This is what I use to avoid the pain of submodules: [alias] box = !cd ${GIT_PREFIX:-.} && git config --get remote.origin.url > .gitboxinfo && git rev-p

This is what I use to avoid the pain of submodules: [alias] box = !cd ${GIT_PREFIX:-.} && git config --get remote.origin.url > .gitboxinfo && git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD >> .gitboxinfo && git rev-parse HEAD >> .gitboxinfo && mv .git .gitbox && git add -f .gitboxinfo && true unbox = !cd ${GIT_PREFIX:-.} && mv .gitbox .git && true I just clone the "submodule" inside the main repo, then use the aliases above to rename the .git folder to .gitbox and save the current remote, branch, and HEAD commit to a file. The .gitbox folder is ignored. If I want to update the submodule or commit changes on it upstream, I just use the unbox alias to get the .git folder back, cd into it and pull/commit/push/whatever as normal, then use the box alias again. Since the folder is no longer named .git it doesn't interfere with the main repo and you can use the main repo as normal: your team doesn't have to know about weird submodule commands or fight the damn thing to do normal stuff which is important if it was hard to get them into git in the first place. Plus you can make changes to the submodules in your repo without committing them upstream (or having to create another repo to commit them to) since the submodule contents themselves are committed to your main repo. You also won't lose the files if the submodule remote dies. I don't have many of them so I don't have any automation to recreate the .gitbox folders from the .gitboxinfo files if necessary but it wouldn't be hard to make.