Github clone in project should work from parent directory

[sHtev]

This may be opinion rather than a bug (hence not submitted as a bug report), but when I was creating a new project by cloning from a GitHub repo, the UI wanted the clone directory to already exist (or at least that's how I interpreted the error message).

I would expect this to work like CLI git clone works, and to create the directory the repo files (and presumably the project files - this is my first project) live in as part of the clone operation. I.e., if I want a project cloned from sHtev/myrepo to live under ~/Code, I should be able to select that directory in the Clone window and my project to clone into ~/Code/myrepo. If this is the intent, then maybe this is a bug (Intel Mac user here).

[sHtev]

I retried this and created an empty project directory to clone into and got a gh error message:
Source control repository operation cloneRepository failed for unknown: Destination path already exists and is not empty.

It seems like a) there should be a better user-facing message for the underlying command failing and b), the actual path selected is not being passed to gh(?) under-the-hood. If I find time I may file a proper bug report instead.

[juliusmarminge]

you're supposed to put in the full path:

CleanShot.2026-05-29.at.16.14.56.mp4

open to adding support for cloning with inferred dir as another alternative

[inayayousfi]

PR #5989 implements this.

The clone step now proposes the selected folder plus the repository folder, so picking ~/Code for sHtev/myrepo proposes ~/Code/myrepo and the "Destination path already exists and is not empty" error goes away.

A few niceties that came out of it:

• It works from a provider lookup (owner/repo, including Azure DevOps org/project/repo) and from any pasted git URL: https://host/owner/repo.git, https://host/owner/repo, git@host:owner/repo.git, ssh://git@host:22/owner/repo.git, with or without a trailing slash, a query or a fragment. The .git suffix is stripped.
• The repository name stays pinned while you browse: clicking Documents gives ~/Documents/myrepo, so you keep picking the parent folder and never retype the name.
• The folder list ignores the pinned name, so it stays populated. Text you type yourself still filters, and still wins.
• A link that names no repository, like https://github.com/ or ssh://git@host:22, proposes nothing and falls back to the browsed folder.
• Web and mobile both do it.