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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