How to fix warning: You appear to have cloned an empty repository in Git

First, confirm the repository isn't genuinely empty:

# Check if any remote branches exist
git branch -r

# List all references on the remote
git ls-remote origin

# If output is empty or only shows HEAD with no refs,
# the repository truly has no commits

If git ls-remote shows commit hashes, the repository has content but something prevented it from being cloned. If the output is empty, the repository genuinely has no commits.

Check the repository directly on your Git hosting platform (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket) to see if commits and files are visible there.

The default branch might be empty while content exists on other branches:

# List all remote branches
git ls-remote --heads origin

# If you see branches listed, fetch them
git fetch --all

# Switch to a branch that has content
git checkout <branch-name>

# Or checkout a remote branch
git checkout -b main origin/main

Some repositories have content on main while the default is set to master (or vice versa). Others might use branch names like develop or trunk.

Incorrect URLs or authentication issues can result in cloning an empty repository:

# Check the configured remote URL
git remote -v

# Verify you can access the repository
# For HTTPS:
git ls-remote https://github.com/user/repo.git

# For SSH:
git ls-remote [email protected]:user/repo.git

Try switching between HTTPS and SSH:

# If using HTTPS, try SSH
git remote set-url origin [email protected]:user/repo.git
git fetch

# If using SSH, try HTTPS
git remote set-url origin https://github.com/user/repo.git
git fetch

Some server configurations (especially self-hosted GitLab) may have issues with one protocol but not the other.

If you're setting up a new repository and intentionally cloned an empty one, add initial content:

# Add a README file
echo "# My Project" > README.md

# Stage and commit
git add README.md
git commit -m "Initial commit"

# Push to remote
git push -u origin main

Note: Make sure to push to the branch that matches your hosting platform's default (usually main for GitHub, though some older repos use master).

If you created a repository via API or CLI and immediately cloned, there might be a sync delay:

# For GitHub CLI created repos, add a small delay
gh repo create my-repo --public
sleep 3  # Wait a few seconds
git clone https://github.com/user/my-repo.git

# If you already cloned, just fetch again
cd my-repo
git fetch --all

This is particularly common with:
- CI/CD pipelines that create and clone repositories
- Automated scripts using APIs
- Large organizations with distributed Git servers

You might have partial access - able to clone but not see content:

# Test SSH authentication
ssh -T [email protected]

# Check your credentials are working
git credential fill <<< "protocol=https
host=github.com"

Common permission scenarios:
- Repository requires specific team membership
- SSH key isn't added to your account
- Personal access token lacks necessary scopes
- SAML SSO session has expired

Re-authenticate or request proper access from the repository owner.

If the above steps reveal the repository should have content, try a fresh clone:

# Remove the existing empty clone
cd ..
rm -rf my-repo

# Clone again with verbose output
git clone -v https://github.com/user/my-repo.git

# Or clone a specific branch
git clone -b main https://github.com/user/my-repo.git

The -v flag shows detailed progress and can help identify where issues occur.