gitpick

GitPick

Clone exactly what you need aka straightforward project scaffolding!

📦 Zero dependencies / Un/packed (~67/25kb) / Faster and more features yet drop-in replacement for degit

Just copy-and-paste any GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket URL - no editing required (shorthands work too) - to clone individual files, folders, branches, commits, raw content or even entire repositories without the .git directory.

Unlike other tools that force you to tweak URLs or follow strict formats to clone files, folders, branches or commits GitPick works seamlessly with any URL.

You can also try Interactive Mode. Browse any repo right in your terminal. See every file, pick what you want, skip what you don't. Just gitpick owner/repo -i and you're in. No more guessing paths.

Table of Contents

• Some Examples
• Features
• Quick Usage
• Options
• Interactive Mode
• Private Repos
• Config File
• Install Globally
• Used By
• Related Projects
• Contributing

📖 Some Examples

See Quick Usage for to learn more.

# interactive mode - browse and pick files/folders
npx gitpick owner/repo -i
npx gitpick https://github.com/owner/repo -i
# clone a repo without .git
npx gitpick owner/repo
npx gitpick https://github.com/owner/repo
# clone a folder aka tree
npx gitpick owner/repo/tree/main/path/to/folder
npx gitpick https://github.com/owner/repo/tree/main/path/to/folder
# clone a file aka blob
npx gitpick owner/repo/blob/main/path/to/file
npx gitpick https://github.com/owner/repo/blob/main/path/to/file
# clone a branch
npx gitpick owner/repo -b canary
npx gitpick https://github.com/owner/repo -b canary
npx gitpick owner/repo/tree/canary
npx gitpick https://github.com/owner/repo/tree/canary
# clone a commit SHA
npx gitpick owner/repo -b cc8e93
npx gitpick https://github.com/owner/repo/commit/cc8e93
# clone submodules
npx gitpick owner/repo -r
npx gitpick https://github.com/owner/repo -r
# clone a private repo
npx gitpick https://<token>@github.com/owner/repo
# clone from GitLab
npx gitpick https://gitlab.com/owner/repo
npx gitpick https://gitlab.com/owner/repo/-/tree/main/path/to/folder
# clone from Bitbucket
npx gitpick https://bitbucket.org/owner/repo
npx gitpick https://bitbucket.org/owner/repo/src/main/path/to/folder
# dry run (preview without cloning)
npx gitpick owner/repo --dry-run
npx gitpick owner/repo -i --dry-run

✨ Features

• 🔍 Clone individual files or folders from GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket
• 🧠 Use shorthands TanStack/router or full URL's https://github.com/TanStack/router
• ⚙️ Auto-detects branches and target directory (if not specified) like git clone
• 🔥 Interactive mode - browse and cherry-pick files/folders with -i | --interactive
• 🔐 Seamlessly works with both public and private repositories using a PAT
• 📦 Can easily clone all submodules with -r | --recursive
• 🔎 Preview what would be cloned with --dry-run before cloning
• 🌳 View cloned file structure as a colored tree with --tree
• 🗑️ Overwrite or replace existing files without a prompt using -o | --overwrite
• 🔁 Sync changes remotely with --watch using intervals (e.g., 15s, 1m, 1h)
• 🔇 Silent mode with --quiet for CI pipelines, debug mode with --verbose
• 📋 Config file support (.gitpick.json / .gitpick.jsonc) for multi-path picks

🚀 Quick Usage

npx gitpick <url/shorthand> [target] [options]

• [target] and [options] are optional, if not specified, GitPick fallbacks to the default behavior of git clone

Examples:

npx gitpick https://github.com/owner/repo           # repo without .git
npx gitpick owner/repo/tree/main/path/to/folder     # a folder aka tree
npx gitpick owner/repo/blob/main/path/to/file       # a file aka blob

npx gitpick <url/shorthand>                         # default git behavior
npx gitpick <url/shorthand> [target]                # with optional target
npx gitpick <url/shorthand> -b [branch/SHA]         # branch or commit SHA
npx gitpick <url/shorthand> -o                      # overwrite if exists
npx gitpick <url/shorthand> -r                      # clone submodules
npx gitpick <url/shorthand> -w 30s                  # sync every 30 seconds
npx gitpick <url/shorthand> --dry-run               # preview without cloning
npx gitpick https://<token>@github.com/owner/repo   # private repository
npx gitpick https://gitlab.com/owner/repo           # GitLab
npx gitpick https://bitbucket.org/owner/repo        # Bitbucket

🔧 Options

-b, --branch       Branch/SHA to clone
-i, --interactive  Browse and pick files/folders interactively
-n, --dry-run      Show what would be cloned without cloning
-o, --overwrite    Skip overwrite prompt
-r, --recursive    Clone submodules
-w, --watch [time] Watch the repository and sync every [time]
                   (e.g. 1h, 30m, 15s)
    --tree         List copied files as a tree
-q, --quiet        Suppress all output except errors
    --verbose      Show detailed clone information
-h, --help         display help for command
-v, --version      display the version number

🔥 Interactive Mode

New in v5.0. Browse any repository's file tree in your terminal and cherry-pick exactly the files and folders you want.

npx gitpick owner/repo -i
npx gitpick owner/repo -i -b canary
npx gitpick https://github.com/owner/repo -i
npx gitpick https://gitlab.com/owner/repo -i

Navigate with arrow keys, select with space, expand/collapse with enter, . to select all, c to confirm. Works with GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, public and private repos.

🔐 Private Repos

Use a personal access token with read-only contents permission. Works with GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket:

npx gitpick https://<token>@github.com/owner/repo
npx gitpick https://<token>@gitlab.com/owner/repo
npx gitpick https://<token>@bitbucket.org/owner/repo

Or use environment variables (recommended for CI):

export GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_xxxx    # or GH_TOKEN
export GITLAB_TOKEN=glpat-xxxx
export BITBUCKET_TOKEN=xxxx

npx gitpick owner/private-repo  # token is picked up automatically

Create a GitHub token 👉 here with repo -> contents: read-only permission.

📋 Config File

Create a .gitpick.json or .gitpick.jsonc in your project to pick multiple files/folders in one command:

// .gitpick.jsonc
[
  // clone a repo without .git
  "owner/repo",
  "https://github.com/owner/repo",
  // clone a folder aka tree
  "owner/repo/tree/main/path/to/folder",
  "https://github.com/owner/repo/tree/main/path/to/folder",
  // clone a file aka blob
  "owner/repo/blob/main/path/to/file",
  "https://github.com/owner/repo/blob/main/path/to/file",
  // clone a branch
  "owner/repo -b canary",
  "https://github.com/owner/repo -b canary",
  "owner/repo/tree/canary",
  "https://github.com/owner/repo/tree/canary",
  // clone a commit SHA
  "owner/repo -b cc8e93",
  "https://github.com/owner/repo/commit/cc8e93",
  // clone submodules
  "owner/repo -r",
  "https://github.com/owner/repo -r",
  // clone a private repo
  "https://<token>@github.com/owner/repo",
  // GitLab
  "https://gitlab.com/owner/repo",
  "https://gitlab.com/owner/repo/-/tree/main/path/to/folder",
  // Bitbucket
  "https://bitbucket.org/owner/repo",
  "https://bitbucket.org/owner/repo/src/main/path/to/folder",
]

Then just run:

npx gitpick

Each entry follows the same <url> [target] syntax as the CLI. All entries are cloned with -o (overwrite) by default.

📦 Install Globally (Optional)

npm install -g gitpick
gitpick <url/shorthand> [target] [options]

🌍 Used By

• Major: Storybook, TanStack Router, ElectricSQL, Alchemy, Porto, oidc-spa, Fidely UI
• Other: hono-better-auth, vite-hono-ssr, tanstack-start-cf, constructa-starter-min, tanstack-starter, react-shadcn-starter, open-store

🛠 More Tools

Check out more projects at github.com/nrjdalal

🔗 Related Projects

• tiged - community driven fork of degit
• giget - alternative approach

🤝 Contributing

Contributions welcome - any help is appreciated!

• Fork the repo and create a branch (use descriptive names, e.g. feat/ or fix/).
• Make your changes, add tests if applicable, and run the checks:
  • bun install
  • bun test
• Follow the existing code style and commit message conventions (use conventional commits: feat, fix, docs, chore).
• Open a PR describing the change, motivation, and any migration notes; link related issues.
• For breaking changes or large features, open an issue first to discuss the approach.
• By contributing you agree to the MIT license and the project's Code of Conduct.

Thank you for helping improve GitPick!

📄 License

MIT – LICENSE