clone Command

What It’s For

Recover missing local repositories without re-adding them to workspace configuration, or complete a partial coordinated worktree after creating only some child repositories.

What It Does

Detects repositories already defined in .arashi/config.json that are missing on disk.
Lets you choose which missing repositories to clone in interactive mode.
Clones all missing repositories in non-interactive mode with --all.
Inside a coordinated worktree, adds missing child repositories as worktrees on the current branch when a local source repository is available.
Falls back to normal remote clone behavior outside coordinated worktrees or when no source repository is available.
Reconciles managed ignore rules before materializing a configured repository path.
Skips repositories that are already present locally.

Usage

arashi clone [options]

Key Options

--all clone all missing configured repositories without selection prompts.
-j, --json output machine-readable results for non-interactive clone runs.

Examples

# Pick from missing repositories interactively
arashi clone

# Clone every missing configured repository
arashi clone --all

# Complete a partial coordinated worktree from inside it
cd .arashi/worktrees/my-meta-feature-auth-refresh
arashi clone

# Clone every missing repository and emit JSON
arashi clone --all --json

Notes

clone only works on repositories already configured in the workspace.
If no repositories are missing, the command exits successfully with no clone action.
From inside a coordinated worktree, clone uses the current branch for child worktrees so completed repositories stay aligned with the parent worktree.
If the matching source repository cannot be found locally, clone uses the configured remote URL instead.
If you’re in a non-interactive environment, use --all.
JSON mode does not prompt; combine --json with explicit selection flags such as --all.
Before cloning, Arashi honors any effective tracked, repository-local, or global rule. If a safe managed path is still unignored, it uses the stored clone-local scope or the repository-local default; scope none warns without writing.
Repeated reconciliation is idempotent. If no clone is retained after failure, ignore and preference changes are restored; when some selected repositories succeed, required reconciliation is retained and reported with the partial result.
A fresh clone has no shared ignore preference because arashi.ignoreScope is clone-local. It therefore defaults to the common repository’s local exclude file and does not unexpectedly change tracked .gitignore.
When a configured remote already uses SSH, clone keeps every configured SSH URL byte-for-byte. An SSH preference can still convert a conventional HTTPS remote to SSH, but Arashi never converts an SSH URL to HTTPS because an alias has no trustworthy automatic HTTPS mapping.

Troubleshooting SSH Remotes

Git and OpenSSH resolve the host and authenticate. Arashi does not read, resolve, or edit ~/.ssh/config, identity files, or keys, and it does not run a separate SSH connectivity probe. If an alias cannot be resolved or authenticated, review the underlying Git error and test the same remote with Git in your local environment.

In a multi-repository clone, a failed alias is reported for that repository and Arashi continues with the remaining selected repositories. Successful clones are retained under the existing partial-success contract. For an add failure, Arashi uses the existing rollback boundary described in the add command reference.

Agent Notes

Use arashi status --json or arashi status --verbose to discover missing configured repositories before completing a partial workspace.
Prefer arashi clone --all --json when automation should complete every missing child repository without prompts.
Inspect managed ignore warnings and final changed/restored state in JSON results instead of editing Git ignore files directly.

clone requires configured mode and persisted child repositories. From standalone mode, run ordinary arashi init to upgrade; see the Standalone Repository workflow.