Feature Request: Sparse Checkout Support for Large Repos (Unity/Game Dev) #819
Description
Problem
Worktree creation fails or takes extremely long on large game projects (Unity, Unreal, Godot).
My test case: Unity project with 85,000+ files / 22GB
- Worktree checkout times out or fails with
fatal: Could not reset index file to revision 'HEAD'on Windows - Even when it works, checking out 33,000+ files takes several minutes per worktree
- Windows Defender and file locking exacerbate the issue
Proposed Solution
Support git sparse-checkout when creating worktrees. For code-focused tasks, only checkout source code directories, not binary assets.
How it works
git worktree add --no-checkout ../worktree-name branch
cd ../worktree-name
git sparse-checkout init --cone
git sparse-checkout set Assets/Scripts Assets/ScriptableObjects ProjectSettings Packages
git checkoutResults from my testing (GalacticGlitch Unity project)
| Metric | Full Checkout | Sparse Checkout | Improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Files | 85,404 | 4,622 | 95% fewer |
| Disk Space | 22 GB | 26 MB | 99.9% smaller |
| Checkout Time | Minutes (often fails) | Seconds | ~100x faster |
All code files needed for development tasks are present in the sparse checkout.
Suggested UX
Option A - Auto-detection:
- Detect large repos (>10K files or >1GB)
- Automatically offer/enable sparse checkout with sensible defaults
Option B - Project configuration:
- Allow users to configure sparse-checkout patterns in project settings
- Provide presets for common project types (Unity, Unreal, Godot, etc.)
Option C - Per-task configuration:
- Let users specify which directories are needed for a specific task
- AI could potentially infer required directories from the task description
Unity-specific defaults
Assets/Scripts
Assets/ScriptableObjects
Assets/Editor
ProjectSettings
Packages
This would make Auto-Claude viable for game development projects, which are often the largest and most complex codebases.
Environment
- Windows 11
- Git 2.x
- Auto-Claude v2.7.2