~/CLIRank
APIVerifiedFeatured~120ms avg

GitHub REST API

Full GitHub access - repos, issues, PRs, actions, packages, and more.

Install
npm install octokit
MCP Alternative

There is an MCP server that covers similar functionality: GitHub MCP Server

Use the API when:

You need fine-grained control, custom error handling, or want to chain multiple API calls in a script.

Use the MCP when:

You want plug-and-play integration with Claude Code and don't need custom logic around the calls.

About

The GitHub REST API (and GraphQL API) provides complete access to every GitHub feature. Create repos, manage issues and PRs, trigger workflows, query commit history, manage releases, and handle webhooks. Octokit is the official SDK with excellent TypeScript support. Use this when you need operations the MCP server doesn't cover, or when building custom automation scripts.

Tags

githubgitversion-controlrest-apigraphql

Score Breakdown

CLI Score Breakdown10/11
Official SDK on npm/pip+2
Env var authentication (no browser OAuth)+2
Works in headless/CI environments+2
CLI tool available+1
JSON response for piping/parsing+1
Docs have curl/CLI examples+1
Reasonable rate limits for scripted use+1
Machine-readable pricing (md/JSON/static)0
Quality Score Breakdown
npm weekly downloads950k
GitHub stars7.2k
Days since last release5d
Issue close ratio92%
TypeScript typesYes
Docs qualityexcellent
Breaking changesrare

Performance

Latencyus-east-1 - 2026-03-28
p50
95ms
avg
120ms
p95
310ms

Scores

CLI
10
Quality
10
AuthorGitHub
Weekly installs950,000
Last updated3/26/2026

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GitHub MCP Server

Access GitHub repos, issues, PRs, and actions directly from Claude Code.

CLI
10
Quality
10
claude mcp add github -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-github