giget vs degit vs tiged: Git Template Downloading in Node.js (2026)

TL;DR

giget is the UnJS template downloader — downloads Git repos and tar archives without git history, supports GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and custom registries, used by Nuxt's nuxi init. degit is Rich Harris's project scaffolding tool — downloads repos without git history, simple CLI, created by the Svelte author. tiged is the community fork of degit — fixes bugs and adds features degit hasn't merged, drop-in replacement. In 2026: giget for programmatic template downloading, degit/tiged for CLI project scaffolding.

Key Takeaways

• giget: ~3M weekly downloads — UnJS, programmatic API, registry support, powers Nuxt CLI
• degit: ~500K weekly downloads — Rich Harris, CLI-first, simple but unmaintained
• tiged: ~100K weekly downloads — community fork of degit, maintained, bug fixes
• All three download repos without .git history — clean project scaffolding
• giget supports custom template registries (like Nuxt starters)
• degit and tiged are CLI tools; giget has both CLI and programmatic API

---

The Problem

# git clone downloads the ENTIRE history:
git clone https://github.com/nuxt/starter
# → Downloads all commits, branches, tags
# → .git directory is ~50MB for large repos
# → You just wanted the latest files

# What you actually want:
# → Download just the latest files
# → No .git directory
# → No commit history
# → Ready to start a new project

---

giget

giget — universal template downloader:

CLI usage

# Download from GitHub:
npx giget gh:nuxt/starter my-app
npx giget github:vitejs/vite/packages/create-vite/template-react-ts my-react-app

# Short syntax:
npx giget nuxt/starter my-app

# GitLab:
npx giget gitlab:user/repo my-project

# Bitbucket:
npx giget bitbucket:user/repo my-project

# Specific branch/tag:
npx giget gh:nuxt/starter#v3 my-app
npx giget gh:vuejs/create-vue#main my-vue-app

# Subdirectory:
npx giget gh:unjs/template/ts my-ts-project

Programmatic API

import { downloadTemplate } from "giget"

// Download a template:
const { source, dir } = await downloadTemplate("gh:nuxt/starter", {
  dir: "./my-app",
  force: true,     // Overwrite existing directory
  install: false,  // Don't run npm install
})

console.log(`Downloaded from ${source} to ${dir}`)

// With options:
await downloadTemplate("gh:vitejs/vite", {
  dir: "./my-project",
  preferOffline: true,   // Use cache if available
  offline: false,         // Allow network requests
  cwd: process.cwd(),
  auth: process.env.GITHUB_TOKEN,  // For private repos
})

Custom registries

import { downloadTemplate } from "giget"

// Nuxt uses a custom registry for starters:
await downloadTemplate("nuxt", {
  registry: "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nuxt/starter/templates/templates",
})

// Custom registry for your organization:
await downloadTemplate("my-template", {
  registry: "https://templates.mycompany.com",
})

How Nuxt uses giget

// nuxi init uses giget to scaffold projects:
// npx nuxi init my-app

// Internally:
import { downloadTemplate } from "giget"

async function initProject(name: string, template: string = "v3") {
  await downloadTemplate(`nuxt/starter#${template}`, {
    dir: name,
    force: false,
  })

  console.log(`✅ Nuxt project created in ./${name}`)
  console.log(`   cd ${name} && npm install`)
}

---

degit

degit — project scaffolding:

CLI usage

# Download from GitHub:
npx degit user/repo my-project
npx degit sveltejs/template my-svelte-app

# Specific branch:
npx degit user/repo#dev my-project

# Specific tag:
npx degit user/repo#v1.0.0 my-project

# Subdirectory:
npx degit user/repo/path/to/subdir my-project

# GitLab / Bitbucket:
npx degit gitlab:user/repo my-project
npx degit bitbucket:user/repo my-project

# With verbose output:
npx degit -v user/repo my-project

Programmatic usage

import degit from "degit"

const emitter = degit("user/repo", {
  cache: true,
  force: true,
  verbose: true,
})

emitter.on("info", (info) => {
  console.log(info.message)
})

await emitter.clone("./my-project")

degit.json actions

// degit.json — post-clone actions:
[
  {
    "action": "clone",
    "src": "user/another-repo"
  },
  {
    "action": "remove",
    "files": ["LICENSE", ".github"]
  }
]

degit limitations

degit:
  ✅ Simple CLI — npx degit user/repo dir
  ✅ Caching — downloads faster on repeat
  ✅ Post-clone actions (degit.json)
  ✅ Created by Rich Harris (Svelte author)

  ❌ Not actively maintained (last release 2020)
  ❌ GitHub API issues unfixed
  ❌ No private repo support (without workarounds)
  ❌ Limited programmatic API
  ❌ No TypeScript types

→ Use tiged (maintained fork) or giget instead

---

tiged

tiged — maintained degit fork:

CLI usage (same as degit)

# Drop-in replacement for degit:
npx tiged user/repo my-project
npx tiged sveltejs/template my-svelte-app

# All degit syntax works:
npx tiged user/repo#branch my-project
npx tiged gitlab:user/repo my-project
npx tiged user/repo/subdir my-project

Fixes over degit

tiged improvements over degit:
  ✅ Fixed GitHub API rate limiting issues
  ✅ Fixed private repo downloading
  ✅ Fixed subdirectory extraction bugs
  ✅ Active maintenance (regular releases)
  ✅ TypeScript support
  ✅ Better error messages

Same API — just replace "degit" with "tiged":
  npx degit user/repo dir  →  npx tiged user/repo dir

Programmatic usage

import tiged from "tiged"

const emitter = tiged("user/repo", {
  cache: true,
  force: true,
  verbose: true,
})

emitter.on("info", (info) => {
  console.log(info.message)
})

emitter.on("warn", (warning) => {
  console.warn(warning.message)
})

await emitter.clone("./my-project")

---

Feature Comparison

Feature	giget	degit	tiged
CLI	✅	✅	✅
Programmatic API	✅ (full)	⚠️ (basic)	⚠️ (basic)
GitHub	✅	✅	✅
GitLab	✅	✅	✅
Bitbucket	✅	✅	✅
Custom registries	✅	❌	❌
Private repos	✅ (auth token)	❌	✅
Subdirectories	✅	✅	✅
Branch/tag	✅	✅	✅
Caching	✅	✅	✅
Post-clone actions	❌	✅ (degit.json)	✅ (degit.json)
TypeScript	✅	❌	✅
Maintained	✅ (UnJS)	❌ (2020)	✅
Weekly downloads	~3M	~500K	~100K

---

When to Use Each

Use giget if:

• Need a programmatic API for template downloading
• Building a CLI tool that scaffolds projects (like nuxi, create-*)
• Want custom template registries
• In the UnJS ecosystem

Use tiged if:

• Want a CLI-first scaffolding tool (npx tiged user/repo dir)
• Currently using degit and need bug fixes
• Need post-clone actions (degit.json)
• Want a maintained drop-in degit replacement

Use degit if:

• Already using it and it works for your use case
• Note: consider switching to tiged for bug fixes

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Methodology

Download data from npm registry (weekly average, February 2026). Feature comparison based on giget v1.x, degit v2.x, and tiged v3.x.

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