GitHub CLI Extension: gh-clone-org

A GitHub CLI extension to clone all repositories in an organization or user account as quickly as possible.

v2.0.0 — Complete rewrite in Go with Cobra!

Installation

gh extension install svg153/gh-clone-org

Or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/svg153/gh-clone-org.git
cd gh-clone-org
go build -o gh-clone-org .
sudo cp gh-clone-org /usr/local/bin/

Quick Start

# Clone all repos in an organization
gh clone-org github

# Clone to a specific directory
gh clone-org github -p ~/github

# Clone a user's personal repos
gh clone-org svg153 --user

# Preview what would be cloned (dry-run)
gh clone-org github --dry-run

Usage

gh clone-org [org|user] [flags]

Flags

Flag	Description
-o, --org	GitHub organization (positional arg alias)
-p, --path	Path to clone repositories (default: current directory)
-s, --server-host-ssh	SSH server host for multi-account setups (default: github.com)
--update-org-folder	Update existing repos and clone new ones
--disable-clone-protection	Disable GIT_CLONE_PROTECTION_ACTIVE
--skip-archived	Skip archived repositories
--skip-forks	Skip forked repositories
--include-pattern	Glob pattern to include repos (can be repeated)
--exclude-pattern	Glob pattern to exclude repos (can be repeated)
--limit	Maximum number of repositories to clone (0 = unlimited)
--dry-run	List repos that would be cloned without actually cloning
-v, --verbose	Increase verbosity: -v = clone status, -vv = git output, -vvv = debug info
--user	Clone user's personal repos instead of organization repos
--profile	Configuration profile (built-in: full, minimal, no-forks, or custom)
--version	Show version info
-h, --help	Help for this command

Examples

Basic usage

# Clone all repos in an organization
gh clone-org kubernetes

# Clone to a specific directory
gh clone-org kubernetes -p ~/k8s

# Clone with verbose output
gh clone-org kubernetes -v

Filters

# Skip archived and forked repos
gh clone-org github --skip-archived --skip-forks

# Clone only specific repos
gh clone-org github --include-pattern "cli-*"

# Exclude certain repos
gh clone-org github --exclude-pattern "test-*" --exclude-pattern "docs-*"

# Clone only first 10 repos
gh clone-org github --limit 10

User mode

# Clone a user's personal repos
gh clone-org svg153 --user

# User mode with filters
gh clone-org svg153 --user --skip-forks --skip-archived

Dry-run

# See what would be cloned without actually cloning
gh clone-org github --dry-run
gh clone-org github --dry-run --skip-forks --limit 5

Configuration profiles

Built-in profiles:

• full: No filters, verbose mode
• minimal: Skip archived + forks, quiet mode
• no-forks: Skip forks only

# Use a built-in profile
gh clone-org github --profile minimal

# Use a custom profile from .gh-clone-org.yaml
gh clone-org github --profile production

Custom profiles in .gh-clone-org.yaml:

production:
  skip_archived: true
  skip_forks: true
  verbose: 1
  limit: 50
  exclude_patterns:
    - "test-*"
    - "docs-*"

Multi-account

# Clone from a GitHub Enterprise instance
gh clone-org mycompany -s github.mycompany.com

# Clone from a custom SSH host
gh clone-org mycompany -s github.company-ssh.com

Architecture

• Parallel cloning: Uses runtime.NumCPU() workers with a semaphore channel
• Rate limiting: Exponential backoff with jitter (1s base, 60s max, 25% jitter)
• Pagination: Handles orgs with 100+ repos via GitHub API pagination
• SSH URLs: Clones via SSH for authenticated access
• Error handling: Collects all errors and reports them at the end

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (feat/your-feature)
3. Make your changes
4. Run tests: bats test/
5. Commit with Conventional Commits format
6. Push and create a Pull Request

Commit format

type(scope): description

- feat: add new feature
- fix: fix a bug
- docs: update documentation
- test: add or update tests
- refactor: code refactoring
- ci: CI/CD changes
- chore: maintenance tasks

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.