git-insights-mcp

A local-only MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that exposes git repository history, diffs, and status as tools an LLM client (e.g. Claude Desktop) can call in natural language.

It works entirely against a local git repo on disk — it never talks to GitHub, GitLab, or any remote API. No auth, no tokens.

Tools exposed

Tool	Description
list_recent_commits	Recent commits (author, date, message) on a branch
search_commits	Search commit messages by keyword
get_commit_diff	Full diff + stats for one commit
get_diff_between_branches	Diff/summary between two branches or refs
get_branch_status	Current branch, ahead/behind, uncommitted changes
list_branches	Local (or local + remote-tracking) branches
get_file_history	Commit history for a specific file
blame_file	Line-by-line author/commit attribution (git blame)

Safety notes:

• The server is scoped to one repo path, given at startup. The model can never point it at an arbitrary path on your machine.
• File-path parameters (get_file_history, blame_file) are checked to make sure they resolve inside the repo — no ../../ traversal.
• Only read-only git operations are implemented — nothing here can commit, push, or modify your repo.

Setup

npm install
npm run build

This compiles TypeScript from src/ into dist/.

Running it standalone (sanity check)

node dist/index.js /path/to/some/git/repo

You should see:

git-insights-mcp running (stdio) against repo: /path/to/some/git/repo

It communicates over stdio using the MCP protocol, so it won't print anything else unless a client sends it requests. Press Ctrl+C to stop.

Inspecting it with MCP Inspector (recommended first step)

The MCP Inspector lets you call tools directly through a web UI, without needing Claude Desktop:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node dist/index.js /path/to/some/git/repo

This opens a browser UI where you can see all 8 tools, fill in their parameters, and inspect raw responses.

Connecting to Claude Desktop

1. Find your Claude Desktop config file:

   • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
   • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add an entry under mcpServers (use the absolute path to this project's dist/index.js, and the absolute path to the repo you want to inspect):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "git-insights": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "/absolute/path/to/git-insights-mcp/dist/index.js",
        "/absolute/path/to/your/target/repo"
      ]
    }
  }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop. You should see a 🔨 tools icon indicating the server connected, and the 8 tools available for Claude to call.

4. Try prompts like:

   • "Summarize the last 10 commits on this repo"
   • "Show me the diff for commit <hash>"
   • "Who's touched src/index.ts the most recently?"
   • "What files changed between main and feature/foo?"
   • "Is my working directory clean right now?"

Project structure

git-insights-mcp/
├── src/
│   ├── index.ts          # server entrypoint, tool registration, transport setup
│   ├── git.ts            # repo path resolution + safety helpers
│   └── tools/
│       ├── commits.ts    # list_recent_commits, search_commits
│       ├── diff.ts       # get_commit_diff, get_diff_between_branches
│       ├── status.ts     # get_branch_status, list_branches
│       └── fileHistory.ts# get_file_history, blame_file
├── package.json
├── tsconfig.json
└── README.md

Ideas for extending this

• Add a prompts entry like weekly_summary that pre-packages "summarize commits from the last 7 days, grouped by author"
• Expose repo://status as an MCP resource so it's always available as context without an explicit tool call
• Add a get_pr_style_summary tool that formats a diff as a draft PR description
• Add a second set of tools wrapping the GitHub API (via @octokit/rest) for PRs/issues — a natural "part 2" once this local version is working