GitHub/GitLab Cloner - Repository Skill Generator

A Claude Code skill that analyzes any GitHub or GitLab repository and generates a custom development skill tailored to that project's patterns, conventions, and documentation.

What It Does

GitHub/GitLab Cloner examines a repository and extracts:

• Contributor patterns - Who are the key developers? What areas do they focus on?
• Commit conventions - Do they use conventional commits? What prefixes are common?
• PR/MR patterns - How are PRs/MRs titled and described? What's typical scope?
• Issue organization - What labels are used? Are there templates?
• Documentation - README, CONTRIBUTING, CLAUDE.md, wiki content
• CI/CD - GitHub Actions workflows or .gitlab-ci.yml pipelines
• A Fork on the Road - Analyzes forks for unique work not in upstream — finds hidden bug fixes, features, and customizations living in the fork ecosystem

It then generates a skill file that helps any AI assistant work "in tune" with that repository's actual development patterns.

Supported Platforms

Platform	CLI Tool	Status
GitHub	gh	Full support
GitLab	glab	Full support (v2.0+)

Both platforms support: repo metadata, issues, PRs/MRs, commits, contributors, forks, wiki, and full clone analysis.

Installation

Copy the skill to your Claude Code skills directory:

# Clone this repo
git clone https://github.com/esaruoho/github-cloner.git

# Copy to Claude Code skills directory
cp -r github-cloner ~/.claude/skills/

Or manually copy the files to ~/.claude/skills/github-cloner/.

Usage

/github-cloner <repository>

Examples:

# GitHub repos
/github-cloner https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code
/github-cloner facebook/react
/github-cloner owner/repo

# GitLab repos
/github-cloner https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape
/github-cloner https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa
/github-cloner gitlab:group/subgroup/project

Platform detection is automatic:

• URLs containing gitlab.com or gitlab. -> GitLab
• URLs containing github.com -> GitHub
• gitlab: prefix -> GitLab
• Bare owner/repo -> GitHub (default)

Requirements

• Claude Code CLI

For GitHub repos:

• GitHub CLI (gh) installed and authenticated

brew install gh
gh auth login

For GitLab repos:

• GitLab CLI (glab) installed and authenticated

brew install glab
glab auth login
# For self-hosted: glab auth login --hostname your-gitlab.example.com

Output

After running, a new skill is created at ~/.claude/skills/<repo-name>/ containing:

File	Purpose
SKILL.md	Human-readable skill with conventions, patterns, instructions
pr-exemplars.md	PR/MR archive with technique index
analysis.json	Machine-readable structured data (for other LLMs)

Features

• Dual platform - Works with both GitHub and GitLab repositories
• Interactive options - Choose full clone vs API-only, commit history timeframe
• A Fork on the Road - Discover hidden work in forks: bug fixes, features, and customizations that never made it upstream
• Machine-readable output - analysis.json follows a JSON schema for LLM interoperability
• Cross-LLM compatible - Other AI assistants can consume the structured data
• Living skills - PR/MR analysis keeps the skill growing after initial generation
• Self-hosted GitLab - Supports custom GitLab instances via glab auth
• Incremental updates - Re-run to refresh with latest commits/PRs/MRs

Documentation

File	Description
SKILL.md	The skill instructions (what Claude follows)
AGENT-PROTOCOL.md	How other LLMs can consume the output
INTEGRATION-GUIDE.md	Building repository-specific skills
WORKFLOW-GUIDE.md	Step-by-step usage workflow
schemas/repo-analysis-schema.json	JSON schema for analysis.json

Example Workflow

1. Generate a skill from any repo:

   cd ~/repos/my-project
   claude
   # In Claude: /github-cloner owner/my-project
   # Or: /github-cloner https://gitlab.com/group/my-project

2. Use the skill from anywhere:

   cd ~/dev/my-project-work
   claude
   # The skill is automatically available!

3. Update when needed:

   /github-cloner owner/my-project
   

File Structure

github-cloner/
├── SKILL.md                 # Main skill instructions
├── README.md                # This file
├── AGENT-PROTOCOL.md        # LLM interoperability guide
├── INTEGRATION-GUIDE.md     # Building on github-cloner
├── WORKFLOW-GUIDE.md        # Usage workflow
├── schemas/
│   └── repo-analysis-schema.json
└── scripts/
    └── analyze-repo.sh      # Helper script

Use Cases

• Onboard to a new codebase - Quickly understand conventions and key contributors
• Cross-platform projects - Works with repos on either GitHub or GitLab
• Cross-LLM workflows - Generate data for Claude, use it with GPT/Gemini
• Build custom skills - Use as a foundation for repository-specific skills
• Team documentation - Auto-generate development guides from actual patterns

License

MIT

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please follow the existing code style and include tests for new features.