scalar

Microsoft's wrapper around partial clone + sparse-checkout + maintenance.

🎯 What & why

Microsoft's wrapper around partial clone, sparse-checkout, and maintenance — a porcelain optimized for huge monorepos. Ships with Git nowadays.

🧠 Mental model

Scalar isn't a new VCS — it's an opinionated configurator. scalar clone issues a normal git clone --filter=blob:none --no-checkout, runs git sparse-checkout init --cone, registers the repo with git maintenance, and sets a battery of perf-friendly config keys. The repo is a regular Git repo afterward.

🛠️ Synopsis

scalar clone [--single-branch] [--branch=<main-branch>] [--full-clone] [--[no-]src] <url> [<enlistment>]
scalar list
scalar register [<enlistment>]
scalar unregister [<enlistment>]
scalar run ( all | config | commit-graph | fetch | loose-objects | pack-files ) [<enlistment>]
scalar reconfigure [ --all | <enlistment> ]
scalar diagnose [<enlistment>]
scalar delete <enlistment>

🎚️ Switches & options

Flag	What it does
`clone <url>`	Clone with all the perf wins enabled.
`register/unregister`	Add/remove a repo from scalar's maintenance list.
`reconfigure`	Re-apply scalar's recommended settings.
`diagnose`	Bundle diagnostic info.

💡 Use cases

Working with monorepos in the gigabytes.
Dev machines that need fast git status on large trees.

🧪 Examples

Clone a giant repo with scalar's defaults.

$ scalar clone https://example.com/monorepo.git

$ scalar register ~/work/monorepo

🎓 Recommendations

If you live in monorepos, learn scalar. The defaults are the right ones.
On normal-sized repos, scalar adds complexity without payoff.

🪤 Common pitfalls

Some operations behave subtly differently because of partial clone — be explicit when sharing instructions.
If your team uses scalar, document the on-ramp.

🔗 Related modules

📝 Quiz

Hit each option, then Check answers. Score is recorded; Next is always open.