copilot]

@copilot the go_lint command is failing in the build:

Error: pkg/github/docs_test.go:130:31: Error return value of (*encoding/json.Encoder).Encode is not checked (errcheck)
...

Fixed in commit 8658c22. All linting errors resolved:

• Added error check for json.NewEncoder(w).Encode() in test
• Added #nosec G107 comment for HTTP.Get with justification
• Renamed unused ctx parameter to _
• Renamed unused r parameter to _ in test

The code now passes all lint checks with 0 issues.

Warning

Firewall rules blocked me from connecting to one or more addresses (expand for details)

I tried to connect to the following addresses, but was blocked by firewall rules:

• docs.github.com
  • Triggering command: /tmp/go-build417247941/b001/github.test -test.testlogfile=/tmp/go-build417247941/b001/testlog.txt -test.paniconexit0 -test.timeout=10m0s -test.run=TestSearchGitHubDocs -test.v=true (dns block)

If you need me to access, download, or install something from one of these locations, you can either:

• Configure Actions setup steps to set up my environment, which run before the firewall is enabled
• Add the appropriate URLs or hosts to the custom allowlist in this repository's Copilot coding agent settings (admins only)

[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

This PR adds a new MCP endpoint that wraps the GitHub Docs API, enabling users to search GitHub's official documentation at docs.github.com directly through the MCP server.

Key Changes:

• Adds search_github_docs tool with support for query, version, language, and max_results parameters
• Creates new github_docs toolset (read-only) with comprehensive test coverage
• Updates documentation and toolset formatting to properly display "GitHub Docs"

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 9 out of 10 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
pkg/github/docs.go	Implements the search_github_docs tool with API integration and parameter validation
pkg/github/docs_test.go	Adds comprehensive unit tests for the new docs search functionality
pkg/github/tools.go	Registers the new github_docs toolset and integrates it into the toolset group
pkg/github/instructions.go	Adds usage instructions for the github_docs toolset
pkg/github/instructions_test.go	Adds test coverage for github_docs toolset instructions
pkg/github/toolsnaps/search_github_docs.snap	Snapshot file for tool definition validation
cmd/github-mcp-server/generate_docs.go	Adds formatting rule to display "GitHub Docs" instead of "Github Docs"
docs/remote-server.md	Documents the new github_docs toolset with installation links
README.md	Updates toolset list and adds detailed tool documentation

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[Copilot]

The nosec comment justifies URL construction with proper escaping, but the URL concatenation in line 99-104 uses url.QueryEscape which is intended for query parameter values. For the entire URL construction, consider using url.Values with Encode() or ensure each component is escaped with the appropriate function (e.g., url.PathEscape for path segments if needed).