Gists MCP Server - Your AI's Code Memory!

Transform GitHub Gists into your AI assistant's personal code snippet library! (this readme totally wasn't written by Claude )

Ever found yourself searching through GitHub repos and thinking "Wow, this code is gold!" only to lose it in your browser history? Or maybe you're tired of copy-pasting code between ChatGPT sessions?

Welcome to the future of AI-assisted development!

What Makes This Special?

This MCP server turns Claude into your intelligent code librarian who can:

• Save brilliant code you discover anywhere on GitHub directly to YOUR gists
• Instantly retrieve that authentication implementation you saved 3 months ago
• Update and refine your code collection as you learn better patterns
• Organize snippets with descriptive names that make sense to both you AND your AI
• Keep sensitive code private or share useful utilities publicly
• No more local file clutter - everything lives in the cloud!

Real-World Magic

Imagine this workflow:

1. You: "Claude, search GitHub for the best React authentication patterns"
2. Claude: finds amazing implementations
3. You: "Save that JWT refresh token logic as a gist!"
4. Claude: creates a perfectly organized gist with the code
5. Future You: "Remember that auth code we saved?"
6. Claude: instantly retrieves YOUR curated code

Perfect For:

• ** Developers** building their personal utility library
• ** Learners** collecting examples of best practices
• ** Teams** sharing code patterns across projects
• ** Creators** saving creative coding experiments
• ** DevOps** storing configuration snippets and scripts

Features

• List Gists: View all your gists or explore public gists
• Create Gists: Save code with multiple files in one gist
• Get Gist Details: Retrieve any gist with full content
• Update Gists: Evolve your code as you learn
• Delete Gists: Clean up outdated snippets
• Star/Unstar: Bookmark the best of the best
• Fork Gists: Build upon others' great ideas

Quick Start

Installing via Smithery

To install github-gists for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @insomniactools/github-gists --client claude

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or higher
• A GitHub Personal Access Token with gist scope
• Claude Desktop or Claude CLI

Setup in 3 Minutes

1. Clone the magic:

git clone https://github.com/insomniactools/gists-mcp.git
cd gists-mcp

1. Install dependencies:

npm install

1. Build it:

npm run build

1. Get your GitHub token:
   • Go to GitHub Settings Developer settings Personal access tokens Tokens (classic)
   • Click "Generate new token (classic)"
   • Name it something cool like "Claude's Code Memory"
   • Select the gist scope
   • Click "Generate token"
   • Copy the token (save it somewhere safe!)

Configuration

Option 1: Claude Desktop App

Add to your Claude Desktop configuration:

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

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gists": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/gists-mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_TOKEN": "your-github-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Option 2: Claude CLI (Global Install)

claude mcp add gists -s user \
  -e GITHUB_TOKEN=your-github-token-here \
  -- node /absolute/path/to/gists-mcp/dist/index.js

Usage Examples

Once connected, just talk to Claude naturally:

• "Show me all my gists"
• "Create a gist with that amazing debounce function we just found"
• "Get my authentication utilities gist"
• "Update the API client gist with better error handling"
• "Delete that old test gist"
• "Star this brilliant algorithm we discovered"
• "Fork that awesome utility collection"

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the project
npm run build

# Development mode with hot reload
npm run dev

# Run tests
npm test

# Lint & format
npm run lint
npm run format

API Functions

Core Magic

• list_gists - Browse your code collection
• get_gist - Retrieve specific snippets
• create_gist - Save new discoveries
• update_gist - Improve existing code
• delete_gist - Clean up your library

Extra Powers

• list_public_gists - Explore the community
• list_starred_gists - Your favorites collection
• star_gist - Bookmark the best
• unstar_gist - Update your bookmarks
• fork_gist - Build on others' work

Troubleshooting

Connection Issues?

1. Double-check your GitHub token has gist scope
2. Ensure the path to index.js is absolute
3. Verify Node.js 18+ is installed

Permission Denied?

• Token might be expired - generate a new one
• Ensure you own the gists you're trying to modify

Contributing

Have ideas to make this even better? PRs are welcome! Let's build the ultimate AI code memory together!

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details

Acknowledgments

Built with for the Anthropic Model Context Protocol (MCP) ecosystem

Ready to give your AI perfect memory for code? Clone this repo and start building your personal code library today!