GitHub Organization Repository Sync

github-repository-sync.py finds all repositories for a GitHub organization and checks whether they already exist locally under a recursive search root.

Repositories that are missing locally are cloned into <root>/<org>/<repo> by default. The script detects existing local repositories by inspecting their Git remotes, so repositories can be located in nested folders.

The script uses named arguments only. There are no positional arguments.

Dependencies

• Python 3.10 or newer
• Git
• GitHub CLI (gh), recommended for private repositories

Authentication options:

• Use an authenticated GitHub CLI session with gh auth login.
• Or set GITHUB_TOKEN or GH_TOKEN.
• Or pass a token with --token.

Without authentication, GitHub only returns public repositories.

How to use

Run the script with the organization name:

./github-repository-sync.py --org kaizten

By default, the script searches recursively under ~ and clones missing repositories into ~/kaizten.

Use --dry-run to preview the missing repositories and clone destinations without cloning anything:

./github-repository-sync.py --org kaizten --dry-run

Use --root to search and clone under a different directory:

./github-repository-sync.py --org kaizten --root /home/christopher

Use --clone-dir to clone missing repositories somewhere other than <root>/<org>:

./github-repository-sync.py --org kaizten --clone-dir /home/christopher/repos

If a clone destination already exists and is not empty, the script chooses the next available suffixed directory, such as repo-1.

Examples

Preview missing repositories for kaizten:

./github-repository-sync.py --org kaizten --dry-run

Clone all missing repositories for kaizten under the default root:

./github-repository-sync.py --org kaizten

Search under /home/christopher and clone missing repositories under /home/christopher/kaizten:

./github-repository-sync.py --org kaizten --root /home/christopher

Clone using SSH URLs:

./github-repository-sync.py --org kaizten --protocol ssh

Skip archived repositories:

./github-repository-sync.py --org kaizten --exclude-archived

Use an explicit GitHub token:

./github-repository-sync.py --org kaizten --token YOUR_GITHUB_TOKEN