mcp-server-git: git_status and the git_diff tools print non-ASCII paths as octal escapes, so git_add cannot take them back #5129

Which server?

git (mcp-server-git)

Server version

2026.10.10, from v2/main at 2f8dc42

How did you run the server?

From a clone of this repository

Transport

stdio

Protocol era

Not sure. The repro calls the tool functions in-process, so it does not depend on the era.

MCP client and version

n/a, the tool functions were called directly from Python

Operating system and runtime

Linux, Python 3.10.21, git 2.43.0, GitPython 3.2.0

Server configuration

None beyond uv sync --frozen --dev in src/git.

Steps to reproduce

1. In a fresh repository, create an untracked file named 日本.txt.
2. Call git_status, strip the surrounding double quotes from the name it prints, and pass that name to git_add.
3. Save the script below as repro.py in src/git and run it.

import pathlib, subprocess, tempfile
import git
import mcp_server_git.server as s
d = pathlib.Path(tempfile.mkdtemp())
subprocess.run(["git", "init", "-q", str(d)], check=True)
r = git.Repo(d)
(d / "日本.txt").write_text("a\n")
print("--- git_status")
st = s.git_status(r)
print("\n".join(l for l in st.splitlines() if "Untracked" in l or ".txt" in l))
name = [l.strip() for l in st.splitlines() if ".txt" in l][0].strip('"')
r.git.add("日本.txt")
print("--- git_diff_staged (headers)")
print("\n".join(l for l in s.git_diff_staged(r).splitlines() if l.startswith("diff --git")))
r.git.rm("--cached", "-q", "日本.txt")
print("--- git_add with the name git_status printed")
try:
    s.git_add(r, [name])
except Exception as e:
    print(type(e).__name__ + ":", str(e).split("stderr: ")[-1].strip().strip("'"))
print("--- the same status with -c core.quotepath=false")
print("\n".join(l.strip() for l in r.git(c="core.quotepath=false").status().splitlines() if ".txt" in l))

$ uv run python repro.py      # src/git at 2f8dc42
--- git_status
Untracked files:
	"\346\227\245\346\234\254.txt"
--- git_diff_staged (headers)
diff --git "a/\346\227\245\346\234\254.txt" "b/\346\227\245\346\234\254.txt"
--- git_add with the name git_status printed
GitCommandError: fatal: pathspec '\346\227\245\346\234\254.txt' did not match any files
--- the same status with -c core.quotepath=false
日本.txt

Expected behavior

git_status and the three diff tools print 日本.txt, a name a client can pass back to git_add.

Actual behavior

src/git/src/mcp_server_git/server.py:155 calls repo.git.status() with git's default core.quotepath=true, so every non-ASCII path comes back as quoted octal escapes. git_diff_unstaged, git_diff_staged and git_diff do the same.

Already prototyped a fix?

#4879 by @tsurutanmen has the change and four tests for it, written against main. It runs the four commands with -c core.quotepath=false.

Before you submit

• I searched existing issues and this is not a duplicate.
• This is not a security vulnerability report (those go through the private advisory form).

@cliffhall could this go on the board for the git server?