The answer was plausible; the source was wrong
The request was to read a GitHub Projects card, including its planning state, without using the browser. The agent found a related issue through a general GitHub connector and produced a convincing summary. An issue has title, body, labels and comments, but Project fields such as Status, Priority and Iteration belong to a separate layer. A correct-looking value from an issue is not proof the board was queried.
The observable fix was to require a Projects-specific tool call and stop when that tool is unavailable. After this rule was added, the agent reported missing capability instead of silently substituting the issue.
Use connector, MCP and skill for their own jobs
The original case moved from a local container-based MCP server to a remote Projects toolset to avoid keeping Docker running for routine reads. Choose the deployment that your organisation can maintain and audit.
- GitHub connector
- Useful for issues, PRs and repository data, but do not assume it exposes every Project field.
- Projects MCP toolset
- Dedicated operations to list and get Project objects and fields, subject to authentication and scopes.
- Skill
- A procedure telling the agent which source to use and to fail closed if it is unavailable.
Prove the read-only path before allowing writes
- Choose a test Project card whose issue and board fields deliberately differ.
- Configure only the read tools and a token with the minimum documented read scope.
- Store the token in an operating-system secret store; never paste it into repository configuration or article examples.
- Restart the client and inspect its MCP panel or tool listing for the Projects operations.
- Ask for the card and inspect the tool log: it must show the Projects call and board field values.
- Disable the server and repeat. The expected result is an explicit stop, not an issue-based answer.
Read the specified GitHub Project card using the Projects MCP tool.
Report the Project item identifier and fields returned by that tool.
Do not replace this source with an issue, PR, browser page or memory.
If the Projects tool is unavailable or the item cannot be verified, stop and name the missing capability.Add write access as a separate decision
Reading a board and editing it require different scopes and approval. Only after the read-only test succeeds should a maintainer consider a write-capable endpoint, restricted tools and approval for exact changes. The original setup encountered an authentication error because a bearer-token environment variable and an HTTP-header mapping were confused; inspect the documented configuration fields rather than copying a token into a header string.
The general lesson is to verify the path to the evidence. A fluent answer is weak evidence when its tool provenance is missing.