---
title: "Check out only the gate’s script"
description: "Give a small aggregation job a sparse checkout of the files it reads."
url: https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/sparse-checkout-for-gates
canonicalUrl: https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/sparse-checkout-for-gates
---

# Check out only the gate’s script

Give a small aggregation job a sparse checkout of the files it reads.

## How to choose an approach

This technique currently has one documented company example. Validate its prerequisites, tradeoffs and original CI environment against your repository before adapting it.

- **[Stripe](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/stripe#sparse-checkout-for-gates)**: Use it when A small aggregation job spends most of its time cloning unrelated source. Check before adopting: Include every transitive script and local action in the sparse set, and keep the gate’s complete success logic.

## Apply this technique

````text
Evaluate and apply this CI technique to my repository: Check out only the gate’s script.

Give a small aggregation job a sparse checkout of the files it reads.

Read the technique and its source-backed company examples: https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/sparse-checkout-for-gates.md

Inspect this repository’s CI workflows, build and test commands, dependencies, and recent run timings. Identify where this technique applies and explain the expected benefit using this repository’s evidence.
Measure a baseline from recent comparable runs: elapsed time, queue time, runner minutes and failures where available. If data is unavailable, say what cannot be measured.
Compare relevant company approaches, checking prerequisites, platform differences and tradeoffs. Rank applicable options by evidence, fit and measurable opportunity; do not present company results as predictions for this repo.
Recommend the smallest safe change, show what checks and fallback paths remain, and ASK ME WHICH CHANGE TO APPROVE BEFORE EDITING ANY FILES.
Only after approval, work on a new feature branch, make one reversible change, and open a reviewable pull request. Never merge or push to a default or protected branch.
Keep required checks, test coverage, deployment and release behavior intact. Validate the change and compare equivalent runs where possible; report limitations and what should be monitored after merge.
````

## How Stripe used this technique

Read what Stripe changed and follow the original sources.

### Stripe: Check out only the gate’s script

Sorbet’s all-succeeded job switched to a sparse checkout of its CI scripts directory, on an agent that already had the sparse-checkout plugin installed. On GitHub Actions the equivalent is actions/checkout with sparse-checkout listing every script and local action the gate reads.

Evidence: Source PR/commit evidence

Before the change the step took 27 seconds, 25 of them cloning the repository. ([Source](https://github.com/sorbet/sorbet/pull/10214))

Use it when: A small aggregation job spends most of its time cloning unrelated source.

Before applying it: Include every transitive script and local action in the sparse set, and keep the gate’s complete success logic.

[Read more in the Stripe playbook](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/stripe#sparse-checkout-for-gates)

[Primary source](https://github.com/sorbet/sorbet/pull/10214)

## CI optimization is continuous work.

Apply this technique yourself, or use StarSling Runners for faster GitHub Actions and optional agent-driven optimization PRs, which teams on eligible paid plans can turn on.

[Get self-improving CI](https://starsling.dev/products/runners)

## Company Playbooks

### [Anthropic](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/anthropic)

Run only affected tests

### [DoorDash](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/doordash)

Run build and test in parallel, sharded across CI agents

### [Linear](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/linear)

Benchmark the same job on faster hardware

### [Mastra](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/mastra)

StarSling runners for the slowest test workflow

### [OpenAI](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/openai)

Rank CI fixes by the minutes they save

### [Ramp](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/ramp)

Move a CPU-bound test suite to a faster CPU

### [Shopify](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/shopify)

Let an agent iterate against one CI metric

### [Spotify](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/spotify)

Build arm64 on native arm64 runners

### [Stripe](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/stripe)

Run only the tests a change can reach

### [Uber](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/uber)

Build the merge-queue speculations most likely to be needed

## Related guides

Implementation guides for this technique.

### [Set actions/checkout fetch-depth: 0 vs 1 vs 2 in GitHub Actions](https://starsling.dev/best-practices/github-actions/shallow-checkout)

Don't clone your entire git history on every CI run. When to use fetch-depth 1 vs 2 vs 0 in actions/checkout, with copyable YAML.