GH-REPO-CLONE(1)

💅 NAME

gh-repo-clone — clone a repo to your machine, boom, done, bestie 💖

✨ SYNOPSIS

gh repo clone <repository> [<directory>] [-- <gitflags>...]

🦋 DESCRIPTION

Okay so: this clones a GitHub repository locally. That's the whole vibe. And if you wanna pass extra git clone flags? Literally just list them after --. That's it. Slay.

If you leave off the OWNER/ part of the OWNER/REPO repository argument, it defaults to the name of the authenticating user — so you can be lazy, it's fine, we love that for you 🫶

If you don't give a protocol scheme in the repository argument, then git_protocol gets chosen from your configuration — you can peek at what it's set to with gh config get git_protocol. But if you do provide the protocol scheme, the repo gets cloned using that specified protocol. Periodt.

If the repository is a fork, its parent repository will be added as an additional git remote called upstream. Yep, automatically, no cap. You can rename that remote with --upstream-remote-name. And the --upstream-remote-name option supports an @owner value, which will name the remote after the owner of the parent repository — iconic behavior honestly 👑

Also (yes, another one): if the repository is a fork, its parent repository will be set as the default remote repository. If you're not about that life, use --no-upstream to skip this behavior.

🎀 OPTIONS

• --no-upstream — don't add an upstream remote when you're cloning a fork. Sometimes you just want the fork, alone, main character energy.
• -u, --upstream-remote-name <string> (default "upstream") — the name for the upstream remote when cloning a fork.

🌈 EXIT CODES

• 0: Successful execution ✨
• 1: Error 😭
• 2: Command canceled
• 4: Authentication required 🔐

NOTE: Specific commands may have additional exit codes. Refer to the command's help for more information. iykyk 💫

🍓 EXAMPLE

# Clone a repository from a specific org
$ gh repo clone cli/cli

# Clone a repository from your own account
$ gh repo clone myrepo

# Clone a repo, overriding git protocol configuration
$ gh repo clone https://github.com/cli/cli
$ gh repo clone git@github.com:cli/cli.git

# Clone a repository to a custom directory
$ gh repo clone cli/cli workspace/cli

# Clone a repository with additional git clone flags
$ gh repo clone cli/cli -- --depth=1

# Clone a fork without adding an upstream remote
$ gh repo clone myfork --no-upstream

🧚 SEE ALSO

gh-repo(1) — go read that one too bestie, it's giving comprehensive 💜

---

Also, since you made it all the way down here: this lil page is from GitHub CLI v2.102.0, dated Oct 2026. Mwah, go clone something cute 🌸