Frequently Asked Questions
This page answers the most common questions people ask about GitHubFolder — how single-folder downloads work, whether you need an account or token, where your files actually go, what happens with private repos or rate limits, and how to handle branch names, other git hosts, and scripted downloads.
Using the tool
Can you download a single folder from GitHub?
Yes. Paste the folder's URL — the one containing /tree/branch/path — into the box on the homepage, and GitHubFolder downloads just that subfolder as a ZIP. GitHub's own web interface only offers a "Download ZIP" button for the entire repository, with no way to grab a single subfolder on its own, which is exactly the gap this tool fills.
Do I need a GitHub account or personal access token?
No, not for most folders. GitHubFolder first tries GitHub's public, unauthenticated API, which covers the vast majority of downloads. If that hits GitHub's rate limit, our server automatically falls back to a rotating pool of tokens that we manage — you never create, paste, or store a token yourself, and no sign-in is ever required on your end.
Why do I need to use /tree/branch/path in the URL and not just the repo homepage?
A repository's homepage URL only identifies the repo as a whole — it doesn't say which branch or which subfolder you mean. The /tree/branch/path segment is how GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket encode exactly that information in the address bar, so pasting a folder's URL, rather than the homepage, is what tells GitHubFolder precisely what to fetch.
Does this work with branch names that contain slashes, like feature/my-branch?
Yes. A URL like /tree/feature/my-branch/src/utils is ambiguous, since it's unclear where the branch name ends and the folder path begins. GitHubFolder resolves this by checking the longest possible prefix first — treating feature/my-branch/src/utils as the branch name — then progressively shorter prefixes, until the host confirms a real branch. This happens automatically; you don't need to separate them yourself.
Does this work with GitLab or Bitbucket, not just GitHub?
Yes. The same paste-a-folder-URL workflow works for public repositories on GitLab and Bitbucket, not only GitHub. GitHubFolder detects which host a URL belongs to automatically and talks to that host's API in the right format, so there's nothing extra to configure — just paste the link from whichever host you're browsing.
Does GitHubFolder work on mobile devices?
Yes. GitHubFolder is a normal web page with nothing to install, so it works in any modern mobile browser on iOS or Android much the same as it does on desktop. Paste a folder URL, review the file tree, tap download, and your phone's browser handles saving the ZIP the same way it saves any other file.
Privacy & security
Is it safe to use — where does my data go?
Very safe, because almost nothing leaves your device. The ZIP is assembled entirely in your browser: each file is fetched directly from raw.githubusercontent.com, or the equivalent for GitLab and Bitbucket, straight to you, never through our servers. Your recent-downloads history is saved only in your browser's local storage, never uploaded, and clearing it is one click away.
What happens if the repo is private?
GitHubFolder only works with public repositories. If you paste a link to a private repo, the underlying request fails and you'll see a clear error explaining that the repository couldn't be accessed, rather than a silent failure or a confusing generic message. There's currently no way to sign in and reach your own private repos through this tool.
Limits & errors
What if I hit a rate limit or see a "wait X seconds" message?
This means GitHub's public rate limit has been reached and our token pool is temporarily exhausted too — it happens rarely, usually during traffic spikes. The error tells you how many seconds to wait before trying again; retrying after that window almost always works, since rate limits reset on a rolling basis rather than staying blocked indefinitely.
Why did my download skip some deeply nested files?
Extremely large repositories can exceed the limits of the host's file-listing API, which caps how many entries it returns in a single call. When that happens, GitHubFolder shows a banner warning that some deeply nested files may be missing. The fix is simple: point the URL at a smaller, more specific subfolder instead of a huge top-level directory.
Other formats
Can I download just a single file instead of a whole folder?
Yes, though for a single file you may not need this tool at all — GitHub lets you download individual files directly with its own "raw" or "download" button. If you'd like a full walkthrough of every method, see our guide on downloading a single file from GitHub.
Can I download the entire repository instead of one folder?
Yes. If you actually want the whole project rather than one subfolder, GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket all offer a native "Download ZIP" button on the repo's homepage, and a plain git clone works too. See our guide on downloading an entire GitHub repo as a ZIP for a full comparison of the options.
Is there a command-line or scriptable way to do this?
Yes — GitHubFolder itself is a point-and-click browser tool, but if you want a scriptable, command-line-native approach, git sparse-checkout lets you pull just one folder as a real syncable repo, and the SVN export trick works entirely from the terminal too.
Is GitHubFolder free?
Yes. GitHubFolder is free to use with no limit on the number of downloads, no account, and no paywalled features.
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