Normally git-annex does not retrieve file contents when checking out a tree. In some use cases, it makes sense to always have the contents of files available after a `git checkout` or `git update`. This can be accomplished by installing the following as `.git/hooks/post-checkout` #!/bin/sh # Uses git-annex to get all files in the specified directories # (relative to the top of the repository) on checkout. dirs=. top="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)" for dir in "$dirs"; do git annex get $top/$dir"; done By default, all files in the whole repository will be made available. The `dirs` setting can be configured if you only want to get files in certian directories.