🤖 Agent skill — npx skills@latest add https://github.com/OpenSourceAGI/dev-tools-starter-agent --skill git0 (what it covers)

Step 0: Download Git Repo

CLI tool to search GitHub repositories, download source & releases for your system, and instantly set up, then install dependencies and open code editor.

🌐 git0.js.org

🚀 Installation

npm install -g git0

bun install -g git0

✨ Features

• Search GitHub repositories by name with fuzzy matching
• Download repositories directly from GitHub URLs or owner/repo shortcuts. Skip the manual git clone, cd, install dance
• Get Releases instantly download latest release for your system or all systems
• Automatic dependency installation and installation for multiple project types
• Smart IDE integration - automatically opens projects in your preferred editor
• Cross-platform support - works on Windows, macOS, and Linux
• Conflict resolution - handles directory naming conflicts automatically
• Partial paths - paste a /tree/ or /blob/ link and download just that folder or file
• Optional .git history - --history attaches the full history after the source is already on disk
• Faster than git - skips .git history and uncompresses while downloading

🎯 Usage

# Direct download from GitHub URL
## g and git0 both work
g https://github.com/facebook/react

# Search for repositories by name
g react starter

# Download using owner/repo shorthand
git0 facebook/react

# Use git0 without installing, (only node needed)
# (copy this line into your project's readme to help others setup)
npx git0 facebook/react

# Download only one folder — paste the GitHub link as you copied it
g https://github.com/facebook/react/tree/main/packages/react-dom

# ...or one file
g https://github.com/debate/debate-ai.com/blob/master/.continue/agents/new-config.yaml

# Same thing, without a URL
git0 facebook/react/packages/react-dom
git0 facebook/react --path=packages/react-dom

# A specific branch, tag or commit
git0 facebook/react --branch=v18.2.0

# With the full .git history attached after the download
git0 facebook/react --history

# History only — no working files at all
git0 facebook/react --history-only

Options

| Flag | What it does | | --- | --- | | --path=<path> | Download only that folder or file of the repository | | --branch=<ref> | Download a branch, tag or commit instead of the default branch | | --history | Also fetch the full .git history, in the background | | --history-only | Clone only the history — no working files | | --mirror | Keep every ref (notes, remote-tracking) when cloning history |

📁 Partial Paths

Copy a link out of the GitHub UI and git0 downloads exactly what the link points at, not the repository around it:

g https://github.com/facebook/react/tree/main/packages/react-dom
# → ./react-dom/ — the contents of that folder, at the root

The branch and the path are both read off the URL. Entries outside the path are discarded as the tarball streams, so they are never written to disk, and what is kept is lifted to the root of the target folder — you get react-dom/, not react/packages/react-dom/.

The folder is named after the path rather than the repository, because that is what you asked for. A /blob/ link to a single file downloads that one file into its enclosing folder's name. Pass a second argument, or --path with any repo reference, if you'd rather name it yourself:

git0 facebook/react --path=packages/react-dom my-copy

🕐 Downloading With .git History

By default git0 downloads a tarball — the source at one commit, no history. That is what makes it quick. When you do want the history, --history gets you both without giving up the speed:

git0 facebook/react --history

The source tarball lands first. The history is fetched after the archive has finished unzipping, in the background, while the IDE opens and dependencies install. You end up in exactly the state git clone would have left you in — a working tree with a full .git beside it, git log and git blame working, git status clean — except you started working several seconds earlier.

Why the lazy order is faster. git clone is one serial operation: the remote counts and packs every object in the project's history, sends the pack, and only then writes files you can run. Nothing can start until all of it finishes. A GitHub tarball is a pre-made, cached, already-compressed snapshot of one commit, so git0 pipes it straight into a tar extractor — files are being written while the rest is still downloading. And history is the one part of a clone that nothing on the critical path is waiting for: bun install does not need git log. So it is fetched last, overlapping the install rather than blocking it.

There is a benchmark for this in benchmark/ — it measures time until the project can run, separately from time until history is available, for git clone, git clone --depth=1, git0, and git0 --history:

bun run bench facebook/react

History Only

To take the history and none of the working files — for a backup, a mirror, or to move a repository between hosts:

git0 facebook/react --history-only
# → ./react.git/ — HEAD, config, objects/, refs/, packed-refs

That directory holds what normally lives inside .git, placed at its root: all the commits, branches and tags, no editable files. Read it without checking anything out, or restore a normal working copy from it:

git --git-dir=react.git log --all --oneline
git clone react.git react

--history-only uses a bare clone (branches and tags). Add --mirror for every ref Git can fetch — notes, remote-tracking refs and the rest — which is what you want when the point is a complete backup:

git0 facebook/react --history-only --mirror

Supported Project Types

git0 automatically detects and sets up the following project types:

| Project Type | Detection | Installation | | ----------------- | -------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | | Node.js | package.json | bun install (fallback to npm install) | | Docker | Dockerfile, docker-compose.yml | docker-compose up -d or docker build | | Python | requirements.txt, setup.py | Virtual environment + pip install | | Rust | Cargo.toml | cargo build | | Go | go.mod | go mod tidy |

Supported IDEs

git0 automatically detects and opens projects in your preferred IDE:

• Antigravity
• Cursor
• Windsurf
• VS Code
• VSCode Server WebUI
• Neovim
• Webstorm

🔧 Configuration

What Happens After Download

1. Repository is downloaded to your current directory — only the requested path, if you named one
2. Project type is detected automatically
3. Dependencies are installed based on project type
4. IDE is launched automatically (if available)
5. Development server starts (for Node.js projects)
6. .git history is attached in the background, if you passed --history

If a directory with the same name exists, git0 automatically appends a number (e.g., react-2, react-3).

GitHub Token (Optional)

For higher API rate limits, set your GitHub token:

export GITHUB_TOKEN=your_github_token_here

Without a token, you're limited to 60 requests per hour. With a token, you get 5,000 requests per hour.

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