New Gitpod from sub directory of a (mono) repo

Similar to how GitHub has the template repository feature I'd like Gitpod to support a similar workflow by being able to create a new Gitpod from a sub directory of a (mono) repo.

This workflow is already possible "locally" with the following terminal command:

curl https://codeload.github.com/contentlayerdev/contentlayer/tar.gz/main | \
  tar -xz --strip=2 contentlayer-main/examples/mdx

Use case

Many projects (such as https://github.com/vercel/next.js and https://github.com/vercel/next.js) keep both their source code as well as example projects in the same repo. In order to try out an example (or investigate a bug report or create a bug repro) I often want to start of with a new Gitpod project that only consists of a given example folder (e.g. this one).

There would be a few downsides of cloning the entire project repo:

• Cloning takes much longer than downloading the tar.gz
• Installing the project dependencies (e.g. via yarn) should only install the dependencies needed for the single example - not all other dependencies of the (mono) repo.

Bonus feature: Allow me to create a new GH repo from the project I'm working on (e.g. to report a bug using the created reproduction).

Thoughts on "API design"

It would be great if Gitpod could simply extend the URL-based create flow (i.e. gitpod.io/#github.com/owner/repo) to also allow for "copy & paste"-able sub dir URLs (e.g. https://github.com/contentlayerdev/contentlayer/tree/main/examples/mdx)

Start by tracing the URL-based create flow mentioned in the issue and how it handles GitHub repository URLs. Define the behavior for GitHub tree URLs that target a subdirectory, including the requested isolated project contents and dependencies; done means the subdirectory workflow is supported and verified for the provided example URL.