How to download a GitHub repo without the git history using npm (#snippet)

I came across the post npm init using written by Aral Balkan. He describes a command to download a GitHub repository using npm. Occasionally, I google for this exact functionality, and it turns out that it's not straightforward. You can open GitHub and press the "Download zip" button, but there doesn't seem to be a quick'n'easy way to do it on the CLI.

Aral's command:

# download small-tech/site-vite-svelte without `.git` dir
npm init using small-tech/site-vite-svelte my-site

Huh – is this functionality possible by npm?

Disclaimer: it is not. ? Aral took advantage of how npm init works and published a create-using package. If you want to learn how this works, head over and read his post.