GitWhy MCP Server

The shared AI context engine for git — save, search, and share the reasoning behind code changes.

GitWhy captures the why behind every commit: reasoning, decisions, and trade-offs. This MCP server makes GitWhy's tools available to AI coding agents like Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, and VS Code Copilot.

Install

npm (recommended for MCP clients)

npm install -g gitwhy-mcp

Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

brew install gitwhy-cli/tap/git-why

Scoop (Windows)

scoop bucket add gitwhy https://github.com/quanng28/gitwhy-scoop-bucket
scoop install git-why

MCP Configuration

Claude Desktop / Claude Code

Add to your MCP config (~/.claude/settings.json or Claude Desktop settings):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gitwhy": {
      "command": "gitwhy-mcp",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add to .cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gitwhy": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "gitwhy-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

VS Code

Add to .vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "gitwhy": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "gitwhy-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Tools

Tool	Description
`gitwhy_save`	Save development context (reasoning, decisions, trade-offs) for the current session
`gitwhy_get`	Retrieve a saved context by its ID
`gitwhy_search`	Search saved contexts by keyword or natural language query
`gitwhy_list`	Browse saved contexts by domain/topic hierarchy
`gitwhy_status`	Check setup state, pending commits, and sync status
`gitwhy_sync`	Upload local contexts to the cloud (private)
`gitwhy_publish`	Share synced contexts with your team
`gitwhy_post_pr`	Post context summary as a GitHub PR comment

Authentication

For cloud features (sync, publish, PR comments), you need a GitWhy API key:

Sign up at app.gitwhy.dev
Get your API key at app.gitwhy.dev/dashboard/api-keys
For local CLI: run git why setup to authenticate
For remote (Smithery/Glama): paste your API key when prompted

License

MIT

gitwhy-mcp