gitkeep

A CLI tool for maintaining local archives of GitHub users and organizations. Point it at one or more accounts and it clones every repo, then keeps them up to date on subsequent runs.

Download

Pre-built binaries are available on the releases page.

Platform	Architecture	Download
Linux	x86_64	gitkeep-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
Linux	ARM64	gitkeep-aarch64-unknown-linux-musl
macOS	x86_64	gitkeep-x86_64-apple-darwin
macOS	ARM64 (Apple Silicon)	gitkeep-aarch64-apple-darwin
Windows	x86_64	gitkeep-x86_64-pc-windows-gnu.exe
Windows	ARM64	gitkeep-aarch64-pc-windows-gnullvm.exe

Install

With cargo

cargo install gitkeep

From source

git clone https://github.com/trypsynth/gitkeep
cd gitkeep
cargo install --path .

Quick start

gitkeep init          # set archive directory and clone URL preference
gitkeep login         # authenticate with a GitHub personal access token
gitkeep add trypsynth # add a user (clones all their repos immediately)
gitkeep sync          # sync everything
gitkeep list          # show what's tracked

Commands

init

Configure the archive directory, whether to use SSH or HTTPS clone URLs, whether to clone submodules by default, and whether repos are cloned immediately when added. Re-run at any time to update settings; your token and tracked users are preserved.

login

Authenticate with a GitHub personal access token. Opens the token creation page in your browser, validates the token, and saves it to config. Also adds your own account to the tracked list automatically.

add <TARGET>...

Add one or more GitHub users, orgs, or individual repos to the archive list and clone them immediately. A target is either a plain username/org (tracks the whole account) or user/repo (pins just that one repo).

Flag	Description
--forks	Include forked repositories for these accounts
--frozen	Track the account but never update it during bulk syncs
--submodules	Clone submodules for these accounts/repos, overriding the global default
--no-submodules	Never clone submodules for these accounts/repos, overriding the global default
--no-sync	Add to the tracked list without cloning right now, overriding the config default
--sync	Clone immediately after adding, overriding a no_sync = true config default

sync [USERNAME]... (alias: run)

Sync all tracked accounts. Passing usernames adds them to the tracked list and syncs them immediately (same as add + sync).

Flag	Description
--forks	Include forks for this run only (does not save to config)
--submodules	Clone submodules for this run only (does not save to config)
-p, --pull-only	Only pull existing repos; skip checking for new ones
-n, --new-only	Only clone new repos; skip pulling existing ones
-q, --quiet	Suppress all output except errors and the final summary
-v, --verbose	Show raw git output and per-repo detail

A sync that fails to pull an existing repo because it no longer matches what's on GitHub (e.g. the owner/name was deleted and recreated as a different repo) automatically deletes the stale local clone and re-clones it.

skip <user/repo>...

Exclude a specific repo from future syncs. Accepts user/repo format.

Flag	Description
-d, --delete	Also delete the local archive directory for these repos

unskip <user/repo>...

Re-enable a previously skipped repo.

prune

Delete the local archive directories for all currently skipped repos, after confirmation.

Flag	Description
-y, --yes	Skip the confirmation prompt

list (alias: ls)

Show all tracked users and orgs, including any per-account flags and the list of skipped repos.

remove <TARGET>... (alias: rm)

Stop tracking one or more users, orgs, or individually pinned repos. Accepts either a plain username/org or user/repo. Prompts to delete the local archive directory; pass --delete to skip the prompt. If a target isn't tracked as a full user but has individually pinned repos under it, prompts to remove those too.

Flag	Description
-d, --delete	Also delete the local archive directory for these targets
-y, --yes	Skip all confirmation prompts, assuming "yes"

License

gitkeep is licensed under the MIT License.