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feat: Add CSV output format for default list tools under insiders mode #2450

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feat: Add CSV output format for default list tools under insiders mode #2450

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8 changes: 8 additions & 0 deletions cmd/github-mcp-server/main.go
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -127,6 +127,13 @@ var (
}
}

var enabledFeatures []string
if viper.IsSet("features") {
if err := viper.UnmarshalKey("features", &enabledFeatures); err != nil {
return fmt.Errorf("failed to unmarshal features: %w", err)
}
}

ttl := viper.GetDuration("repo-access-cache-ttl")
httpConfig := ghhttp.ServerConfig{
Version: version,
Expand All @@ -146,6 +153,7 @@ var (
EnabledTools: enabledTools,
DynamicToolsets: viper.GetBool("dynamic_toolsets"),
ExcludeTools: excludeTools,
EnabledFeatures: enabledFeatures,
InsidersMode: viper.GetBool("insiders"),
}

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25 changes: 25 additions & 0 deletions docs/insiders-features.md
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Expand Up @@ -42,3 +42,28 @@ MCP Apps requires a host that supports the [MCP Apps extension](https://modelcon

- **VS Code Insiders** — enable via the `chat.mcp.apps.enabled` setting
- **Visual Studio Code** — enable via the `chat.mcp.apps.enabled` setting

---

## CSV output for list tools

CSV output mode returns supported list tool responses as CSV instead of JSON. This is intended to reduce response context for agents when scanning or summarising lists of GitHub data.

CSV output applies only to tools in default toolsets whose names start with `list_`, such as `list_issues`, `list_pull_requests`, `list_commits`, and `list_branches`. It does not add new tools or expose a tool argument for selecting the format; the server controls the response format through the Insiders feature flag.

### Format

- Nested objects are flattened into dot-notation columns, for example `user.login`, `category.name`, or `head.ref`.
- Arrays are represented as compact single-cell values joined with `;`.
- `body` fields are whitespace-normalized so multiline Markdown does not expand a list response into many output lines.
- Response metadata present in wrapped responses, such as `pageInfo.*` and `totalCount`, is emitted as `#`-prefixed lines before the CSV rows, followed by a blank line. Tools that return a root JSON array do not include metadata preamble lines.

### Enabling CSV output

CSV output is enabled by Insiders Mode. For local development, it can also be enabled explicitly with the `csv_output` feature flag:

```bash
github-mcp-server stdio --features csv_output
```

Because this changes list tool response shape, clients that require JSON list responses should avoid enabling this feature.
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