I hope this script may help you

bash script

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail

usage() {
  echo "Usage: $0 -u <clone_url> -d <target_dir> -b <branch>"
  exit 1
}

while getopts "su:d:b:" opt; do
  case $opt in
    u) CLONE_URL=$OPTARG ;;
    d) TARGET_DIR=$OPTARG ;;
    b) BRANCH=$OPTARG ;;
    *) usage ;;
  esac
done

if [[ -z "${CLONE_URL-}" || -z "${TARGET_DIR-}" || -z "${BRANCH-}" ]]; then
  usage
fi


git clone --filter=blob:none --no-checkout "$CLONE_URL" "$TARGET_DIR"
cd "$TARGET_DIR"
git config core.sparseCheckout true

{
  echo "/*"
  echo "!/*/"
} > .git/info/sparse-checkout
git checkout "$BRANCH"
git ls-tree -r -d --name-only HEAD | xargs -I{} mkdir -p "{}"
exit 0

explanation

This script performs a sparse checkout with the following behavior:

1. Clone the repository without downloading file contents (--filter=blob:none) and without checking out files initially (--no-checkout).

2. Enable sparse checkout mode in the cloned repository.

3. Set sparse checkout rules to:

• Include all files at the root level (/*).
• Exclude all directories at the root level (!/*/).

4. Checkout the specified branch, applying the sparse checkout rules. Only root-level files appear in the working directory.

5. Create empty directories locally by git ls-tree -r -d --name-only HEAD listing all directories in the repo and making those folders. This recreates the directory structure without file contents because Git does not track empty directories.

6. Exit after completing these steps.

References

https://ohgoshgit.github.io/posts/2025-08-04-git-sparse-checkout/