Why use a shallow clone instead of a regular clone?

A shallow clone only downloads the latest snapshot of the repository (depth 1), which is significantly faster and uses less disk space than downloading the entire commit history.

Does this skill work with specific branches?

Yes, you can provide an optional tag or branch name as a parameter to clone a specific version of the repository.

Where are the repository files stored?

Files are stored in a temporary system directory (usually in /tmp/). The script will print the exact path to the console once the clone is complete.

How do I clean up the cloned files?

After your analysis is finished, you should manually delete the temporary directory using a command like 'rm -rf ' to free up space.

Git Shallow Clone

Name: Git Shallow Clone
Author: opendatahub-io

byopendatahub-io

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Developer Tools

Performs high-speed, shallow Git repository clones to temporary local directories for efficient code analysis and exploration.

About

The Git Shallow Clone skill empowers Claude to quickly fetch repository contents without the overhead of downloading an entire commit history. This is particularly useful for analyzing remote codebases, auditing dependencies, or extracting specific files from large repositories. By utilizing a shallow clone (depth 1) into a temporary workspace, it provides a faster, more resource-efficient alternative to using web APIs or full clones, ensuring a clean and isolated environment for localized code inspection.

Key Features

Fast local file access for comprehensive code analysis
Support for targeting specific tags or branches
Automatic generation of unique temporary directory paths
12 GitHub stars
Efficient shallow cloning (depth 1) to save bandwidth and storage
Simple cleanup workflow for temporary repository data

Use Cases

Auditing specific versions of remote repositories without downloading full history
Quickly exploring external libraries to understand implementation details
Extracting documentation or configuration files from large enterprise codebases

About

Key Features

Fast local file access for comprehensive code analysis
Support for targeting specific tags or branches
Automatic generation of unique temporary directory paths
12 GitHub stars
Efficient shallow cloning (depth 1) to save bandwidth and storage
Simple cleanup workflow for temporary repository data

Use Cases

Auditing specific versions of remote repositories without downloading full history
Quickly exploring external libraries to understand implementation details
Extracting documentation or configuration files from large enterprise codebases