GitHub App mode
GitHub supports two connection modes in Wicket. The standard mode — your OAuth app, per-member user tokens — is covered in Connect a connector. This page covers GitHub App mode: connecting through a GitHub App installation instead of user OAuth.
Why GitHub App mode
| OAuth mode | GitHub App mode | |
|---|---|---|
| Acts as | The member’s GitHub user | The app installation |
| Repo scope | Everything the user can access | Only the repositories selected at install time |
| Org control | User-level grant | Installed and approved by an org admin, visible in org settings |
| Entity freshness | Harvest on demand | GitHub webhooks keep harvested entities current automatically |
Choose App mode when you want the org — not each individual — to define which repositories an agent can ever see, with GitHub’s own installation UI as the source of truth.
Set it up
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Provision the app connection
In the agent’s GitHub connector settings, choose GitHub App as the credential type and follow the install link Wicket generates.
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Install and select repositories
GitHub shows the standard app-installation screen. Pick All repositories or Only select repositories — this selection is the hard outer boundary; policies can narrow it further but never widen it.
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Finish in Wicket
The callback returns you to Wicket, which registers the installation against the agent. Installations are tracked per member, and the installation list (with repo selection) is visible in the connector settings, where it can also be removed.
Calling the proxy with installation tokens
App mode changes how the MCP client authenticates for GitHub. Instead of a member key alone, the client presents a GitHub App installation token (ghs_…) as the Bearer credential, plus the installation ID header:
Authorization: Bearer ghs_<installation-token>x-github-installation-id: <installation-id>Wicket validates the token against GitHub, resolves the registered installation, and applies the agent’s policies as usual. Installation tokens are GitHub-scoped: on the aggregator endpoint they can call github__* tools only.
Webhooks included
App installations deliver GitHub webhooks to Wicket automatically — repository changes, PR and issue updates, branch and release events flow in as they happen, keeping the harvested entities behind your resource conditions fresh without polling. See Harvesting & freshness.
Related
- Connect a connector — standard OAuth mode
- Connectors catalog — the GitHub tool tiers