Clone a GitHub repo and start Claude Code in it. Repos are cached locally for fast reuse.

README.md

gitask

A bash script that clones GitHub repositories (with local caching) and launches Claude Code inside the cloned directory.

Ask Claude questions about any public GitHub repo without manually cloning it first.

Install

curl -fsSL https://gist.githubusercontent.com/maleta/16e7072bf469b95df73aa64d7471f6f6/raw/gitask -o /usr/local/bin/gitask
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/gitask

Requires: git, claude (Claude Code CLI).

Usage

gitask <github-url> [claude args...]

Examples

# Open Claude Code in a repo
gitask https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code

# Target a specific branch and path
gitask https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/tree/main/src

# Point to a specific file (blob URL)
gitask https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/blob/main/src/index.ts

# Pass additional arguments to Claude
gitask https://github.com/user/repo -p "explain the architecture"

How it works

1. Parses the GitHub URL to extract owner, repo, branch, and file path.
2. Clones the repo to ~/.gitask/<owner>/<repo> (reuses the cache on subsequent runs).
3. Checks out the specified branch if provided.
4. Launches claude in the repo directory, forwarding any extra arguments.

gitask

# Clone a GitHub repo (cached in ~/.gitask) and launch Claude Code
# in the repo directory. Supports blob/tree URLs to checkout a specific
# branch and reference a file path.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

GITASK_DIR="${HOME}/.gitask"

usage() {
  echo "Usage: gitask <github-url> [claude args...]"
  echo ""
  echo "Clone a GitHub repo (cached) and start Claude interactively with context."
  echo ""
  echo "Examples:"
  echo "  gitask https://github.com/user/repo"
  echo "  gitask https://github.com/user/repo/blob/main/src/index.ts"
  echo "  gitask https://github.com/user/repo/tree/develop/docs"
  exit 1
}

[[ $# -lt 1 ]] && usage

url="$1"
shift

# Strip github.com prefix and extract segments
path="${url#*github.com/}"
IFS='/' read -ra parts <<< "$path"

if [[ ${#parts[@]} -lt 2 || -z "${parts[0]}" || -z "${parts[1]}" ]]; then
  echo "Error: could not parse owner/repo from URL"
  exit 1
fi

owner="${parts[0]}"
repo="${parts[1]%.git}"

branch=""
file_ref=""

# Parse blob/tree URLs: owner/repo/(blob|tree)/<branch>/path...
if [[ ${#parts[@]} -ge 4 ]] && [[ "${parts[2]}" == "blob" || "${parts[2]}" == "tree" ]]; then
  branch="${parts[3]}"
  if [[ ${#parts[@]} -ge 5 ]]; then
    file_ref=$(IFS='/'; echo "${parts[*]:4}")
  fi
fi

clone_dir="${GITASK_DIR}/${owner}/${repo}"
repo_url="https://github.com/${owner}/${repo}.git"

# Clone if not cached
if [[ -d "$clone_dir/.git" ]]; then
  echo "Using cached ${owner}/${repo}"
else
  echo "Cloning ${owner}/${repo}..."
  git clone "$repo_url" "$clone_dir"
fi

# Checkout branch if specified
if [[ -n "$branch" ]]; then
  git -C "$clone_dir" checkout "$branch" 2>/dev/null \
    || git -C "$clone_dir" checkout -b "$branch" "origin/$branch" 2>/dev/null \
    || echo "Warning: could not checkout branch '$branch'"
fi

cd "$clone_dir"
exec claude "$@"