search_issues returns 422 for repositories I own or administer, even though the repo exists and I have access

[pamelafox]

Summary

GitHub MCP search_issues is returning 422 Validation Failed for repositories where my account has owner/admin-level access.

A concrete example is repositories under Azure-Samples (I am a Microsoft employee, and am part of the team with access to that org).

The error says:

The listed users and repositories cannot be searched either because the resources do not exist or you do not have permission to view them.

But in this case the repository does exist, and I do have access to it.

Expected behavior

search_issues should return issue results for repositories I own or administer.

Actual behavior

The MCP call fails with 422 Validation Failed.

Repro

Query pattern:

repo:Azure-Samples/<repo-name> is:issue is:open

Result:

failed to search issues: GET https://api.github.com/search/issues?...q=repo%3AAzure-Samples%2F<repo-name>+is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen...: 422 Validation Failed [{Resource:Search Field:q Code:invalid Message:The listed users and repositories cannot be searched either because the resources do not exist or you do not have permission to view them.}]

Notes

• This is happening for repos where my account is an owner/admin, not just for random external repos.
• The error message is misleading in this case, because the repo is real and accessible.
• I was reproducing this through the remote GitHub MCP server using search_issues.

Environment

• GitHub MCP remote server
• Server URL: https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp
• Tool: search_issues
• Token used: authenticated GitHub token (both classic with repo access and PAT with public repos)

Questions

1. Is this a known limitation in how search_issues builds or forwards search queries for org-owned/admin-access repos?
2. Is there a token/account configuration requirement for searching repos where the user is an org owner/admin?
3. If this is expected GitHub Search API behavior, could the MCP docs or error handling make that clearer?

[pamelafox]

Closing this as it turns out to be a GitHub API/auth behavior rather than an MCP server issue.

Root cause: When your GitHub token isn't authorized for SSO with an org (e.g. Azure-Samples, Microsoft), the API returns fewer results than an unauthenticated request would. This is a known GitHub behavior — even for public repos, if the org requires SSO, your token must be explicitly approved for that org.

Two workarounds that I confirmed work:

• Classic PAT + Configure SSO: Create a classic token, then go to Developer Settings → Personal access tokens → click "Configure SSO" next to the token and authorize it for the relevant org(s). This is the more flexible option since you can authorize for multiple orgs.

• Fine-grained PAT with resource owner set to the org: Create a fine-grained token with the resource owner set to the org (e.g. Azure-Samples), Repository access = "Public repositories", no particular permissions needed. Downside is this only covers one org per token.

There's nothing actionable in the MCP server code — it can't change how GitHub handles token-based search visibility. If many developers run into this, then further documentation could be helpful.