read-github_skill

Overview

This skill lets you read and search GitHub repository documentation and code using the gitmcp.io MCP service. It converts GitHub repo URLs to gitmcp endpoints and exposes tools to fetch full docs, run semantic doc searches, search code, and fetch external URLs referenced by documentation. Use it to quickly understand a project, find usage examples, or locate implementations inside a repository.

How this skill works

Given a GitHub repository (URL or owner/repo), the skill maps it to a gitmcp.io endpoint and exposes a set of MCP tools named per-repo (e.g., fetch_myrepo_documentation). The workflow is: fetch the repo documentation first, then run semantic searches in docs, use code search for exact matches, and fetch any external URLs cited in the docs. A CLI wrapper (scripts/gitmcp.py) is provided to call these tools directly.

When to use it

• You provide a GitHub URL or owner/repo identifier.
• You ask “what does this repo do?” or request a summary of a repo’s docs.
• You need to search repository documentation for a topic or example.
• You want to find where a function or symbol is implemented in the repo’s code.
• You need to retrieve an external link referenced from the project docs.

Best practices

• Always start by fetching the repository documentation to get high-level context before running specific searches.
• Use semantic doc search for conceptual queries and follow up with code search for exact identifiers or implementations.
• Provide the repo in owner/repo format or a full GitHub URL to ensure correct gitmcp conversion.
• When searching code, use exact function or symbol names for reliable results since code search uses exact-match queries.
• If docs reference external resources, use fetch-url to retrieve them instead of copying links manually.

Example use cases

• User: “Read the docs for owner/repo” — call fetch_owner_repo_documentation and summarize README and docs.
• User: “How do I use X feature?” — run search_owner_repo_documentation "how to use X" and extract examples or snippets.
• User: “Where is function foo implemented?” — run search_owner_repo_code "foo" to locate files containing that symbol.
• User: “Open the external link in the docs” — use fetch_generic_url_content to retrieve the referenced page.
• Developer: batch-check multiple repos with the CLI to index documentation and available MCP tools.