diff --git a/include/git2.h b/include/git2.h
index f260cfacd..cab517d99 100644
--- a/include/git2.h
+++ b/include/git2.h
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@
 #include "git2/index.h"
 #include "git2/config.h"
 #include "git2/remote.h"
+#include "git2/clone.h"
 
 #include "git2/refspec.h"
 #include "git2/net.h"
diff --git a/include/git2/clone.h b/include/git2/clone.h
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..7936282fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/include/git2/clone.h
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (C) 2012 the libgit2 contributors
+ *
+ * This file is part of libgit2, distributed under the GNU GPL v2 with
+ * a Linking Exception. For full terms see the included COPYING file.
+ */
+#ifndef INCLUDE_git_clone_h__
+#define INCLUDE_git_clone_h__
+
+#include "common.h"
+#include "types.h"
+
+
+/**
+ * @file git2/clone.h
+ * @brief Git cloning routines
+ * @defgroup git_clone Git cloning routines
+ * @ingroup Git
+ * @{
+ */
+GIT_BEGIN_DECL
+
+/**
+ * TODO
+ *
+ * @param out pointer that will receive the resulting repository object
+ * @param origin_url repository to clone from
+ * @param dest_path local directory to clone to
+ * @return 0 on success, GIT_ERROR otherwise (use git_error_last for information about the error)
+ */
+GIT_EXTERN(int) git_clone(git_repository **out, const char *origin_url, const char *dest_path);
+
+/**
+ * TODO
+ *
+ * @param out pointer that will receive the resulting repository object
+ * @param origin_url repository to clone from
+ * @param dest_path local directory to clone to
+ * @return 0 on success, GIT_ERROR otherwise (use git_error_last for information about the error)
+ */
+GIT_EXTERN(int) git_clone_bare(git_repository **out, const char *origin_url, const char *dest_path);
+
+/** @} */
+GIT_END_DECL
+#endif
diff --git a/src/clone.c b/src/clone.c
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bdb5d9cd6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/clone.c
@@ -0,0 +1,112 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (C) 2009-2012 the libgit2 contributors
+ *
+ * This file is part of libgit2, distributed under the GNU GPL v2 with
+ * a Linking Exception. For full terms see the included COPYING file.
+ */
+
+#include <assert.h>
+
+#include "git2/clone.h"
+#include "git2/remote.h"
+
+#include "common.h"
+#include "remote.h"
+#include "fileops.h"
+// TODO #include "checkout.h"
+
+GIT_BEGIN_DECL
+
+/*
+ * submodules?
+ * filemodes?
+ */
+
+static int setup_remotes_and_fetch(git_repository *repo, const char *origin_url)
+{
+  int retcode = GIT_ERROR;
+  git_remote *origin = NULL;
+  git_off_t bytes = 0;
+  git_indexer_stats stats = {0};
+
+  if (!git_remote_new(&origin, repo, "origin", origin_url, NULL)) {
+    if (!git_remote_save(origin)) {
+      if (!git_remote_connect(origin, GIT_DIR_FETCH)) {
+        if (!git_remote_download(origin, &bytes, &stats)) {
+          if (!git_remote_update_tips(origin, NULL)) {
+            // TODO
+            // if (!git_checkout(...)) {
+            retcode = 0;
+            // }
+          }
+        }
+        git_remote_disconnect(origin);
+      }
+    }
+    git_remote_free(origin);
+ }
+
+  return retcode;
+}
+
+int git_clone(git_repository **out, const char *origin_url, const char *dest_path)
+{
+  int retcode = GIT_ERROR;
+  git_repository *repo = NULL;
+  char fullpath[512] = {0};
+
+  p_realpath(dest_path, fullpath);
+  if (git_path_exists(fullpath)) {
+    giterr_set(GITERR_INVALID, "Destination already exists: %s", fullpath);
+    return GIT_ERROR;
+  }
+
+  /* Initialize the dest/.git directory */
+  if (!(retcode = git_repository_init(&repo, fullpath, 0))) {
+    if ((retcode = setup_remotes_and_fetch(repo, origin_url)) < 0) {
+      /* Failed to fetch; clean up */
+      git_repository_free(repo);
+      git_futils_rmdir_r(fullpath, GIT_DIRREMOVAL_FILES_AND_DIRS);
+    } else {
+      /* Fetched successfully, do a checkout */
+      /* if (!(retcode = git_checkout(...))) {} */
+      *out = repo;
+      retcode = 0;
+    }
+  }
+
+  return retcode;
+}
+
+
+int git_clone_bare(git_repository **out, const char *origin_url, const char *dest_path)
+{
+  int retcode = GIT_ERROR;
+  git_repository *repo = NULL;
+  char fullpath[512] = {0};
+
+  p_realpath(dest_path, fullpath);
+  if (git_path_exists(fullpath)) {
+    giterr_set(GITERR_INVALID, "Destination already exists: %s", fullpath);
+    return GIT_ERROR;
+  }
+
+  if (!(retcode = git_repository_init(&repo, fullpath, 1))) {
+    if ((retcode = setup_remotes_and_fetch(repo, origin_url)) < 0) {
+      /* Failed to fetch; clean up */
+      git_repository_free(repo);
+      git_futils_rmdir_r(fullpath, GIT_DIRREMOVAL_FILES_AND_DIRS);
+    } else {
+      /* Fetched successfully, do a checkout */
+      /* if (!(retcode = git_checkout(...))) {} */
+      *out = repo;
+      retcode = 0;
+    }
+  }
+
+  return retcode;
+}
+
+
+
+GIT_END_DECL
diff --git a/tests-clar/clone/clone.c b/tests-clar/clone/clone.c
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f60ffb5a1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests-clar/clone/clone.c
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+#include "clar_libgit2.h"
+
+#include "git2/clone.h"
+#include "repository.h"
+
+static git_repository *g_repo;
+
+void test_clone_clone__initialize(void)
+{
+  g_repo = NULL;
+}
+
+void test_clone_clone__cleanup(void)
+{
+  if (g_repo) {
+    git_repository_free(g_repo);
+    g_repo = NULL;
+  }
+}
+
+// TODO: This is copy/pasted from network/remotelocal.c.
+static void build_local_file_url(git_buf *out, const char *fixture)
+{
+  const char *in_buf;
+
+  git_buf path_buf = GIT_BUF_INIT;
+
+  cl_git_pass(git_path_prettify_dir(&path_buf, fixture, NULL));
+  cl_git_pass(git_buf_puts(out, "file://"));
+
+#ifdef _MSC_VER
+  /*
+   * A FILE uri matches the following format: file://[host]/path
+   * where "host" can be empty and "path" is an absolute path to the resource.
+   *
+   * In this test, no hostname is used, but we have to ensure the leading triple slashes:
+   *
+   * *nix: file:///usr/home/...
+   * Windows: file:///C:/Users/...
+   */
+  cl_git_pass(git_buf_putc(out, '/'));
+#endif
+
+  in_buf = git_buf_cstr(&path_buf);
+
+  /*
+   * A very hacky Url encoding that only takes care of escaping the spaces
+   */
+  while (*in_buf) {
+    if (*in_buf == ' ')
+      cl_git_pass(git_buf_puts(out, "%20"));
+    else
+      cl_git_pass(git_buf_putc(out, *in_buf));
+
+    in_buf++;
+  }
+
+  git_buf_free(&path_buf);
+}
+
+
+void test_clone_clone__bad_url(void)
+{
+  /* Clone should clean up the mess if the URL isn't a git repository */
+  cl_git_fail(git_clone(&g_repo, "not_a_repo", "./foo"));
+  cl_assert(!git_path_exists("./foo"));
+  cl_git_fail(git_clone_bare(&g_repo, "not_a_repo", "./foo.git"));
+  cl_assert(!git_path_exists("./foo"));
+}
+
+
+void test_clone_clone__local(void)
+{
+  git_buf src = GIT_BUF_INIT;
+  build_local_file_url(&src, cl_fixture("testrepo.git"));
+
+  cl_git_pass(git_clone(&g_repo, git_buf_cstr(&src), "./local"));
+  git_repository_free(g_repo);
+  git_futils_rmdir_r("./local", GIT_DIRREMOVAL_FILES_AND_DIRS);
+  cl_git_pass(git_clone_bare(&g_repo, git_buf_cstr(&src), "./local.git"));
+  git_futils_rmdir_r("./local.git", GIT_DIRREMOVAL_FILES_AND_DIRS);
+}
+
+
+void test_clone_clone__network(void)
+{
+  cl_git_pass(git_clone(&g_repo,
+                        "https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2.git",
+                        "./libgit2.git"));
+  git_futils_rmdir_r("./libgit2.git", GIT_DIRREMOVAL_FILES_AND_DIRS);
+}
+
+
+void test_clone_clone__already_exists(void)
+{
+  mkdir("./foo", GIT_DIR_MODE);
+  cl_git_fail(git_clone(&g_repo,
+                        "https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2.git",
+                        "./foo"));
+  git_futils_rmdir_r("./foo", GIT_DIRREMOVAL_FILES_AND_DIRS);
+}