Definition
Plain language
Making your own local copy of a shared codebase.
As stated in the literature
Creating a full local copy of a remote repository, including its history and refs; read access to a repo is exactly the ability to clone it.
Also called: cloning, cloned, git clone
Why it matters: Because cloning pulls down the full history, granting read access to a repository is functionally granting the ability to walk away with all of it.
For example, a new hire runs a clone command and ends up with the company's entire project on their laptop, including every past version of every file.
Heard on the show
“… The analogy I keep coming back to is — imagine cloning a person, telling the clone "your job is to talk this person out of refusing to reveal their password," …”Episode 045 — When a Frontier Model Talks Its Own Twin Into Climate Denial