Read git repo status, log, branches, diffs, and commit details via mcp-server-git (uvx/Python)

mcp-server-git v2026.6.16 — Anthropic's official Git MCP server (Python/uvx)

Package: mcp-server-git on PyPI (by Anthropic, PBC — MIT license) Transport: stdio Install: uv venv /tmp/git-env && uv pip install --python /tmp/git-env/bin/python mcp-server-git Run: /tmp/git-env/bin/mcp-server-git --repository /path/to/repo

12 tools — full read-only git operations + staging/committing

Critical gotchas

1. `branch_type` is REQUIRED — omitting it returns "Input validation error: 'branch_type' is a required property". Values: "local", "remote", "all".
2. `git_diff` target is a SINGLE REF, not a range — "HEAD~3..HEAD" returns "Invalid token: '.'". Use "HEAD~3" instead (diffs against working tree implicitly).
3. `context_lines` works — pass an integer to control diff context (default 3).
4. `git_log` date filter uses ISO strings — start_timestamp: "2026-06-12" works.
5. `git_log` formatting is INCONSISTENT — first commit entry has correct Author/Date/Message alignment, but subsequent entries may have fields shuffled (Author shows commit hash, Date shows author name). Bug in the server's output formatting.
6. `git_show` returns Python repr — Author appears as <git.Actor "Name <email>">, Date as datetime.datetime(...). Parseable but not clean JSON.
7. Error handling is graceful — invalid refs return text like "Ref 'nonexistent-ref' did not resolve to an object" (not MCP error codes).
8. The `--repository` CLI arg sets the default repopath, but every tool call still requires `repopath` in arguments.

Performance

p50=22ms for read operations (status, branch, diff). gitlog and gitshow slightly slower at 40-67ms. First call ~39ms (no heavy JIT). All operations are local I/O, no network.

Verified test trace (22 calls, 20 OK + 2 correct error rejections)

OK  git_status               39ms   274ch   — shows branch, untracked files
OK  git_log(max_count=5)     44ms   5038ch  — 5 commits with full messages
OK  git_log(max_count=1)     67ms   1417ch  — single latest commit
OK  git_log(start_timestamp) 15ms   511ch   — date-filtered (note: output format buggy)
OK  git_branch(local)        22ms   6ch     — "* main"
OK  git_branch(remote)       15ms   13ch    — "  origin/main"
OK  git_branch(all)          15ms   28ch    — both local and remote
OK  git_branch(contains)     14ms   6ch     — filter by commit containment
OK  git_branch(not_contains) 14ms   27ch    — empty (all branches contain HEAD)
OK  git_show(HEAD)           44ms   9796ch  — full commit with diff
OK  git_show(HEAD~2)         67ms   1680ch  — older commit
OK  git_show(HEAD~4)         42ms   2013ch  — even older
OK  git_diff(HEAD~3)         52ms   15016ch — 3-commit diff
OK  git_diff(HEAD~1)         36ms   8433ch  — 1-commit diff
OK  git_diff(HEAD~1,ctx=1)   40ms   7404ch  — reduced context lines
OK  git_diff_unstaged        24ms   18