---
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type: video
title: 'Scaling GitHub for your Agents — Sam Morrow, GitHub'
description: >-
  GitHub operates one of the most heavily-utilised MCP servers in the ecosystem,
  with over 4 million downloads of the stdio server alone. Discover the
  architectural decisions, technical challenges and lessons learned while
  building and scaling a remote MCP server on production infrastructure. The
  session walks through the journey from initial implementation to horizontal
  scaling, covering the specific challenges of condensing a platform as
  expansive as GitHub into a coherent MCP interface. Attendees will learn
  practical strategies for managing tool overload, optimizing context usage,
  implementing distributed session storage, and maintaining observability
  without compromising user privacy. Whether building a first remote server or
  optimizing an existing implementation, attendees will gain concrete patterns,
  anti-patterns, and architectural guidance from real production experience. Key
  Takeaways: • Architecture patterns for stateless, horizontally scalable remote
  MCP servers • Practical approaches to tool proliferation and context window
  constraints • Why a focus on auth, security and privacy is essential to
  success Speaker info: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sammorrow
  https://github.com/SamMorrowDrums Timestamps: 0:00:29 - Overview of GitHub's
  MCP public launch and community growth. 0:02:06 - Challenges of tool
  proliferation and impact on agent context. 0:03:21 - Mitigation via "tool
  sets" and dynamic discovery. 0:05:54 - Optimizing API output tokens to improve
  efficiency. 0:06:44 - Improving reliability through intent-based tool design.
  0:08:14 - Security strategy: OAuth 2.1 and PKCE implementation. 0:10:40 -
  Managing prompt injection and security vulnerabilities. 0:12:35 - Using OAuth
  scopes for granular tool filtering. 0:13:47 - Stateless server architecture
  and Redis session management. 0:15:18 - Experimental features and
  human-in-the-loop UX. 0:16:30 - Future outlook: Compositional tools and
  automation. 0:18:04 - Final project metrics: Downloads, forks, and volume. ---
  Watch along with the corrected transcript, summary, timestamps and resources
  on this talk's official AIE page:
  https://ai.engineer/talks/0n3MKk7r60w-scaling-github-for-your-agents-sam-morrow-github
  Join our upcoming AI Engineer conferences (see https://ai.engineer landing
  page): - AIEi Shanghai, November 5–6 — the first for meeting top Chinese labs
  and engineers - AIE CODE in SF, November 10–12 — the top AI Coding conference
  returns - AIEi Sydney, December 7–8 — the first AIEi run alongside NeurIPS
  2026 in Sydney ---
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parent: 'https://liquidgold.cc/channel/aidotengineer.md'
channel: aidotengineer
updated: '2026-10-24T14:48:33.337Z'
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# Scaling GitHub for your Agents — Sam Morrow, GitHub

GitHub operates one of the most heavily-utilised MCP servers in the ecosystem, with over 4 million downloads of the stdio server alone. Discover the architectural decisions, technical challenges and lessons learned while building and scaling a remote MCP server on production infrastructure. The session walks through the journey from initial implementation to horizontal scaling, covering the specific challenges of condensing a platform as expansive as GitHub into a coherent MCP interface. Attendees will learn practical strategies for managing tool overload, optimizing context usage, implementing distributed session storage, and maintaining observability without compromising user privacy. Whether building a first remote server or optimizing an existing implementation, attendees will gain concrete patterns, anti-patterns, and architectural guidance from real production experience. Key Takeaways: • Architecture patterns for stateless, horizontally scalable remote MCP servers • Practical approaches to tool proliferation and context window constraints • Why a focus on auth, security and privacy is essential to success Speaker info: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sammorrow https://github.com/SamMorrowDrums Timestamps: 0:00:29 - Overview of GitHub's MCP public launch and community growth. 0:02:06 - Challenges of tool proliferation and impact on agent context. 0:03:21 - Mitigation via "tool sets" and dynamic discovery. 0:05:54 - Optimizing API output tokens to improve efficiency. 0:06:44 - Improving reliability through intent-based tool design. 0:08:14 - Security strategy: OAuth 2.1 and PKCE implementation. 0:10:40 - Managing prompt injection and security vulnerabilities. 0:12:35 - Using OAuth scopes for granular tool filtering. 0:13:47 - Stateless server architecture and Redis session management. 0:15:18 - Experimental features and human-in-the-loop UX. 0:16:30 - Future outlook: Compositional tools and automation. 0:18:04 - Final project metrics: Downloads, forks, and volume. --- Watch along with the corrected transcript, summary, timestamps and resources on this talk's official AIE page: https://ai.engineer/talks/0n3MKk7r60w-scaling-github-for-your-agents-sam-morrow-github Join our upcoming AI Engineer conferences (see https://ai.engineer landing page): - AIEi Shanghai, November 5–6 — the first for meeting top Chinese labs and engineers - AIE CODE in SF, November 10–12 — the top AI Coding conference returns - AIEi Sydney, December 7–8 — the first AIEi run alongside NeurIPS 2026 in Sydney ---

Canonical: https://liquidgold.cc/watch/0n3MKk7r60w · Channel: [AI Engineer](https://liquidgold.cc/channel/aidotengineer.md)

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