hf-sync

Mirror git repositories to HuggingFace Hub as datasets, models, or spaces.

hf-sync pushes refs from a source git remote directly to a HuggingFace repository using smart HTTP and Git LFS. No local checkout required — it clones into memory, plans the sync, and pushes only what's needed.

Why This Exists

You have repositories on GitHub/GitLab containing datasets, model weights, or code that should also live on HuggingFace Hub. Doing this manually means:

• Cloning locally, adding an HF remote, pushing — tedious for many repos
• Writing shell scripts around git push — no planning, no safety checks
• Using HF's upload API — loses git history and branch structure

hf-sync fills that gap: one command to mirror a git repo to HuggingFace with full history, branches, tags, and automatic repository creation.

Quick Start

# Install
go install github.com/mendax0110/hf-sync@latest

# Sync a single repo
export HF_TOKEN="hf_your_token_here"
hf-sync sync https://github.com/org/dataset.git myuser/my-dataset --repo-type dataset

# Preview changes without pushing
hf-sync plan https://github.com/org/dataset.git myuser/my-dataset

# Batch sync from config file
hf-sync batch --config hf-sync.yaml

Commands

Command	Description
sync	Mirror source refs to HuggingFace target
plan	Preview sync actions without pushing
batch	Sync all repos defined in config file
init	Create a new HuggingFace repository
version	Print version

Authentication

hf-sync needs two tokens:

Token	Flag	Env Var	Purpose
HuggingFace	--hf-token	HF_TOKEN	Push to HF Hub, create repos
Source	--source-token	GITSYNC_SOURCE_TOKEN	Pull from private source repos

Get your HuggingFace token at https://huggingface.co/settings/tokens

Config File

For syncing multiple repositories, define them in hf-sync.yaml:

defaults:
  repo_type: dataset
  private: false
  tags: true

repos:
  - source: https://github.com/myorg/dataset-a.git
    target: myuser/dataset-a

  - source: https://github.com/myorg/model-b.git
    target: myuser/model-b
    repo_type: model
    private: true
    branches:
      - main
      - release

Then run:

hf-sync batch --config hf-sync.yaml

Sync Behavior

• Auto-create: Target HF repos are created automatically if they don't exist
• Incremental: Only pushes refs that have changed
• Plan first: All actions are computed before any mutations
• LFS-aware: Detects LFS issues and provides guidance
• Tags: Synced by default (disable with --tags=false)
• Prune: Optionally delete refs on target not present on source (--prune)
• Force: Allow non-fast-forward updates (--force)

JSON Output

All commands support --json for machine-readable output:

hf-sync sync --json https://github.com/org/repo.git user/repo | jq .

{
  "source": "https://github.com/org/repo.git",
  "target": "https://huggingface.co/datasets/user/repo",
  "actions": [
    {"ref": "refs/heads/main", "type": "update", "reason": "ref updated on source"}
  ],
  "created": 0,
  "updated": 1,
  "deleted": 0,
  "skipped": 0,
  "dry_run": false
}

Installation

From Source

git clone https://github.com/mendax0110/hf-sync.git
cd hf-sync
make build

go install

go install github.com/mendax0110/hf-sync@latest

Pre-built Binaries

Download from Releases. Binaries available for Linux, macOS, and Windows (amd64 + arm64).

Development

# Run tests
make test

# Run tests with coverage
make test-cover

# Lint
make lint

# Build
make build

# Dry-run release
make release-dry

Release Process

1. Tag a version: git tag v0.1.0
2. Push the tag: git push origin v0.1.0
3. GitHub Actions runs goreleaser → binaries published to Releases

Architecture

See docs/architecture.md for detailed design documentation.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.