Reduce context usage for `list_releases` by kerobbi · Pull Request #2091 · github/github-mcp-server

kerobbi · 2026-02-25T15:19:46Z

Summary

Reduces context usage for list_releases by adding a convertToMinimalRelease function for the existing MinimalRelease type.

Field preserved

id, tag_name, name, body, html_url, published_at, prerelease, draft, author (MinimalUser)

Fields dropped

node_id, url, assets_url, upload_url, zipball_url, tarball_url, target_commitish, created_at, assets (full array with nested objects), immutable, full User object (-> MinimalUser)

Single Item Payload Diff

Before

	{
		"tag_name": "v19.2.4",
		"target_commitish": "main",
		"name": "19.2.4 (January 26th, 2026)",
		"body": "## React Server Components\r\n\r\n- Add more DoS mitigations to Server Actions, and harden Server Components ([#35632](https://github.com/facebook/react/pull/35632) by @gnoff, @lubieowoce, @sebmarkbage, @unstubbable)",
		"draft": false,
		"prerelease": false,
		"id": 279999398,
		"created_at": "2026-01-26T17:04:55Z",
		"published_at": "2026-01-26T18:29:43Z",
		"url": "https://api.github.com/repos/facebook/react/releases/279999398",
		"html_url": "https://github.com/facebook/react/releases/tag/v19.2.4",
		"assets_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/facebook/react/releases/279999398/assets",
		"upload_url": "https://uploads.github.com/repos/facebook/react/releases/279999398/assets{?name,label}",
		"zipball_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/facebook/react/zipball/v19.2.4",
		"tarball_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/facebook/react/tarball/v19.2.4",
		"author": {
			"login": "eps1lon",
			"id": 12292047,
			"node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjEyMjkyMDQ3",
			"avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/12292047?v=4",
			"html_url": "https://github.com/eps1lon",
			"gravatar_id": "",
			"type": "User",
			"site_admin": false,
			"url": "https://api.github.com/users/eps1lon",
			"events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/eps1lon/events{/privacy}",
			"following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/eps1lon/following{/other_user}",
			"followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/eps1lon/followers",
			"gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/eps1lon/gists{/gist_id}",
			"organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/eps1lon/orgs",
			"received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/eps1lon/received_events",
			"repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/eps1lon/repos",
			"starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/eps1lon/starred{/owner}{/repo}",
			"subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/eps1lon/subscriptions"
		},
		"node_id": "RE_kwDOAJy2Ks4QsHOm",
		"immutable": false
	}

After

	{
		"id": 279999398,
		"tag_name": "v19.2.4",
		"name": "19.2.4 (January 26th, 2026)",
		"body": "## React Server Components\r\n\r\n- Add more DoS mitigations to Server Actions, and harden Server Components ([#35632](https://github.com/facebook/react/pull/35632) by @gnoff, @lubieowoce, @sebmarkbage, @unstubbable)",
		"html_url": "https://github.com/facebook/react/releases/tag/v19.2.4",
		"published_at": "2026-01-26T18:29:43Z",
		"prerelease": false,
		"draft": false,
		"author": {
			"login": "eps1lon",
			"id": 12292047,
			"profile_url": "https://github.com/eps1lon",
			"avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/12292047?v=4"
		}
	}

Token Reduction

Measured using a script that makes use of OAI's tiktoken library (o200k_base) at 2 and 25 items.

Items	Baseline	Optimised	Reduction
2	1,348	480	64.4%
25	44,912	33,996	24.3%

Why

list_releases was returning raw *github.RepositoryRelease objects with ~20+ fields including nested assets arrays, API URLs, and full user objects. Most of this is noise not useful for model reasoning. Details are available via get_latest_release or get_release_by_tag.

What changed

Added convertToMinimalRelease conversion function
Wired convertToMinimalRelease in list_releases
Updated relevant tests

MCP impact

No tool or API changes
Tool schema or behavior changed
New tool added

Prompts tested (tool changes only)

List the last 2 releases in facebook/react
List the last 25 releases in facebook/react

Security / limits

No security or limits impact
Auth / permissions considered
Data exposure, filtering, or token/size limits considered

Tool renaming

I am renaming tools as part of this PR (e.g. a part of a consolidation effort)
- I have added the new tool aliases in deprecated_tool_aliases.go
I am not renaming tools as part of this PR

Note: if you're renaming tools, you must add the tool aliases. For more information on how to do so, please refer to the official docs.

Lint & tests

Linted locally with ./script/lint
Tested locally with ./script/test

Docs

Not needed
Updated (README / docs / examples)

Copilot

Pull request overview

This PR reduces context/token usage for the list_releases MCP tool by returning a trimmed MinimalRelease representation instead of the full *github.RepositoryRelease payload.

Changes:

Added convertToMinimalRelease(*github.RepositoryRelease) MinimalRelease for consistent minimal release serialization.
Updated list_releases to convert each release to MinimalRelease before marshalling.
Adjusted Test_ListReleases to unmarshal and validate the minimalized response type.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated no comments.

File	Description
pkg/github/repositories.go	Convert `ListReleases` output to `[]MinimalRelease` before JSON marshalling.
pkg/github/minimal_types.go	Add `convertToMinimalRelease` helper that populates the existing `MinimalRelease` type (including RFC3339 `published_at`).
pkg/github/repositories_test.go	Update `Test_ListReleases` to unmarshal into `[]MinimalRelease` and validate `tag_name` values.

gpt51920-commits · 2026-04-20T20:50:54Z

README.md

tamim331341 · 2026-04-22T20:10:36Z

Pull request overview

This PR reduces context/token usage for the list_releases MCP tool by returning a trimmed MinimalRelease representation instead of the full *github.RepositoryRelease payload.

Changes:

Added convertToMinimalRelease(*github.RepositoryRelease) MinimalRelease for consistent minimal release serialization.

Updated list_releases to convert each release to MinimalRelease before marshalling.

Adjusted Test_ListReleases to unmarshal and validate the minimalized response type.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated no comments.

File Description
pkg/github/repositories.go Convert ListReleases output to []MinimalRelease before JSON marshalling.
pkg/github/minimal_types.go Add convertToMinimalRelease helper that populates the existing MinimalRelease type (including RFC3339 published_at).
pkg/github/repositories_test.go Update Test_ListReleases to unmarshal into []MinimalRelease and validate tag_name values.

add convertToMinimalRelease, wire MinimalRelease in list_releases

a02384e

kerobbi marked this pull request as ready for review February 25, 2026 15:31

kerobbi requested a review from a team as a code owner February 25, 2026 15:31

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings February 25, 2026 15:31

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of kerobbi February 25, 2026 15:31 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Feb 25, 2026

View reviewed changes

Merge branch 'main' into kerobbi/reduce-context-list-releases

ef3a17a

tommaso-moro approved these changes Feb 25, 2026

View reviewed changes

kerobbi added 2 commits February 25, 2026 17:36

Merge branch 'main' into kerobbi/reduce-context-list-releases

44df82b

Merge branch 'main' into kerobbi/reduce-context-list-releases

cab7f64

kerobbi merged commit b222072 into main Feb 25, 2026
16 of 17 checks passed

kerobbi deleted the kerobbi/reduce-context-list-releases branch February 25, 2026 18:15

BrewTestBot mentioned this pull request Mar 6, 2026

github-mcp-server 0.32.0 Homebrew/homebrew-core#270968

Closed

github-actions Bot mentioned this pull request Mar 7, 2026

[ca] Update CLI versions: Copilot 1.0.2, Claude Code 2.1.71, GitHub MCP Server v0.32.0, MCP Gateway v0.1.9 github/gh-aw#19939

Closed

Copilot AI mentioned this pull request Mar 7, 2026

Update GitHub MCP Server to v0.32.0 and MCP Gateway to v0.1.9 github/gh-aw#19989

Closed

github-actions Bot mentioned this pull request Mar 8, 2026

[ca] Update GitHub MCP Server v0.31.0 → v0.32.0 and MCP Gateway v0.1.8 → v0.1.9 github/gh-aw#20042

Closed

Copilot AI mentioned this pull request Mar 8, 2026

[WIP] Update GitHub MCP Server and Gateway dependencies github/gh-aw#20054

Closed

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Reduce context usage for `list_releases`#2091

Reduce context usage for `list_releases`#2091
kerobbi merged 4 commits intomainfrom
kerobbi/reduce-context-list-releases

kerobbi commented Feb 25, 2026

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gpt51920-commits commented Apr 20, 2026

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tamim331341 commented Apr 22, 2026

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kerobbi commented Feb 25, 2026

Summary

Field preserved

Fields dropped

Single Item Payload Diff

Token Reduction

Why

What changed

MCP impact

Prompts tested (tool changes only)

Security / limits

Tool renaming

Lint & tests

Docs

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Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Pull request overview

Reviewed changes

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gpt51920-commits commented Apr 20, 2026

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tamim331341 commented Apr 22, 2026

Pull request overview

Reviewed changes

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Reviewers

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Milestone

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