feat: add a framework for translations

[SamMorrowDrums]

Closes #24

i18n / Overriding descriptions

The descriptions of the tools can be overridden by creating a github-mcp-server.json file in the same directory as the binary.
The file should contain a JSON object with the tool names as keys and the new descriptions as values.
For example:

{ "TOOL_ADD_ISSUE_COMMENT_DESCRIPTION": "an alternative description", "TOOL_CREATE_BRANCH_DESCRIPTION": "Create a new branch in a GitHub repository" }

You can create an export of the current translations by running the binary with the --export-translations flag.
This flag will preserve any translations/overrides you have made, while adding any new translations that have been added to the binary since the last time you exported.

./github-mcp-server --export-translations cat github-mcp-server.json

You can also use ENV vars to override the descriptions. The environment variable names are the same as the keys in the JSON file,
prefixed with GITHUB_MCP_ and all uppercase.
For example, to override the TOOL_ADD_ISSUE_COMMENT_DESCRIPTION tool, you can set the following environment variable:

export GITHUB_MCP_TOOL_ADD_ISSUE_COMMENT_DESCRIPTION="an alternative description"

The JSON Dump

So far, I have drawn the line at descriptions, but parameters can easily be added, I just didn't want this PR to touch any more parts. This is the whole shebang:

{ "RESOURCE_REPOSITORY_CONTENT_BRANCH_DESCRIPTION": "Repository Content for specific branch", "RESOURCE_REPOSITORY_CONTENT_COMMIT_DESCRIPTION": "Repository Content for specific commit", "RESOURCE_REPOSITORY_CONTENT_DESCRIPTION": "Repository Content", "RESOURCE_REPOSITORY_CONTENT_PR_DESCRIPTION": "Repository Content for specific pull request", "RESOURCE_REPOSITORY_CONTENT_TAG_DESCRIPTION": "Repository Content for specific tag", "TOOL_ADD_ISSUE_COMMENT_DESCRIPTION": "Add a comment to an existing issue", "TOOL_CREATE_BRANCH_DESCRIPTION": "Create a new branch in a GitHub repository", "TOOL_CREATE_OR_UPDATE_FILE_DESCRIPTION": "Create or update a single file in a GitHub repository", "TOOL_CREATE_REPOSITORY_DESCRIPTION": "Create a new GitHub repository in your account", "TOOL_FORK_REPOSITORY_DESCRIPTION": "Fork a GitHub repository to your account or specified organization", "TOOL_GET_CODE_SCANNING_ALERT_DESCRIPTION": "Get details of a specific code scanning alert in a GitHub repository.", "TOOL_GET_FILE_CONTENTS_DESCRIPTION": "Get the contents of a file or directory from a GitHub repository", "TOOL_GET_ISSUE_DESCRIPTION": "Get details of a specific issue in a GitHub repository.", "TOOL_GET_ME_DESCRIPTION": "Get details of the authenticated GitHub user", "TOOL_GET_PULL_REQUEST_COMMENTS_DESCRIPTION": "Get the review comments on a pull request", "TOOL_GET_PULL_REQUEST_DESCRIPTION": "Get details of a specific pull request", "TOOL_GET_PULL_REQUEST_FILES_DESCRIPTION": "Get the list of files changed in a pull request", "TOOL_GET_PULL_REQUEST_REVIEWS_DESCRIPTION": "Get the reviews on a pull request", "TOOL_GET_PULL_REQUEST_STATUS_DESCRIPTION": "Get the combined status of all status checks for a pull request", "TOOL_LIST_CODE_SCANNING_ALERTS_DESCRIPTION": "List code scanning alerts in a GitHub repository.", "TOOL_LIST_COMMITS_DESCRIPTION": "Get list of commits of a branch in a GitHub repository", "TOOL_LIST_PULL_REQUESTS_DESCRIPTION": "List and filter repository pull requests", "TOOL_MERGE_PULL_REQUEST_DESCRIPTION": "Merge a pull request", "TOOL_SEARCH_CODE_DESCRIPTION": "Search for code across GitHub repositories", "TOOL_SEARCH_ISSUES_DESCRIPTION": "Search for issues and pull requests across GitHub repositories", "TOOL_SEARCH_REPOSITORIES_DESCRIPTION": "Search for GitHub repositories", "TOOL_SEARCH_USERS_DESCRIPTION": "Search for GitHub users", "TOOL_UPDATE_PULL_REQUEST_BRANCH_DESCRIPTION": "Update a pull request branch with the latest changes from the base branch" }

Live example tools/list

An example running with a file, and an env var:

{ "jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 3, "result": { "tools": [ { "description": "an alternative description", "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "body": { "description": "Comment text", "type": "string" }, "issue_number": { "description": "Issue number to comment on", "type": "number" }, "owner": { "description": "Repository owner", "type": "string" }, "repo": { "description": "Repository name", "type": "string" } }, "required": [ "owner", "repo", "issue_number", "body" ] }, "name": "add_issue_comment" }, { "description": "OVERRIDE DESCRIPTION", "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "branch": { "description": "Name for new branch", "type": "string" }, "from_branch": { "description": "Source branch (defaults to repo default)", "type": "string" }, "owner": { "description": "Repository owner", "type": "string" }, "repo": { "description": "Repository name", "type": "string" } }, "required": [ "owner", "repo", "branch" ] }, "name": "create_branch" }, ... ] } } 

[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

This PR implements a new translation framework that enables overriding tool and resource descriptions through environment variables and JSON configuration. The key changes include updating all GitHub tool and resource functions to accept a translation function parameter, modifying tests to pass a default translation function, and adding preliminary translation support in the server initialization.

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 14 out of 14 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
pkg/github/server.go	Updated NewServer to retrieve and pass the translation helper.
pkg/github/repositories.go	Updated tool functions to accept the translation function.
pkg/github/search.go	Updated search tool functions to use the translation function.
pkg/github/issues.go	Updated issue tool functions to use the translation function.
pkg/github/pullrequests.go	Updated pull request tool functions to accept the translation function.
pkg/github/code_scanning.go	Updated code scanning tool functions to use the translation function.
Various test files	Modified test cases to pass the default translation function.

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