GitHub Fetch

When to Use

• Studying source code of a GitHub repo for one-off analysis
• Reading a single file or small number of files from a repo
• Exploring project structure, implementation patterns, or API design
• Not for permanent work — use a proper workspace for that

Mode 1: Full Repo Clone

Clone to the standard temp location with shallow depth:

git clone https://github.com/{user}/{repo} --depth=1 /tmp/github/{user}/{repo}

Then work in /tmp/github/{user}/{repo} using Read, Grep, Glob tools.

If the repo is already cloned, reuse it — do not re-clone.

# Check first
ls /tmp/github/{user}/{repo} 2>/dev/null || git clone https://github.com/{user}/{repo} --depth=1 /tmp/github/{user}/{repo}

Mode 2: Single File Fetch

For reading one file without cloning the whole repo, use WebFetch with the raw URL:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/{user}/{repo}/main/{path/to/file}

Or with curl:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/{user}/{repo}/main/{path/to/file}

Try main first; fall back to master if the file is not found.

Rules

• Always use --depth=1 — no history needed for study
• /tmp/github/ is the standard clone location (auto-cleaned on reboot)
• Do not commit or push changes from /tmp clones
• Prefer Mode 2 (single file) when only one or two files are needed — faster and lighter
• Prefer Mode 1 (full clone) when exploring structure, searching across files, or reading many files