Rich-Harris/degit

degit — straightforward project scaffolding

degit makes copies of git repositories. When you run degit some-user/some-repo, it will find the latest commit on https://github.com/some-user/some-repo and download the associated tar file to the platform-appropriate cache directory if it doesn't already exist locally. On Linux/BSD this follows XDG_CACHE_HOME when set and otherwise uses ~/.cache/degit; on macOS it uses ~/Library/Caches/degit; on Windows it uses %LOCALAPPDATA%\degit. (This is much quicker than using git clone, because you're not downloading the entire git history.) degit resolves refs through an internal git backend, downloads tar snapshots by default, and falls back to SSH cloning when tarball fetches or extraction fail. Public HTTPS sources do not need a local git binary on your PATH, but SSH/private repositories still do.

Requirements

• Node.js 20 or later (see engines in package.json)
• Bun 1.3.14 when developing this repository (see packageManager in package.json)

End users can still install the published package with npm (npm install -g degit). For a dev clone of this repo, use Bun so the lockfile and bunfig.toml apply; minimumReleaseAge is set to 14 days so installs skip very fresh publishes.

git clone https://github.com/Rich-Harris/degit.git
cd degit
bun install
bun run build

See docs/CONTRIBUTING.md for how to contribute. docs/SECURITY.md explains how to report vulnerabilities. AGENTS.md summarizes setup and commands for tooling and coding agents. When verifying production CLI bugs, reproduce with the published package (for example npx degit@latest ...) rather than running the raw repository source directly. When you change development workflow, CI, or contributor-facing instructions, update README.md, docs/CONTRIBUTING.md, and AGENTS.md together so they stay consistent.

bun run test runs the unit tests in test/unit/**/*.test.ts and the public integration tests in test/integration/public.test.ts, excluding test/integration/private.test.ts. Use bun run test:integration for the integration suite.

bun run perf:ci runs the fixture-backed performance gate that CI uses to catch clone regressions.9

Installation

npm install -g degit

Agent skill

This repository includes a reusable degit skill for agents that support SKILL.md files. Add it using your agent's skill installation flow, then ask the agent to download a repository or template. The skill helps it choose a source, ref, and destination; handle private repositories and aliases; and avoid overwriting a non-empty destination without confirmation.

Usage

Basics

The simplest use of degit is to download the default branch of a repo from GitHub to the current working directory:

degit user/repo

# these commands are equivalent
degit github:user/repo
degit [email protected]:user/repo
degit https://github.com/user/repo

Or you can download from GitLab and BitBucket:

# download from GitLab
degit gitlab:user/repo
degit [email protected]:user/repo
degit https://gitlab.com/user/repo

# download from BitBucket
degit bitbucket:user/repo
degit [email protected]:user/repo
degit https://bitbucket.org/user/repo

# download from Sourcehut
degit git.sr.ht/user/repo
degit [email protected]:user/repo
degit https://git.sr.ht/user/repo

Specify a tag, branch or commit

When you omit a ref, degit uses the repository's default branch.

degit user/repo#dev       # branch
degit user/repo#v1.2.3    # release tag
degit user/repo#1234abcd  # commit hash

Create a new folder for the project

If the second argument is omitted, the repo will be cloned to the current directory.

degit user/repo my-new-project

Specify a subdirectory

To clone a specific subdirectory instead of the entire repo, just add it to the argument:

degit user/repo/subdirectory

You can also paste a full GitHub URL to a subdirectory:

degit https://github.com/user/repo/tree/main/subdirectory

GitLab nested groups

GitLab repositories inside nested groups are supported at runtime:

degit gitlab:gitlab-org/frontend/utils#v0.3.4

degit first tries the two-segment user/repo interpretation, so user/repo/subdir still means "clone user/repo and extract subdir". If that combination does not exist, it falls back to treating the path as a nested GitLab group.

HTTPS proxying

If you have an https_proxy environment variable, Degit will use it.

Cache behavior

degit caches downloaded tar snapshots so you don't need to fetch them again. By default, it tries to resolve the latest ref from the network and falls back to the cached version if the network is unreachable. Use --cache (-c) to skip the network request entirely and only use a locally cached copy.

Private repositories

Private repositories are handled automatically. degit uses the tarball path by default for HTTPS sources and falls back to SSH cloning when it cannot fetch or extract a snapshot.

SSH/private repositories still require git on your PATH.

If you still pass --mode=git, degit keeps working and prints a notice that the flag is no longer needed. --mode=tar is the default path.

See all options

degit --help

Pull requests are very welcome!

Wait, isn't this just git clone --depth 1?

A few salient differences:

• If you git clone, you get a .git folder that pertains to the project template, rather than your project. You can easily forget to re-init the repository, and end up confusing yourself
• Caching and offline support (if you already have a .tar.gz file for a specific commit, you don't need to fetch it again).
• Less to type (degit user/repo instead of git clone --depth 1 ssh://[email protected]/user/repo)
• Composability via actions
• Future capabilities — interactive mode, friendly onboarding and postinstall scripts

ESM API

You can also use degit inside a Node script:

import degit from 'degit';

const emitter = degit('user/repo', {
	cache: true,
	force: true,
	verbose: true,
});

emitter.on('info', (info) => {
	console.log(info.message);
});

emitter.clone('path/to/dest').then(() => {
	console.log('done');
});

Actions

You can manipulate repositories after they have been cloned with actions, specified in a degit.json file that lives at the top level of the working directory. Currently, there are three actions — clone, search_replace, and remove. Additional actions may be added in future.

A JSON Schema is available for editor autocompletion and validation; map degit.json to it in your editor's JSON schema settings (e.g. VS Code's json.schemas).

clone

// degit.json
[
	{
		"action": "clone",
		"src": "user/another-repo"
	}
]

This will clone user/another-repo, preserving the contents of the existing working directory. This allows you to, say, add a new README.md or starter file to a repo that you do not control. The cloned repo can contain its own degit.json actions.

search_replace

// degit.json
[
	{
		"action": "search_replace",
		"files": ["package.json", "README.md"],
		"pattern": "\\{\\{project_name\\}\\}",
		"replacement": "PROJECT_NAME"
	}
]

This replaces every match of the regular expression in the listed files using the value of the named environment variable. files can be a single path or an array of paths, and each path is resolved relative to the destination. Paths outside the destination are skipped.

remove

// degit.json
[
	{
		"action": "remove",
		"files": ["LICENSE"]
	}
]

Remove a file at the specified path.

See also

• zel by Vu Tran
• gittar by Luke Edwards
• gitpick - by Neeraj Dalal

License

MIT